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There has been too many steamboat places popping up everywhere in Singapore, claiming to be from Chongqing, Sichuan etc. But for good quality affordable steamboat in a comfortable environment, do visit The Magic of ChongQing Hot Pot!

The Magic of ChongQing Hot Pot offers a wide range of the typical steamboat ingredients. Each ingredient was very fresh and well-prepared. A few items to point out were the fish paste, carp fish fillet, fillet of pork and bai ling mushrooms. The thin layer of fish paste was very fresh, absolutely no tinge of fishiness. Similarly, the thinly sliced carp fish fillet was fresh and very tender. The bai ling mushrooms could easily pass off as sliced abalone.

Each patron was also offered a standard serving of Meat and Chives Dumpling, Xiao Long Bao, Egg-coated Glutinous Squares, Fried Rolled Buns, Water Chestnut Jelly and Eight Treasure “Black Rice”. We particularly like the platter of desserts. The sweet treats were a good contrast to the salty steamboat.

We were also recommended to order the signature Eight Treasure Tea. Supposedly containing 8 different ingredients (though we could only isolate 6), the Eight Treasure Tea was fragrant and was a very good thirst quencher.

For good quality steamboat with fresh ingredients at an affordable price, the Magic of ChongQing Hot Pot is your best choice.

I always luv going to this place. It brings me good memories as I always visit this place with my loved ones. Good service, fresh n nice food, nice ambience, what can I rave about? Oh yes, if only the price can be lower but for the quality, I really don't mind paying for it :)

I was at Chongqing for reunion buffet dinner on 2/2/11 at around 530pm at the tanglin branch. They gave us a private room and we had 11 people eating with us. The following are the list of events that took place much to our displeasure:

1) We ordered the dishes and the waitresses did not bother making an effort to remember, having to come in and ask us at least 3 times. 2) After ordering the dishes, it took a long time for the dishes to come and even then, not all the dishes came, waitress giving the excuse that they were busy (usual excuse). It took a very long time for our fish maw to arrive (maybe becoz it is a more expensive dish). Even then, some of the fish maw we ate wasn't fresh and a bit spoilt as there is this "chao chor" taste and smell. 3) Halfway eating, there was a blackout at around 630pm and we had to sit in an almost pitch dark room for the next 15 min before the lights came on again. This we tolerated, but can you believe that at 7pm when I was barely half full with dishes that the waitresses had not finished serving after we ordered half an hour ago, a waitress came into the room and told us that we had to place our last order. I was thinking wtf....Our eating time was supposed to be up till 830pm and the waitress told us at 7pm that we had to make our last order??? You call this good service??? How could the restaurant hurry us when we had not even asked for compensation for them for disrupting our dining pleasure with the blackout??? the waitresses looked and sounded impatient and seemed eager for us to get lost and prepare the table for the next group of diners. (4) After dinner, when we settled the bill, my wife thought that we were entitled to $15 voucher for every dollar spent (not that we really "gian" the voucher but it was stated in an advertising poster at the restaurant), but was shocked when the restaurant manager told us they decided not to give the vouchers to customers on that occasion. I was thinking again...wtf....how could a restaurant place a poster telling people they were entitled to the vouchers and later tell people that they decided not to give them for no apparent reason. We went to this restaurant for reunion dinner on a couple of occasions before and they did give these vouchers.(5) Most restaurants give complimentary parking if patrons spend hundreds on the food, but this restaurant is so stingy that i believe all they have on their mind is to maximise on profits and scrimp on benefits given to customers. I spent a total of $627 on the reunion dinner and I did not feel that it was worth that money at all.

Chongqing in the early days was quite good, but over the years, the standard has gone down the drain terribly and to the extent that I will never go back there again even if I were given free meals there. At the very least, the food has to be fresh and the service standard up to scratch, but i no longer see it in chongqing. I will strongly discourage anyone I know from going to Chongqing as there are much better restaurants out there.

James