Eve of Good Friday, a bunch of us went for a Pre-Good Friday XLB Buffet! I was pretty excited cos I've never tried it before despite hearing everyone talk about it. Think there were 9 of us so we fitted very nicely at a table.
I had no idea that the steamboat buffet was held on the 2nd floor of the Crystal Jade XLB restaurant in Holland Village. They literally reserved the entire 2nd level for the buffet.
You get a choice selection of 2 type of soup bases and many meats and vegetables to choose from. There are XLBs included in the menu so basically you can get free flow of XLBs! But of course, you have to wait for them to arrive and that will take quite a while.
There are also 3 seatings for the steamboat buffet and they start at 5pm and ends around 12 midnight. We took the last seating cos it's the most convenient time for us to all meet. Since it was the eve of a public holiday, we paid about $27 per person after GST. It was the cheapest out of all the seatings somehow and could be because some of their ingredients may have ran out.
For soup bases, we ordered the Pig Bone Soup with Sweet Corn and Chinese Parsley & Perserved Egg Soup. Honestly, I couldn't exactly tell the difference between the 2 soups.
Our 'flavourings' for the soup lol
Pork meat
There is a sauce mixing station as well where you are able to mix your own sauces.
The prawns are not free flow unfortunately. They provide each person with 100g of prawns (about 3 sticks) for the night. I think only 3 of us ended up eating the prawns that night cos the rest didn't wanna get their hands dirty or were lazy with the peeling of the prawns. It's our gain cos it's one of the freshest prawns I've ever tasted! The meat was extremely sweet and it was so satisfying. Couldn't stop eating them and especially so since there is one full plate of prawns in front of us.
This is what our steamboat looks like AT THE START. Clean and proper.
After a while, it turned from this....
to this....
to THIS! LOL. The soups starting overflowing and started mixing together with each other. Honestly, their soup base isn't anything to rave about. It was okay, not extremely flavourful and not something I would return for. Have you tried some steamboats whereby you just get so ADDICTED to the soup and drink soup the whole night? This is not the one.
XLBs! I think we probably ordered about 10 baskets that night. They are yummy but I somehow prefer Din Tai Fung's XLB.
This is one of their desserts. Jelly with some herbal tea flavouring. I wasn't a big fan of it though some of them quite like it.
Overall, the food was okay. I believe at $27, I would rather patronize the steamboat buffet around Bugis that I always go to. At just $20, they have more steamboat options and also some cooked food on the side and their specialty mantous with condensed milk! YUM. Need to go back there to have steamboat the next time I'm craving for it.
I would give plus points for the prawns cos they were seriously good and also the fact that you get to order free flows of XLBs which would have been expensive if you were to order it basket by basket via ala carte. If I were to return for the buffet, it probably has to be for the prawns. Ultimately, Shanghai's Hai Di Lao was still the best. Hopefully they will bring their business here to Singapore.
Might be pretty hard getting a table reservation for the buffet so it's best to call early to reserve.
Crystal Jade XLB is located at
241/241A Holland Avenue,
Holland Village, Singapore 278976
Tel: +65 6463 0968
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