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. 

Tian Wai Tian 天外天 - Fish Head Steamboat + Zi Char

Operating Days: Daily

Operating Time: 5 PM to 11 PM

Address: 1383 Serangoon Road, S 328254

Tian Wai Tian has been around for decades and most Singaporeans will not find this name unfamiliar. Famous for Fishhead Steamboat, this place is constantly filled up by patrons during their operation hours despite its ulu location.

Situated at the corner beside rows of shop houses, you will definitely not miss this place as it is one of the very few eateries along that stretch.

No other stalls are open during dinner time, and all customers you see sitting down are solely the patrons of Tian Wai Tan.

Rows of tables were spreaded out along the five-foot way to cater to the number of patrons during dinner time.  Most of the tables were still occupied when we left the place.

We ordered a large pomfret steamboat ($45) and it was served to us 20 Minutes after. The large pot served was filled with Chinese cabbage, Chinese Spinach, and fried yam. The portion of the fish slices given was appropriate as well.

There were abundant of great taste from all the ingredients in this big pot! This teochew style fish head steamboat served in each pot was cooked and kept warm using the traditional charcoal method. The cloudy soup will definitely make you want more each time you taste it. 

We ordered a medium Furong Egg ($10) as well. It was crispy at the side and this egg dish is of course something that can’t go wrong. 

Next dish came was the Tofu Prawn. A highly raved “must try” dish, this dish is as unique as it sounds (in a good way). We never thought chili crab sauce could go so well with egg tofu and prawn!  The chili crab sauce goes very well with white rice as well.

The garlic Kai Lan here was really good! Every strend of Kai Lan on this plate were filled with garlic taste, and not forgetting the “wok hei” taste! If you are a fan of garlic, you will definitely like this.

Hei Zhor (Prawn Roll) is another dish you commonly see on almost every table at Tian Wai Tian. The skin was crispy with generous amount of ingredients wrapped inside. Many have also raved about the generous amount of chestnut bits in each piece of prawn roll, however, we have eaten better prawn roll at other places. It was pretty normal to us.

This is the medium size Hae Chor, with about 16 pieces, just enough for the 8 of us.

Tian Wai Tian offers one of the better teochew style fish head steamboat in Singapore. They have also several outlets around the island, which makes it easier for people to visit. For the Serangoon outlet, you may not receive too much attention from the waiter as it is pretty much a self service eating house. Soup here is refillable, but you will need to go to their kitchen to get it yourself. Ready for order? You have to queue up at the cashier area to order and the only payment they accept here is cash.

It is pretty much a decent and a no frill place suitable for small group dining. If you want to dine in with a big group (more than 4), we would suggest you go there earlier as the number of big tables they provide are limited.

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.

Hai Tian Lao 海天撈自助火锅 - Yes! It's 天, not 底 steamboat buffet restaurant

• Operating Hours: 4.30 PM - 4 AM
• Operating Days: Daily
• Address: 27 Jalan Bestari 1/5, Taman Nusa Bestari, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
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Singapore have Hai Di Lao 海底捞, and now across the custom in Johor Bahru they have 海天捞. Yes! 海天捞, but is it the same in terms their service, quality and variety of food?

20 minutes drive from custom, about 50 RM per pax, you could choose your choice of soup and free flow of all the food offers, what's different here is they offer barbeque items like Sotong, Lala clam, prawn and even Stingray! They have fried Chicken Wing and Man Tou ready to eat too! Last but not least, they do provide fruits and Ice cream!
You could purchase canned drinks from them but they do have other drinks for you included with the buffet, even real watermelon juice!

So for a start, you get to choose between 6 type of soups - Big Bone, Sichuan Mala, Mushroom, Thai Tom Yum, Taiwanese Mala and Tomato Soup. We chose Tom Yum and Tomato soup.

For those who have visited 海底捞, does this pot looks very similar? The soup is nice by itself, but not as tasteful as Hai Di Lao, but it was comparable with any other steamboat of the same price range, good amount of spices in each soup.

Even before we go and collect the items to cook, the Barbeque item came presented to us, first was the prawns, they were really fresh and easy to peel off the shell, I was expecting just prawns with simple sambal sauce but they used ladies finger and onions with sambal sauce to mix them up. Do not worry about getting your hands dirty, there were basin for you to wash your hands after you deshelled the prawns.

Next was stingray, they used normal chili sauce to cook this, the stingray they gave was really fleshly! It won't lose out to any barbeque shop outside.

Lots of variety of vegetables offered for you, they all were stocked up quite fast when they were empty.

They have beef, pork, chicken and lamb, all not marinated in a chiller. Sadly when we were there at 9PM+ they already out of stock for beef, but I managed to grab hold of a plate of beef!

Other ingredients at another chiller - hotdogs, meatballs, crabstick, luncheon meats and fishcakes.

Overall, I would not compare this to Hai Di Lao as they were of different standard, if compared to any other steamboat buffet restaurant at this price range, they were on a much higher standard in terms of the quality and variety of items. 

Total for the price of $198.85 for 4 pax. It was quite value for money. Do visit them if you are looking for some Steamboat buffet but please do visit them early to avoid disappointment of any out of stock item.