Tom Tan Yu, also known as 探鱼烤鱼, is a local fish hotpot franchise that opened since 2017. Today, Tanyu has 5 outlets in Singapore including 313@Somerset, Westgate, Bugis Junction, Tampines 1 and Waterway Point. We had wanted to give Tanyu a try for some time now but have been holding it off due to many other lower-priced options around. Nonetheless, we finally got around to give Tanyu a try and found its signature Grilled Fish with Fresh Green Pepper (鲜青椒爽麻烤鱼) to be a real delight…
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About Tanyu Grilled Fish (探鱼烤鱼)
Tanyu Grilled Fish (探鱼烤鱼) is a franchise that sells grilled fish in the style of Chongqing hotpot. But what really is 烤鱼 (Kao Yu) or grilled fish? 烤鱼 (Kao Yu) is a style of hotpot where the fish is first grilled (or BBQ) over flames to bring out its smokiness before placing it in a flavourful broth – hotpot style. We want to think that 烤鱼 (Kao Yu) is a kind of grilled fish hot pot simply because you can add other ingredients into the same broth as the grilled fish – just like a conventional hot pot as there’s a flame that continues to heat up the broth as you dine. This time, we visited the TanYu (探鱼烤鱼) at Waterway Point Punggol to check out its offerings…
Inside the TanYu (探鱼烤鱼) branch at Waterway Point Punggol, we walked into a modern, yet lightly dimmed restaurant, fashioned in the style of the quirky illustration that is unique to Tanyu. You’ll posters of the “ancient man” spear-fishing and grilling the fish over fire – the style of how fish is prepared at Tanyu (探鱼烤鱼). The premise is also spacious, clean and accentuated by the bright orange that has now come to be representative of TanYu Grilled Fish (探鱼烤鱼).
To order, we just had to scan the QR code at the table, put in our choices. Before long, a waiting staff approached our table to confirm our order and this were what we ordered…
What We Had at Tanyu Grilled Fish (探鱼烤鱼)
This time, we decided to go with the signature Tanyu (探鱼烤鱼) Grilled Fish with Fresh Green Pepper (鲜青椒爽麻烤鱼) with Ling Bo Fish Fillet ($43.90) with luncheon meat and sweet potato noodles at $4.50 each. The reason why we chose Ling Bo Fish Fillet is because we didn’t want to struggle with the bones of the fish. Turned out that this was an excellent choice because we had 4 huge chunky slabs of Ling Bo fish fillet that has been grilled to fragrant perfection before placing into the Fresh Green Pepper broth.
As for the Tanyu (探鱼烤鱼) Grilled Fish with Fresh Green Pepper (鲜青椒爽麻烤鱼), we found this dish to be a perfect rendition of a grilled fish hotpot. The broth was fragrant, flavourful yet paying tribute to its Chongqing origins by being ever so slightly spicy and numbing (because of the peppercorns used). But the highlight for us was actually the green peppers. They were really not that spicy but fresh, crunchy and appetising. Together with the bone-less Ling Bo fish fillet, we were able to enjoy the sweet chunky meats along with the crunchy goodness of the green peppers, without the need to struggle with the bones. Big mouthfuls of delicious grilled fish filled our experience this day. Yum!
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To be fair, the double plus did bring the entire dish to about $55. This is almost double what you might find at grilled fish (kaoyu) found at typical foodcourts and coffee shops. However, the taste at Tanyu (探鱼烤鱼) is unique, not a broth that we had tasted anywhere else. There was so much meat from the Lingbo fish fillet that we almost struggled to finish the dish. Lastly, the crunchy yet no-so-spicy green peppers added another dimension and experience that we have not tried before. Definitely worth a try if you’re looking to celebrate an occasion or simply finding a higher quality 烤鱼 (kaoyu) out there. Tanyu (探鱼烤鱼) does hit the spot! Enjoy!
