Located along New Bridge (and a little distance away from the noisy and crowded stretch between Temple and Mosque Streets), Tianfang is a nice little quiet spot for Chaoshan hotpot.

This is my first experience with Chaoshan hotpot and I literally had no idea what to expect. According to the wait staff, the main difference is the dipping sauce. Chaoshan hotpot is usually served with shacha jiang, a Chaoshan specialty condiment made from oil, garlic, challots, chilli's and brill fish / dried shrimp. Taste-wise, it is savoury without being salty with a nice mild seafood briny flavour. I personally recommend adding a tad of chilli oil to spice things up and sesame paste to give it an additional nutty flavour.

Tianfang serves 4 different soup bases (spicy mala, tomato, mushroom and the signature oxtail). I personally preferred the ox-tail soup, a thick full bodied broth which had a nice, thick and comforting beefy flavour which is perfect for rainy days.

Chaoshan is an area in China known for the quality of their beef and Tianfang definitely lives up to this by serving good quality cuts of meats such as 雪花牛肉 or 'snowflake beef' from the area around the cows neck that is tender and rich in buttery fat.

As always, a big thank you to the folks at Burpple and Tianfang for hosting us for the Burpple #EATUP!

P.S. I am kinda late for this post and understand from more recent posts that the owners of Tianfang have re-pivoted towards Sichuanese cuisine and removed the Chaoshan hotpot. So this may be outdated!