Hey Hive!
Now that a lot of people here have already gotten vaccinated, I'm very happy to hear that Singapore is now allowing in-house dining again but obviously you have to be vaccinated. But since there aren't any restrictions this allows us to try out different food places again!
So about 2 months ago, we celebrated Sean's birthday by going on a midnight hotpot date! He'd been working that day and was pretty busy so we waited until he was done with work before going out to enjoy his birthday. It was already past 10pm and a lot of restaurants were closed except Haidilao Hot Pot!
I'm sure everyone has probably heard of Haidilao Hot Pot before but if you haven't, it is a chain of hot pot restaurants founded in Sichuan, China in 1994 and is the largest hotpot chain in China with its spicy broths and special services. Their first overseas expansion was actually right here in Singapore in 2012 and now they have more than 180 chains globally and 935 stores in operation!
They are famous for being one of the best hotpot restaurants in the world and also for their long opening hours well past midnight. In Singapore, they're open from 10:30am all the way to 6am! And because they're typically very packed around regular dinner time (and are quite pricey to boot) we've never tried it. But since it was a special occasion, we thought we'd give it a shot!
After we requested a table for two, we were directed to the waiting area and were given a couple of snacks and drinks while we waited for our table to be ready. It was quite late and still the restaurant was packed, but normally the waiting area would be full during peak dinner hours as well.
I guess that's why they have plenty of amenities to keep you occupied while you wait because other than snacks there were also Sudoku puzzles and a rubiks cube at every table along with tissues and hand sanitiser.
In fact, if you managed to solve the Sudoku puzzle you could win a $6 dish for your table for free! It had been ages since I've attempted a Sudoku puzzle so I couldn't finish it by the time our table was ready but I bet math experts could speedrun this no problem.
Just a short 10 minutes later, we were shown to a table! This was literally our first time setting foot in any Haidilao restaurant and the interior was really nice!
It was cosy and comfortable with the warm but bright lighting, and it was quite spacious as well. The colour scheme and overall ambience was very welcoming. The tables were almost exclusively booths which are my favourite and the countertops were all really wide with the stove in the center so you had plenty of room to put your dishes.
There were also signs on the ceiling pointing towards the self-service condiments table where there was a wide selection of sauces, toppings and seasonings.
But of course it wasn't free. You had to add on the self-service condiments to your order which I think was about 4 bucks but then you could take as much you wanted.
We were seated at a table instead of a booth since we were only two people and booths were prioritised for bigger parties. It's alright though because we were still really excited!
We were given a tablet to order which made things a lot easier and is definitely my favourite method of ordering. There were a lot of different categories but first we had to choose the soup base. They have a few different flavours like Tomato, Spicy, Mushroom, Chicken, etc. You could also choose how many different flavours you wanted up to 4, which will cost less per soup but is also less quantity.
We decided on a double soup of their signature Bai-Yu and Mushroom and could even customise the soups even more! I'm not sure what directions people would add here but we didn't key in anything.
Next it was time choose our dishes! We picked mostly meat and some vegetables with a couple of side dishes.
And of course we had to order the Haidilao-style noodles as well. This was where the chef would come to your table and dazzle the customers with a noodle-making show! I'd seen plenty of videos of that before and I think you could actually try it yourself if you asked. It was a quintessential part of the Haidilao experience so we couldn't miss out.
Just a few short minutes after we placed our order, some of our dishes arrived already and our big pot of soup was set in the stove and waiting to boil. I like that they even have little baskets for you to put the food in so it doesn't get lost in the hotpot. So ingenious!
Our dishes arrived even before our soup was fully boiling so we took some time to enjoy the view before it all disappeared into our bellies because everything smelled soo good!
For the meat we ordered some sliced pork belly and some sliced beef. We also got some vegetables and beancurd rolls to start.
After the soup started boiling, we were served a small bowl of soup each and the server asked if we wanted some extra toppings of spring onion and coriander which we agreed to. We got an initial taste of the soup and it was really delicious! The Bai-Yu soup was quick thick and a little sweet but it was nice and hearty. The mushroom soup was lighter in comparison but very mushroomy without being too overwhelming.
We put the vegetables in first since those were the longest to cook and we wanted it to be nice and soft. The meat cooked the fastest since you only had to dip it in the soup for about 20 seconds or so and it was done.
The meat was actually really high quality! We didn't even order the expensive meat like iberico or Wagyu but the basic pork belly was really good! It was nice and tender and complemented the soup well.
We actually loved the pork so much we ordered another plate of pork belly and another one called pork belly rolls, which is basically the same just rolled up I think? And of course a plate of fried mantou since Sean loves that.
The mantou was pretty good but not the best. It was crispy but wasn't that warm anymore and tasted kind of generic. But it was still really yummy nonetheless and paired with the condensed milk it sweetened our palate from the soup.
Next it was time for the special Haidilao-styled noodles! The chef came by our table and asked if we were ready for the noodles and proceeded to fling the dough through the air doing all these cool moves!
Here's a full video:
It wasn't a lot of noodles in the end but it was a really good performance. We asked for thinner noodles and had him place the noodles in the mushroom half and cook them for about 30 seconds.
The noodles were perfect! They had a nice slightly chewy texture and the thickness was just right. It didn't have much of a flavour except mushrooms since it was in the soup but it was really nice.
At the end of the meal, Sean got a complimentary dessert since it was his birthday! And to make it localised they actually had a local dessert called pulut hitam, which is black glutinous rice pudding.
It also had some cream on top and the staff made it to say Happy Birthday in Chinese! I think you could also get them to sing you a birthday song but since it was almost midnight we decided not to.
I think this was my first time trying Pulut Hitam and it tasted quite plain tbh. I mean it's basically rice pudding but healthier. It did taste really healthy though since there wasn't much sweetener. But Sean did finish it so it was okay.
We also got 2 cups of single scoop chocolate and strawberry ice cream which was a nice end to a very delicious meal. I was absolutely stuffed after that since I drank a lot of soup but it was soo good.
I think I might like the signature soup from Beauty in a Pot a bit better but Haidilao's soups were also really good and high quality as well. But we'll definitely visit again sometime for sure especially since we have an outlet nearer our house now. Go give Haidilao a try sometime if you can!
Thanks so much for reading!
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