This time of the year again where annual obligatory reflections flood social media, bidding near-farewell to yet another year. Some of us are thankful for the lessons we learnt — whether by choice or not — while others are left questioning why me, why this, why not. It's a mixture of both. Reminiscing the past and being thankful for whatever came my way this year, good or bad.

This is a reminder to myself that things will work out. I need to stop worrying things I have no control over because they usually turn out in my favour. Take a step back, breathe, let go. I'll be okay. And you know, for once, believe in my own words.

Steam-potting in The Ocean Pot, Singapore

Craving for a steamboat session with your best buddies during Singapore's rainy season in December? forget everything you know about steamboat because steam-pot is the latest trend! Originating from Hong Kong, steam-potting is a special twist to the traditional steamboat where raw rice and ingredients are added to the bottom of your pot at the beginning of your meal, leaving the blend to brew into a porridge while you continue with the rest of your meal. The juices from your later ingredients will drip into the pot, creating natural flavourings for your porridge.

First step of steam-potting: pouring ingredients into bottom of the pot

The base of your porridge for steam-potting

Where can you find steam-potting in Singapore?

The Ocean Pot, seafood steam-pot restaurant located at Serangoon

Entrance to The Ocean Pot

Priced reasonably from SGD $25+ onwards, The Ocean Pot rides on the trend of steam-potting and is located conveniently within the vicinity of Chomp Chomp Food Centre.

Photo by Hongjie Lee, commissioned by The Ocean Pot

Photo by Hongjie Lee, commissioned by The Ocean Pot

Photo by Hongjie Lee, commissioned by The Ocean Pot

A cosy atmosphere greeted me as I walked in The Ocean Pot; the restaurant was spacious with a choice of round desk (perfect for family gatherings) or booth seats (popular with teenagers and young adults) for added privacy.

Menu and pricing for The Ocean Pot

The Ocean Pot offers seafood steam-potting at a pocket-friendly price suitable even for teenagers and young adults on a budget!

Bird nest served by The Ocean Pot

After adding the ingredients for Five Grain Fragrant Porridge, while waiting for the steam-pot to heat up, The Ocean Pot pampered us with their Superior Bird's Nest Soup and appetisers like fried salmon skin.

Variety of seafood prepared for us by The Ocean Pot

Appetisers and mains prepared for steam-potting

Of course, the mains would be the stars of the show — seafood! The Ocean Pot only serves seafood of the freshest quality, ensuring that you have a superb dining experience with them.

Steam-potting at The Ocean Pot

As seen from this photo, the holes on the pot's cover allow the seafood juices to drip down to your porridge that serves as a perfect ending to your steam-potting experience with The Ocean Pot.

Sauces to go with our seafood (photo by Hongjie Lee, commissioned by The Ocean Pot)

Stream from the steam-pot makes great Boomerang opportunity!

The portions were generous and The Ocean Pot was more than happy to assist us in preparing our meals.

Adding lobsters into the porridge stew

While waiting for the porridge to absorb the lobster's essence, we made our way for the Handmade Trio Meatball Platter.

Handmade trio meatball platter

The meatballs were made of (from right to left) pork, chicken and... cuttlefish?! Indeed, the black balls pictured made of cuttlefish were springy and unique.



Served along with sides like Portabella and Enoki mushroom, pumpkin and yam slices, the handmade trio meatball platter itself was enough to fill our tummies so it's recommended that you drag a few friends along for this extremely affordable seafood feast.

Revealing the lobster porridge

It's time for the finale, the grand reveal of the lobster porridge that has been cooking throughout our entire meal.


By now the soup has been drenched with juices of every seafood we previously eaten, providing a rich taste yet natural flavoruring to the soup base for our porridge.




Although a seafood restaurant, The Ocean Pot serves chicken as well. Their Kampong Chicken with Cordycep Flower is available on Set Menu A and B.


For desserts, we had The Ocean Pot's Osmanthus Jelly. Commonly served at Chinese restaurants, Osmanthus Jelly is a refreshing and healthy dessert made with Osmanthus flower tea.

Photo by Hongjie Lee, commissioned by The Ocean Pot

The Ocean Pot is a great place for you to hangout with your friends over a simple lunch or dinner if you're looking for affordable seafood restaurants in Singapore. It's difficult to find a restaurant in Singapore that starts their set meals at only $25+ (with no GST!).

Thank you for having us, The Ocean Pot!

One of The Ocean Pot's many opening promotions

Make reservations at The Ocean Pot now to enjoy their various opening promotions:

1. Ladies Night special — From 1 December 2016, ladies get 30% off every Thursday and gentlemen are entitled to their in-house 10% promo for The Ocean Pot's selected set menus.
2. From 11am to 3pm, patrons can enjoy The Ocean Pot's $25 per pax set meal, available daily inclusive of weekends and public holidays.
3. 10% off + free drinks per pax for selected set menus when you like The Ocean Pot's Facebook page.

The Ocean Pot (Facebook)
87 Serangoon Garden Way
TEL: 6282 3996

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This post was brought to you by The Ocean Pot.

I repeated this several times throughout our relationship, and meant it with the whole of my heart each time. When we broke up, I couldn't imagine myself falling for another guy's laughter. I thought I would never love another person the way I loved him. The thing is, I eventually came to realise that no one loves another person the exact same way and I grew to be okay with that.

Margarita's: authentic Mexican restaurant located at Dempsey Hill

Margarita's, tucked away along Singapore's famous insta-worthy Dempsey Hill, is a Mexican restaurant founded in 1988. Popular with both working crowd and families, Margarita's Dempsey Hill serves a mixture of authentic Mexican cuisine, desserts and of course, cocktails.

Waiting for our Grab

Dempsey Hill was definitely slightly out of the way for Chelsea and me since we don't drive and we found ourselves frantically Googling "how to get to Dempsey Hill without driving". However, our worries were unfounded — you'd be surprise to know that cabbing there is actually pretty affordable with the taxi apps we have nowadays! Grab was having a $5 off promotion that day, so we got to Margarita's Dempsey Hill from Orchard CentrePoint for only $2 each. Pretty worth it, if you ask me.

Interior of Margarita's Dempsey Hill

Walking in, I noticed that from furniture to decoration, every part of Margarita's Dempsey Hill was intricately decorated. The lighting at Margarita's Dempsey Hill also gave the Mexican restaurant a cosy vibe perfect for gatherings with your family or friends.

Paintings imported from Mexico for Margarita's Dempsey Hill

Favian, manager of Margarita's Dempsey Hill, later shared with me that each painting is specially commissioned by Margarita's, so you'll never be able to find the exact set of paintings anywhere else in the world. With paintings imported from Mexico itself, Margarita's Dempsey Hill is as authentic as a Mexican restaurant can be in Singapore.

A peek at Margarita's Dempsey Hill's extensive menu.

Margarita's Dempsey Hill's drinks menu

Enjoying our Margarita cocktails at Margarita's Dempsey Hill

Much to my delight, we were served Margarita De La Casa (House Margarita) and Grand Margarita upon being ushered to our seats. How can we forget the exact cocktails where the Mexican restaurant's name was derived from, am I right?

Margarita De La Casa (House Margarita) and Grand Margarita ($20 and $19 respectively)

Lightly lined with salt along the glasses' rims, the frozen margaritas were a perfect blend that easily glided down our throats. It's not difficult to understand why their margaritas are so popular with patrons either — Andy Yap, owner of Margarita's, spent almost 20 years perfecting their margaritas. Talk about dedication!

Appetisers at Margarita's Dempsey Hill

Bacon Rellenos (Bar Snack) ($20) at Margarita's Dempsey Hill

Bacon! How can anything with bacon taste bad? Unsurprisingly, the Bacon Rellenos at Margarita's Dempsey Hill was pleasing to the mouth. The bacon provided a chewy texture to the otherwise boring dish and the green chile pepper makes Bacon Rellenos feel less sinful.

The Bacon Rellenos felt a little spicy for Chelsea and me so it might not be suitable for kids. Keeping in mind that I can't even take pepper without feeling the burn, it's safe to say that if you're a fan of spicy food — as most Singaporeans are — you'll probably enjoy this appetiser.

Nachos La Especial ($18) at Margarita's Dempsey Hill

Raved by many netizens as a "must try", I was especially looking forward to trying Margarita's Nachos La Especial.

Layers of nachos chips and various ingredients of Nachos La Especial ($18)

This hot favourite of many didn't disappoint! The chips were thin and crispy, even though we left it there for a while when we were busy chatting and taking photos. Initially I thought the cheese could get jelak after a while, as with most nachos dishes, but Margarita's Dempsey Hill does this Mexican dish justice — the ingredients mixed with cheese makes Nachos La Especial less jelak and we quickly wiped out the entire dish.

Quick service at Margarita's Dempsey Hill makes us smile

One thing I have to commend Margarita's Dempsey Hill for is their service. Our dishes were served briskly and any questions we raised were swiftly answered. Even though customers were continuously streaming in the restaurant, the servers found time to patiently explain each dish to us and even joked with us, lightening the atmosphere. Good service is hard to come by and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there due to the staff of Margarita's Dempsey Hill.

Mains at Margarita's Dempsey Hill

By this point, Chelsea and I were full to bursting and extremely satisfied but who could say no to desserts? I have to admit we were slightly disappointed to learn that we'd be served coffee-based desserts because we're both not fans of coffee. Yeah, we're that annoying customer that order non-coffee drinks at Starbucks or Coffee Bean. We went ahead with it anyway because what could go wrong?

Kahlua Tiramisu at Margarita's Dempsey Hill ($16)

While Chelsea was busy taking selfies, I took a spoonful of Margarita's Kahlua Tiramisu then paused for what seemed like minutes. It was THAT amazing! I wish I was exaggerating when I say I still think about Margarita's Kahlua Tiramisu from time to time *dreamy look*

"Eh, Chelsea! Faster try this!" I exclaimed, insisting that she put down her phone to have a taste of this yummy goodness.

Coffee-based dessert, Kahlua Tiramisu, at Margarita's Dempsey Hill ($16)

And her eyes lit up as soon as she tasted this delicious dessert too.

Covered with cocoa powder and flavoured with a tinge of Mexican coffee, Kahlua Tiramisu is a yummy mousse dessert that literally melts in your mouth. It was strong in flavour yet it, interestingly, appealed to non-coffee drinkers like us.

Kahbrita ($15) at Margarita's Dempsey Hill

Next up: Kahbrita. By then, Margarita's Dempsey Hill had heightened my expectations but how amazing can good ol' vanilla ice cream get?

Coffee based ice cream dessert, Kahbrita ($15), at Margarita's Dempsey Hill

Maybe vanilla ice cream coated with cocoa powder sounds typical but Margarita's Dempsey Hill never fail to surprise.

Kahlua under Kahbrita ($15) at Margarita's Dempsey Hill

Below this underrated dessert lies Kahlua, a coffee-flavored sugar-based liqueur imported from Mexico.

A shot of espresso for our Kahbrita at Margarita's Dempsey Hill

A shot of espresso to go with the Kahbrita dessert.



Being non-coffee drinkers, we were initially worried about the espresso ruining our ice cream dessert but we were given special instructions to pour the espresso in our dessert.

"The espresso will complete your the dessert so you must must must do it!"

Pouring the espresso for Kahbrita

Thank you for having us, Margarita's!

Margarita's
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Margarita's Outlets

Dempsey Hill
11 Dempsey Road, Singapore 249673
TEL: 6471 3228

East Coast Road
404 E Coast Rd, Singapore 428998
TEL: 6440 8030

As Margarita's is a popular Mexican restaurant in Singapore that's usually packed, it's recommended that you call to make a booking before heading down to avoid any disappointment.

Tip: Download Fave app for exclusive deals at Margarita's Dempsey Hill!