7th Storey Live Seafood and Charcoal Steamboat 七层楼 @ Marina Barrage

What a beautiful day! The weather has been very bad recently with thunderstorms on most days and we are really blessed to have such good weather for a family meal cum day out!

Had originally wanted to go to Tanyoto for the steamboat buffet for the family meal (Dad mentioned that place after watching Buffet Buffet2 on Channel 8 and I had to go through almost all the epsiodes online to find out exactly which restaurant he was referring to!) but they are fully booked for a full month party. After racking our brains for places to go, I suggested the 7th Storey Restaurant at Marina Barrage since it offers charcoal steamboat – something light and should suit his taste,  and we can all go walk around the barrage after the meal to get some sun and exercise. My parents have not been to the barrage although it has been opened for so long so I thought it would be a good way to show them new stuff and get them to walk a bit relative to staying home all the time 😛

It is really a perfect day though bit hot as we arrived.

View of CBD from Barrage.

View of Marina Barrage bridge from outside the restaurant

Set Menu displayed outside the restaurant. This is one restaurant famous for its charcoal steamboat. It used to be at the 7th Storey Hotel (hence its name) and had to shift out when the hotel closed. I have long heard of it but this will be the very first time that I am trying this Hainan’s Authentic Original Charcoal Steamboat 原创第一家正宗海南火炭火锅. There are 4 set menus for you to choose from. As we had called to booked, they had suggested that we take the Set Menu A: Traditional Seafood Charcoal Steamboat Set  for 6-9 pax at $238++. It has the traditional steamboat with some set meal items.

We arrived at 1.30pm and the food were served very quickly since we had already booked and they closed at 2.30pm.  This is the one of the Deluxe Two Combination Platter – Chicken with Jelly Fish. The chicken, jelly fish and cucumber were all mixed up with some mayonaise (I think) and is quite a nice cold dish to start your meal.

Deluxe Two Combination Platter – Cucumber.  Not too sure if this is pickled cucumber as my tastebuds are already clouded by the the jelly fish dish.  😛 Cucumber are full of water so this is definitely one very good dish for your complexion 🙂

Stir Fried Scallop in XO Sauce, XO 酱炒带子 – The XO sauce here is not overpowering and you can still taste the freshness of the scallops. The celery was well prepared here too, the fiber were easily bitten off and definitely not chewy.

Top view of Hainan Pork Chop 海南猪扒. Hainanese are famous for 2 things –  One is their pork chop and the other is their boiled chicken.

Close up of Hainan Pork Chop. I love this dish! So did my family so much so that I only got to eat a small slice of the pork! The pork chop is perfectly fried, the cut of the meat so tender that you do not need too much effort to eat it. The sauce is so nicely balanced – sweet and savoury from the tomato sauce, tanginess from the fresh tomatoes. Perfect! The fries are placed at the right spot too! They soaked up the sauce and is sooooooo good to eat!  😀

The other thing Hainese are famous for – Hainan Boiled Chicken 海南鸡. This chicken is so juicy and tender and goes very well on its own or with the ginger and chilli sauce provided. 🙂

The Chilli, Ginger and Peanuts.  The food were served so quickly that we did not even have the chance to eat the peanuts! LOL…  The ginger was very finely grated and the chilli was more garlicky than spicy. 😛 You can eat the chicken with or without these condiments.

The steamboat was placed before us and it was the gas kind and not charcoal. We got to know from the staff that the charcoal steamboat is only available outdoors and only at night. There is only the gas stove available indoor and during the day. What a disappointment. It would have been an experience to eat the charcoal steamboat as a family. Back to the broth, it is clean, sweet and tasty. Not oily at all. Very very suitable for all ages.

Service is so prompt here that I did not even realised that the steamboat ingredients were already placed behind me 😛

Closeup of the prawns. I bet these prawns were alive just a few minutes before they were served. Very fresh but I was a little disappointed that they did not even give each person a prawn. There were 9 of us and only 8 prawns were provided which means someone would not get to eat it.

Look at how the prawns turn such a nice orangey-red when placed into the boiling broth. Look at the legs and tails of the prawns. They will tell you whether they were live or chilled ones before they were served.  A mini skill taught by my Dad. In this case, it is definitely live prawns. 🙂

Close up of the plate of steamboat ingredients. Lots of food on one plate. There were scallops, meatballs, enoki mushrooms, hum, sliced pork, pig stomach,  fish balls,cuttlefish, fish slices.. A lot of ingredients that you add to the broth to cook. For 9 pax, again, some of us did not get to taste those “balls” as there were only 5 of each. The freshness of the food is unbeatable though.

2 eggs provided for you to add to the broth.

Close up of the lovely plate of crunchy, fresh vegetables.

This is the dipping sauce provided for the steamboat ingredients.  It is a watery sauce that is sweet yet little spicy, garlicky and fragrant. There are sesames in it that add to the texture and nicely coats your freshly cooked ingredients when you dip into it.

We ordered the chicken rice to go with our meal. Do note that rice is not included in the set. You can opt for plain rice ($1 per bowl) or chicken rice ($1.50 per bowl). I would recommend the chicken rice as it is very fragrant and nice. If a place can prepare their chicken properly, their rice would also be good. That is my theory lah but has been true so far! ;P

We also ordered the Luohan Guo drink ($15 for jug which can serve about 7 pax). Not too sweet and you get generous loads of longan in it too.

We were so full after the meal and there was still Complimentary Dessert – Red Bean Mousse. Too good to miss. You must eat it!

I think I will come back again to try  the authentic Charcoal steamboat by the barrage at night. Imagine enjoying a steamboat dinner with your loved ones with a constant stream of sea breeze. And after dinner, you can go for a leisurely, scenic and romantic stroll along the barrage – NICE! 🙂

 

8 Marina Gardens Drive, #01-05/06, Marina Barrage
Singapore 018951
Tel: 62227887
www.sunrestaurant.com
Opening hours: Mon-Sun 11:30am-2:30pm, 6pm-10:30pm

 

 

 

 

Photos taken with SE C905