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2012-07-17
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Walking past the restaurant on a Friday evening and decided to pop in to try their Hotpot Buffet (Mini Steamboat). The place was quite packed and tables were rather squeezy. Still, we were seated promptly, and the waitress came to take our orders fast too.We tried the Hotpot buffet (without ala carte cooked food). The soup comes in a small metal pot above a burner (disposable fuel) used. We decided to try the soups recommended in the menu - the herbal chicken ( clear but bland), and the Hot and
We tried the Hotpot buffet (without ala carte cooked food). The soup comes in a small metal pot above a burner (disposable fuel) used. We decided to try the soups recommended in the menu - the herbal chicken ( clear but bland), and the Hot and Spicy ( much tastier). Unfortunately, my burner (chicken soup) took significantly longer than the hot and spicy soup to boil, even without any food in it. In the end, I kinda gave up and decided to chuck everything into the hot and spicy soup!
There are a few steamboat items you can order from the menu - we tried the beef/pork slices, mushrooms, crab claw and fish "glue". All were pretty ordinary except the fish glue - interesting thin layer of sticky fish paste that is you scrape in to the soup. When cooked, it is sweet, and not too soft. There is also a chiller to get the rest of the buffet items - rice/nooddles, frozen fish slices, some veggies, eggs and well... alot of meatballs! There was chicken ball, mushroom chicken pall, prawn ball, sotong and fish ball.. As with all steamboats though, the most important part of the meal is the sauce! Sadly though, there was only 1 type of chilli sauce available, although there is garlic/ spring onion etc that you can add to suit your taste, some variety in sauces (including non-spicy options?) would have made a huge difference in the meal... the food all started to taste the same after a while!
Iced lemon tea is provided, free-flow and the service staff were quite prompt in taking orders and re-filling soups. 2 types of fruits that day - sliced oranges and cubed honey-dew melon (both types not too sweet).. and very small cubes of dry banana bread/cake ( like 1cm by 1cm!) to pass as dessert. Not great.
All in all, the food was edible but not great. Cost ~ $30/pax after GST (Fri and weekend dinners).
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