Xun Wei Hotpot 寻味火锅 - Steamboat buffet for less than $20+ per pax!

• Operating Days: Daily
• Operating Time: 11 AM to 1 AM
• Address: 28 Liang Seah Street, S 189049
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Liang Seah Street, also known as the steamboat street (well, at least to me), has many steamboat restaurants and other eateries along the same stretch. It was a cold and gloomy evening and here we are, standing at the street deciding which steamboat restaurant to try. We were attracted by the projector that screened the shop name “寻味” on the ground, and that’s how we came to know about this restaurant and decided to give it a try.

This is the shop front of the restaurant. Nothing fanciful from the look outside.

We tried very hard to get the attention of the waiter (who happened to be also the one handling payment, clearing plates and attending requests) to find us a seat. The paper menu was passed to us almost instantly after we settle down.

As you can see, there are not much variety of food choices on the menu (especially for the types of meat) as compared to the more atas steamboat restaurant out there. However, it was quite alright for us, given the amount we need to pay for each pax (I will be covering that later).

The beef slices were fresh and thin, and personally, we think it went very well with the mala soup base! The portion given was very generous as well.

The whole table of goodness just for the two of us (of course it is free flow, you can order as many times as you want)!

We were told that just for the two of us, we can order up to 4 soup bases. We ordered the tomato, chicken, seafood and of course the mala soup base. Each soup base has its own uniqueness and you will definitely be spoilt for choices. One downside is that the waiter did not tell us the soup are chargeable (excluding the buffet price). We were charged for $8 for the soup base, which is still pretty reasonable.

They have also condiments corner for you to mix your sauce for the steamboat. We went on a weekday at about 10pm and some of the sauce had run out. 

For the price of $19.80+ on a weekday and $23.80+ on a weekend, 寻味 maintained their low prices at Liang Seah Street to remain competitive. With the price paid and the type of food served, it is worth visiting them if you are craving for a steamboat affair with your buddies after a long day work. Just to add on, 寻味 has free flow ice cream just like Haidilao as well, and it is probably the only steamboat restaurant along the stretch that has this. Do share with us your experience with them after you visit!

Shi Li Fang 食立方 - A steamboat affair with free soft toys after every meal!

• Operating Days: Daily
• Operating Time: 10 AM to 10 PM
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• Address: Multiple Locations
• Orchard central, 181 Orchard Road #07-10/11, S 238896
• Icon village, 12 Gopeng Street #01-41, S 078877
• Thomson plaza, 301 Upper Thomson Road #01-106, S 574408
• Chinatown point,133 New Bridge Road #B1-30, S 059413
• City square, 180 Kitchener Rd #02-53/54, S 208539
• J-cube, 2 Jurong East Central 1,#02- 08A, S 609731
• West Coast Plaza, 154 West Coast Road #02-24, S 127371
• Bedok Point, 799 New Upper Changi Road #03-38/39, S 467351
• Hougang 1, 1 Hougang Street 91 #01-23, S 538692

I’m pretty sure many Singaporeans are fans of steamboat, with many new pop up steamboat theme restaurants growing rapidly almost at every part of Singapore. It was 8:30pm when we visited Shi Li Fang at Chinatown point, and the number of people queuing to go in brought out our curiosity to give this place a try.

When we walked past the restaurant during weekday lunch time, the whole restaurant would be packed with people. We were surprised to see there were still quite a number of people that had just started eating despite we have past the usual timing for dinner.

We ordered a set for 2 pax with tomato soup and chicken soup. The portion came was huge! 

We think the set is easily enough for 3 pax. The set came with pork belly, pork collar, marinated pork and chicken slices. The vegetable platter consist with generous amount of china cabbage, xiao bai chye, crabstick, enoki mushroom, tang hoon and egg. Similar to Hai Di Lao, they have handmade ramen here as well, which is a popular choice for many. You might encounter difficulty in getting the waiter’s attention to prepare the noodle on the spot in front of you as they are always very busy running around. 

Prawn glue (which came in a tube) is something that we frequent order whenever we are here. The gluelike texture paste will become springy and delicious after cooked. The prawn they used for their prawn glue is very fresh too.

The best thing about dining at Shi Li Fang is they do not charge extra for their sauce! Though they do not have a huge variety of sauce like Hai Di Lao, the variety of sauce provided here is still acceptable. Most of the common sauce for steamboat can be found here.

Cooked shabu shabu pork belly in tomato soup! The pork was fresh and thin, which is perfect for steamboat. The tomato soup base is similar to Hai Di Lao’s as well, but of course it is not as flavourful, which we didn’t mind as it is still tangy and just right for our liking.

The marinated pork was a little salty to our liking, but the flavour is still on point and it goes well with rice or noodle.

Shi Li Fang may not be unfamiliar with many working adults and is a popular choice for lunch with colleagues as they serve nice and affordable steamboat set. Though you may not get the top service like what you receive at Hai Di Lao, it is still recommended for you to give Shi Li Fang a try. Other than dining, Shi Li Fang is generous in giving out soft toys as well. Every $15 spent will earn you a chop, and with just two chops, (which is easily obtainable after a meal) you can choose to bring home a small soft toy. Fear not if you fancy a particular soft toy without enough stamps. Chances are you will still be able to get it as long as you request from the staffs nicely. There is no reason for you to spend money catching soft toy at the claw machines when you can fill your stomach and get free toys at Shi Li Fang. 

Chicken Hot Pot 鸡公煲 - One Hotpot, Two experience!

• Operating Days: Daily
• Operating Time: 11 AM to 10 PM
• Address: Multiple Locations
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Located outside Fairprice supermarket at Novena Square 2, there is always a corner where you can see people crowding around during lunch / dinner time.

Chicken Hot Pot is a overseas franchise originated from Shanghai, China. They used to serve only three types of hot pot - Chicken, Beef and Prawn. We were quite suprised to see the new addition to their hotpot menu — fish hotpot and pig stomach soup hotpot.

We waited for about 20 minutes before we were being assigned to a table.

We ordered the large signature Chicken Hotpot during our visit. You can choose the spicy level you want in your pot. The spicy level was very manageable in our opinion. The pot of goodness is paired with thick savory sauce, with small chunks of chicken, capsicum, onion, celery and chilli in it. When we first started eating, the sauce was very concentrated and slightly towards a saltier side, more like the texture of the usual gravy that goes very well with a bowl of fragrant rice. When we were eating halfway, the staff initiated to fill up our pot with clear soup, it was then gradually became a pot of soup which was tasty and acceptable to our taste buds.  

There are also many types of steamboat items available in the fridge for you to add into your pot. Ranging from $1 to $3 each plate, each item added will enhance the taste of the soup, creating a different hotpot experience all in one pot. The portion of the chicken in a large pot was just nice for two pax. It would be better if they can be slightly more generous on their portion of meat given.

The aromatic pot of chicken were served piping hot, and will continue to stay scalding hot throughout your meal, thanks to the wax and fire underneath the pot. Definitely a plus point!

The service received from the staffs were pretty good as well. They were very prompt to your request which makes the overall dining experience a good one.

Chicken Hotpot may be very familiar with many of us as it has been around in Singapore for more than 10 years to date. If you are around that area, do drop by the shop and give it a try!

Steamov Shi Shang Lao 食尚撈旋转小火锅 - Conveyor belt concept steamboat restaurant!

• Operating Days: Daily
• Operating Time: 11 AM to 4 AM
• Address: 325 New Bridge Road, S 088760
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A newly opened restaurant in September 2017, Shi Shang Lao 食尚撈 is a conveyer belt concept hotpot restaurant in Singapore.

Located near Outram Park MRT, it is conveniently located at Chinatown area. Shi Shang Lao’s interior looks like a grand room with a long table where diners can sit around, facing the conveyor belt in the middle. You can simply pick up the skewered ingredients you want. On the other side, they have tables catered to bigger groups of four & above. 

On a side note, you can rent a portable power bank to charge your phone at only $1!

We love how the conveyer belt has many fresh steamboat items on it. It is something not commonly found in Singapore and it is one of the main reasons we were there to try. They have also a big chiller where they would usually place the cut fruits in it. Fresh fruits such as dragon fruit, honeydew, rockmelon and watermelon are constantly replaced to ensure its freshness.

In the restaurant, you can choose to sit at the tables or counter seats, which both have their own conveyor belt at the sides.

So once you’ve settled down, a staff will ask for your preferred soup choice. Everyone gets their own individual pot of soup, so you don’t have to share the soup with your friends if you didn’t like their choice.

The 10 types of soup include the Extra Spicy Pot, Fragrance Pot, Herbal Pot, Triple Taste Pot, Spicy Pot, Tomato Pot, Herbal Duck Pot, Mushroom Pot, Sour Vege Fish Pot and Mushroom and Black Chicken Pot. 

All the drinks are displayed on the shelf above the conveyer belt, so grab the drink you want and ask the service staff for a glass of ice. The drinks are priced starting from $1.20. 

So for food, basic ingredients include hotdogs, crabsticks and fishballs on the wooden satay skewer are priced at $1 each, while premium ingredients with a flat wooden skewer are priced at $3 each.

They also offer seafood including prawns and salmon fillets. All the seafood we tried was fresh without the fishy taste.

We started with the Chicken Rolls which was out of the conveyor belt menu. Priced at $8, we were surprised it came with a big portion, with a total of 18 rolls piled on the plate. The chicken was fresh and lean, giving good texture.

First soup we tried was the Herbal Duck Pot. It has a little herbal duck taste and it was a little too bland for our liking. However, the taste will slowly get intensified in time after cooking with the steamboat ingredients.

We also tried one of the top recommended soups too - Tomato Pot. It is similar in taste to Haidilao's version but they are on a lighter and diluted version, which is also not a bad choice as it makes a better soup base for the steamboat ingredients as the soup will not overpower the original taste of the food.

Similar to most of the hotpot places, they have a self-serve condiment station with a wide range of home-made sauces for you to choose.

There were a lot more ingredients that we were not able to try because of the wide variety of choices here. We spent a total of $50+ for 2 pax, which is pretty much affordable for a good supper meal. And oh did I mention they are open until 4am daily as well?

Steamov is a modern steamboat concept which makes another good supper place if you are around Chinatown area. With so many steamboat places currently, Steamov distinguishes itself from providing a wide range of food, displaying on the conveyor belt. It is a no frill dining concept suitable for anyone who wants to have a cheaper alternative steamboat affairs with your family or friends.

Damiao Hot Pot 大妙火锅 - Steamboat in Clarke Quay

• Operating Days: Daily
• Operating Time: 11.30 AM to 4 PM
• Address: 3C River Valley Road, #01-11, The Cannery, S 179022
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Being a hot pot lover, we have decided to try the highly raved Damiao hotpot 大妙火锅 as many were saying it is more premium and comparable to Haidilao hotpot 海底捞.

We were there at 6:30pm on a weekday and we have no problem finding a table for two.

At Damiao, they have the daily special Sichuan Cultural Show at 7:30pm. Their performance include Sichuan Opera 变脸 and Tea Art Performance. It’s actually one of the highlights here to wait for if you are dining around this timing.

It has a mini platform for their performers.

Similar to Hai Di Lao, they have an area for various types of sauce. However, the variety of the sauce is limited. Each pax will be charged at $3 for the sauce.

The type of soup base you can choose at Da Miao. We took the traditional yuan yang soup pot.

You can customized your soup base to the level of spiciness you want. We requested for less spiciness and less salt for our pot.

We ordered a 1/2 plate pork collar. It was indeed fresh and nice and we decided to order 1 full plate later.

We have heard so much about the fried muah chee at Da Miao and so we decided to order it immediately after we sat down. At first we were unsure what is this called, and we looked through the iPad for quite some time before we finally found it.

You are suppose to dip inside the sweet black sauce, before you mix it together with the crushed peanut with sugar. It is fried to a perfection — crispy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside. We quite like this fried muah chee, however, maybe because we were already having an expectation before we tasted it, we felt that it is decently nice— but slightly below our expectation.

We’ve noticed this cute little can of sesame oil from Da Miao and we decided to give it a try. It taste just exactly like sesame oil — which was different from what we expected (because of its packaging so we were kind of giving high expectation on it as well).

We ordered the 炸醬面 as our staple. It tasted like beef with noodle and the level of saltiness was just right. The portion of the minced meat given was not stingy.

Our full portion of pork collar! It was thinly sliced and very fresh, and it is good enough on its own after cooked without pairing with any sauce! They have pork belly too but we preferred lesser fat this we went for this.

After waiting for about 1 hour, the face changing performances is finally here! Other than the lighted platform, the performer will walk towards the entrance to perform as well. The whole face changing performance lasted for about 15 - 20 minutes. Something different and considered an eye opening performance to us as we do not have a chance to sit so close to the performer.

After another 15 minutes later, the tea appreciation performance started. We realized that it was the same person from the face changing performance. Really very talented.

Da Miao Hotpot provides a solid place for fresh food and nice ambience for gathering, and its good for business lunch / dinner with clients as it is spacious. Though the service from the staffs were good, we still prefer the service we get from Haidilao as the staff there is more attentive to little details of their customer, from giving you an apron, a ziplock bag for your handphone to even hair ties for ladies before sitting down. The condiment corner at Haidilao has much more variety as well. Unlike Haidilao, It took us a while for the waiter at Da Miao to realize that we needed their help to add on our order, as the iPad menu needs the password of the staff. It is something that Da Miao can consider removing if they want their customer to have a seamless dining experience.

Ri Ri Hong Mala Xiang Guo 日日紅麻辣香鍋 - Charged by Item, not weight!

• Operating Hours: 11 AM - 9 PM
• Operating Days: Daily
• Address: People's Park Food Centre, 32 New Market Road, #01-1042, #01-1052, S 050032

The popularity in China selling Mala Xiang Guo has also started its popularity in Singapore as we see many simlar stalls start popping out at the food court and hawker centre almost everywhere! Ri Ri Hong Mala Xiang Guo 日日红麻辣香锅 is one of the first Mala Xiang Guo shops in Singapore and has been booming with business because of their generous portions and low prices. 

As we walked around we can see many customers at the hawker centre sitting down with a big bowl written 日日麻辣香锅 on the table. Joined the long (but quite efficient) fast queue, and within 5 mins, it is my turn to order.

Some of us may have seen food court selling Mala Hot Pot and they are priced according to the weight of the item, and normally, just a few pieces of vegetable can already cost you two to three dollars! Usually, we will get bill shock when we see the prices that other mala shops charge elsewhere.

What sets this stall apart from others is they charge by the types of ingredients you choose instead of weight. A dollar for a portion of a non-meat ingredient, two dollars for meat and three dollars for seafood and so on. This really helped us to better estimate the amount we will be paying.

You can choose from a wide variety of ingredients very much like Yong Tau Fu. 

You start by picking from all of the vegetables first, then move towards the next staff waiting to choose the meats like prawns, squid, pork, and chicken

You will then decide the spiciness level, from not spicy, mild, moderate, spicy to extra spicy. For people who can take spicy stuff, the moderate is bearable. You can choose to have a non-spicy version too if you really not a fan of spicy food.

We were worried that we overspent, but it came up to only $12 for 2 people. Thought it's going to be about $30+. So once you paid, you will be given a tag where you will then proceed to the back of the stall and wait for your orders.

The hot pot is mixed with lots of ingredients, such as garlic, red chilli, dried chilli flakes, sugar, spring onion, pepper, sesame, chilli oil and their secret Mala spicy sauce.

$12 for this huge bowl of items! This bowl can be easily shared by 2 people. The whole dish is a little oily so it’s not really the best dish if you are looking to have a healthy meal. 

The fragrant sauce had a strong taste of garlic, chilli powder, ginger, and their own spices.

The chicken was tender and marinated well but sliced rather thin. Each of the ingredients was fresh! The vegetables were all crunchy and had absorbed the essence of the mala sauce.

One of the most tongue spiking herbs used was Sichuan peppercorns. Normally we can't see them when we are eating, but definitely, we could feel the sensation when taking the first bite! 

Good quality ingredients and pretty affordable for the portion served! The mala hot pot was addictive to me, I kept going back for the kick! Definitely won't be the last time visiting this place!