[CLOSED] Xiaocaoxiang Steamboat Buffet (Toa Payoh)

It’s winter (aka rainy season) in Singapore once more, which means that hotpot szn is now officially on. I’ve been to many pot houses over the years, but all you can eat hotpot buffets are few and far between. However, @xiaocaoxiangsteamboat is one of those rare unicorns that offer all you can eat buffets, and they’ve even got an additional barbecue option for an extra surcharge.⠀
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At $18.80++ for a ninety minute weekday lunch buffet, Xiao Cao Xiang offers up some unbeatable value. Due to the unnamed virus of unknown origin, the buffet format is a little odd. You go over to the huge display chillers, tell the staff how much of a certain item you want, and lead them straight back to your table so you can gorge yourself silly.⠀
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Now, none of this is gonna be premium stuff, but for the low price of admission, were you really expecting Kobe beef & Iberico pork? Still, the meats are superbly satisfying and the quality is more than passable. The pork collar, pickled lamb, sliced beef belly, tender beef and the prawns are not to be missed at any cost. The sliced meats are respectably thick, while the prawns are delightfully fresh even though their size is bang average.⠀
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There’s a grand total of seven meats, and six seafood choices for you to sate your gluttony on, and I haven’t even mentioned the extras like cheese tofu, lobster balls, tofu puff, et cetera yet. To top it all off, they have seven unique soup bases for you to select. Oh yes, you will be utterly spoilt for choice. My choice of tomato soup was a sublime selection, as the scintillatingly sapid and tastefully tangy tomato broth was good enough to drink on its own, but ascended into flavour paradise once you’ve cooked off some corn, radish and all your assorted meats & seafoods in it.⠀
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Look, imma keep it real with y’all, there’s probably a truckload of MSG in that tomato broth, but MSG is flavour (Uncle Roger approved), and we here for a good time, not a long time. With that being said, the incredibly affordable price of admission paired with the surprisingly decent quality of food on offer, Xiao Cao Xiang is a grossly underrated pot merchant. Get in there and blaze it, folks.

Prices have increased from last year, and for a weekend/PH (irrespective of lunch/dinner) it's $25.80+++ but still worth the money. The quality of ingredients is good, sufficient variety, free flow drinks. The way food was served (raw meats placed in separate "containers", the rest + veg consolidated on one big plate) was very sanitary as well. Service was good with the staff constantly checking in if anything was needed. Will be back again!

For only a price of $18.80+ during a Friday dinner, the quality of the food is really good. The meat is store in a freezer and put in a small container instead of one big batch really shows how the restaurant really put in the effort to keep the quality of the meat well.

In additional, they have free flow drinks which is rarely unheard of from a Chinese steamboat buffet.