There are so many hotpot restaurants in Singapore that it is hard to keep track of new restaurants opening every other month. To outdo other hotpot restaurants some of these new outlets have been differentiating themselves with either their decoration, desserts or price points
I would not have known about this new hotpot and BBQ buffet restaurant if not for my social media feeds being bombarded by posts about this buffet restaurant. I decided to pop by and have a look when I was in the area. Located in Chinatown amongst rows of Chinese restaurants, Good Combo hotpot and BBQ buffet is extremely popular as there was a long queue when I arrived. I took a queue number from the system and waited close to 90 minutes before I got a ready table
The staff at the cashier will get us to choose the soup base before showing us to our table. The cheapest option is the SGD 19.90 (weekdays) and SGD 22.99 (weekends) buffet which covers the essential ingredients and soup base. You can opt for the premium ones which come with seafood and premium cuts of meat. Most of the soup bases come with a top-up fee on top of the buffet cost
We were shown to our table on the 2nd level which could house at least 50 customers at any one time. Condiments like soy sauce, cut chilli, garlic etc. are provided via small condiment stations placed at various pots of the restaurant. There is also a washroom within the premises of the restaurant at both levels of the restaurant
We chose the tomato soup base and the highly recommended nourishing chicken fish maw soup. The hotpot and BBQ plate are both personal servings so each person will get their own pot and hot plate. The metal holders in the middle act as the space for the plates of ingredients to be placed so both sides can easily reach the ingredients they wish to cook in their own areas. There is also an in-built ventilator which will absorb the smoke from the grill
The service speed of the ingredients was quick and each order came in a small serving which was just enough for 2 persons. For big eaters, you will have to order multiple orders for the same item. The frozen items like the meat, meatballs, and seafood all came still chilled and cold and were fresh although the quality was pretty general. I do however feel the prawns are of good quality and very large in size. There are other hot dishes like steamed bun, fried mantou and xiaolong bao which are included in the buffet. As I wanted to keep my stomach for other ingredients, I only ordered the xiaolong bao which is quite popular as every table had at least 1 order. Personally, the xiaolongbao was okay but nothing too extraordinary
For beverage, some of the items like iced water, and iced lemon tea are served by jug as seen here and is priced quite affordable. I find the drinks very sweet so I would recommend sticking to iced water at SGD 1. Personally, I really liked their seafood items as they are large in size and very fresh so you can taste the sweetness of the prawns, squid and oysters even without dipping them in sauce. The meat quality is general and would fill up any meat lover’s stomach but you will need multiple servings since the pork is sliced quite thinly. I really liked the combination of both the BBQ and hotpot as it allowed me to eat different ingredients cooked in different styles. The soup broth was quite nice although I do feel extremely thirsty throughout the meal so the use of MSG could be quite high. The tomato broth has a nice balance of sweetness and tanginess while the chicken broth was full of collagen and was perfect when cooked with noodles
Overall, the experience of having a hotpot and BBQ at the same time is fantastic and while at first glance, the price of the buffet sounds affordable, with the additional charge for each soup broth, the buffet price was quite substantial at over SGD 30 per person. This will probably be my only visit as my thirst level was not quenched until much later so while it did not give me a headache like other MSG-laden soups do, I do prefer more natural soup bases which does not leave me feeling parched
Address: 75 Pagoda St, Beside Chinatown MRT Exit A, Singapore 059234
Opening hours: 11.30 am to 10.30 pm ( till 12 am on Fri – Sun)
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