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
• Facebook Page
• 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. 

D'Laksa - Authentic Penang Assam Laksa in Johor Bahru, even Singapore!

• Operating Hours: 11 AM - 10 PM
• Operating Days: Daily
• Address: 
• KSL - KSL City Mall, (LG-62/L2 S-03) 33 Jalan Seladang, Taman Abad, Johor Bahru
• Sutera Mall - Sutera Mall, 1, Jalan Tanjung 8/4, Taman Sutera Utama, Skudai
• Singapore - Hougang Mall, B1-K7, 90 Hougang Avenue 10, S 538766
• Facebook - Malaysia
• Facebook - Singapore

From a humble pop-up stall at ground floor to having a shop in Johor Bahru KSL City and now even at Singapore, D’Laksa has started since 2012, claiming on serving the most authentic and original Penang Assam Laksa in Johor Bahru. D'Laksa is no stranger at Singapore food fairs as well.

Affordable and authentic food in an air-conditioned place is pretty rare and D’Laksa has succeeded in keeping the prices low while maintaining the quality.

Those who plan to eat the noodles at home can ask for the soup to be packed separately.

One bowl of noodles is enough for a light lunch, but those with bigger appetites can order fish balls on the side. The Laksa selling at 6RM while fishball at 5RM.

You may have noticed that my bowl of assam laksa is served in a takeaway bowl. The concept of D'Laksa in Johor operates like a takeaway kiosk but there is seating area like a food court in their shops. Assam Laksa was served with generous servicing of shredded cucumber, onions, pineapple, sardines and a thicker chewy version of bee hoon. 

The soup does pack a punch with its sourish and tanginess, further lifted with the cut red chili with prawn paste, bringing sweet, sour and spicy taste to my taste bud all at the same time.

I don't often eat assam laksa, but I have to admit I fell in love upon the first mouthful!

It was super refreshing with the hot and sour stock. The soup was super rich in flavor with that soft and chewy white noodle complements the dish perfectly!

Finally, we have one in our Singapore heartlands at Hougang Mall!

It's a takeaway kiosk in Hougang mall, so dry and wet ingredients are separately packed so you could bring them home and mix them up to enjoy. It's not located in central area, but at least there is no need to jam for Customs clearance. Tastewise I would say is very similar.

888 Mookata - Back again for the fresh and tasty food!

• Operating Hours: 5 PM to 2 AM
• Operating Days: Daily
• Address: Blk 212 Hougang Street 21 S(530212)

We came here just a month ago and now we are back again for more because we could not resist having their tasty and fresh food!

Check out https://goo.gl/WugRcs for my previous review of 888 Mookata.

This time, we came at near midnight, just to avoid the dinner crowd, and yes it was significantly lesser. We were served in less than 5 mins after we placed the order. There were quite a few differences since we came. 

This time we need to order and pay first before we wait for our food to arrive.

If you noticed, previously they using metal plates to hold the food, this time it's using a plastic plate, but no worry, the ingredient of the same quantity and most importantly the quality remains one of the top notched.

The meat still did not stick to the cooking plate, which is another good point.

So while we were cooking, we noticed something is missing from our vegetable basket - corns!

We did not know whether is it they left it out already altogether.

So 888 Mookata still one of my best mookata I've had, I could say people in future won't be going there because it was opened by Chew Chor Meng or Zhou Chong Qing, they will come just because it was that nice.

888 Mookata - A very tasteful worth to try place opened by Celebrities

• Operating Hours: 5 PM to 2 AM
• Operating Days: Daily
• Address: Blk 212 Hougang Street 21 S(530212)
• Total Cost: $33.20

Founded by local celebrities Chew Chor Meng (周初明) and Zhou Chongqing (周重庆) in partnership with their cousins, 888 Mookata is a new restaurant to the getting popular Mookata trend in Singapore. And whats more, they are open till 2 AM! A good place for a late night supper with a group of friends or family in the neighbourhood. Parking is a breeze as the place is surrounded by several large car parks. 

During our visit, we were also informed by the staff that they were usually very busy during dinner time, and there will be waiting time of 1 hour. So we waited for at least 30 mins for the seat (we have to find seats ourselves) and near to an hour for food to be served!

This is their menu, ordering is very straight forward, they only have 2 main options on their main menu which are Platter For 2 @ $26 and Platter For 4 @ $45. We ordered a platter for 2 with an extra rice @ $0.80 and a plate of black pepper beef slice @ $3.80. 

Each a la carte dish will cost you at least $1.80 or you could go for their other platters - Mushroom Platter @ $6.80, Vegetable Platter @ $6.80 or Meat Platter @ $10.80. So once you have written your order, do proceed to the counter and they will ask for your name and table location.

Look at the number of people waiting for their mookata to be served, and while everyone was waiting, they order rojak, carrot cake or from the western stalls resided in the same coffee shop, else you could order drinks while waiting.

At last, after an hour of waiting, somebody finally shouted for my name and came to us with the mookata plate and sauces. We were constantly being served with smiles. A thumbs up for them!

We were given two sauce, one on the right was sweet chilli sauce with a sprinkle of sesame seeds. The other would be a spicier version.

We were quite surprised by the portions served but we do glad that there was a wide variety of ingredients in the plate.

Before you begin your meal, do make sure that you first smear the pork lard provided around the plate to make the meat not stick to the plate as much and add an extra taste to the meat.

While they offered common dishes on any Mookata restaurants out there, they even include premium like scallops and prawns into their platter.

This is a portion of a beef slice, $3.80 for this portion is a bit little, only a few pieces but the taste wise is very good and fresh! So the price is for the quality than quantity.

The broth is chicken with corn stock, it quite pleasantly tasted but it will slowly becoming richer and flavourful through your meal. The Mookata plate does not stick to the meat which makes the cooking whole lot easier, not as greasy too.

The chicken, pork and beef although they do not look like they are marinated they are in fact very flavourful and fresh while at the same time does not irk your throat with all the oiliness most of the other mookata restaurant does.

Although the food quantity was not much, the food quality totally did not disappoint us at all! The taste of the pork collar surprised me the most as I am not into pork collar. This is the only place that made me bite and swallow the whole piece of the pork collar straight into my tummy, without any second thought. 

I must give kudos to them as the tiger prawns were all nicely de-shelled, making it a lot easier to eat.

Although the portion is not enough to fill up our hungry stomach, their quality is really tip top especially their taste. 

Thanks to their late opening hours. We will return for more in time to come. It was my best mookata experience thus far.