Hey Hive!
Sorry this post is late since I had trouble uploading the pictures the other day. But recently, the Singapore government announced that we can eat out again, so restaurants have been opening up and allowing in-house dining again! The only catch is you must be certified to be vaccinated and groups are limited to what used to be 2 people, but now up to 5 people!
So we took the opportunity to go out and have a delicious hotpot meal at this place called Beauty in The Pot!
Beauty in The Pot is a concept by the Paradise Group, which is a conglomerate founded by Eldwin Chua mainly dealing in Oriental cuisine. Paradise Group offers gourmet menus of exceptional value in a wide variety of restaurant concepts together with a catering arm. It was first started in 2002 with Seafood Paradise and has since grown into 11 culinary concepts across 9 countries, serving customers at close to 50 restaurants in Singapore and more than 60 restaurants worldwide. (Cr: Paradise Group)
I remember we heard of this place quite a while back when we had a sudden craving for hotpot, but we found that it was too expensive and the queue was always ridiculously long so we never bothered. But after Sean tried it with his colleagues the other day, he insisted that he take me to try it too!
Anyway, Sean had made a reservation for us from 5:30pm - 6:45pm, and we arrived on the dot and got seated shortly after!
The interior of the restaurant actually looked really nice and cozy! Everything was bright and colourful, especially the furniture and even the walls! And it was a nice pleasing colour too; lots of baby blues and deep turquoise for the chairs.
It kinda gave me a fairy tale vibe, and is hugely contrasted to other Paradise restaurants I've been to, where it's more of your traditional Chinese restaurant with dark browns and ornate wood carvings and such.
We actually got to sit at a 8-person table since they were out of small tables. And it wasn't a waste anyway since only 2 people could sit at a table together at the time. It was pretty drafty at our table though, so I was eager to get some warm soup in my belly.
Here's the hotplate in the middle of the table!
So to order, we were given a tablet to view the menu and order from and there were so many options! But the first thing we had to choose was our soup base:
There are 6 soup bases to choose from and they were all nourishing soup bases that promised rich flavours coupled with abundant benefits. When Sean tried Beauty in The Pot with his colleagues I think they ordered multiple different types of soup, but he really only liked one of them - the Beauty Collagen Broth. We decided to go with Single Pot since it was the most worth it, I guess? I was kinda skeptical about the Spicy soup since he said it was quite spicy, but I wouldn't have minded trying the Herbal Drunked Chicken Soup or the Longevity Wild Pine Mushroom Broth. Both of those sounded really good and healthy too! Maybe on our next visit we'll order multiple soups.
Anyway, next was choosing our ingredients to put into the hotpot! We chose the standard chinese cabbage, mushrooms, corn, tofu, and some decided to get some beef!
So after placing our order, we waited for our food to be prepared. The staff were actually quite helpful since it was my first time trying and I didn't know what to do. And turns out they actually open until 3 AM?! I guess that would be better pre-covid when there are still people out and about in the clubs at midnight.
After a little bit, our soup arrived! And it also came with 4 glass bottles of extra soup to add when it's starting to run out. But we had to wait until the soup boils before we could try it. It smelled good though!
We were also given bibs to wear in case the soup splashed on our shirts. I don't think anyone else was wearing them but whatever; we put them on to get the full experience.
It was my first real meal of the day and I was getting hungry just looking at the soup!
Soon it was starting to boil and there was soon a layer of stuff accumulating around the side of the pot.
Not long after that, our ingredients arrived! We also ordered some special handmade tofu and Sean's favourite - beancurd skin roll!
This was the special fish tofu which actually did look like fish - koi to be exact! Apparently it's made from a secret recipe of yellowtail fish, soya bean and egg white! It supposedly had a melt-in-your-mouth texture and one of Sean's collegues really liked it so we gave it a try.
So after our ingredients were served, the staff helped us scoop out the layer of gunk that was accumulating before serving us a bowl of soup!
I was so eager to taste the soup but it was boiling hot so it was picture time! And I guess this was where the draftiness came in handy since the air-conditioning could cool my soup for me. And it was soo tasty! The soup definitely did taste nourishing and healthy but savoury at the same time! It was a little thick and slightly milky, but definitely delicious!
While I was busy finishing my first bowl of soup, our meat arrived! We had ordered a plate of pork belly
and also some slices of US beef.
Before we started dipping our ingredients into the hotpot:
Then I was getting hungry so we put in the vegetables first. When we were served our ingredients, the staff actually mentioned how much time to cook each of the ingredients and they were mostly less than 5 minutes, except the fish tofu which required 7 minutes.
So we got our vegetables out after 3 minutes or so, and enjoyed it with the nutritious soup!
After a while we realised we didn't have any staple food, because we didn't order rice or noodles. But I was pretty hungry since it was my first meal so we ordered a bowl of udon to share because I knew I was going to get full from the soup. Udon is still pretty filling nonetheless.
The fish tofu actually tasted not bad, but it had a tad sour taste. Maybe from the soy bean or the yellowtail, but the texture was definitely soft and melts in your mouth. It was alright, but not really to either of our taste.
The rest of the ingredients were pretty standard, but they complemented the soup well and didn't overpower it which was the whole point so it was good. The meat was also really nice, and cooked quick after only 2 minutes. I personally preferred the pork over the beef, but both were yummy all the same!
But honorable mention definitely goes to the beancurd skin roll! Sean definitely didn't oversell it; it was crispy perfection, and when lightly dipped in the soup, the mixture of the soup with the crispy skin was pure perfection! It was a tad oily though, and I think it would be better paired with rice, but it was yummy all the same!
We actually wound up finishing all the extra bottles of soup too with all the soup we drank, and we finished all our ingredients too! I was soo stuffed after all that soup! Before we realised it was already 6:30pm! We were closing in on the end of our timeslot so it was time for dessert! And there was a cute ice cream cart going around!
We were also served this tray of ice with 2 wet towelettes and a glass of some citrusy ice blended drink.
I actually really liked the ice blended drink a lot. It was so refreshing and cleansed your palette completely.
It was nicely served in these shot glasses too! But I'll drink this over alcohol any day.
When the ice cream cart rolled around, we also got 1 scoop of this rainbow ripple ice cream that was pretty good too! It tasted like those standard budget paddle pop ice cream but it curiously had gummy bears in them for some reason. The gummy bears didn't really fit in with the ice cream and weren't chewy since they were frozen, so I didn't eat them. But the ice cream was good!
Overall, it was truly a very satisfying and filling meal! Probably the most filling meal I've had in some time. I was soo full from all that soup but it was a good full since it was healthy and nutritious, so I didn't feel an ounce of guilt like I would normally get after eating fast food.
There are currently 7 Beauty in The Pot outlets across Singapore, so if you ever have a hankering for hotpot and want to treat yo' self, definitely give it a try! I'm not sure how it compares to Haidilao since I've never had it before, but I heard this is on par or even better! The next time we have a special occasion, we'll definitely come back again!
Thanks so much for reading!
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