Spice Up your Day with Uncle Fong Hotpot Restaurant at Great World City

CONTENT: Seraphina Tang

Uncle Fong Hotpot Restaurant, a popular Chongqing-style hotpot concept by the founder of Putien, has made its debut in Singapore – all the better for lovers of hot pot looking to have a spicy good time! First opened in Hong Kong, Uncle Fong has been popular not just amongst the locals, but celebrities too, with big names like Carina Lau, Julian Cheung and Stanley Kwan having dined there.

The restaurant focuses on authentic Chongqing-style hot pot, thanks to founder Fong Chi Chung’s – affectionately known as Fang Shu Shu, or the eponymous Uncle Fong – love for the meal. Think: soup bases brewed from premium spices, a curated variety of fresh ingredients, and a unique nine-grid hot pot that aims to make your dining experience ever more efficient!

Indeed, your eyes are bound to be drawn to the nine-grid hot pots that Uncle Fong uses: both photo-worthy and functional, the segregation of the pot into “heat zones” aims to help you cook the various ingredients at the best temperature possible. For quick-cook ingredients like sliced beef or deep-fried soybean skin, give them a quick blanch in the middle square where the temperature is the highest. Meanwhile, the four squares surrounding the middle are of a more even, medium heat, and are best for poaching, while the corner squares are for stewing ingredients, as they have the least heat.

It may sound complicated, but not to worry – each platter of ingredients comes served with a little banner telling you its ideal cooking time. Just pop the ingredients into the soup, set the time on the timer by the side, and sit back for your delicious food!

Speaking of soup, don’t miss out on the Signature Soup base at Uncle Fong, especially if you enjoy some spice to heat up your meal! Made with Chongqing Shizhuhong chilli, Sichuan Hanyuan Pepper, refined beef tallow, Sichuan Pixian bean paste and Yunnan yellow ginger, this fiery broth is both ma (numbing) and la (spicy), with a savoury depth from the beef tallow and ginger. If you’re taking a break from spice, or having a family-friendly meal, try the Singapore exclusive Fruit and Vegetable Soup, where chicken broth is boiled with a mix of sugarcane, water chestnut, coconut water, sweet corn, apple and pear slices, along with nutritious herbs like wolfberries. While it may be strange to see slices of fruit in your hot pot broth, we enjoyed the lightness and natural sweetness of the broth. Other soup bases include the classic Pork Bone Broth and tangy Tomato Broth as well as the Fungus and Mushroom Broth and Coriander and Preserved Egg Broth. Here, soup bases are priced at an affordable S$7 per person, with a maximum cost at S$28 per pot. For the private room, there is no minimum spending required, but soup bases are charged at $7 per person, based on the number of diners present.

The variety of ingredients at Uncle Fong is second to none, with a range of meat, seafood and produce, along with seasonal specials like Razor Clams (S$24 full portion, S$12.50 half portion) and offerings that are not commonly found at other hot pot restaurants, such as coral mussels, Putien soft tofu and dried gong choi.

Some of our favourites were the Beef Tripe (S$24 full portion, S$12.50 half portion) and Pig Throat (S$18 full portion, S$9.50 half portion) – delightfully springy and boasting none of the gaminess that offal often has. The meaty US Prime Beef Short Ribs (S$42 full portion, S$21.50 half portion) was wonderful after a quick blanch in the spicy broth, along with the flaky Leather Jacket Fish (S$24). It was also our first time trying Celtuce Slices (S$8 full portion, S$4.50 half portion), which came sliced delicately thin and arranged like a blooming flower. After blanching, it soaked up the savoury broth yet retained a refreshing mouthfeel not unlike celery, making for a wonderful hot pot vegetable dish.

Uncle Fong Hotpot Restaurant
Great World #B1-108/109, 1 Kim Seng Promenade, Singapore 237994
Operating Hours: Mon-Fri 11:30 – 15:00, 17:00 – 23:00; Sat & Sun 11:30 – 23:00.
*From 1 June 2022: 11.30 – 23:00 Daily