The area behind Bugis Junction that spans Tan Quee Lan Street and Liang Seah Street is synonymous for being concentrated with steamboat restaurants. I use the term “restaurant” loosely here as these are just tiny eateries tucked into shophouse buildings. They tend to be cramped and accommodate no more than twenty tables each.
One of these steamboat eateries caters the famed porridge steamboat buffet which I have heard so much about. Instead of a soup base used in traditional steamboats, Parklane Deli House offers a deviation that uses porridge for a change. And apparently it’s really good! So being curious, we decided to try out this unique steamboat for ourselves.
S$14.80
Rating:
Right from the start you would notice that the pot used is not the usual metallic type. It is some kind of heavy clay pot. The waitress informs us to stir the porridge often to avoid burning it. She then helpfully offers that we could add salted egg, carrot, tapioca, etc ingredients to the porridge to make it more savoury. These tips are also printed on the posters displayed on the walls.
Okay, now for the million dollar question: Was the porridge any good?
Put aside the fact that they call it a “steamboat” for a sec. It tasted like any regular ol’ plain porridge that my Mom cooks. Simply put, the porridge steamboat is just a marketing gimmick. What we got was nothing more than a very big pot of plain porridge. Except that we continuously cooked and stirred it until it became more liquid than it already was.
Oh yeah we add food to it too. It is after all a steamboat buffet. Check out the options they had.
Rating:
For crying out loud, all they had were vegetables, some eggs, and things made from flour! We barely touched any of those. Luckily there were some prawns and chicken meat and fish slices but these had to be ordered using a slip of paper. Bad news if you happen to be there on a busy night. The food you order hardly ever comes. We had to complain several times before we were finally served the decent food after about half an hour. Meanwhile we had to contend with just eating, or rather drinking plain porridge.
Having said that, I did like concocting my own dips from the various condiments. My favourite combination was having sambal chilli as a base, drench it with sesame oil, add a touch of chopped garlic and finally sprinkle some of that green spring onions commonly found in Chinese soup. This DIY dip trend seems to be catching on with many steamboat restaurants these days.
To sum it up, I thoroughly disliked my experience at Parklane Deli House. The food options were severely limited. Service was slow. What I thought would be an innovation turned out to be nothing more than a marketing gimmick.
12 Liang Seah Street
Singapore 189033
Tel: +65 6339 6589
Aug 14, 2006
18
Ahhhh, you just reminded me of my trip to Hong Kong. How we gorged ourselves with the food just because we haven’t eat for 12 hours! (our last meal was at 11 plus that morning and our dinner? 11 pm that day.)
Anyway, I can’t believe that they used plain porridge for the base. I thought it would be chicken/ fish porridge, or anything of that sort. Mehh, the options they had is quite a major turn off too.
The only thing I like are the sauces! I had never seen so many different types of sauce lined up in front of me! Haha.
Aug 14, 2006
3472
My sentiments exactly! The only thing I liked was the wide array of sauces simply because they were fun to mix and play around with. That was it! I was quite disgusted when I laid my eyes upon their food. I kept looking around for more choices but that was it! Everything’s been shown in the pictures I took! Gah…
Apr 18, 2007
31
There’s another Joaquim Buffet Restaurant at Suntec. Also serving porridge buffet for lunch, but I think that restaurant closed down.
Apr 30, 2007
1
Hey, i think u should try this porridge steamboat @ joo chiat rd. Farmland Porridge Steamboat. Heard that its frm malaysia. U can choose from buffet or ala carte. They oso have fried porridge. Interestingly and quite nice. Not too expensive. I had the buffet. its about $16.80 + in wkends. and theres a must eat specialty dish ( fried Pork) ! yummy
Apr 30, 2007
3472
Thanks folks, but I have decided to stay off all forms of porridge steamboat altogether!
Oct 13, 2007
1
I had been to this restaurant before. So far, it feels all right for me. If you feel that the food variety is too little is because you have been to those barbecue steamboat too much. With barbecue option, of course the variety increase. I go to this restaurant for dinner at least once a month. It is not as bad as you say. Maybe it is because i had never tried the porridge base before. I alway ordered the Tom Yam soup and chicken soup. You have missed the good food. Maybe you should go back and try the soup base and not the porridge base this time.