Thien Kee Steamboat – Traditional Hainanese Steamboat

Thien Kee Steamboat Restaurant

Thien Kee Steamboat Restaurant ('TK') at Golden Mile is a name that most people in Singapore heard or familiar with. This Hainanese restaurant begins its operation in 1952 and they have been the anchor tenant in the basement of Golden Mile Tower as long as I remember.

The restaurant itself had undergone a facelift. I remember a while back the place is dark and dingy. However, in the recent visit, it has transformed into a clean eatery. The first thing that you will notice when you received their menu is there is no price on the menu. This mystery often lead to “kiasu” perception where if you get chopped here or not?

The Menu - No Printed Price

Hainanese Chicken and Chicken Rice. The signature dish here. The chicken is poached to almost cooked, sometimes you can still see the blood near the bones. It is plump, juicy and succulent, with silky skin. The combination of light soy sauce and oil are drizzled on the chicken for more flavour. A minus point here is that the chicken missing its bishop, my favourite part of the chicken.

Hainanese Chicken

The rice is aromatic and plump. The rice soaks up the essence of the chicken broth plus the ginger and garlic.

Chicken Rice

Steamboat set. This is an old style Hainanese steamboat style. Only one type of soup base, which is the chicken soup base, extracted from boiling the chicken. We ordered the basic seafood set that consists of prawns, cockles, fishballs, pig liver, fish maw, vegetables, and eggs.

The Steamboat Pot

Basic Seafood Set

Since we got 8 adults (all big eaters) plus 3 kids, we ordered the extra ingredients that we want, such as: fishballs, sliced beef (2 plates), sliced pork (2 plates), fish maw and sliced fish.

Beef

Pork

The fishballs are bouncy and tasty, and the kids love it. The sliced pork and beef are tender but you need to give it a bit of chewing to rip through the meat. I personally like the fish maw as the cut is very generous and absorbs the broth well.

Fish

Fish Maw

Fishballs

We also ordered a plate of crispy roast pork, but it was stale as the skin is no longer crispy.

Crispy Roast Pork

Meanwhile, the Hainanese satay is definitely something worth ordering. The meat is thick, well seasoned and the best part is the fats that they insert in between the meat. Yum Yum.

Hainanese Satay

Service here is old style. No fuss with a bit of character. The final bill is $252 for 11 pax including drinks. I think it is reasonable.

Overall, Thien Kee is a restaurant from the yesteryear, possibly a place that you dine in since you are a kid. The food is good and consistent, but not something that will WOW you. Just a good comfort food that will bring back lots of memories. If you bring the elders here, I am sure they will be happy. Cheers!!

Food & Drink: 7.5/10

Value: 7/10

Service: 6/10

Ambiance: 6/10

Budget per Person: $11 - $26.

Golden Mile Thien Kee Steamboat Restaurant

6001 Beach Road

#B1-20 Golden Mile Tower

Singapore 199589

T: +65 6293 5910

OH: Daily 11.00 – 22.00