Chamoon Hot Pot

With big and small chains of hotpot restaurants all over Singapore, one might just be surprised that there is still space for newcomers. As one of the newest kids on the block, Chamoon is a famous hotpot chain from China, boasting clear and healthy broth

With over 30 outlets across China, Singapore is their first overseas outlet, and to stand out from the crowd, they chose Scott Square as their venue for a quiet and more premium experience

With a refined name as 享月汤皇 ( Xiang Yue Tang Wang ) loosely translated as Soup Master admiring the moon. The restaurant is decorated in dark wood, classy wooden panels, and glass walkways on top of planted greenery. Half of the restaurant is dedicated to smaller private rooms, which are decorated like a bespoke Japanese restaurant with their wood and cloth doors

What sets Chamoon apart from the competition is its individual hot pot servings, which sit prettily in hand-painted copper warmers. This allows patrons to choose their own soup base and also caters to crowds with different food allergies or preferences. Although individual servings are not uniquely Chamoon, they do display it slightly more exquisitely. The highlight is their broth, which includes their signature matsutake mushroom broth. With 6 different broths: Truffle-Based Matsutake Mushroom, Beauty-Enhancing Papaya Tomato, Singapore-exclusive Mala, True Morel Mushrooms, Bamboo Fungus, and Cordyceps Mushroom, their focus is on selling healthy, clear broths. Soups are priced at SGD 9.90 each, with only the cordyceps selection at SGD 29.90

Their set dishes range from SGD 18 to SGD 40 for cold and cooked dishes, whereas the ingredients for the hot pot range from SGD 15 to the hundreds due to the premium ingredients they offer. Some premium offerings you can find include Alaska King Crab, Boston Lobster, A4 Japanese Wagyu, Canadian Geoduck and New Zealand Black Gold Abalone, just to name a few. We ordered some of the more general priced items, like SGD 35 for a large portion of Kurobuta pork collar, SGD 8.80 for luncheon meat, SGD 7.80 for a small portion of dumplings and SGD 18.80 for prawn paste. There is no doubt about the freshness of the ingredients, and when cooked in the clear broth, you can taste the natural sweetness of each ingredient since there are no heavy flavours from the broth to cover the flavours

We also ordered other vegetables like the cabbage, Chinese yam, beancurd skin and exotic mushrooms like the coral ones we ordered. The entire experience reminded me of the mushroom hot pot I had at Lijiang, where there are all kinds of mushrooms not found in Singapore. The coral mushrooms were crunchy and delightful, although they were bland in taste, they made up for it in texture. The soup also has that fresh, deep umami flavour from the Matsutake mushrooms, which complemented all the fresh ingredients we cooked

To round up the meal, we had to order another signature dish, which is the Matsutake Fried Rice at SGD 22 for a small portion. The rice was served in a claypot and heated by flames to keep the rice warm. The fragrance was wonderful, and each rice grain was separated perfectly without any clumps. It was a simple yet bursting with flavour rice dish, and I had more than 2 helpings of the rice. This is definitely a must-order when you visit Chamoon

One of the small details is that they also serve quality tea, which aligns with the whole health-conscious concept of the restaurant. We had the Yunnan Pu-er, which was gentle in flavours without being too harsh on the taste buds like some other poor grade pu-er

Overall, I enjoyed the food here at Chamoon, especially the broth and the fried rice. My only downside is the affordability of eating here too often, since many of the premium ingredients are really out of my reach. For those looking for a different hot pot experience, I encourage you to try them out

Address: 6 Scotts Rd, #03-01/02 Scotts Square, Singapore 228209

Opening hours: 11am to 2 pm and 5 pm to 10 pm