海底捞 (Hai Di Lao)

Happy 6 Years and 9 Months CW <3. 

Had 海底捞 (Hai Di Lao) for the first time in Beijing 2 years ago and the experience in China was amazing. The service was expectational and it makes their guests feel like royalties. They provide manicure services, shoe polishing services, even in the toilet they have staff giving you napkins etc. The staff are very attentive to your needs and are ever ready to help you with preparing your food. I tried the 麻辣 and mushroom soup in china and this time, I tried the 麻辣 and tomato soup. OMG the tomato soup base is so good! As there were only 2 of us, they offered us the table with 2 separate pots. The food is fresh and the soup base is good. The bill came up to $91 for 2 pax. Their noodles are quite special, there will be someone who will do the noodle pulling performance before serving the noodles to you. The noodles are thick but the texture is Q. I like the noodles but i'm not very comfortable with the performance because i'm so afraid that he will hit someone or something in the process. Their shrimp paste is good too. We left ours soaking in the soup for quite some time but it still tastes the same as when it was just put in. I'll definitely be back even though the price is high. 

Currently, they have 2 branches. Once at Clarke Quay and the other at Somerset 313. Heard from the staff that they are looking to open another branch but the location has not been found yet. Please open one in the East and is easy to access!

Hungry CW waiting

Look at the meat!

Shrimp paste in the soup.

Walked around 313 and decided to try Llao Llao located at the basement. Heard that the usual queue is very long but I guess we were lucky that we only waited 10 minutes to get our Sanum. We had Sanum with Chocorock sauce, caramalised cookies, kiwi, strawberry and banana. Chocorock sauce is the bomb. This combination is the bomb. I'll have to drop by to try the other sauces that they have. I'm already craving for it looking at the picture.

Trip to Beijing (Day 1)

17- 24 December 2012
Beijing

Because my brother was having his exchange in Beijing, our family decided to pay him a visit as well as bring some of his stuff back. We were not sure how much stuff he wants us to bring home so we brought 3 pretty huge luggages. Air tickets were on promotion via Singapore airlines. I always look forward to food onboard but there was nothing interesting about this meal. I really love their bread and butter though :D

Food on board SQ flight to Beijing

As my dad snores REALLY LOUDLY in his sleep, I refused to stay in the same room as him so before we left for Beijing, We book 161 hotel (more to the budget side) as the price was reasonable for 2 rooms. Reviews for that hotel was not bad. Before we arrived in Beijing, we have already notified the hotel beforehand that we will be checking in late due to our flight. However, when we arrived at the hotel, we were told that the rooms are not ready as usual check in time is 12 noon. They decided to put us at their sister hotel (Super 8) until our rooms were ready the next day. The stay at Super 8 was horrible. The rooms smelled bad, floor and toilet were dirty too. I got so paranoid that I feel that their bed/ bedsheets/pillow/ towels were dirty. Thinking that we will only be there for 1 night, we decided to just ignore the state of the room.

We did not have wifi or china number for my brother to contact us, so we told him to meet us at 161 hotel after his class. Instead of waiting around at Super 8 for a phone all to go back to 161 hotel, we decided that we will just go ahead back to the hotel even if it was way before 12 noon (offical check in time). We were told by the reception of Super 8 that our rooms are still not ready. As we were really insistent on going over, they had to call 161 hotel. As Super 8 could not explain the situation to us, they handed the phone over to us to 161 hotel could speak to us. We explained what we wanted to do and to our horror, they told us that we might have to wait till 5-6pm before we know if we can return to 161 hotel. OH WAIT, not only that. They were not even sure if we could even return to 161 hotel throughout the whole duration of our stay. It will be really ridiculous for us to be sitting around just to wait for their phone call. We asked them why can't we know if the room will be ready, they could not answer us. If they could not get the room ready for us, tell us beforehand so we can make other arrangements. We were pretty angry then so we went out, got a local number to contact my brother. Updated him of our situation and decided that we will not go ahead with the booking. As the reservation was make via Agoda, I made a phone call to Singapore's office. I am thankful that I managed to get a full refund for this.

We went off to Holiday Inn and we settled for 1 room. I have to endure my dad's snores for 4 nights and the thought of it was torturous.

After we have settled accommodation issue, we could finally relax. PHEW.
The room at Holiday Inn was not bad!

 The 2 beds in the room can sleep 4 people.

Along the streets of Beijing

Food on the first day!

Picture on the left is of some potato dish. I don't know how they do it but their potatoes and mushrooms are amazing! On the right, it's 海底捞。It's a 24 hour steamboat place that my brother highly recommended. He recommended it for the service. They provide manicure, shoe polishing, internet counters etc at the restaurant itself!

海底捞
http://www.haidilao.com/
They have many branches in Beijing which you can find on their website.