It was interesting to find out that @cqgf.sg has a buffet menu, and if you are a big eater, this is a very good option to go for! The weekday lunch buffet cost just $28.80, with many grilled fish and side dishes that you can order.
Among all the variations of grilled fish we ordered, the 𝙒𝙖𝙣𝙯𝙝𝙤𝙪 𝙊𝙡𝙙 𝙎𝙘𝙝𝙤𝙤𝙡 𝙂𝙧𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙙 𝙁𝙞𝙨𝙝 was our favourite. The patin fish used was very meaty and really fresh, and we loved how flaky it was! It was cooked in a very fragrant chilli oil that isn't too spicy and yet very flavourful!
Among the many selections of side dishes that we enjoyed such as saliva chicken, seasoned black fungus as well as egg fried rice, the 𝙁𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙙 𝙈𝙖𝙣 𝙏𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙈𝙞𝙡𝙠 was the perfect accompaniment to the grilled fish. It was crispy, fluffy and the sweet touch of the condensed milk gave a good break to the savoury meal we were having.
Can't wait to be back to have a feast with my friends here again!
The main star of the night is the signature Spicy Numbing Patin Fish 川味麻辣水果鱼($44). The mild spicy level is quite comfortable and the fish is very soft and flavourful. However, it is also quite salty and you definitely need some rice to go with it. The fish already comes with a number of sides such as scallops and clams, and we added on other sides such as mushroom platter, black fungus, thick vermicelli, frozen beancurd, Chinese cabbage and fried beancurd skin, which makes it a really hearty meal.
Overall, the food is on the saltier side and it does get a little jelak towards the end but I still enjoyed this on the whole!
For appetiser, we ordered Sliced Pork Belly with Spicy Garlic Sauce 蒜泥白肉 ($8.90) and the fragrant garlic sauce goes well with the thinly sliced pork belly.
They initially served this without lighting the fire below the pot, and we were wondering why the food was slightly cold. When we asked them to light it, the waitress never got back to us and we had to ask another. Took awhile for us to finally be able to start eating.
Mushrooms were super duper chewy, my jaws were quite tired after some time. The beansprouts were very raw so I didn’t really like it. Tastewise it was so-so I think. On the menu this was a speciality, but I thought there was nothing really amazing about it.
Service wasn’t very great in general. The waiting times for food was quite long, we already finished most of our previous dishes before this one even arrived.
It was quite packed on a weekday evening, but fortunately we made a reservation. Do note that if you make a reservation, all your guests have to be present before the restaurant allows you to be seated.
I went for their buffet which consists of mala grilled fish and a range of ala carte dishes.
For the mala grilled fish, I had sea bass in spicy fragrant flavor with medium spiciness level. I added quite a number of sides as this is a buffet😝. A side that I think you could give it a miss is the handmade noodles because it gets bloated and soggy easily.
For the ala carte dishes, I highly recommend their La Zi Ji and Stir-Fried Garlic Butter Lala!! We just couldn’t stop ourselves from getting more garlic butter Lala 🤤!
Though I feel their mala grilled fish isn’t the best, it was nonetheless a satisfying meal. I really love having mala grilled fish with great company!
The dish was aromatic, chicken cubes were very crispy - with each crunch it was just an explosion of delicious oil (trying not to think about h e a l t h). The mala spices was actually not too spicy or numbing, so it was easy to eat and finish.
The plate looked huge but there wasn’t many chicken cubes in the pile - it was quite fun going on a hunt for them!
$16 is a little expensive for how little meat there is in this dish. We used the Beyond 1-for-1 deal so that made it slightly more affordable.
Service wasn’t very great, we were served one dry pot dish where they had forgotten to put wax and light the fire - and they really took a long time to get back to us for this. The waiting times for food was quite long, we finished this chicken dish before our other dishes even arrived.
It was quite packed on a weekday evening, but fortunately we made a reservation. Do note that if you make a reservation, all your guests have to be present before the restaurant allows you to be seated.
La zi ji never goes wrong!! I enjoyed the chicken so much though it numbed my tongue. However, the grill fish wasn’t that fantastic. Its okay, the 1-for-1 isnt about the fish anyways!
Both soup bases were really flavourful and chock full of ingredients and plenty of fish! Definitely value for money, especially with the free flow items. On the day we visited, quite a number of items weren’t available so it was a bit disappointing.
Used the Burpple buffet deal. We didn’t expect most of the side dishes to be in the pot already when it was served (meat was served separately). The pot came with so much low value ingredients hidden underneath the fish. Obviously more than what we ordered. But It was difficult to see how much until we started eating. Halfway through our meal, we were told to finish as much as possible to avoid the extra charges for leftovers. In the first place they put in way too much items like bean curd skin and sausages (we obviously did not order so much as we only placed order for 1 portion for most items - one portion shared among two pots). We didn’t even get to order more meat - too full trying to clear the items already in the pot. When we settled the bill, the receipt showed 2 portions for some items which we only ordered 1 portion! We were lucky we didn’t get charged extra.
Food tasted alright but make sure to check your orders and receipt to avoid being charged extra for food wastage. And do compare the prices between using the deal and ordering ala carte.
Overall a fishy experience.
Used beyond coupon and tried dual fish hotpot buffet style ~ 1 fish cook with 2 soup bases. Love the spicy mala soup with the grilled fish! Do come here earlier as it gets crowded during peak hours 🤤🤤🤤
My fav place for 烤鱼! Probably because it’s the first place that introduced me to kaoyu, so it’ll always have a special place in my heart 😛
Have been to this place at least 3-4 times, and have always left very satisfied. Service is not the most friendly but it’s always prompt; it’s slightly better when you visit in the afternoon (i.e. not peak period).
The fish is always fresh, juicy and meaty. The mala level is customisable and so are the other ingredients (料) like potato slices, beancurd skin etc. Beancurd skin goes so well with the mala sauce/soup!
The mala sauce/soup is salty and spicy, exactly the way mala should be. But it’s not exceedingly salty/spicy/numbing so I find that it has just the right amount of flavour. 🤩
Prices are not the most affordable though, so it’s definitely not an everyday meal. But good to share it with friends for a get-together :) The location is pretty convenient as well.
A bit on the pricey end, but tasted really great!
Enjoyed every bit of the meal, totally yearn to eat this again!!
Was here for 2 consecutive days and it’s safe to say, my ass is on 🔥 but I also managed to get really good deals thanks to Burpple Beyond so everything was worth it 💯
The portion was really big as you get two fishes but be careful with what you order. They will spam the Low value items such as sausages and black fungus to make you full and less inclined to buy the higher value items!
This is the premium selection which we top up from normal buffet...
From the beef you can see the cut was pretty and comes with abit of fats which gives the beef very juicy and soft texture for steamboat. Definitely a must order you if top up for Premium selection
This is not exactly grilled fish buffet, its more like steamboat and dump everything into the round base pot instead of the traditional rectangle plate.
The buffet on weekdays is $25.60 and add a $10 soup base. Subsequent you can add $10 per head to enjoy premium selection such as premium beef slice, prawn paste, lala.
The food definitely not bad especially the premium slice beef, but the prawn paste is a nono. Too much mixture of mashed fish meat (if I'm not wrong) and the texture is too soft with small chunks of prawn.
Total bill after including drinks is about $70 over after using burpple voucher. (as 1 for 1 only minus off $25.60).
With burpple the price is like normal steamboat price. Definitely not on the cheap side.
Without burpple the price is $100 over I could have went for Hai Di Lao instead.
The environment was cooling, good for having steamboat. Even though there was a top up of $10 for soup base, it's worth it as the portion is huge. Will definitely come back again!
Pricing was not transparent (extra $10 per pot). Food took 40 mins to come and we waited really long for the soup to boil. the soup was extremely salty as well. Bad service and it was unpleasant experience.
Steamboat per pax is 26.90++ (weekdays) inclusive of 1 sea bass (cannot choose) split into 2 for the yuan yang pot. Per YY pot you have to top up 10++. 6 of us could share 2 pots of 4 different flavours as 2 fish is more than enough! You can choose the chilli level for each of the soups.
My fave is the spicy fragrant soup. Spicy numbing 2 chillies is pretty hot to handle.
Generous portions of the free flow sides. The pork slices were kinda fatty but beef is not bad. Love the fried bean curd skin, king oyster mushroom, tiger prawn, and lotus root!!
We ordered a pot of tea ($6.50 for 4 pax) and restaurant was good to give us free flow ice cubes.
Will definitely be back Cos it’s so affordable with Burpple beyond!
Instantly made us decide to have it for dinner while walking along Liang Seah St. We had the dry pot chicken ($16) and they allowed us to switch the chicken to vegetarian sides for the same price. Kudos to that :-)
