Malaysia
Singapore
Thailand
A hidden gem found in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5 is Steam & Grill. Combing great seafood with a homemade seafood broth (without MSG or additives), this unassuming stall serves individual seafood bowls for lunch and huge seafood hot pots for dinner.
Oh, and the dishes here don’t come with the hefty price tags that you often associate with seafood, so you can fill your tummies up without emptying your wallet.
We started with the lunch menu with Flower Crab Seafood Soup ($11.50). The dish was topped with a whole flower crab, which made the other ingredients seem irrelevant.
The star of the dish, the crab, flaked apart easily without being overly mushy. Complementing the umami seafood broth, and lent a subtle sweetness that we really enjoyed.
The bowl also came with prawns, dory fish, minced meat and clams that made the dish all the more hearty and perfect to sate your hunger pangs.
If you’re not that big on crab, consider the Prawn Seafood Soup ($5.50) which comes with the same ingredients just minus the crab. Don’t worry, the same seafood broth is used so you don’t have to worry about this one lacking in flavour.
The prawn flesh separated from the shell with ease, indicative of it being well-cooked. Unlike the crab, the prawns had a milder flavour that was lighter on the palate. If you want something less heavy (or if you’re just on a budget), this is the dish for you.
Besides prawn and crab, other seafood bowls including lobster, scallops, crayfish, and pomfret are available from $9.50 onwards! These individual lunch bowls are sold till 3pm so hurry down during your lunchtime.
If you’re there for dinner, do note that it only starts at 6pm and there are four combo options for your choosing. We had Combo 1 Just Seafood ($44) that comes with crayfish, scallops, prawns, mussels, clams, pomfret, squid and dory fish, which serves two to three people.
The hot pot uses the signature seafood broth together with a generous portion of the other seafood that was visible the moment it hit the table. The sheer amount of ingredients and the allure of the bubbling hot pot made us want to dig in even more.
We were not disappointed at all. The seafood was cooked well and each variety added a pleasant textural contrast. We really enjoyed the crayfish which was fresh and perfectly cooked, albeit a little small for our liking.
Try dipping the seafood in soy sauce with chilli padi or the Thai chilli sauce for an added kick.
After devouring all the seafood, we began drinking the broth that had been simmering with the seafood since the dish arrived at our table. What we tasted was a robust, flavourful stock that was definitely a step above the initial broth that was served, so don’t let it go to waste!
If you’re looking for something a little more lavish, consider Combo 3 More Than Seafood, which comes with Boston lobster and flower crabs at $64.
The broth here at Steam & Grill reminded us of something we’d like to tuck into on a cold, rainy day and definitely something we’ll be back for.
Fresh seafood and a robust seafood broth, both at an extremely economical price – Steam & Grill gets a huge thumbs up from us!
Expected damage: $5.50 – $25 per pax
