Located on Liang Seah Street at Bugis, Xian De Lai is one of the many hotpot buffets that line the street. We were looking for a buffet where we could chill at hence we decided to drop by Xian De Lai since there was no time limit here.
Occupying 2 units, Xian De Lai had a cozy interior design with a vibrant vibe. It was filled with lots of people having hotpot and bbq with friends whilst taking their time to enjoy the food. We settled in really quickly and got mala and pork ribs chicken soup for our soup base.
Looking at the menu, there were a large variety of dishes available to order and they were split between 3 categories; cooked food, hotpot dishes and bbq dishes. The selection was great for the hotpot with a large variety of food available, but the bbq portion has a lot fewer variations.
Looking at the assorted steamboat dishes that came, you can see that the meat looked decent and portion size of the different items were quite suited for a small group. For the cooked dishes, we ordered fried honey chicken fillet, fried mini buns and braised pork belly. The braised pork belly was awesome, tender and marinated just the right amount to not be overly salty. On the other hand, the fried honey chicken fillet was overly sweet that it left an overpowering taste in the mouth.
Having ordered the mala and pork ribs chicken soup for our soup base, we were planning on using the mala soup as the base for all the meat whilst cooking the rest of the ingredients in the pork ribs chicken soup. However, the mala soup lacked in taste and spice, it could probably use more flavour and chilli. For the pork ribs chicken soup, it started out a little bland but as we added in cabbage, prawns and other ingredients whilst letting it boil, the soup got sweeter and tasted more well-balanced in the later part of our meal. The clams and cockles tasted a little fishy and might not be the best to have along with the meal.
As for the bbq, we were generally quite satisfied with it as we had pork belly, spicy pork, cumin mutton and special taste beef. The spicy pork wasn’t really spicy and the special taste beef didn’t really taste of anything special but the meat came out decent still. The lamb did not have any gamey taste and was tender when cooked.
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Overall, Xian De Lai is quite a decent place to have your meal if you’re looking for a place with no time limit to slowly chill and enjoy your food. The quality is not the best that can be found on Liang Seah Street, but for the value it provides at the price point, you won’t be disappointed with the selection.
If you’re looking to dine at 5pm or 5.30pm, Eatigo offers up to 50% discount if you book a reservation through the Eatigo app, making it doubly worth visiting for a buffet.