Chinese

The Red Grouper Seafood Soup ($25.90) features a generous serving of red grouper slices, prawns, scallops, clams, minced meat, tofu and tomato in a rich seafood broth. The seafood is very fresh and the natural sweetness of the seafood takes centrestage here. The portion is big enough to be shared by 2 pax, which is quite value-for-money!

The Braised Tofu ($3) is braised thoroughly and very soft.

The Black Fungus Salad ($3) is super aromatic, garlicky and refreshing.

The Chive Dumplings ($6.80 for 8) are full of flavour and the skin has just the right amount of thickness.

The Sichuan Ramen with Peppery Sauce 担担面 ($6) is a soupier and spicier version of the Dan Dan noodles I usually have. The rich pork bone soup base is not overpowered by the spice and peanut sauce, which is a pleasant surprise. I like that it is also topped with a fried egg. While I personally prefer dry Dan Dan noodles, this is actually not bad.

I wasn’t expecting much but I really like how you can taste the bean paste in the minced meat sauce of the Ramen with Minced Meat 杂酱面 ($6). This is savoury, tasty and surprisingly comforting.

The Ramen with Prawn Dumpling in Hot Chilli Sauce and Vinegar 鲜虾抄手面 ($9) is my favourite of all the noodles I have tried. The noodles are not too soft and they are tossed in a mildly spicy, tangy and aromatic sauce. The dumplings are large, plump and juicy, the skin is thin and the prawn in each dumpling gives in a nice crunch. The noodles is topped with fried garlic for extra fragrance. I’m actually impressed!

This is my first time trying laksa steamboat and the one I had at San Laksa was pretty good! We chose laksa and chicken soup as our soup base, as well as an array of ala carte ingredients which amounted to $150 for 4 pax. This is quite value-for-money given that there was a one-for-one deal for the seafood platter and ribeye beef platter on Burpple Beyond.

The laksa broth is flavourful, smooth and delicious, and it goes well with ingredients such as pork belly, dumplings, taupok and tofu skin roll. The fried meatballs are nice too. The seafood platter is really worth it - it comes with tiger prawns, baby octopus and an assortment of shells, clams and mussels. There is a wide variety of noodles to choose from and I like the pairing of Champon noodles (reminds me of Japanese ramen) and thick bee hoon with laksa.

On the downside, I didn’t really enjoy the chicken soup as it was not very robust or flavourful (not sure if that was because we were having laksa on the other side which was very flavourful), and the ribeye beef platter was a little too beefy/gamey for my liking.

Having said that, this is still a very enjoyable steamboat dinner and the laksa did not disappoint!

We also had Dumplings in Chilli Vinaigrette ($7 for 6). The dumplings are not the best I have had (the skin is a tad thick), but the tangy chili oil sauce is quite nice and goes well with the dumplings.

For side dishes, we had Fried Pig Intestines ($7). They are stuffed with spring onion and are soft on the inside and crispy on the outside. You can dip it in a chilli powder which is not very spicy but it adds flavour to the intestines.

I’m not that big a fan of the Signature Braised Beef Noodles ($14.50) as I found the beef a little tough. Having said that, the beef broth is flavourful and the texture of the noodles is good.

The Mapo Tofu Noodles ($11) is pretty good! The noodles have a firm bite and the fried minced meat and tofu is fragrant and tasty. We also tried the Signature Dan Dan Noodles ($10) which is essentially Mopo Tofu Noodles without the tofu, so I will definitely opt for Mapo Tofu Noodles instead!