Ban Tian Yao 半天妖烤鱼 Singapore Has a $19.90 Grilled Fish Buffet — Here’s What You Actually Get

Singapore has reached a point where spending $20 on dinner barely raises an eyebrow.

So when we heard that Ban Tian Yao Grilled Fish Buffet 半天妖烤鱼 was offering a buffet for $19.90++ per person, there was really only one question:

What exactly are we getting for $19.90?

Because this isn’t a plate of chicken rice and a drink.

We’re talking grilled fish 烤鱼, seafood 海鲜, sliced meats 肉片, vegetables 蔬菜 and noodles that you can keep adding into a bubbling tray in the middle of the table.

And if that isn’t enough, another $2 gets you free-flow rice, snacks, fruit, drinks and ice cream.

There’s also the option to switch things up with another soup base, with Pickled Mustard Greens Grilled Fish 酸菜烤鱼 priced at $8 for a soup-base change during the promotion.

Suddenly, Ban Tian Yao becomes much more interesting if you’re trying to feed a hungry group in Singapore without watching the bill quietly destroy everyone’s mood.

But before you gather eight friends and announce that you’ve discovered dinner for under $20, here’s what you should actually know.

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What Is Ban Tian Yao Grilled Fish 半天妖烤鱼?

Ban Tian Yao 半天妖烤鱼 is a Chinese restaurant chain specialising in grilled fish 烤鱼 served in strongly flavoured broths, from fragrant green peppercorn to spicy mala and savoury sauces.

The brand started in China in 2015 and has since expanded across Asia.

Its signature dish is Green Peppercorn Grilled Fish 青花椒烤鱼.

This is the flavor Ban Tian Yao puts front and center: grilled fish sitting in an aromatic broth loaded with green Sichuan peppercorns.

If you’ve never had 青花椒 before, don’t expect chilli heat alone.

There’s a citrusy aroma, a distinctive peppercorn fragrance and that familiar numbing sensation that slowly creeps across your tongue.

Ban Tian Yao also offers other grilled-fish flavour profiles, including Mala Grilled Fish 麻辣烤鱼, Savory Sauce Grilled Fish 酱香烤鱼 and Pickled Mustard Greens Grilled Fish 酸菜烤鱼.

The general format sits somewhere between grilled fish and hotpot.

Except the fish remains the main event.

You sit around the tray, let everything simmer, add whatever ingredients you feel like, and slowly work your way through the meal.

海鲜、肉片、蔬菜想吃什么自己配
Seafood, sliced meats and vegetables — mix and match whatever you want.

That pretty much sums up the concept.

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So What Do You Get With Ban Tian Yao’s $19.90 Buffet?

The $19.90++ buffet is essentially a build-your-own grilled fish experience, with grilled fish 烤鱼 plus self-service seafood, sliced meats, vegetables and other ingredients.

一整大冰箱里的海鲜、菜、肉片全部自己拿
There’s a whole refrigerated section of seafood, vegetables and sliced meats — just help yourself.

From what is shown in the buffet spread, diners can pick from ingredients such as prawns 鲜虾, crab 螃蟹, mussels, sliced meats 肉片, broccoli, lotus root, noodles and vegetables.

You take what you want.

Drop it into the broth.

Wait.

Eat.

Repeat.

And the buffet has a 90-minute dining limit, so this is not an all-afternoon marathon.

That is probably for the best.

Because unlimited food has a strange ability to make otherwise sensible adults behave as if noodles are about to become illegal tomorrow.

Start small.

You can always go back.

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Is It Really Unlimited Grilled Fish Buffet?

The promotion is pretty direct:

19.9++ 无限吃烤鱼
$19.90++ for unlimited grilled fish.

But the format is more interesting than simply ordering fish again and again.

完全就是一锅“自选版烤鱼”
It’s basically a build-your-own grilled fish pot.

And that is probably the best way to explain the experience.

You start with grilled fish and a broth, then turn the tray into something closer to a hybrid between grilled fish and hotpot by adding seafood, meats, vegetables and noodles.

There are also multiple soup-base options:

6种汤底吃完一条再换一条
Six soup-base flavours — finish one fish, then switch to another.

That gives the meal a bit more variety than sitting with the same flavour for 90 minutes.

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Is the Extra $2 for Ice Cream, Drinks and Rice Actually Useful?

For another $2 per person, you can add free-flow drinks, rice and ice cream.

This might actually be one of the easier decisions of the meal.

Rice 米饭 makes sense with the salty, spicy broth.

Drinks make even more sense once the peppercorn starts negotiating aggressively with your tongue.

And ice cream?

After an hour of 青花椒, chilli and steaming grilled fish, something cold and sweet suddenly feels less like dessert and more like emergency equipment.

You don’t necessarily need the add-on if you’re a small eater.

But if you’re already planning a full buffet session, paying another $2 for all three is probably the part of the deal most people won’t spend much time debating.

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What Should First-Timers Order?

If this is your first visit to Ban Tian Yao 半天妖烤鱼, don’t complicate things.

Start with the Green Peppercorn Grilled Fish 青花椒烤鱼 if your group enjoys the numbing fragrance of Sichuan peppercorn.

Prefer something more traditionally spicy?

Try Mala Grilled Fish 麻辣烤鱼.

Then take a reasonable first round of buffet ingredients and let them cook in the broth before deciding what deserves another trip to the counter.

Most importantly, leave room for the 烤鱼.

Seriously.

Buffets have a strange ability to make intelligent adults fill half their stomach with noodles before remembering they’ve come to a grilled fish buffet restaurant.

And honestly, that’s probably the most interesting thing about Ban Tian Yao’s buffet.

It isn’t just unlimited grilled fish.

It’s a grilled-fish meal you keep rebuilding as you eat.

Save this for your next hungry group dinner in Singapore — especially if somebody in your group always says “Anything lah,” and then rejects the first six restaurants in Singapore you suggest.