Thien Kee Steamboat

I have been eating this since young ... they used to be at Bugis area as we call Hainan Street.

Is fully air-conditioned so slurping of hot soup here won't make me sweat and I can eat comfortably with a full back chair .... haha lazy me!

They came in different sizes for the raw items .... and now they serve other food too and the set came in fishballs, pork slice, prawn, cockles, pork liver, fish maw, sea cucumber, fish slices, sotong, vegetables and egg! Now they have do all kinds of zi char for add on beside the yummy chicken and chicken rice!

Beside the ala carte raw items to be in the steamboat we started off with yusheng lou lou lou hope everyone in good health and with good wealth for the year of Snake! Their yusheng was good too!

If you looking for other soup base here you will be in great disappointment cos they only serve one and only chicken soup base ...... their base usually very bland you can actually add on some sauce easily from the dining table... beside that they have free flow of ginger and chilli there too ..... cannot miss that when having their chicken!

We order Satay too ...... last time they use to have chicken and beef too now only left pork .... my family love it ... they say it is really juicy!

2013-02-03

I didn't come here for steamboat! Besides steamboat, Thien Kee also serves chicken rice. I must say this is one of the best chicken rice I have eaten in my (short span of) life and I would definitely come here for chicken rice if I ever am craving it! Even though located in a very old building (Golden Mile Complex), many people still frequent this place for it's food. Glad that my workplace is nearby and I can visit often!

The chicken rice is really oily but really fragrant and I really enjoyed it a lot, even though knowing that I'm consuming a lot of calories and unhealthy stuff. Their chilli sauce is also really nice, not too spicy or sweet. Mix in the chopped ginger, chilli sauce and dark sauce and you will be wanting more at the end of it.

Usually not a fan of pork, but their char siew meat is really good. Thinly sliced and covered with sauce, you can really taste the meat and sauce together as they complement each other well. Their chicken is also really good, was pleasantly surprised as it wasn't that fantastic aesthetic wise. However, the meat was tender to the right proportion and was not too fat too.

I used to come here for steamboat as a kid and I remember the place bustling with people when night comes. During lunch hour, there is significantly lesser people so it would be easier to get a seat then.

Service wise, there was a waitress who had on airs and looked at people with a displeased face, and never look at us when we were talking to her. Was not served by anyone else so nothing much can be said about the overall service there. However, might not recommend anyone who prioritize good service to visit as they don't have really good service and might ruin your meal.

2013-03-15

SGD 6(Lunch)

being hainanese, i suppose their star dish would be the hainanese chicken. And chicken rice of course. Oily grains of fragrant rice doused in chicken oil and cooked in stock. Yum.

So while we're at it, why not steamboat.
At $39 a set, this was steep but i guess you couldn't put a price on a steaming hot bowl of comfort on a dreadfully rainy day.

The soup was good, after all the ingredients were boiled in it.
But if you're here just for steamboat?
I'd recommend otherwise.

SGD 15(Dinner)

Ever heard of chicken rice steamboat? Then head to Thien Kee Steamboat to try it out! Very old school and vintage steamboat place that is well established, well-known with the ‘parent’ generation. Basically instead of the plain rice Thien Kee Steamboat serve chicken rice and you can enjoy your steamboat with chicken rice chili and dark sauce!It is like Cze Tze style, you can choose what to order beside the steamboat. They even have Satay and Char Siew on their menu!The steamboat comes with fix ingredients that comprises with the mixture of vegetable, seafood and meats so you can’t choose what you want – it just comes in a set. So people like us who don’t eat sea cucumber and some of the vegetable that’s the disadvantage.

*Be alert: Don’t go on weekends – very crowded and they even have to set up tables beyond their shopfront to accommodate!

2012-09-08

We were walking around golden mile area to plan our next overseas trip in the region by bus and also checking out the area since we rarely come by here.

Hidden in the basement of the old Golden Mile a.k.a "little bangkok" area is this one of a kind steamboat that serves CHICKEN RICE as the rice. but the portion is very small for big eaters like us (it's a TRAP! order more!)

The chicken is the old school kind, where people like it cold or even a little bloody. wasn't to our preference.

Steamboat play builds appetite, fresh meat/prawns/fishballs/vegetables made it a nice chitchateat date.

Price wise it was a little costly but there's so many regular patrons here who bring their entire families to eat.

This steamboat restaurant was our favourite. It was also very popular. It has expanded its space to occupy a great area in the basement. Whenever we were there, it was always packed. Tonight, we were a little early so we had no problem getting a table. We ordered the smallest seafood, $38. We requested for no pork, beef and sea cucumber. We ordered $6 of cooked chicken plus the chicken rice of course, not to be missed. The rice was so fragrant that you could eat it up by itself. My kids who normally have small appetite requested for extra bowl of rice.
There was a little setback on the raw food part though. To me the quality of the fish was not really good.
The amount of food was good for our family of 4.

2012-07-28

The show Timeless Treats (老字号) had brought to my attention this traditional steamboat place hidden at the basement of Golden Mile Tower. It was quite challenging locating the place. I went to Golden Mile Complex initially and couldn't find the place. I have to seek a shopkeeper's help in direction and she directed me to the restaurant. Actually Thien Kee Steamboat is located at Golden Mile Tower another building beside Golden Mile Complex and they are linked by a basement walkway which you need to walk pass some discotheque.

The restaurant was already crowded with people when I reached there around 6pm. Ordering is pretty simple as the steamboat set is standard. Basically you just need to provide 3 details to the waiter/waitress, number of people, whether you eat beef and you want boiled white chicken.

The ingredients for the steamboat were fresh but portion a bit small. The beef was fresh and tender but not of the best quality. For people who are used to flavored soup based may find the traditional steamboat soup base a bit too bland for their liking. I also tried their boiled white chicken. I personally find it average only.

My ex-colleague (Mr. Frederick Tan) and friend had eaten at this coffeeshop, which locates at the basement of the Golden Mile Tower many times. Business is so good until they had taken over most of the basement and corridors and I guess they are the loyal customers. Most of my friends told me that this humble store started at Middle Road about 50 years ago and moved to Golden Mile Tower about 30 years ago. Again this place is passing on generations to generations such as grandfather to father, then son......

Big plus point, the place is air-conditioned.

The ordinary steamboat comes in sets, so Mr. Frederick Tan chose the seafood set amounting $42.00 for 3 person because he is a Buddhist and the beef option will be definitely out from his menu. We did not want cockles because it is not good to eat at night.

They put a standard plate of food on our table which contains stuff like pork liver, fish balls, fish maw, sotong, sliced pork, sliced fish, squid, sea cucumber, etc. They also gave three raw eggs and vegetables. The soup base was chicken stock. Everything's amazingly fresh, sweet and succulent.

Chicken oily rice is served in lieu of white rice. I love the chicken rice chilli sauce because the chilli is really awesome. I hope that all Singaporeans and Singapore Permanent Residents can vote for this well-loved Hainanese restaurant as the best chicken rice chilli in Singapore with a dash of dark soy sauce.

Other than those things, the soup here is pretty good. It taste very home-made or just like mother's traditional chicken soup.

Although the portions are not huge, I had a wonderful dinner until my stomach really cannot be fed by other junks.

Conclusion: It's so wonderful to have all these food together at one round table and affordable prices. Since Thien Kee offers Hainanese chicken rice, so you can order chicken with your steamboat or even have the rice as well as the chicken.

2012-06-28

Went to Golden Mile with my parents last night for steamboat at Thien Kee Steamboat, which was supposedly one of THE places to go for good steamboat. Thien Kee has been around at the basement of Golden Mile Complex for ages and the fading façade is testament to that. When we got there at about 1930hrs, the whole place was packed to the brim with people, with tables being set up in the isles and literally anywhere where there was an empty space, even right up to the lift and stair doors!

The ingredients for the steamboat were pretty miserable quantity wise. 2 small platters of meat mixed with liver, cockles, fish and fishballs with another 2 platters of vegetables and 2 eggs. Upon cooking, the food tasted normal, nothing fantastic. The Hainanese chicken was a little too cold and bloody for my liking and the chicken rice was a little cold as well. However, it wasn’t very oily which is a plus point to me. The Satay was the highlight, with hardly any visible charred parts, fat and juicy. The gravy was also good, with lots of crushed nuts in it and no visible layer of oil. Comparable to the wonderful Satay gravy that I had in Karjang, (Not sure about the spelling, but its in Malaysia and famous for its Satay) just that the one at Karjang is very much thicker.

Very filling dinner, but at >$50 for 3 pax, not exactly very cheap considering the quantity and quality of food. But then again, it’s not terribly expensive as well. The air conditioning is a good thing, as things tend to get sweaty during steamboats and service is fast and snappy. Although I feel that its way over hyped, I do recommend trying it before it goes the way of the Dodo. And oh yes, listen out for the cries of “Ma Pi Po”, something which I haven’t heard in a while. ;)

Thien Kee Steamboat is really awesome as they have a wide spread of food for steamboat. I love their prawn and clam as they are really very fresh! Love their herbal chicken soup as it is very soothing for the throat and taste very well with the chicken. Overall, it a really a value for money!

SGD 16

This is my usual steamboat hang out place since young and they are still surviving.
Ordered a small steamboat set for $28 and $10 roasted pork and white chicken and the fragrance and authentic chicken rice to come along which is $0.70 per bowl.
The food is as good as ever; the aromatic scents of the traditional soup stock wafted by when I reached there. The chicken was tender with much of the flavour came from the soy sauce that was drizzled over the meat. Overall, it was a satisfying and enjoyable meal.

2011-09-11

SGD 41.90(Dinner)

it was my aunt that introduced us this place last year, she said the steamboat is one of the nicest. unlike those at bugis, this one was not the buffet kind. you have to order the dishes from them. this one also did not have mala soup. but one thing they have was zi char dishes. they also served steamed chicken and chicken rice. i like their sweet and sour pork the best. great place to enjoy a nice pot of steamboat.

i am not really a fan of steamboat, so when my hubby suggested the whole family go to thien kee for dinner, I was not too excited. The weather was quite hot and humid, so eating steamboat in this weather is a little unbearable. So when we got there, I prepared plenty of tissue, luckily it is located in an aircon place, so no hot issue. The service was very good, immediately after we were seated, they took our order and delivered them in less than 5 mins. good for my children who were very hungry. The steamboat is really good, the soup is very tasty. the rice they served was chicken rice. not the normal rice. the rice really goes well with the ingredients and soup.

A love steamboat, all kinds, mala, normal, bbq are my favourite. I went to tien kee for steamboat dinner. I love their soup, very tasty. Their business is really good, they seem to keep expanding everytime I go. I believe what draws the crowd is their fresh ingredients. I love their cockles and beef. Dip into their cut red chilli, absolutely heavenly!

Call us old school but the hubby and I prefers the traditional style of steamboat where the kitchen serves up one plate of assorted ingredients for the hotpot. What we love even more is the hotpot with fresh raw cockles for extra kick! And where can we still find this in Singapore? At Thien Kee steamboat of course! Forget the china-style buffet steamboat or the japanese shabu shabu. This is authentic singapore style!Ever since the hubby introduced me to Thien Kee, we've made our almost monthly homage to the restaurant whenever we are in need of some comfort food on a cold rainy day. You may not think it's much comfort considering that on most evenings, worse on weekends, the place is jam-packed with people! I guess most people have the same idea as us!

Not only does Thien Kee serve a mean steamboat, they also serve the singapore-hainese styled pork chop and hainanese steamed chicken to go along with the steamboat! Our favourite is definitely the pork satay. When the pork fats melt in your mouth, words is lost to describe that delightful feeling.

Be warned though not to go during peak dinner hours on weekends or you may not be able to find any seats at all! It may be rather hard to catch the bosses' attention. But most importantly, don't order extra meat for your steamboat if you're on a budget. Just go for the standard plate! Don't forget to order beer to complete the chillax experience!

SGD 20(Dinner)