Guo Fu (国府)

4th August, Tuesday

A steamboat restaurant which serves North China food. It's located at China Square Central. 3 years ago, I tried this place before and thought that it cannot make it. 3 years later, today, I tried it again with my colleagues and the conclusion is still the same - it still cannot make it.

I don't understand why it has survived so long; everyday it is quite empty. Even during lunchtime they are like, only 1/4 full (at most)? At night, I think they only had 4 tables.


Looks nice, but it's far from nice. The sliced beef had a weird taste; I don't even know how to describe it. The sliced pork was tough, and the pig liver didn't seem fresh. Only the chicken and fish slices were all right. The sausages too, but come on, it's sausages. They had their own weird concoction of sauces which tasted quite good at first, but after a while it wears off.

I am never coming here again. $18.90

V's verdict: 4/10

Chuan Yi Pin (川一品）

14th June, Sunday

This is a bbq and steamboat restaurant, run by Chinamen. It is located at 530 North Bridge Road, just opposite Bugis Junction.



We chose tom yam as the soup base, and goodness, it came with a thick layer of oil on top, which I had to scoop out. The meat was a bit different from other BBQ restaurants like Seoul Garden; there's a meat counter, and when you request for meat (beef/pork/lamb) the staff will take a chunk of meat from the freezer and slice it into thin slices using a machine.



The plates were very hot, so I was at least a bit more assured of their cleanliness. I think they use very hot water to wash their dishes.

It was not bad, overall. Their meat (chicken, beef, pork) were not bad. Drinks were free flow, and there was ice cream as well (I am always bought over by ice cream). They had other standard stuff like vegetables, fish balls, crab sticks, etc. As for seafood, there was actually crayfish, which tasted quite good, despite its small size.

They also served some cooked food, like pasta, prawn crackers, etc. They had a stir-fried crab which was actually quite good too, though it was a bit too troublesome to eat. One of their beef internal organs (I dunno which part) was horrible though, both cooked and uncooked (for the steamboat). The cooked one was practically soaked with oil and I had to spit out the oil (discreetly, of course). The uncooked one, after cooking in the steamboat, was so tough that I felt like I was chewing rubber. So obviously I had to spit this out as well.

One last thing --- it's freaking hot. $21

V's verdict: 7/10
K's verdict: 7/10