Xian La Dao

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Do visit http://www.umakemehungry.com/2014/09/xian-la-dao.htmlXian La Dao is stationed conveniently at the 3 level of the Grandstand, dishing out authentic Chinese fare to satisfy the cravings. They were officially launched in August 2014 and marketing responses has been seen good based on the statistics seen on the our local deal portals.Restaurant area is spacious, catering outdoor and indoor dining experience with its interior design as chick and modern. Though Grandstand maybe a tad inaccessible, the management had catered free bus services at pickup points and for those who drive, free parking is available.Besides owning this business, it was said that the pretty lady boss has a number of manicure outlets. In conjunction to her business, Xian La Dao has a cozy corner for diners right to polish up their nails at free of charge anytime during their meals. This manicure salon is right at the smack of their entrance, so guys and girls don't forget to pamper yourself!Another point that drew our attention was its counter located right in the middle of the restaurant. Amazed by their wide varieties (which is more than 20 kinds) of condiments neatly spreaded on the counter top.Exotic sauces like beef sauce, fermented bean curd sauce, their home blended garden sauce, chicken powder and even gourmet powder made up part of the starring moments.So let's pick a bowl and mix your selection in.Let's tickle our taste buds for their signature Si chuan soup base for a savoury satisfaction! We have the Yuan Yang Pot filled with Hot Spicy and Mushroom Pot. With its impressive myriad of soup bases and condiments, its hard not to dig in fast!For a start, there are some ready to eat food on the counter too. Beverages like Lime and water chestnut are free flowing.Temperature of the hot pot is adjustable with the use of the controller attach to every table.Another bonus is that each diner is entitled to a piece of baby abalone. However, if you want additional, there will be a top up of $3 each. We were advised to cook them in the boiling pot for 2 minutes to achieve the "q" and chewy texture! Remember to time it with your stopwatch!Soon, our platter of chilled baby abalones were all up in our stomachs, leaving those shiny empty shells. Ah ha! Now you see it, now you don't!Moving into the the seafood portion, it excites me further! With its freshness quality, there was nothing I could do to hold back my appetite.We had the live prawns ($4 / $8), Fish Maw ($4 / $8), US Scallop ($9 / $18) and even the red grouper ($28).Beside the seafood temptations, we got to enjoy a good spread of premium meat selection featuring Short ribs ($9 / $18) and Kurobuta Pork ($8 / $16). Another W-O-W for the night.We had the Japanese Curry Bun ($3 / $6), Beancurd skin ($1) and Lettuce ($6) into the pot too!Angus beef ($19 / $38) was deliciously shaved and rolled up, a dip into the pot about 30 second would have it well done! Sauces like their homemade garden sauce are perfect to go with this!Mutton slice ($9 / $18) and handmade pork balls ($6 / $12) are also part of the feast.To strike a balance from the carnivorous feast, we had their special produced Cheese Bun ($3 /$6) and Pumpkin pies ($5) for snacks. These golden fried lovely little pumpkins were the eye candies, not only were they crispy on the outside, the fillings were delightful, reminding me of a taste close to a "Nian Gao" but in a less sweeter version.And most importantly the greens that we can never go without, Tang O ($6) - A chinese steamboat will not be considered as a complete meal without one. Service was impeccable with duty staff topping up our beverages and clearing our plates promptly, attending to our needs. It was also our honour to be served by the boss. And with one of the moments showing his expertise squeezing the shrimp glue to the boiling pot!It was an pleasant experience to enjoy such scrumptious steamboat meal in a relaxing environment. On top of that with its freshness quality and family friendly dining atmosphere of round tables catering up to 12 diners, it does also make a perfect spot for group gatherings indeed. Thanks OpenRice for the Invite. continue reading

I was lucky enough to get to dine here recently. Talking about location of the place, for drivers like me, its near the rear carpark (FOC!) facing the rugby field and you walk up the staircase near Omakase Burger and the entrance to the building itself. You will find it at the same floor as Ah Yat Restaurant. With seats overlooking the rugby field, this newly opened steamboat restaurant is huge, able to host up to near 240pax. They also have 3 vip rooms which can cater 6-8pax each (no minimum charge required). The aircon section is my preferred dining section as its restaurant standard, with comfy cool environment ,nicely decorated, airy and most importantly it comes with a manicure station after the entrance. Ladies get to do free manicure anytime, not just when there is a queue and you are waiting, thumbs up for that. From a fellow friend who did it, i was impressed with the time for each manicure, she was gone for a good 15min, i had thought its probably going to be a 5min rush job but i was wrong. But i'm too shy to try it though there is no gender restriction if you want to have your nails pampered. There is also a very grand looking 12 seater which is individual pot settings, highly recommended for business dining. Was told by the restaurant manager that the steamboat theme originated from fuqing (Fujian Province), pride themselves with fresh food and amazing soup bases to offer. The boss is a lady is also in the nail salon business that's why explains the concept mentioend earlier. Every steamboat review probably is appropriate to start with the suaces! I counted a total of 24 are available, talked about being spoilt for choices! Interesting sauces seen include fish head sauce, mushroom sauce, beef sauce, fermented beancurd sauce, crunchy soya bean. The sauce that won us for the night is this garden sauce which is a in between of mookata sauce and thai sweet chili in my opnion. Cooked food items were also available since it was the $38++ buffet which we are trying out. We selected the yuan yang pot with hot spicy soup and mushroom pot. The mala soup base is not for the faint hearted, if you love spicy soup bases, i definitely recommend this. Let's talked about the food now...Meat - forget your boring thinly sliced meat, they serve good stuff, from the slice size and plate presentation itself you are rest assure you are eating in a quality steamboat place. Pork belly, kurobuta pork, mutton slices, short ribs, US Beef, beef tender and Angus Beef are available. My favorite was the mutton slice, angus beef and US BeefHandmade Specials - handmade pork ball, shrimp glue were both pretty good especially the glue paste which is squeezed out like cream on cake. So after its cooked, its looks like twisties.SeaFood - i got to try the Live Prawns, whole flower grouper, fish maw, US Scallop. I like the fish served as a whole and rest assure u will find it fresh. But i recommend the restaurant to go easy on the amount of ice on each plate as it tends to get a bit messy because the ice will melt very quickly. The LIVE prawn may impress more if its still jumping though, like some who will serve it in a covered box . Scallops was good for me as well.Surprise - we were pleasantly surprised when they dish out a abalone each. How often u get that in a steamboat restaurant, nicely sized leaving you wishing for more (you get 1 free with the buffet now and additional orders at $3 each, i thought that was cheap). Its important to cook the abalone for just 2 minutes, that will give you the perfect texture and not overcooking it.Vegetable - although they have a whopping 16 vegetable type available, we kept ourselves contented with the flow of dang-o and lettuce. You can see, we were very much focus trying the meat above.Sides - Fried bean stick is always nice to be added to the mala base . The 2 fishcake look alike buns we tried was the japanese curry bun and cheese bun with the latter being the clear winner. Its specially made by their supplier, with cheese oozing out after you bite into the fish cake like bun. Ho ciak! The japanese bun with curry on the other hand is mediocre. There was also fried pumpkin cake snack and red bean pancake to try but i was near my full capacity by then.Drinks - The buffet standard comes with lime juice or water chestnut free flow and the servers top it up for you. They were nice enough to offer us a pot of 福清铁观音, a kind of 秋茶from hometown fu qing. For tea lovers, dun hesitate to talk to the lady boss about tea appreciation, you will be surprised she is almost like a tea guru. I was impressed with the fragrance of the tea and how refreshing it is. Never knew hot tea goes well with steamboat!Overall a fantastic eat, but am definitely keen to see them get some improvement based on the feedback above.   continue reading

Bought a deal coupon for a 2 pax set meal. It was very value for money as the set included 2 small abalones. The food was fresh and the service was great. The set came with free flow of lime juice or water chestnut drink, and was constantly topped up by the service staff. This is a great choice for a steamboat meal! continue reading