Zi Bu Yang Sheng: Mini mala hotpot sets from $5.50 with amazing portions at Taman Jurong

As a true Eastie, trust me when I say that Zi Bu Yang Sheng is worth the trip to the West. Nestled in Taman Jurong Food Centre, this hawker stall sells affordable mini hotpot sets from as low as S$5.50, with homemade soup bases like mala, herbal and tom yum. And if you think that its low price point means it scrimps on portion or quality, think again.

Also known as 滋补养生小火锅, Zi Bu Yang Sheng is a one-man hawker stall located on the 2nd floor of Taman Jurong Food Centre.

You’ll spot it almost immediately— and not only thanks to its bright yellow signboard, but its long queue which never seems to stop growing.

Zi Bu Yang Sheng operates exclusively for dinner, opening at 5.30pm and closing at 10pm. Despite arriving just as they opened, it sported an impressive queue already— a sure sign that this was truly a hidden gem that even Westies will queue for. Some of its patrons were even neighbouring stall owners!

From ensuring that he disposes his latex gloves every single time he touches solid fuel to cutting the vegetables and preparing the choice of meat or seafood, it’s clear that the uncle running the stall labouriously assembles each set with much care and effort. This translates into a longer waiting time, so be prepared to queue.

One thing to note is that despite it being a “hotpot” stall, it’s still very much a hawker stall at heart; it’s all self service and you’ll have to carry your mini hotpot to your seat.

What I tried at Zi Bu Yang Sheng

Zi Bu Yang Sheng offers 6 mini hotpot sets: Pork Set Meal (S$5.50), Chicken Set Meal (S$5.50), Beef Set Meal (S$7), Mutton Set Meal (S$7), Prawn Set Meal (S$6) and Fish Set Meal (S$6).

For each mini hotpot set, you’ll get to pick from 4 homemade soup bases: Normal Soup (aka chicken soup), Mala Soup, Tom Yam Soup and Herbal Soup. Each set meal also comes with cabbage, Chinese spinach, enoki mushrooms, vermicelli, fish cake, sliced hot dog, cubes of luncheon meat, and a raw egg. If you’d like to order rice, it’ll be an additional S$0.50.

My colleague, Rachel, and I were initially sceptical of the low price point, thinking that the stall owner would balance it out with small portions of protein… Boy, were we wrong.

We decided to get the Prawn Set Meal and was shocked to see that for S$6, we were served 5 large prawns sitting on top of a mountain of vegetables.

To my delight, each prawn was succulent, juicy and fresh. I loved how the prawns absorbed the natural sweetness of the broth of choice (we had picked Herbal for this particular set).

For once, I was more than glad to peel the prawns, knowing that I had gotten such a steal with the decent quality of the prawns and their low price point. It only made the experience of digging into the juicy prawns all the more sweeter.

The Herbal soup was incredibly pleasant and drinkable. It used chicken stock, which gave it a natural sweet base. I could taste a mild earthy bitterness from the ginseng, and the rest of the herbs used made each spoonful aromatic and herbaceous.

The result: a comforting, authentic homemade herbal soup that reminded me of chicken herbal soup.

Do note that you’re not allowed to ask for refills of the soup, but frankly, the portions given were so huge that neither Rachel nor myself could finish what we had been served. In fact, despite being full, there must’ve been a third of soup left in our bowls when we were done with our meals.

From enoki mushrooms to Chinese cabbage that had been boiled till soft, I loved the variety of ingredients, which were welcome additions to the mini hotpot sets.

Each had its own purpose— the vegetables made the soup sweeter, the hot dogs and luncheon meat had satisfying bites, while others like the enoki mushrooms and fish cakes were QQ and springy.

Feeling strapped for cash? Go for Zi Bu Yang Sheng’s cheapest option— the Pork Set Meal, which costs a mere S$5.50. For this, we decided to pick the Mala soup base.

This must’ve easily been at least 200g to 300g of pork. We spotted both pork belly and lean pork, which cooked fast in the bubbling mini hot pot thanks to how thin it had been sliced.

Though the quality of the pork meat was average at best, the insane amount of quantity for its low price point made it incredibly worth it. This is the best example of getting more bang for your buck— I’d be hard-pressed to find any other hotpot place, hawker or not, which could top this.

Being a huge mala lover, I was really excited to try Zi Bu Yang Sheng’s Mala soup base.

This used beef stock to create a full-bodied and savoury soup, which had a strong kick of numbing and peppery spice. It reminded me of Taiwanese beef noodle soup— just with a spicy kick.

A tip: the vermicelli will soak up all the glorious flavour from the soup, making each slurp a real explosion of savoury, spicy goodness. In fact, I’d even go so far as to suggest that you avoid ordering rice (unless you absolutely need to) and order extra portions of vermicelli for S$2.

Final thoughts

This has got to be the most value-for-money hotpot set I’ve ever had. Zi Bu Yang Sheng not only offers amazingly affordable mini hotpot sets, the portions they give are so astounding that I spent half my meal genuinely wondering how the hawker earns a profit.

For someone who stays in the East, I’d gladly make the arduous journey to Taman Jurong to enjoy a piping hot meal like this. Apart from its ulu location, I’d say that the only other downside would be the ambience— you’ll be having this in a no-frills hawker centre, so please don’t expect the same table service as you’d get with hotpot restaurants.

Expected damage: S$5.50 – S$7 per pax

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