There has been lots of rain recently and the best thing to have during rainy days will be steamboat or hot pot. These are also the days where you find these hotpot restaurants packed with people. It was one of these rainy weekends where we searched around Vivocity trying to get a seat for some hot soup when we decided to queue up for Suki Ya Kin. This is not the first time having Suki Ya Kin and they serve Japanese styled hotpot.
The restaurant was quite packed during dinner times especially since the capacity is greatly reduced due to social distancing in placed. Each table was well distanced from the next table of patrons so there was a lot of space to feel comfortable in your own space.
The restaurant serves a buffet styled eat all you can hotpot meal but to combat the virus situation, some of the self service counters like drinks, sauces and vegetables are closed and all of the items are delivered to you when you order them from the servers.
The basic menu which serves normal pork, beef and chicken and a variety of vegetables and meatballs is priced at SGD 18.90 for lunch and SGD 24.90 for dinner with an additional SGD 3 for weekends. You can go for the premium menu for SGD 34.90 and SGD 39.90 respectively for lunch and dinner and additional SGD 3 for weekends. The premium menu includes items like Wagyu beef, Kurobuta pork, sashimi, prawns and scallops. Free flow drinks can be added at SGD 3.90 per person.
We ordered the sauces from the server and was served in this tiny sauce plate. They do have some interesting sauces available like the Ponzu sauce, spicy peanut sauce and raw egg. The usual items like spring onion, garlic, soy sauce is also available. You can ask for refills when your sauce runs out but be prepared to wait for some time as they are quite short handed during meal times.
For the soup base, they have a selection of Shabu Shabu which is their classic kelp base, Sukiyaki which is the vaguely sweet bonito stock, Tonyu Miso which is miso combined with soy milk, Kimchi and Butaniku which is the milky pork based soup. As you can choose up to 2 kinds of soup, we chose the Sukiyaki and the Butaniku. Personally, I found the Sukiyaki not as rich as others I have tried, the taste is quite light while the Butaniku is quite flavourful.
The meat is extremely thinly sliced that they are so transparent, you could almost see through them. One portion has approximately 7 to 8 pieces of meat and is served in these typically Japanese meat trays you get in a Shabu Shabu restaurant. As we ordered the general menu, the cut of meat used is normal but I liked the fact that it did not have many veins in their cut.
The serving size of each item is quite dependent on the item itself; like the enoki mushroom per serving size is quite small so you can order more. The vegetables and meat are generally fresh and clean.
The serving size for the meatballs, noodles and rice is however quite big so 1 serving is actually enough for 2 persons to share.
The induction cooker cooks the soup quite fast and most of the time, we have to leave it on low heat not to over boil the pot. The refill of the soup base is also good as they do not add water and dilute the base like some buffet restaurants.
They have some cooked items on the menu as well but we were only interested in the garlic fried rice which in my opinion was just mediocre as I found the rice lacking in terms of the fragrance of the fried garlic.
Overall, Suki Ya Kin is quite a value for money Japanese hotpot buffet restaurant with a clean environment and fresh ingredients. The food is pretty general and there are some pretty interesting soup bases and sauces which is not found in the other hotpot restaurants. The only thing is that the servers tend to be overwhelmed during meal times and might not respond to you as soon as they can so do order most of your items in one batch so you don’t have to keep calling the servers.
Address: 1 #01-102, HarbourFront Walk, 103 VivoCity, 098585
Operating hours: 12 pm to 3 pm and 6 pm to 10 pm ( ends 10.30 pm on Fri and Sat ) ( opens 11.30 pm on Sat and Sun)
Bear Travels . Bear Eats . Bear Cooks 