Hotpot Culture

Hotpot Culture serves lunch porridge buffet daily from 11.30am to 2.30pm. At just $7.90 plus plus for adults and $6.90 plus plus for children, this lunch porridge buffet is very value for money. With over 30 varieties of dishes to choose from, everyone will be spoiled for choice!

The signature dish Crispy Fish Fillet is crunchy outside and soft inside. Goes very well with the sweet potato porridge, which is served hot and with chunks of sweet potato and nicely cooked porridge.

Curry chicken, another of their signature dishes, was flavorful and not too spicy. Chicken meat is cooked to the right texture and absorbs the curry flavor well into the meat.

Ever have cravings for good free-flow porridge, go give Hotpot Culture Porridge buffet a try!

Overall Ratings Food: 3.5 stars Service: 4 stars Cleanliness: 4 stars Value for money: 5 stars

One of the more belated posts, this was taken during the Yebber gathering for the New Year...Yes its very late in fact. Nonetheless, HotPot culture was the choice of the day with its everyday prices and rather extensive selection of food, both cooked and raw. Knowing next to nothing of the place, me and my gf braved the cold hard night and thronged towards the defunct location where maniacal cameras and loud speech is a norm.

The location was rather odd because it was situated in the middle of a large number of competitors ranging from Secret Recipe, Kenny Rogers to Genki Sushi and some chinese restaurant. Talk about a "hostile location" and "friendly competition". Still, i have to say the place was simplistically clean in a good way and though filled with normal furniture, managed to hover between boring and acceptable.

The service is simple. Once you have settled in, the immediate step is to be acquainted to your own personal mini pot. This pot will stay with you till the end of your meal until dessert is served so it is prudent to ensure you pick the best pot for your needs. For my case, i picked the herbal ginseng hot pot and it was a good choice in my opinion as the stock definitely adds taste to the food and simply tastes good. A little on the salty side though. The other complaint would have to be the fumes emitted from the pot, it stings your eyes and noses for the first....10 minutes or so until you get used it but these are small grouses in the scale of things.

In terms of food selection for the uncooked portion where you get to pick and choose whatever you like, it was sufficient. There are upwards of 30 different items you can cook in your hotpot and each item was, to my impression, treated with equal cleanliness and hygiene. To me, its extremely important that the food looks and is clean and this they have managed to convey. On the items, there are lots of greens, vermicelli, bean related items, eggs, chicken meat, dory fish, fish cakes, crab meat and fish balls to choose from. Each are chilled with ice and tasted pretty good in each respect. Springy fishballs, reasonably fresh meat and fish round out the experience. In short, the items on selection may be rather small portioned but does not disappoint. This brings us to the next point which is the 'distinct' difference between HotPot Culture and other would be restaurants, they also serve a selection of close to 40 cooked food items.

Prawns and Bacon Wrap - This was our first order for the day in the cooked food section and to be honest, it was rather disappointing but its not the fault of the chef in this case, it was the ingredients. Prawns and bacon wraps are as easy as one, two, three in making it good. Simple have a nicely sauteed king prawn, wrap it in quality salty bacon, slap on a layer or 2 of additional garnishes while grilling and its basically a winner. What went wrong here, was the rather small prawn used which failed to bring out its true flavor. In retrospect, even Eden Cafe didn't get this right...maybe it isn't as easy as i though after all.

Tahu Goreng - A favorite dish of mine which hearkens back to my army days. This rendition was pleasing to the eye but did not live up to expectations in the taste department. The nuts and garnishing is definitely spot on but the tahu (beancurd) itself was just a little too hard. The skin took quite and effort to break and the beancurd within needed to be softer to be palatable.

Chicken Wings - Chicken wings, what could go wrong with it? Over frying apparently. There was some marinate used on the wings which rendered it too salty but the nail in the coffin was how dry the wings were. The only saving grace was that it was not oily, which was perplexing in a good way. The newest update i had was that the owner got my comment through the video yebber made with me commenting on the items out loud, and have since improved on the wings and other items.

Pan fried battered fish - Didn't get to try this but i was told it was pretty good by KK and his gf. So i'll take it as it was good.

Chicken and mushroom wrap - I had only a piece of this and its was a little dry but the mushroom sauce managed to compensate that little problem. This was salty as well though.

Ngor Hiang - One of my favorite dishes when done right. This was below average by me but maybe my views are biased on this dish. This was rather thin and actually over fried with the paste inside lacking much taste nor ingredients. Needs improvement.

Stir Fried Bean Sprouts - You just can't go wrong with this dish. Its easy enough with the only thing to look out for being to stir fry it long enough to rid it of the "greenish" taste and short enough to retain the crunchiness. Once again, it was a tad too salty for me.

Golden Mushroom - Sukiyaki Beef - Fish Paste - The above are 3 items which needed to be ordered before it can be cooked. The beef was fresh and succulent enough to be ordered a minimal of 3 times, the golden mushrooms need to be cooked thoroughly before being eaten but gets the job done while the fish paste is a weird combination of tastes in its own right but simply didn't sit well with me.

Sweet and sour fish - Sweet and Sour Chicken - Both these dishes taste the same to me. With the exception of the fish being more tender while the chicken being more chewy, the overall taste is the same. Not to say that its bad but the sauce certainly overwhelms after awhile.

Deep Fried Meat Balls - Remember the mushroom chicken? Well, the sauce is the same while the meat balls were unfortunately too dry yet again.

The final course of the day was the chocolate fondue which comes in its own little hotpot for each person. Choices to go with the fondue range from marshmallows to fruits like papayas, apples, pears, watermelons and honeydews. The fondue is of the bitter sweet variety which means its more bitter and has a higher cocoa content then some other such fondues offered in similar places. A good ending i'd say.

A decent place for a buffet hotpot meal with a rather extensive variety of of items to choose from. The owner's willingness to listen to feedback and improve is a plus. I'd recommend visiting it as the overall experience has not been a bad one.