Hey Hive!
So about a month ago, before the Singapore government basically announced that we were to limit our time outside and restaurants had to limit in-house dining due to the spike in covid cases, we managed to have a nice dinner at another hotpot restaurant! The only catch is you must be certified to be vaccinated and groups are limited to 2 people! We had some vouchers to use and it had been a while since we've tried it so we went to Suki-Ya!
And I don't mean our favourite Japanese gyudon place, but a Japanese Hot Pot place instead! Suki-Ya is part of the Creative Eateries franchise, and I actually am not sure if it is authentically Japanese, but they say it's designed to offer heart-warming dining experiences as you enjoy unlimited, top-quality chilled beef and pork in paper-thin slices and farmed chicken that are oh-so-delicious in their own right. Another highlight of Suki-Ya is its vegetable bar featuring a wide variety of fresh vegetables to round up the meal with a healthy touch. Along with sumptuous soups and broths, dining at Suki-Ya is bound to perk up everyone’s taste buds! (Source: Suki-Ya)
They had a lot of promotions available too with unique soup bases and stuff.
And this was their menu of sorts:
We went on a Sunday and it was actually kinda crowded because there was a line of people when we arrived, but luckily Sean had made a reservation. Even though we were a little late they thankfully still accepted us in and we were shown to our table after doing a safe entry check-in.
The interior was pretty nice and cozy, with lots of natural wood which reminded me of an onsen. And most of the seating was in the form of booths, which I really like because it's more private and spacious.
They also did have regular tables though, I guess for smaller groups or those who feel claustrophobic.
The lamps and sake barrels really gave added to the natural onsen feel of the place. And since it's a hotpot restaurant, the steam at each table would actually make you feel like you're in an onsen. Sort of.
Here was the fresh vegetable bar, which I guess you would normally just take your vegetables and whatever other ingredients you wanted since it's free-flow. But due to covid restrictions they can't let customers do that anymore. It kinda ruins the experience, but for health and safety reasons I guess there's no choice.
We were shown to our booth and when we arrived there was nothing on the table except an instruction sheet and a pot.
Here was the instruction sheet which had some pretty cute illustrations!
To order, we were given this small clipboard with a list of items to order from.
It was a little confusing since there weren't any pictures to go off of, and even after Googling we couldn't find a more concrete menu. So we just chose a bunch of random stuff; namely a variety of vegetables and also some noodles and each of the regular meat options.
The first thing we did was choose our soup base and we could have 2 so we decided on Sukiyaki (which is a blend of sugar and bonito stock added to brewed soy sauce) and Butaniku (a rich pork based soup).
The service was actually pretty bad that day, as they were shorthanded and it seemed like only one of the waiters knew what she was doing, and she was single-handedly carrying the entire service staff team.
We were served our soup and a whole slew of meat plates that we couldn't recognise, but there was way more than what we ordered.
We tried to ask for our other ingredients but to no avail. So after the soups were boiling, we decided to just go ahead and try the meat first since we were hungry. And it was actually pretty good!
Of the 2 soup bases we thought the Sukiyaki one was way too strong and sweet. It was definitely flavourful, but it was overpowering. The Butaniku one was definitely better.
We were also served some sauces since you're supposed to dip the meat in the sauce after boiling it in the hotpot. I think we chose Ponzu sauce which has a citrus base, and Spicy Peanut sauce which is only mildly spicy. Both sauces really did work well with the meat but I personally preferred the Spicy Peanut sauce. It tasted more like thai chili sauce but not sweet, which was precisely what made it offset the super sweet sukiyaki broth.
Eventually we managed to get our vegetables and could finally enjoy a proper hotpot!
After our first round of ingredients we were still hungry so we went for another round! The meat was actually not bad, but we didn't get the chicken we ordered initially so we asked for that, and we also tried some different vegetables.
Turns out the chicken didn't come for a reason. When we tried the chicken strips they had it didn't taste as good as the beef and pork, so we could barely finish it. The rest of the ingredients was good though!
But if I had to compare my experience at this hotpot restaurant compared to Beauty in the Pot I'd say it's no contest. Beauty in the Pot is miles better in terms of both taste and service. It may not be as affordable, but for the experience it's definitely more worth it imo. And while the broth we had at Beauty in the Pot was both tasty and healthy, this one at Sukiya didn't taste as healthy, particularly the Sukiyaki one. I can't say the same for the rest of the broths obviously, but I wouldn't recommend the sukiyaki one. Quite ironic if you think about it.
Still though, we had a good time and a delicious dinner nonetheless. I was soo stuffed after that I had a food coma in the car on the way back home. Currently Suki-Ya has 7 outlets across Singapore, mostly around the Central area. We might eat there again sometime, but maybe on a weekday at a branch with less people. I'm curious about their buffets but I doubt we'll get that real buffet experience in quite some time, sadly. If you have a hankering for hotpot and looking for a more affordable option, Suki-Ya is not bad!
Thanks so much for reading!
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