Thien Kee Steam Boat

From all the good reviews online and by word of mouth, I was geared up for some good steamboat here. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that this place can be described as decent, but not fantastic.

My earliest memories of steamboat (besides those at home for CNY) is those at marina near the kite flying field. However, it has been many years since those marina bay steamboat places closed down. And I haven't eaten steamboat outside since then. So, I made a trip down to Thien Kee Steamboat with my family yesterday on National Day. This place is a Hainanese establishment and has been there for many years.

Steamboat

The servers were friendly. This is the plate of stuff that they put on your table. There were stuff like pork liver, fishballs, yu du, sotong etc. They also gave two raw eggs and vegetables. The soup base was chicken stock. It tasted like ordinary steamboat- what's so Hainanese about it?

Chicken Rice

We also called for half a chicken, apparently what they are famous for.

I love the chicken rice chilli sauce. Spicy and shiok to the max. The chicken rice is a little oily, although it's texture is pretty good, because it's kind of 一粒一粒。Couldn't find an English expression for that. The chicken itself wasn't that fantastic. There are places like Boon Tong Kee or the chicken rice at Katong Shopping Centre which sells smoother chicken.

Satay

And also a plate of pork satay. (They only serve pork satay.) I liked the marinate of the satay. However, I felt it was a little too oily. And there was also quite a bit of fat on the satay. I'm not sure if this helps to make the satay moist, but for those who need to be on a diet check, you might need to think twice about whether to have the satay.

Overall, I found the food here to be okay, not bad but nothing fantastic either. It worked out to be around $13 per person. But if it's been established for so long, with never ending crowds, there must be something special about this place that I've yet to uncover.

Thien Kee Steam Boat

Golden Mile Tower
Beach Road 

B1-20
Tel No: +6562985891 /+6562935910