Hot Spot Cafe Restaurant

Hot Spot Cafe Restaurant is located at  Burlington Square, directly opposite Sim Lim Square’s food court. And it is next to LASALLE College of the Arts. There are lots of seats avaliable. But sometimes, this place is packed during lunch time. Just from observing, you can see that most people are eating tom yam fish soup or fish soup.

There are several stalls inside. Without doubt, I went to the very first stall in it which is the fish soup stall.

Look at the amount of sliced fish, fried fish, squids and fried eggs.

Menu

Fried Fish Tom Yam Soup (thick beehoon) $4.70

I ordered the Fried Fish Tom Yam Soup (thick Beehoon). In it, there were fried fish, toufu, tomato, onion,vegetables and a piece of lime. In fact, there were several pieces of fried fish, more than what I expected whereas there was a lack of vegetables. The fish was fresh. It would be good to let it (the fish) stay in the soup a while longer to absorb more of the tom yam soup. The tom yam soup was tasty, sour and yet spicy. Delicious! Would be great to eat this when the weather is cold/cool.

Overall, this is an above average fish soup stall that certainly warrants more visits. The issue I have is that it is not very accessible unless u drive as the nearest MRT stations (Bugis/Little India/Dhoby Ghaut) is a good 15-20 minutes walk away.

Hot Spot Cafe Restaurant
175 Bencoolen Street
#01-34 Burlington Square
Tel: 68357752
Opening Hours: Daily & PH 11.30am – 11.30pm

Piao Ji Fish Porridge

Since I was nearby, decided to pop by Amoy Street Food Centre for lunch on a weekday. At the second floor there  are 2 stalls selling fish soup that are quite popular. One of whom is Piao Ji, the other is Han Kee. At both stalls, there were long queue. I counted for Han Kee, there was about 25 people queuing! At Piao Ji, there was about 15 people. My brain told me to queue at Piao Ji while my heart told me to queue at Han Kee. After much thought I decided to queue at Piao Ji.

Long queue

Part of the queue.

Fish Roe!

Look at the fish roe in the above picture! Its humongous! It has been a long long time since I saw such a big, long fish roe. In fact, also been a long time since I ate fish roe. Its delicious! I was so tempted to order it, but eventually decided not to just in case it was expensive. (anyone ate the fish roe from Piao Ji before and know how much it cost?)

I ordered the normal fish soup with rice, the total cost was $5.50. If you were to order the pomfret and prawn it would be $10. As I was waiting, I can’t help but notice this uncle who seems a regular customer, ordering 5 bowls of fish head soup. I took notice of where this uncle was sat at. After I finished eating my fish soup, I detoured over to their table to take a look, their fish head soup looks delicious!

At last, I got my food. Noticed that each order was cooked individually despite the crowd. It was about 30minutes of wait since I queue.

Fish Soup $5.00 with Rice $0.50

Look at the amount of fish you get

Looks delicious. The amount of fish given was very generous, in fact it was alot! Moreover, Each piece of fish was thick, not sliced thinly. Each piece was soft,tender and tasty. You can literally taste the sweetness retained in the meat and it was certainty very fresh, with no fishy smell/taste. Just looking at the amount of fish given, its certainty value for money.

The soup was clear. However, it was salty. If there was any sweetness because of the fish, then well, it was overwhelmed by the saltiness. I can’t help but wonder if MSG was added? or was too much salt added?

The soup was disappointing, if not for the soup, this would have been a perfect meal for me.

Piao Ji Fish Porridge
7 Maxwell Road #02-100
Amoy Street Food Centre
Opening Hours: 10.30am to 3pm
Closed on Thurs

Blanco Court Sliced Fish Bee Hoon

Blanco Court Sliced Fish Bee Hoon is located at Luk Luk Eating House which is an old old coffee shop. Dirty walls, dirty flooring that was cracked and olden days shutters. But the signboard was clean! 

Luk Luk Eating House

queue to the stall

Long queue, about a 25minutes wait during lunch time. Alot of people in the coffee shop was eating from this stall.

Blanco Court Sliced Fish Bee Hoon

I see bitter gourd, as a result, I decided to order the bitter gourd fried fish soup!

Bitter Gourd Fried Fish Soup with Rice $4.50

Asked for the soup without mik, so I expected the soup base to be clear. Quite weird that the soup had this faint white colour. The fish soup was average nothing outstanding about it. Bitter gourd was sliced thinly, which is a thumbs up. Wish that more fried egg was given! The fried fish was on the hard side. Just  a normal fish soup stall..

Its quite hard to find seats at this coffeeshop, it is filled to the brim during lunch hours. Notice that most people were eating the fish soup with their fish not fried and also without bitter gourd. Looks like this is the more popular version. Also, many people were ordering from the stall that sells claypot rice.

Recently, my friend working in Golden Landmark Hotel told me that the claypot rice at this coffeeshop is quite popular and delicious, such that she had to call to order 1st before going down. Will try it when I can!

Look at the queue, even when I am leaving the coffeeshop, the queue to the fish soup stall is still very long. I really wonder what did I miss out, how come its so popular. I have to come back and try the non bitter gourd and non fried fish version to find out what I have missed.

Blanco Court Sliced Fish Bee Hoon
341 Beach Road
Opening Hours: Daily 10.00am – 7.30pm
(Close on Sunday)