Tiantai Hotpot: This Chongqing-style hotpot restaurant is hidden on a rooftop in Chinatown
Singapore has seen plenty of hidden bars and restaurants in the past few years, but hidden hotpot restaurants? Tiantai Hotpot is probably a first for us.
As the name suggests, Tiantai Hotpot is hidden on a 天台 (Chinese for rooftop) at Chinatown and it has garnered quite a bit of intrigue on social media.
What’s unique about this place is how well it’s hidden inside People’s Park Complex.
You have to find your way to the complex’s time-worn rooftop on level six, and then go past an array of red-white safety tape to find your destination.
If you haven’t heard of the place, you probably wouldn’t even know it exists — it’s basically an exclusive hotpot spot, for those in the know.
However, we imagine coming here for the first time at night might be quite a concerning journey!
Besides its very secretive location, another thing that makes Tiantai Hotpot stand out is its charmingly rustic decor that’s full of personality.
The space is inspired by Chongqing and is accented with Chinese-style wooden furniture, exposed grey brick walls and pops of foliage.
Weakest spice option is “slightly spicy in Singapore”
Tiantai Hotpot offers three types of soup bases: Spicy red oil (S$18), mushroom (S$12) and tomato (S$12).
You can opt to get either one or two of these soups in your pot, where you’ll be charged for the higher priced soup, i.e. spicy oil and tomato (S$18) or tomato and mushroom (S$12).
One very amusing thing we saw, while ordering on the tablet, was the spice level for the spicy red oil soup — besides the usual “extra spicy”, “standard spicy”, and “slightly spicy”, there was an even milder flavour named “slightly spicy in Singapore”.
Not one to back down from a challenge, we (admittedly not blessed with the greatest spice tolerance) chose to get the usual “slightly spicy”.
Honestly, the heat is not devastating, but as xiao la (a little spicy) eaters who can occasionally take zhong la (medium spicy), this was definitely closer to the latter.
Nonetheless, we still enjoyed Tiantai Hotpot’s spicy soup, which was rich and robust, though slightly oily and thought the tomato was slightly less piquant than we were expecting.
We loved dipping the ring roll (S$6) into the spicy soup since it soaks up all that richness so well!
Good variety of ingredients
The ingredients on Tiantai Hotpot’s menu aren’t too different from what you can get from other popular hotpot joints.
As with every hotpot meal, we started with classics such as premium shrimp paste (S$16), cheese tofu (S$6), quail eggs (S$7) and enoki mushrooms (S$4) to start off.
The shrimp paste is fresh, silky and luscious, while the other ingredients’ quality are pretty much on par with other hotpot brands in the market.
For the meats, we thought the US beef brisket (S$9) was tender and enjoyably fatty, while the spicy chicken slices (S$7) was well marinated with plenty of spice fragrance and good kick.
Tiantai Hotpot also puts a few interesting Chongqing specialities on the menu, including pork aorta (S$9), house marinated pork intestine (S$9) and fresh frog (S$10 for one).
We tried the strongly recommended fresh beef tripe (S$9) and it was pretty solid — bouncy, chewy and without much gameyness. Great dish for those who enjoy more textures.
As for the greens, Tiantai Hotpot has all the usual suspects, ranging from baby cabbage (S$4) and water spinach (S$3), to fresh lotus root slices (S$4) and creamy pumpkin (S$4). We ended up going for the more interesting dried gongcai (S$6).
Dried gongcai is a speciality from China’s Anhui province and is usually dried after being harvested. When put into the soup, it becomes juicy and extra crunchy, with a good touch of firmness to it.
Overall, the food is solid, the decor is nice and the journey to your dinner is quite a novel experience — if you’re looking for a different hotpot experience from the usual high-end hotspots, check out Tiantai Hotpot.
For more ideas on what to eat, read our stories on the iconic Tanjong Pagar Beach Club’s new look and the hottest brunch spots in JB worth crossing the border to hit up!
Enjoy up to 50% off when you dine with GrabFood Dine Out.
You can also book a ride to People’s Park Complex and try to find your way to the hidden Tiantai Hotpot on the rooftop!
Tiantai Hotpot
People’s Park Complex, 06-01/02, 1 Park Road
Nearest MRT: Chinatown and Outram Park
Open: Monday to Sunday (11:30am to 12pm)
People’s Park Complex, 06-01/02, 1 Park Road
Nearest MRT: Chinatown and Outram Park
Open: Monday to Sunday (11:30am to 12pm)
Evan Mua
Author
Evan started off writing about food on Instagram, before joining outlets such as Buro and Confirm Good to pursue his passion. His best work usually comes after his first whisky shot in the morning.
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