Go!!

Did you know that Guo Fu is not only known for their steamboat buffet but also for their free flow Xiao Long Bao? Of course I had to give it a try!

Not sure if its the location, but there were only about 3 other groups having lunch when I visited on a Saturday noon. To be honest, it was slightly hard for me to find the place as well.

The place itself doesn’t scream posh, so I kinda feel like I walked into an upgraded version of those China-run $15 steamboat buffet places.

The sauce counter is included in the buffet. The variety is not as extensive as the more well known hot pot places, but good enough.

Beauty Soup, $7, that has black chicken, cordyceps flower, dates and goji berries as the main ingredients.

In all honesty, the soup had not much taste when it came. It tasted exactly like my partner’s $3 Herbal Soup. It was only after boiling for soup for about half an hour before the strong herbal smells started coming out.

If you’re going as a couple, I suggest getting the individual pots (served using chafing fuel) as it’s more worth it. For 3 or more pax however, consider getting the yuanyang pot (served on a portable gas stove) as it gets cheaper by the pax. (The soup pricing is a complex issue, you’ve got to see their menu to understand it better.)

I didn’t like the individual pot because it took very long to get my soup heated up after the ingredients were added, and it had an unpleasant odour when the fuel was running low.

Sliced Special Beef.

Ah, the legendary fat cow that a lot of sites had raved about. Was it good? Yes! The tip is to wait just a little for the slices to thaw completely before cooking them. Cooking frozen slices straight will result in a very grainy texture.

Got to mention however that the quality is not very consistent. The above was my second order actually; the first didn’t turn out as expected:

Having a higher ratio of red meat to fats meant that the beef was tougher. Thankfully I ordered a second round of beef otherwise I would have left the place with a bad impression.

Sliced Pork Belly.

i liked that Guo Fu’s pork didn’t have that porky taste. The fats to lean meat ratio also met my expectations.

Fresh Prawns.

Sliced Raw Fish.

(L to R) Winter Melon, Corn, Scallops.

Salmon Balls.

Enoki and Oyster Mushrooms.

Guo Fu doesn’t have fancy items like fish paste and whatnots, but their items are fresh and well processed. For example, you can tell the standards of a place by looking at the way they clean their mushrooms. Some places don’t really clean the dirt off the enoki properly. You can see their item list here.

Xiao Long Bao.

The Xiao Long Bao at Guo Fu is extremely tasty. I would say the taste is comparable to the likes of Crystal Jade, except that the skin of the XLB at Guo Fu is rather thick.

For weekend lunch, the bill came up to be $73 inclusive of the soups for 2 pax (Beauty Soup and Herbal Soup. See their price list here). It is cheaper than the big hot pot players considering the quality and free flow XLB. I would definitely return to Guo Fu as there are items that I have yet to try.

20 Cross Street, #01-31 China Square Central, S(048422)

Daily: 1130am to 1030pm

+65 6557 0906

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