Before Haidilao become as popular as it is today, there were a couple of steamboat restaurants I used to visit; Coca and the Imperial Treasure Steamboat Restaurant. My favourite is the Imperial Treasure although the menu is quite pricey, I always enjoy my visits to their restaurant
The first time I visited them was at their outlet at triple one and it was always after late-night movies at Cineleisure. When the Triple one outlet closed for renovations, I visited the ION outlet which was extremely difficult to get a table as the restaurant was very popular with families. The ION outlet subsequently shifted to a small outlet on the same level within ION. I was so excited I forgot to take a picture of the entrance and had to find it on google
This location is definitely much smaller than the original one which was taken over by Jumbo seafood. There are still a couple of booth seating and a few round tables. There used to be more private rooms but from what I can see there is only a handful of rooms now. The decor remains the same simple yet classy marble and wood furnishing complete with crystal lighting
For soup bases, they have about 10 choices; drunken chicken, ginseng chicken, pomfret, healthy chicken, Sichuan spicy, satay flavour, pork bone, seaweed and kelp, pork bone with tomato and potato and last but not least the weirdest century egg with parsley soup. The soup bases range from SGD 17 to SGD 68 with the pomfret being the most expensive. They can also do a mixed pot but the cost is the same
For sauces, I don’t recall there being a charge and the server brings this sauce platter to your table for you to make your own sauce. While the variety of sauces is not like others, they have the common ones like cut chilli in both green and red, spring onions, garlic, sesame seed, bean paste, seafood chilli and a few others
My favourite soup base from Imperial Treasure is the drunken chicken and the pork bone broth with tomato and potato. When the steamboat pot is served, the marinated drunken chicken is on a separate plate with leeks, goji berries, red dates and Chinese wine. The plate of ingredients is then put into the soup broth in front of you and the smell is extremely fragrant
The serving of ingredients is considered small for the price but the freshness and quality of the ingredients really make it well worth it. The meat and fish paste items are so good that you can taste the sweetness of the meat without any extra seasoning or marinating. Even the seafood balls and fish pastes taste like it was freshly ripped from the seafood and made upon order as it is bouncy and juicy. The vegetables and mushrooms are all crunchy and green and not soggy at all
Overall, the Imperial Treasure steamboat restaurant is still my favourite steamboat restaurant of all time. The freshness and quality of the ingredients are a huge reason why I would still visit the restaurant despite the steep price tag.
The other reason is also the soup broth which is different from the chain restaurants and tastes a lot more wholesome. The tomato soup for example tastes more like Hong Kong tomato noodle soup which is sweet and savoury with only a tinge of sourness. The soup is partially thick due to the starchiness of the potatoes but does not clog up the appetite. The drunken chicken soup tastes like a wholesome homecooked soup and I could not taste any MSG from either of the soup bases. I am already craving so badly for this as I am writing this review
Address: Orchard Turn, #04-12A ION Orchard, 2, Singapore 238801
Operating hours: 11 am to 3pm and 6 pm to 11pm
Bear Travels . Bear Eats . Bear Cooks 