Xin Yuan Ji

According to my friends, there is always a line at this place.
I braced myself for the long wait on a friday night and I was thankful that my first wait at this place only took 20 minutes. Good thing was the orders were placed during our wait in line and once we sat down, the food came in less than 10 minutes.
there were 6 of us and we all had our individual bowls of sliced fish noodle soup.
i ordered sliced fried fish with thick noodles in milky soup. it was delicious!
the fried fish weren’t soggy even though it was in soup. the soup was tasty and didnt have any fishy after taste.
the place was crowded and during my time there, the turn over of customers were high. apparently the servers will keep pushing you to order even if your party is not all at the table. i think it’s best to wait for all your friends to arrive before being seated.

Where there’s a line, the food must be good right? I would say the majority of the customers sitting in our same Friday dinner turn ordered the fish noodle soup. Second was probably the charcoal fish steamboats. I just didn’t like the dining room because they had fans blowing everything like a tornado. The service was lackluster from serving so many customers. Our party was bypassed a couple of times while in line which made us wondered if they had reservations or if we were just being, well, bypassed. The food came out steaming hot which was a plus since the air movement in the place quickly cool any dish down fast. Dishes were tasty if not a tad bit on the saltier side. Not sure if I would que to eat here again, but maybe if there wasn’t a line.

Some friends brought me here after seeing a play at the Arts Centre in the National Library Building. I’ve always wanted to try steamboat, and have heard so many rave reviews about Singaporean fish-​head steamboat, but have been intimidated by the non-​english menus and the potential that the uncles and aunties running the store will not understand my Californian accent, whatever that is.
We came for supper (around 10pm) and ordered the medium (S$ 55) red snapper steamboat, 3 bowls of rice and 5 mamas.
Steamboat: SO GOOD. The whole fish was served on a plate of ice, and the steamboat contraption with charcoal on the bottom came with an assortment of veggies already in it (tomatoes, cabbage and taro). They will refill your soup for you as it gets low, so don’t worry about drinking all of the salty deliciousness before you’re done cooking the fish.
Mamas: No, Xin Yuan Ji does not sell women. The Mama is a homemade drink made with lime and plum. And by plum I mean preserved salted prune. I was not a fan, but I also don’t enjoy salty beverages, nor salted prunes. I was really hoping for fresh plum juice, but I should have known better– I dont think stone fruits grow in Southeast Asia.
The atmosphere is… not special, but familiar in a good way. It was packed, with waiters weaving in between the long tables and lots of friendly chattering. It is air conditioned (halleluja!) which I feel is the most important thing when eating soup in Singapore.

This place is a curiosity because there’s always a long queue at peak hours. I lived around the corner for a year before trying it out during a quiet time to see what the fuss was about. Its good, but not worth waiting in a long queue for. The speciality is the fish hot pot that comes on the charcoal — definitely something different and a well made soup, but at 40 dollars for 2 people it seems a bit pricey. More popular with the regulars are are the noodle dishes which are more affordably priced.
I am not saying don’t go, I am saying don’t fill yourself with great expectations then you will probably enjoy it.

There isn’t much ambience when you dine at Xin Yuan Ji. It’s more for the air con and reasonably priced food on offer there.
Favourites on the menu include the sweet and sour pork lunch set, seafood hor fun and the fish beehoon soup. Portions can be a tad too small, but that’s simply rectified by making some noise and they’ll return with a bigger portion.
The lack of space and close proximity to offices in Suntec City means that there’s always a crunch when it comes to peak periods so be prepared to share a table, or get there early so you don’t have to queue in the blazing hot sun.