Singapore · Hot Pot · Work Trip Dining · Around S$245 for Three
I was in Singapore for work, and the colleague I was traveling with had done the homework. He came to the table with a name, a location, and a strong opinion. The name was Broth & Beyond at CHIJMES, and after one dinner there I am ready to say he got it right. This is the kind of hot pot place I would happily walk back to the next night, and the kind I keep filing away as somewhere our family should eventually end up too.
This article is not sponsored. The food was not comped, and we did not tell the restaurant we were going to write about it.
CHIJMES is the old convent compound in the middle of Singapore that has been turned into a dining and bar district, and Broth & Beyond sits one level down in the B1 arcade. You walk in, the room opens up under a ceiling that looks like a chandelier had a long meeting with a string-light installation, and a host hands you a teal apron with the brand on it before you have figured out where to put your bag. It is a fun environment from the first minute. Our server walked us through the menu, made real suggestions instead of pointing at the laminated card, and then took us through the salad bar area (they call it the Market Table) and told us what was actually worth grabbing. Attentive without hovering, which is the rare sweet spot.
The Broths: Three Pots, Three Reasons to Come Back
Broth & Beyond builds its identity around its broths, and we tried three of them. The dual Spicy and Pork classic split, the Signature Golden Chicken Fungus, and the Signature Wild Fermented Sour. The Golden Chicken Fungus is the one that looks like a pot of frothy egg yolk in the photos, and it tastes the way it looks, rich and a little funky in the right way, with mushroom doing a lot of the work underneath. The Spicy and Pork side was the comfort pick, the one you reach for when you already know what you want it to do to your meat. The Wild Fermented Sour was the surprise, the one I would not have ordered without the server’s nudge, and the one I would order again. All three were strong, I would not pick a favorite, and that is the most useful thing I can tell you about this menu.
The Meats, and the Smoked Duck That Stole the Show
We ordered the Superior Beef and Lamb Platter, the Sliced Angus Rib-Eye, and the Smoked Duck Breast. The platter is the headline, the rib-eye is the cleaner cut, and they were both very good. But the one that stuck with me was the smoked duck. I went into the dinner expecting the headline platter to be the story and ended up reaching for the duck slice after slice. It is one of those dishes where you swirl it through the broth for a few seconds, pull it out, and your brain has to recalibrate what it thought hot pot duck was going to taste like. If you read nothing else from this review, read this part. Order the smoked duck breast.
The meats are sliced thin enough that they cook in seconds, which matters more than it sounds like it should. You are not standing over the pot waiting. You drop a piece, count to a beat, lift it back out, and you eat it while it is still doing what you wanted it to do. Hot pot is at its best when the rhythm of the table matches the rhythm of the broth, and Broth & Beyond gets that right.
The Market Table, and Why a Salad Bar Is Different Here
The Market Table is the build-your-own station that handles your dipping sauces, your fresh garnishes, and your small-plate add-ons. Call it a salad bar if it helps, but treat it like a sauce lab. Our server walked us over and pointed at the ingredients that work with each broth, and the difference between a hot pot dinner where you guess at sauces and a hot pot dinner where someone tells you what to do is real. We also added the Three-Color Cloud Ear Fungus, a Veggie Basket, fresh Enoki Mushrooms, and a round of Yunnan Fresh Rice Noodles, which is the kind of noodle that holds its shape after a long swim in a heavy broth without going chewy.
The Price, and the Instagram Trick That Made It Make Sense
I am going to keep including the real total in every food piece I write, because I think it matters and most reviews skip past it. Three of us, three broths, the beef and lamb platter, the rib-eye, the smoked duck, the cloud ear fungus, the veggie basket, the enoki, the Yunnan rice noodles, rice, watermelon juice, and a few Qingdao beers between us. The whole thing landed at S$244.13 all in, with service and GST included. For a hot pot dinner that fed three adults this generously in the middle of CHIJMES, that is a fair price.
Here is the trick. Before you sit down to order, ask the server about the Instagram discount. They asked us to follow Broth & Beyond on Instagram and like one of their posts, and applied a stack of discounts on the broths right there at the table. It came out to S$27 off the subtotal, which on a hot pot bill is real money. It is not a flash promo, it is the standing house move. Spend the ninety seconds.
What we paid: Our total with service and GST included was S$244.13. That covered three broths, three meat orders, four supporting plates, the Market Table, rice, watermelon juice, and four Qingdao beers, after the Instagram-follow discount knocked S$27 off the broths.
Would It Work for the Family?
Vika, Josh, and Emily were not on this trip. This was a work-dinner four-top, which is the only reason I am not already telling you what the kids ordered. But I always ask myself the family question at every meal, and at Broth & Beyond the answer is yes, easily. Hot pot is the most participatory format in the room. You build your own bowl, you control your own pace, you cook your own slice, and for a teenager that is real agency at the table instead of being handed a plate. The variety of meats, mushrooms, and noodles also covers a wide range of teenage moods, from the kid who wants beef and rice to the kid who wants to try the weird sour broth on a dare. I will report back the next time we are out here together.
The Verdict
Three strong broths, a smoked duck breast that outperformed the headline platter, a Market Table that pays off when you let the server walk you through it, a server who knew when to talk and when to step back, a room that feels like an occasion without trying, and a real bill that made sense once we did the Instagram thing. Broth & Beyond at CHIJMES is the hot pot in Singapore I would point a colleague to without hedging, and the one I want to bring the family back to next time.
Want to see the broths and the meats actually moving? We posted a couple of short clips from this dinner on Instagram. Head over to @travelandfoodguy and have a look.
Have you been to Broth & Beyond, or do you have a Singapore hot pot place we should check out the next time we are in town? Drop it in the comments. I am building a list for our next family trip out here.
