Food Blog | Guoma Express Eco Botanic
Guoma Express is a steamboat -esque restaurant with a pretty unique characteristic - you have a small steamboat in front of you just for yourself! No more fighting with friends for which soup and dishes you want inside your dishes, this place is for all those people who like slightly stranger combinations but are shy to ask for it! XD
Really individual style seating. (Some group tables as well, but this is the main concept) Pot to yourself to cook your food and a small window in front of you for them to pass you things.
Is it Halal?
No, Guoma Express is non-halal and serves pork in its menu.
Where it Is?
Guoma Express is located in the square surrounding the Eco Nest Apartment in Eco Botanic. It is along the same row as Family Mart (further in, towards the apartment in the middle) and there is free parking that is readily available in the Eco Botanic area.
Address: No.9, Jalan Eco Botanic 3/4, 79100 Iskandar Puteri, Johor Darul Takzim Johor Bahru
Operating Hours
Daily: 12pm to 11pm
What it Costs
I feel as though most people eating here will pretty much just take a set. Their set is basically a choice of a soup, 2 main dishes (you can choose a vegetable platter and a meat or even two meats without vegetables at no additional charge), a carbohydrate (rice/instant noodles/ramen, etc.), a drink and a dessert at the price of RM28.90. I’ve put the menu down below so that you can take a look.
One thing to note: on the menu it says additional RM5 for sharing of set. I actually had to ask for what this meant, because me and my girlfriend considered getting one set and adding on side dishes, because that might be more worth it. Instead, what it means is that you literally get one extra set of chopsticks. That’s it. You really don’t get anything extra. I guess maybe something to stop people from drinking too much soup? (which is weird because this is one of those places where you have to pay to add on soup)
If you’re coming here in a pair, I would say just order one vegetable platter to share and then order 3 meat dishes. The vegetable platter is pretty big, so unless you’re a rabbit, I would think it is much more worth it to get more meat to share among the two of you.
(There is one of those sauce stations in the middle that come FOC as well. I mean, there’s nothing much there - don’t expect Haidilao level or even October level, because it is far from it)
This is their vegetable platter! There’s actually some meat balls and such in here, but there is another option which is called the Vegetarian/Vegan Platter (I can’t remember which), but there’s plenty of vegetables in this one!
How it Tastes
I got the combination of pork bone soup, the vegetable platter, their signature beef and the minced pork rice. Overall the taste is decent, the soup is quite flavourful and I guess one you have all the dishes mixed in, it is quite yummy.
The meat isn’t the freshest thing in the world, but I mean, I don’t know what else to expect in this kind of place, but it does its job. It does fill you up quite a bit.
I also tried some tofu skin rolls that my girlfriend ordered - a bit on the meh side, but I guess it is just tofu skin rolls. I think I’m asking too much from a simple tofu skin roll XD.
I actually quite liked the Lu Rou Fan here! But of course I will say that about the cheapest thing that I can possible get from the set.
The dessert you get here is actually one of those milo ice cream small tubs that you get.
Star Rating
5/10. I feel as though you don’t get that much value for RM28.90 here, but this is one of those “does its job” places in terms of steamboat. If you ask me, I think there is more value out of paying RM11 more to get the buffet set at Thai Tree Mookata (buffet plus the fact that it is a mix of barbecue and steamboat).