Shang Pin

Ever since Haidilao invaded the Singaporean shores, the first mention of hot pot, most diners will mention Haidilao. While the hotpot scene is highly competitive in China, it is still mostly dominated by Haidilao in Singapore so when new hot pot restaurants open in Singapore, I will try to make it a point to visit them for more options

Opened in 2014 in Rendevous Hotel, the chain restaurant has seen long queues and wait times which prompted them to open a 2nd outlet at Marina Square in 2018. The Rendevous outlet closed and moved to Parkway Parade in 2020. To be very frank, I heard about Shang Pin vaguely but it was never on my list to visit until the recent efforts they have put into promoting the restaurant with the use of social media and influencers

Located near the dining edition area of Marina Square, Shang Pin occupies a huge area compared to the rest of the adjacent restaurants. The restaurant has a spacious waiting area with drinks and snacks for customers to wait for their table to be ready during peak periods. As we visited on a weekday, the crowd was quite minimal and there was no queue at all. The interior is spacious with mostly 4 seater tables but with bigger tables further inside the restaurant

They have a small counter where customers can help themselves to sauces and fruits. In comparison, the variety of condiments was on par with HDL but every single condiments bucket was near to empty with no top so we were left with very limited choices like chilli, soy sauce and spring onions. In terms of fruits, they do have melon, longan as well as watermelon. They do not have any side dishes but the server will offer only 1 plate of spicy seasoned mushrooms which is not refillable

In terms of soup base, we ordered tomato soup, mala soup, pork bone soup as well as collagen chicken soup. In terms of soup, the flavours are well-balanced and refreshing without being overly oily. The mala was spicy without the strong butter taste whereas the tomato was more tangy than sweet. I personally like the golden chicken collagen soup which has strong umami flavours

I did not take too many photos of the food we ordered but the main comment is the serving size in ratio to the price is much more affordable compared to the bigger brands. While the variety of dishes is lesser, the ingredients are fresh and quality good. They were also running weekday promotions where certain dishes were priced at 1 for 1 or free as long as you gave them a Google review

One of the main reasons why I decided to visit was for their fancy desserts which were greatly advertised in their influencer and social media marketing. They had various versions of boba milk tea desserts served in mini hot pots or ceramic bowls but we went for the most dramatic-looking one

We ordered only the milk teapot which is made up of red beans, chewy Taiwanese-style yam balls and grass jelly served in milk tea. The dessert was presented dramatically with dry ice imitating the smoke from a real hotpot. I had wanted to try the Taro Mochi dessert since I absolutely love yam but we were too full and only ordered 1. The flavours were nothing special since it was just milk tea with grass jelly and yam balls. The good thing is the dessert was not overly sweet and nicely balanced out the savoury meal

Overall, the service of the restaurant is not as attentive as HDL but in terms of taste and food quality, I feel that it is comparable and most importantly, there are no long queues where you have to wait for hours to get a table. It is quite a nice alternative to HDL when you are craving for hotpot

Address: 6 Raffles Blvd, #02-102/102A Marina Square, Singapore 039594

Operating hours: 11.30 am to 11 pm