Beauty in the pot – Battle of the Collagen-ic Hotpot!

Beauty in the pot

OneKM Mall near Paya Lebar MRT

Knowing the potential windfall that a collagen hotpot could bring after Tsukada Nojo has proven so (the pioneer collagen hotpot restaurant that easily requires a 2h wait), the Paradise Group has opened its first, aptly named as Beauty in the pot in the East at OneKM Mall. Being my first collagen hotpot and having nothing to benchmark against, this indeed tasted genuinely thick, creamy, slightly viscous (due to the collagen) and is packed with loads of umami; unmistakable definitely, the chef must have made it undergo long hours of boiling with quality ingredients.

Not totally convinced that it’s fat free as the texture of broth really felt like an addictive tontotsu ramen, I decided to clarify further and was triply assured that it was purely prepared from collagen (Fish collagen if i did not hear wrongly). That led to the impulsive yet joyous binge on three bowls of collagen-ic soup!

And ingredients over here were expectedly fresh and evidently high quality as they tasted so good still even when we only remembered to fish them out after quite a while, forgetting about their existence in the soup. One of the commendable ingredients would be the cuttlefish which still tasted soft, slightly chewy and palatable even though it has been cooked for quite a while. Beef tripe and assorted balls shown above!

But just like most restaurants, there must be some sections that contain outstanding dishes, the uniquely cute fish tofu was summoned! Uniformly amalgamated with the silky tofu, the resulting texture was an amazing hybrid; Slightly fluffy yet with hints of tofu smoothness. Highly recommended indeed.

And this huge prawn paste with ebiko is another must order as the bits of prawns mashed within rendered a springy bouncy texture to the smaller balls derived from it while the ebiko provided all the popping texture needed that enhanced the overall flavour! Very impressive ball over here which I could potentially outrival those from Hai Di Lao.

But sadly, the beef slices that we were looking forward to were actually fat slices. While I love my beef well-marbled, 80% of fats would be a turn off. Stark difference from what was shown on the menu indeed, this was unanimously the least favourite dish for S and I.

And don’t forget to test your creativity out at the sauce station as you take fun in concocting your own sauces. Interestingly, while the sesame sauce (top) tasted delicious when eaten together with the free-flow rice provided, I still prefer my dips to be done the traditional Cantonese way – soy sauce + chopped garlic + chilli padi + spring onions (bottom) as it helps to pull out the flavour of the meat better.

That was the three bowls of rich collagen-ic broth that I had throughout the whole meal and surprisingly, the soup didn’t accumulate loads of Na+ even when most of the soup has evaporated already. So smooth, creamy, slightly viscous and full of umami fragrance, I could very much finish the whole pot of Soup!

Why would I strongly recommend Beauty in the pot?  Simply because you get to have such perfect soup without the 2h queue! And in fact, this place wasn’t full when we were there on a Sunday afternoon! Definitely a great hang-out place with your friends and families!

Verdict: A good restaurant.