Fu Lu Shou 富炉首 (Clementi)

Fu Lu Shou 富炉首 is one of the places that we have been wanting to visit ever since we have came to know about the place via social media — while we had given their outlet in the Food Pavilion coffeeshop at Blk 443 Clementi Avenue 3 a visit, it is known that their first location was actually within a coffeeshop at Blk 267A Toh Guan Road in Jurong East. Their location at Clementi is more convenient, considering how the coffeeshop that they are situated in is just right beside The Clementi Mall / Clementi Bus Interchange — the coffeeshop also houses an outlet of The Lam’s Corner; a concept by the folks behind Lam’s Kitchen which operates several concepts such as that of Lam’s Abalone Noodle, Lam’s Kitchen and Lam’s Salt-Baked Chicken in different locations all over the island. Fu Lu Shou’s presence is actually quite noticeable even for those whom are passing by the coffeeshop; the stall is decked in a bright red facade that also sees some of its unique hotpots being used as a display piece — the signboards also being coloured in bright red with an oriental style to it. While most hotpot establishments located in coffeeshops dedicate themselves to serving up hotpot and perhaps Mookata, Fu Lu Shou does seem to take things a little further by offering not only the aforementioned items, but also Chicken Pot, as well as individually-sized zichar-style dishes that comes with rice — these can be found in the Rice section of the menu. For those looking to also order something to share around the table, one can look forward to various types of meat typically served at zichar settings, as well as Prawn Paste Chicken and Prawn Roll that is listed in the Signature Dishes section of the menu.

Since much of the emphasis at Fu Lu Shou is on their hot pot offerings, we decided to go for their Hot Pot — Single Pax. Patrons do get a choice of three soup bases to choose from here; the Premium Pork Bone Soup, Tomato Soup or the Si Chuan Mala Soup — the Si Chuan Mala Soup available in three levels of spiciness which would be Mild, Medium or Hot. Deciding against having something spicy for our soup base, we went for the Premium Pork Bone soup for our order. All Hot Pot — Single Pax comes with elements such as Sliced Pork Belly, Pork Balls, Crabstick, Xiao Bai Cai, Chinese Cabbage, Enoki Golden Mushroom and Black Fungus that has already been placed in the hot pot; the Hot Pot — Single Pax also comes served with rice served on the side as well. It is interesting to note how Fu Lu Shou serves their Hot Pot — Single Pax with the ingredients all fully-cooked within the soup base contained in the hotpot itself; very similar to their style of Mini Wok Noodles that are being served at Fishball Noodle / Minced Meat Noodle stalls around — there is a short waiting time involved even for the Hot Pot — Single Pax and patrons will be paged via the electronic buzzer once their food is ready for collection. Taking a sip of the soup base, we thought that the soup base came with an evident hint of savouriness — nothing close to that of a Japanese Tonkotsu broth (it doesn’t have to be, but just in case one was wondering since they had mentioned “Premium Pork Bone”), but was sufficiently flavourful yet rather clean-tasting at the same time; works best when one drenches the bowl of white rice with it. There really isn’t much to comment on the other elements that came with the Hot Pot Single Pax — Premium Pork Bone here considering how most of them were commercially-made ingredients; that being said, Fu Lu Shou does deserve some credit in how they had managed to achieve a good consistency with the sliced pork belly where it was tender and doesn’t require much effort to chew through, as well as managing the doneness of the greens where it still carried a soft crunch.

The Hot Pot — Single Pax is not the only item we had given a go at Fu Lu Shou during our visit to their Clementi outlet; noticing the vast array of items on their menu, we had also given the Sweet & Sour Pork Cubes Rice. Having only had another sweet and sour pork dish from another stall at a food court just less than a week before, the Sweet & Sour Pork Cubes Rice from Fu Lu Shou did fare better than the other one we have had — the Sweet & Sour Pork Cubes Rice came with pork cubes that were crisp on the exterior, with the meat being easy to chew on. The pork cubes also held out pretty well when left around for a while; these did not turn too tough too quickly. The sweet and sour sauce also was great balance of both flavour profiles, and they were pretty generous with the meat — it is interesting to note that their rendition of the sweet and sour pork does not come with pineapple chunks; rather, they had sliced capsicums, onions and diced cucumbers which carried a soft bite. There was also sufficient sweet and sour sauce with the Sweet & Sour Pork Cubes Rice to go along with the white rice that was served alongside it, though the sunny side-up was done with a fully-cooked yolk — some would definitely prefer it to have come with runny yolks instead. Overall, Fu Lu Shou does presents itself as a fuss-free dining option that fits within the price range for most — their Hot Pot — Single Pax is priced at $6.80 irregardless of the soup base that one opts for, while the individually-sized zichar-style rice dishes are priced at $6.50 flat; priced pretty competitively against other establishments that serves up the same. There is needless to say that Fu Lu Shou does make it easy for individual diners to solve their hotpot cravings; fancy-looking hotpot aside, there is no need to worry about the various ingredients being overcooked or underdone since Fu Lu Shou does the cooking — helps to get some concerns out of the window. An interesting dining option to have in the neighbourhood indeed.