Feeding My (Hot)pot Addiction, Part 42069 I’m a sucker for all you can eat BBQ & Hotpot buffets, so it comes as no surprise that Chong Qing Steamboat & BBQ is my kinda pot dealer. At $32.80++ for a weekend all you can eat buffet, you can stuff yourself silly on stellar seafood such as Chong Qing’s signature chili, garlic & vermicelli scallops, or their garlic mussels, or their chili oil clams in a little tinfoil bowl. Alternatively, you can kick off #bulkingseason with a bang & max out your protein intake on their marinated beef or pork cubes, a plethora of pork cuts from black pepper pork chops, to spicy pork ribs & cumin pork belly, a bevy of beef, and spicy chicken wings that were low key underrated.
The Google reviews for Chong Qing Steamboat Bar were pretty brutal, and I went in with tempered expectations. However, I found that quite a few of them were unnecessarily harsh after sampling Chong Qing’s seafood offerings for myself. The main complaint was that the seafood wasn’t fresh and it had been left out for too long. Granted, it’s a buffet where you help yourself to the food so you can cook it to your own preference, but the seafood on Sunday night was moving mad fast.
My personal favourite, the chili garlic & vermicelli scallops, were quite fresh, retaining a subtle sweetness without any offensive fishy odour that would indicate a lack of freshness, and it was delicious. The garlic prawns were a little flawed in their execution due to the garlic falling right off the prawns when getting grilled, but there’s no denying that the prawns were still acceptably fresh with the texture to prove it. The mussels fared just as well as the stellar scallops, although they could do with a little more chili oil on them.⠀
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The clams in the chili garlic oil was probably the freshest seafood on offer. Pop the little tinfoil bowl over the grill and watch it bubble, then enjoy the sweet little clams with the chili oil & garlic. Yes, all of the clams popped open, not a single one stayed closed. The plain prawns were just as fresh as their garlic coated counterparts, and performed the best when boiled in the spicy mala soup.
Just to keep your stomach plumbing moving smoothly, grab some veg & load it into your bubbling hotpot broth. Protip: put corn into your broth and let it boil indefinitely for better soup. The herbal broth was loaded with strong, heady aromas of the various Chinese medicinal herbs that had been boiled into the chicken stock base, while the mala was plenty vicious to satisfy you hotheads out there.
Thank you for the generous hospitality, Chong Qing Steamboat Bar, and @theprsalon!