Hotpot Culture

My first experience with hotpot culture was about 2 1/2 years ago at tiong bahru plaza.

Back then the quality was much better.

Yesterday however was a big dissapointment, and i am beginning to question the standard of the food and service of many restaurants. I found the staff at HPC (thats how they call themselves) to be very "stressed" and hence quite rude when asking you if they can clear your plates or if you like to have the desert now etc....and the place wasnt even 50% full

Foodwise, my god, has the standards dropped.

Chicken Soup - Tasteless

Beef slices - There was a certain sour smell and taste to it, hinting that its been frozen a bit too long (most meats in singapore are frozen meats, but this one was bordering on expiry i think)

Chicken strips - they were cut sooo fine they could be mistaken for noodles.....

pork slices - it took them forever to deliver this and it had the same issue as the beef.

The rest of the food werent appealing at all, and i didnt heed my own advice to people when wondering if you should try the buffet at a particular restaurant, ask the staff if you can have a walk around first before sitting down just to see if you like the food.

The cooked food was all over seasoned over cooked or over fried, usually a sign to hide the "un-freshness" of the food. The tahu goreng in my opinion has definitely gone bad, but my mood was so poor i didnt bother to complain.

The best thing about the place was probably the fact u get individual pots, the condiments, and the chocolate fondue for desert. But its a steamboat buffet, and i dont care how nice their desert is.

$23 after taxes. And a lot more unhappy after. I know to some people this is cheap for all-you-can-swallow. So i guess the question is how much you like to abuse your taste buds

Had lunch here. First time here after my gf tried it and say it is ok. ok for her with small stomach. more than ok for me with big stomach.

This is part of the rajah inn in tiong bahru i think. There is a large spread of food. The food sections are as follows:

1) Porridge-style dishes Mostly the normal type of dishes to eat with porridge. eg. beancurd, pork (kong-ba), salted vege, peanuts, tau pok, etc

I loved this section a lot. The dishes are well cooked except for a black coloured salted vege which is way too salty and hard to eat. Best is the beancurd(those eat with kway chap type). The kongba is fabulous

2) Normal buffet dishes Normal buffet dishes like beehoon, chicken, fried fish, beancurd with pork, egg with cabbage, etc.

The food in this section was below par compared to outside food court i feel. The chicken and fish are too hard. The egg is too oily and hard too..

3) Porridge and rice The porridge is those sweet potato type of porridge. I like it a lot though i feel can have more sweet potato in it. The sweet potato is cooked until soft which is good. The porridge is also quite 'soft', not those like rice water style. There is also rice which i didnt try.

4) Desserts The desserts consist of only the greenbean soup, bubur pulut hitam and buns (for eating with the kongba). There are fruits too.

The greenbean soup is too diluted. The hitam thingy is the black glutinous rice dessert. It tastes very good. Not too wet or dry. Can eat with the coconut milk (white sound thing beside it which i assumed is coconut milk).

Other than these, there are also a few compilmentary dishes. There is this cold beancurd with pork floss on it and gravy. Normally, i don't like to have cold dishes with hot porridge but this is super good. You must try this. There is also the sweet and sour pork.

Not too noisy a place. Nice place for a chit chat. Friendly waitresses too though everything is self-service.. haha..

Overall, it is a very nice buffet. The price is also quite worthwhile(based on my food intake and not my gf). My gf certainly look very happy (considering she found a cheap place in town for her always hungry bf.) What is better is that the weekend and weekday buffet prices are the same ( until less than $10 per person). Lunch buffet from 11.30 -2.30. There are quite a lot of people from 12.45 onwards.