My all time favourite place for hot pot!!!

Very rich chicken stock. Flavourful chili-based soup (extra hot option available). They claim that NO MSG in soups, so that makes slurping less sinful :)

4 dipping sauces available, just ask and the service staff will be glad to explain/demo how to go about mixing the sauces.

Fresh ingredients are served upon request. Thinly sliced beef, fish paste, golden mushroom are amongst our favourites.

Also, a range of dim sum to start and end the meal with. Pls dun expect too much from the dim sum. This is after all, a place for hot pot. Nonetheless, the fried man tou is a hit!

My friends like the 8 treasure tea, not included in the buffet.

Lunch/Dinner prices differs quite a bit.

As for service staff, no doubt I see new faces everytime I din at this restaurant, the good ole' uncle and aunty are fine.

... rooms are available for bigger groups, hence a good place for groups!

One word of advice, biz seems to pick up alot these days. Make reservation in advance!

This is my second time here, went down for the buffet lunch with one of my friend on last monday afternoon. The service was a lot better as compare to the last time i came here, the staff was prompt and friendly. Being a steamboat fanatic, I think the yuan yang steamboat here is one of the best in Singapore. The mala soup was neither too spicy nor too oily as compare the ones offered at other places. The chicken soup was nice and light. The ingredients served on the menu was fresh and good especially the shrimp wantons and the sliced Beef. The sauces available there are also unique, it comes in 4 containers namely, the sweet chilli sauce, the seasame sauce, seasame oil as well as vinegar, it is recommended by the staff there to mix the four sauces together.

This restaurant also serve some dim sum along with their buffet lunch. Personally, I think that the xiao long bao and the guo tei was a little too salty. But the waterchestnut jelly and Egg-Coated Glutinous Square was just nice(not too sweet). The Fried Bun are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside as well. On top of the buffet, we order each a eight tresure tea (ba bao cha) which is free flow.

This is my second visit to the Magic of Chongqing Hot Pot and I am pretty sure it would be my last.

Upon arriving at 7 pm, the waitress came over to take our drinks order. I had to repeat 3 time, in both English and Mandarin, before the waitress understood our order. What drinks did we order? 4 iced water and 1 hot chinese tea. When the waitress came back with our drink, it was 4 iced water and 1 iced chinese tea.

At the onset, the waitress was rather quick in their first serving of the regular steamboat food stuff. When we were about to complete the first set of food, we ordered a second serving of the food we wanted. It took 20 min and multiple reminders to multiple waitress before the food arrived. We spent the time looking at the soup base evaporating and enjoying each other's company. When the food finally came, the waitress volunteered to refill the soup base. She came back with 2 pans of soup, dripping from the base of the pan. Needless to say, it dripped onto my key pouch which was on the table. i quickly grabbed it aside. No apologies whatsoever.

The dinner crowd was building up at this point in time. Together with the buffet package, the restuarant was also giving freebies like salmon and mini sausage roles and dim sum. Someone from the table reminded the manager and waitress that we had not been served those yet. Once again, it was a few reminders on a few occasions but the food never came.

At 7.45 pm, the manager advanced but served us the desserts (another freebie of the buffet package) instead. Shouldnt the dessert be the last course, served at the end of the dinner when we request for it? We know that there were other diners outside the restuarant (we were seated next to the main door), probably waiting for our very table. But that should not be the way to nudge us to go. Not when our order of food failed to come repeatedly and we were still in the midst of our meal.

We explained to the manager then that the food we had ordered had not been served. He gave the most condescending and patronising answer that they were on the way. Then, it was another couple of reminders with the same answer from the manager. The food eventually appeared, in drips and draps. We gave up on the last 2 dishes after 20 min.

It was a really bad dining experience. The food was not fantastic to begin with and it sure was not cheap. To have received such sub-standard level of service from both the manager and the waitresses is beyond description.

We understand that the restuarant is trying to throw in lots of freebies together with the buffet to attract customers. BUT please do not over-promise and under-deliver! If the kitchen cannot cope with the orders, it is high time to evaluate and review the feasibility of including those freebies.

It is understandable that the wait would be somewhat longer than usual on a weekend BUT the least the restuarant could do is to allow the customers to wait in peace and not hurry them to leave for the next table of guests to come in.

All in all, this is one lousy experience. One which I would not relive.

This is my hubby and my FAVOURITE steamboat. Great service, great ambience, great food, great taste, great variety. We come here on a once every 2 months basis!

The soup base is very tasty, if it is too hot for you, just add the chicken soup into the mala soup. They serve a huge variety of fresh ingredients from seafood to meat to balls to vege and to top it all off, they serve dimsum as well! These dimsum dishes are fixed and it's only one serving per person. There's fried mantou, water chestnut cake, xiaolongbao, etc. There's also dessert like ice-cream!

The sauces they provide and the ba bao cha (eight treasures tea) complement the whole meal very well.

I remember the manager Michael entertaining us with a joke on 2 separate occasions. They were really funny jokes and he's a funny and courteous man. The service is personalised and the staff have been working there for a long time.

Expect the service to be a little slow as the restaurant is usually crowded everyday. Do make reservations before going!

If you are a hungry inmate on death-row and an ardent steamboat fan who's desperate for a last fix, where do you go?

The choice is simple: Chong Qing Magic Hotpot (Tanglin shopping centre).

They are rank and file above all (well, almost) Steamboat establishments in Singapore and that is why they charge premium prices. Chong Qing can hardly go wrong and is a sure bet against a disappointing last meal if you do not mind the price that is.

Though the Mala broth has been toned down (to my dismay) over the years to appeal to the spice-intolerant dollars it sure still taste better than a lot of the fly-by-night Chinese Steamboat eateries. Chong Qing not only looks better (decor), taste better (fantastic range of buffet dishes) but also serves better: my friend once received a complimentary mug because the staff learned that it’s his birthday. I should also mention that they serve the best after meal FOC dessert (according to my makan buddies)

The only chink in this heavyweight is that they charge for lamb fillets…

I highly recommend it to steamboat lovers and death-row inmates.

Read: the ‘not as good’ outlet at Suntec doesn’t charge for Lamb