My colleagues and I wanted to have some colleague-bonding time over dinner and we decided to have steamboat. They wanted a central location, so I suggested House of Steamboat. I had it once with my friends and it was not a total disappointment, and it happened to be one of the cheapest steamboat I could find within the vicinity.
This is the menu where you can choose the soup bases and order seafood and meats.
Complimentary Snacks include fried buns, fried crabs and fried chicken wings. All the items are so charred, it is difficult to differentiate one from another. The fried buns are about the only thing edible, fried crabs and fried chicken wings are dry and tasteless.
Stoves include a grill plate on the left and steamboat stove on the right. The grill plate looks dirty, and it has already been changed once.
You can choose up to two soup bases.The website boasts that no monosodium glutamate (MSG) is used, I don’t know how true that is.
Vegetables are presented in buffet-style.
Unlimited supply of drinks and condiments.
We ordered Pork Slice, Chicken Slice and Mutton Slice, but I have no idea which is which. The best part is, they all taste the same!
My colleagues ordered Pork Kidney. I don’t eat this, but it looks quite fresh.
Satay looks and tasted alright but the Crayfish looked miserably small and undernourished.
Sotong/Squid and Sea Cucumber is fresh.
Dorri Fillet was literally swimming in a pool of water when it was served to us. The fillets are soggy and cooking does not seem to make it any better.
Cockle are fresh and generally clean.
Cuttle Fish are fresh.
The Fish Head pieces looks so miserable on the plate, I feel kind of sorry for them.
It is a miracle how House of Steamboat managed to survive for so many years. The walls are suspiciously greyish in colour with black marks everywhere, the floor is grimy with cockroach crawling around. There is clearly not staff and I am utterly appalled by the staff’s incompetence and rudeness.
There was a cockroach crawling underneath the table that was reserved for us, and when we pointed it out to the staff, we were brought over to another table without even an apology. It took us a good fifteen minutes and several prompts before someone came to help us turn on the stoves.
Their website stated “$17.90/Adult Nett Including Drink” but we were charged $22/adult including grill. When we enquired about it, we were told that the website has not been updated for a long time (then bloody-hell update it because I feel cheated).
I don’t normally condemn a restaurant but there is no way in hell I am ever patronising that restaurant again.
House of Steamboat
Address: 7 Tan Quee Lan Street
Telephone: 63362875
Opening Hours:
