Tony Johor Kaki Travels for Food · Heritage · Culture · History

Food Explorer Storyteller with 63 million+ reads 📧 johorkaki@gmail.com

Yi Restaurant 奇味鸡煲. Spicy Hotpot in Kovan. Singapore

Yi-Restaurant-奇味鸡煲-Spicy-Hotpot-Kovan-Singapore

We gathered at Yi Restaurant 奇味鸡煲 in Kovan for China style spicy hotpot. Aaron missed the spicy hotpots of Shanghai and Yi Restaurant was the nearest thing to those in China that he came across in Singapore.

Yi-Restaurant-奇味鸡煲-Spicy-Hotpot-Kovan-Singapore

Yi Restaurant is a basic shoplot eatery. The set up is bare bones, informal, free of frills. It was full house when we were there on a cool, rainy night ☔

Yi-Restaurant-奇味鸡煲-Spicy-Hotpot-Kovan-Singapore

The claypots sit on top of induction hotplates - not very elegant and thick cables run across the table to the wall socket.

Yi-Restaurant-奇味鸡煲-Spicy-Hotpot-Kovan-Singapore

Pour in the thick spicy dark soup, cook the ingredients in it and eat lah! Everybody can cook. It's a great communal eating tradition and Aaron said it kept him warm in Winter during his China days.

Yi-Restaurant-奇味鸡煲-Spicy-Hotpot-Kovan-Singapore

We had two pots, one more spicy and one less spicy. We didn't go for the max spicy level nor the lowest.  While Chinese spicy hotpots are often very oily, Yi Restaurant's was not overly so. The flavour was salty-savoury spicy hot. The taste was intense, especially the hotter pot but there was little aroma.

Yi-Restaurant-奇味鸡煲-Spicy-Hotpot-Kovan-Singapore

Additional ingredients are stocked in a refrigerator and customers help themselves to plates of it. The staff will tally up the total cost at the end of the meal by counting the empty plates and write the bill accordingly.

Yi-Restaurant-奇味鸡煲-Spicy-Hotpot-Kovan-Singapore

The first thing that went in the hotpots were the large chunks of fresh chicken. I liked it as the meat was tender and juicy, and it had a nice natural chicky sweetness which the spicy broth complemented.

Yi-Restaurant-奇味鸡煲-Spicy-Hotpot-Kovan-Singapore

We threw in lots of other assorted random things into the bubbling hotpots like hungry teenagers celebrating the end of exams 😁 Hotpots are fun that way. We had quail eggs, various soft and fried tofu, ham, beef, wieners, vegetables, mushrooms, noodles etc etc.

Yi-Restaurant-奇味鸡煲-Spicy-Hotpot-Kovan-Singapore

The staff comes around to top up the soup regularly. She also scooped in sauces as the top ups diluted the taste of the soup.

Yi-Restaurant-奇味鸡煲-Spicy-Hotpot-Kovan-Singapore

Truth be told, other than the fresh chicken, and the fresh vegetables, the other ingredients tasted pretty generic. Most of the flavours came from the spicy broth clinging to the food. The spicy food went very well with plain white rice.

Yi-Restaurant-奇味鸡煲-Spicy-Hotpot-Kovan-Singapore

We enjoyed ourselves mainly because of the banter and laughter around the table. Hotpot and steamboat always work for get togethers.

Towards the end of the meal, even though I was totally stuffed, I still reached for a bottle of cold water as I was feeling thirsty and hot.  

Our total bill for 10 persons came to about SGD190 including drinks.

Yi-Restaurant-奇味鸡煲-Spicy-Hotpot-Kovan-Singapore

Restaurant name: Yi Restaurant 奇味鸡煲
Address: 947 Upper Serangoon Road Singapore 534712 (less than 10 minutes walk from Kovan MRT station)
GPS: 1°21'40.8"N 103°53'10.9"E | 1.361345, 103.886346
Tel: 8484 6609
Hours: 5:00pm to 3:00am

Non Halal  

Date visited: 11 Dec 2017

Return to Johor Kaki homepage.

No comments:

Post a Comment

All comments submitted with genuine identities are published