Michin Korean BBQ & Hotpot near Kim Keat Palm Market & Food Centre in Toa Payoh

We went to Michin Korean BBQ & Hotpot at Toa Payoh block 18 near Kim Keat Palm Market & Food Centre. Truth be told, I am not naturally attracted to table top BBQ & Hotpot buffets but it turned out that we all enjoyed ourselves. At this price point, we are pleased with the quality and taste of Michin's food.

Michin Korean BBQ & Hotpot is a stall inside Prime Court coffeeshop at block 18, Toa Payoh, Lor 7. The coffee shop was full house this Saturday evening with most tables occupied by Michin customers.

Table top BBQ and hotpot can get hot and sweaty but fortunately for us, this evening was cool and breezy as we arrived here after rain.

The buffet prices are competitive but note that they have a 90 minute limit.

Place your order and pay at the reception first. They will then assign you a table and hand you an order card.

The staff will hand you this laminated order card for you to pick the ingredients you want.

Choose a soup for the hotpot. We picked the collagen soup.

Hand over your marked order card at the counter and they will pass you a buzzer. Wait at your seat while the staff assemble your orders. Go to the buffet line to collect your food when the buzzer rings.

Our food arrived. We also had a 石鲈鱼 which is an add-on a la carte item.

The 石鲈鱼 fish raised in the sea off Singapore was very fresh.

The 石鲈鱼 fish was flambeed with a shot of moutai. (Price of fish with moutai shot was $14.80.)

The dramatic showy flambé does set the tone for the party partying 🔥😄 

There was a choice of 6 soups, we chose the collagen soup. We all love it.

The soup was milky in colour and had the texture of thick warm full cream milk. Made by boiling pork and chicken, it tastes nicely balanced sweet savoury. It was not greasy and there was no porky taste or smell as they skimmed off all scum and oils during the cooking.

We added a shot of moutai in our soup which lifted the sweet savouriness a notch. (Cost of moutai shot was $5.)

Fans of table top Korean BBQ and hotpot will enjoy the experience of cooking their own food on a sizzling hot plate and bubbling churning steaming pot of hot soup. The hot plate and pot were set on a table top gas stove.

Personally, I always find self cooking at the table too busy and distracting but once in a while, join in the fun... why not?!

The 石鲈鱼 fish was good - very fresh and tender meat, worth adding on. Though it was a bony fish and there was a subtle earthly taste, the dominant flavour was sweetness with a slight accent from the moutai flambé.

We had pork, beef and chicken - comes with various marinations including no marinate. They were all nice - savoury sweet with the natural flavours of the meat underlying.

Of course, the cooking skills of buddy Jen had a lot to do with it too 👏👏👏  😊

Get more of this flower crab. The crustacean flavours were good and tender-squeaky meat texture was nice though it was frozen crab.

The prawns were good. Tender with a slight crunch and tastes naturally sweet. (They also have small crayfish.)

The shellfish like lala clam, scallop and bamboo clam were OK as expected of frozen ingredients. Nice texture and shellfish flavour after cooking.

In conclusion.

Once we were set up after the ordering and delivery of our food, we enjoyed ourselves cooking and chatting. And that's the thing about table top BBQ and hotpot, it is a social thing and food just provides the setting.

Still, for just under $20 per pax, the quality of the food at Michin was beyond my expectation for this price point.

Pro-tip: Order all the food you want in one go (don't be shy or too polite 😜 ). There is a 90 minute limit and the staff are very busy, especially on weekends with people milling around, waiting for tables 😆

It is a coffee shop, so get your drinks from the kopitiam drinks stall separately. Get some beers 🍻 (But, they only have the usual unker Tiger and Carlsberg 🤔 )

Restaurant name: Michin Korean BBQ & Hotpot (Toa Payoh outlet)

Address: #01-232, Lor 7 Toa Payoh, Block 18, Singapore S310018 (Prime Court coffee shop near Kim Keat Palm hawker centre)

Reservation: via Michin Korean Chicken Wing & BBQ Facebook page

Hours: 5:00pm - 10:00pm

Date visited: 31 Oct 2020