We were searching for a place for dinner and immediately thought of the place we saw while on our way to the hotel from the airport. Instead of more mala hotpot, we wanted something more peaceful for our gastric and stomach
The restaurant was just a 10-minute walk from our hotel, and we took a short walk. The restaurant is located on the 2nd floor of a small local mall. Originating from Suining, Sichuan, in 1996, clapot dishes are their main cuisine, and while most of the dishes are Sichuan cuisine, there are also some variations from Canton and other regions to cater to people who cannot take spicy food. With 15 outlets across China, the restaurant brand has many notable awards, making it a popular restaurant amongst locals and tourists
The staff were extremely friendly, and as they were gathering customers from level 1, they showed us to our table from level one via the lift and all the way to level 2. As we walked to our table, we saw that there was merchandise like sauces and fruits available for sale near the entrance
The dishes were served at record speed, and we waited less than 10 minutes for almost all of our dishes to be served one after another til our table had no space. One of the recommended dishes was the garlic claypot prawns with vermicelli, which came on top of a gas stove burner as the prawns were raw and cooked in Chinese wine in our presence. We waited for 10 minutes before we could dig into the dish, but the wait was well worth it. The prawn was juicy and springy with natural sweetness and garlic flavours from the garlic paste. The vermicelli also absorbed all the flavours from the sauce and prawn, and was very tasty
While waiting for our prawns, other dishes also arrived, like the light blanched kai lan, boiled lettuce with corn, tofu and ham, thick broth and tomato stir-fried eggs. Almost all of them were served in a kind of claypot, which kept the dishes bubbling hot when they reached our table. Both vegetables were very light in flavour but were savoury enough to pair well with rice, and were great for our friend who couldn’t take spicy food at all. The tofu and ham broth, and tomato eggs were delicious and basically made us eat a lot of rice as the gravy was savoury and addictive for the broth and tangy and sweet for the tomato eggs
Last but not least, we had the mala pig’s blood, meatballs with prawn roe and chicken broth and sugar glutinous balls for dessert. The mala blood was spicy yet addictive, plus the serving was generous with huge pieces of pig’s blood. The pork ball was surprisingly light in flavour but very refreshing to the palate, and it helps take away any oil from the other dishes. It is comforting and settling for the stomach. The dessert is similar to those we have here in Singapore, where you dip the glutinous rice balls into the brown sugar for flavour. It was a perfect finish to the meal
Overall, the meal was satisfying, and we managed to finish every single dish, even though we did order a lot of food. The serving speed was great and the service attentive, but we did find this outlet a bit on the noisy side due to some customers who were screaming and laughing loudly after a few drinks. I would definitely visit them again for a meal
Address： 四川省成都市锦江区春熙路街道暑袜南街7号
Opening hours: 10 am to 10.30 pm
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