Haidilao (海底捞)

So we've finally tried Haidilao. Visited the branches at Plaza Singapura (#04-01 20 Plaza Singapura, 68 Orchard Road, tel : +65 6250 0330) and 313 Somerset (#04 -23/24 313@Somerset, 313 Orchard Road, tel : +65 6835 7227) in the past month. 

Let's start with the broths. Mala milk was good drinking, both fish and collagen broths great as a neutral base for cooking and the tomato broth on thickness overdrive was nice. Curry's okay but it's kinda thin like those from instant noodles.

I like the century egg porridge at the condiments bar. One can basically zhng their concoction with what's available.

There's a variety of munchies to keep mouths busy before the broth and food arrives - which didn't take very long actually.

Yeah but we still loaded up on those munchies which appear to have different varieties at different Haidilao branches.

The options for the concoct yourself sauces were minimally on par with all of the other hot pot experiences we've had. In fact, there seems to be more condiments here.

Between their own branded brews, Haidilao's weissbeir was our favourite. There's only one other which is a lager. Just don't expect Hoegaarden/Kronenbourg Blanc.

The hot pot ingredients on the whole were pretty good quality. One can easily appreciate their appeal based on the food that's also paired with a well thought out service which their wait staff are often ready to respond to.

Tried some beef balls. They were large and denser than I had imagined. Pretty beefy. Not bad tasting.

Sliced beef for the hot pot were pretty decent but we haven't tried their expensive cuts yet.

The shabu sliced pork like what I surmised was likely the best meat for dips because of the neutral flavour.

Half portion of cod was four slices so I'm assuming that the full portion is 8. Kinda pricey but this tasted pretty good.

Frozen tofu (冻豆腐) was a pretty smooth sponge. 

Too much hot pot food so I'm just gonna stop here.

Found guava at the branch at 313. These weren't the hard ones. Nice.

Dessert hack : tau huay and the sesame sauce from the condiments bar together is delicious.