Ba Sheng Zai Huo Guo Steamboat Restaurant @ Kota Damansara

Following a complete facelift and revamp, the steamboat restaurant formerly known as Xin Chun Seafood Steamboat Restaurant at Kota Damansara has been rebranded as Ba Sheng Zai Huo Guo. They have a new slogan too called ‘The Joy of Sharing’ that well, you know, refers to the food and happy moments shared with your companions over a steamboat meal.

Ba Sheng Zai used to look like the ordinary run-of-the-mill steamboat restaurant, open air and the tables are equipped with conventional gas stoves. Now, the restaurant is fully air-conditioned, looks vibrant and uses flat electric stoves for cooking the steamboat. The differences between pre- and post-transformation of the restaurant are quite striking if you compare them side by side.

The Silver Pomfret set @ RM53/pax (min order 2 pax) was highly recommended for dining couples, especially if you love seafood. It does sound a little pricey but that thought will go away as soon as you see the mountain of seafood given. When I first saw the set my mind went “wow, we are going to finish this?” Well, challenge accepted.
Aside from a few pieces of Japanese tofu and beancurd, seafood makes up for the rest of ingredients. And the best thing is that most of the seafood is live from their tanks (except scallops and mussels) so you can be rest assured of their freshness. And as per the standard steamboat set, some yee mee, bihun and eggs are also included as well.

Top down view of the set, piled with flower crab, mantis shrimp, a whole filleted Silver Pomfret, clam, scallop, mussel and bamboo clam. If you are wondering, the mantis shrimps are sourced from Kuala Selangor while the flower crabs are from Klang.

It is also noteworthy to mention that the flower crabs given are the more prized species, noticeable by looking at their bluish shell. They usually pack a sweeter tasting flesh compared to the red ones.

The mantis shrimps got to be the highlight of the meal – both we got were female, meaty and packed with roe. After they are cooked it would take a little effort to peel their tough shells alright, but it is all worth it when the succulent white flesh which is as thick as two fingers is revealed. Anyway, I was told that the mantis shrimps are actually seasonal items so there is no guarantee on their availability. If they are not available, Ba Sheng Zai will substitute each mantis shrimp with two tiger prawns.

Currently, there are only two soup bases to choose from: clear and tom yam. By default, each table will have a serving of yin-yong soup that is replaceable FOC upon request. The clear soup is quite flavorful on its own and tasted very much MSG-free to our delight.
A small bowl of Chinese wine is also provided if you like that extra aroma in the soup. Now about the tom yam soup, although the both of us felt it was great, the spiciness level is higher than average. So if you like your tom yam hot and spicy then you will surely love it here. As for us, we just mixed some clear broth into the tom yam to reduce the spiciness. It worked well.

We only got to the Silver Pomfret after we dumped in all the crabs and shrimps. As you can see its size large and weighs easily over 700g. With so much tender and delicious fish meat around to savor there is no need to order any additional side dishes. In fact, this set could be shared among three and there will still be plenty of food to go around. At the end of the meal when the broth is extra tasty, you could actually add rice into the broth to cook a pot of delicious porridge.

Traditional sauces to go with steamboat, all specially made in-house.

Iced Honey Lemon and Sugar Cane & Water Chestnut drinks @ RM5 each.

They also have a few fancier drinks like ice blended red bean, cendol and soursop.

Most steamboat restaurants I have been to use pork bones to prepare their clear broth. But Ba Sheng Zai is the first one I encountered that boils their soup using mainly Flounder fish (‘jor hau yu’ in Cantonese, literally translated to ‘left mouth fish’) and chicken bones along with some Chinese herbs to taste.

The reason Flounder is chosen is because its flesh is naturally sweet. And by using a custom made high-pressure cooking pot, the clear soup can be prepared quickly in high heat while dissolving the entire fish completely into the broth at the same time – flavoring it with its essence.

Live seafood tanks.

Meat crab and roe crab are sold at RM23 each.

Overall it was a satisfying meal and we thought it was a good bang for the buck considering the amount of fresh seafood we had. And if you don’t feel like splurging you could still enjoy a comfortable yet affordable steamboat meal for less than RM20/pax since the basic Pulau Ketam set only costs RM16.50/pax. Besides, a set lunch menu is launching soon and from what I was told it is going to cost only about RM10.90, wallet friendly indeed!

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