What is it with hot pot places and space themes? Like Three Hotpot Barbecue in Midtown Manhattan, Hungry Pot is decorated with astronauts and other vaguely lunar-themed paraphernalia. Cute? Weird? Non-sequitur?
For reasons other than the decor, Hungry Pot is hard to review. It's the only hot pot place I know of in this part of Connecticut, and therefore worthy of praise and support. We so appreciate this as an option especially since my family is currently obsessed with hot pot, and especially as the weather cools down enough to make hot pot enjoyable to eat. But perhaps unsurprisingly for an all-you-can-eat restaurant, the quality isn't always of the highest tier.
The broths are a weak point. All of the ones we tried were noticeably sweet and made with a low brow bouillon powder, which I personally cannot enjoy. (I have the same aversion to margarine.) Hot pots are for each individual and not shared, which the kiddos like. I personally prefer a communal hot pot at the center of the table, but I suppose this style of dining allows for greater choice. Among our party, we had the Thai Tom Yum (pescatarian); Healthy Herbs; Spicy Asian (essentially the same as the "healthy" herbs with chilis added); and the Szechuan spicy (not that spicy by our standards and without much, if any, mala Sichuan peppercorns).
Vegetables were extremely fresh, however, especially the spinach, and we were happy to find fresh bamboo shoots on offer, though they were a touch gristly. Animal proteins (sliced ribeye, beef tongue, prime brisket and sliced lamb in our case) were for the most part thinly sliced and of fair to good quality, not overly fatty. The Pardner's sliced pork was far too thickly sliced for this kind of preparation. Tofu options were somewhat limited, but the kiddos enjoyed their yuba and fried tofu rolls per usual. I loved the quail eggs.
The condiment bar was enormous and fun, with so many options, including fresh fruit (yay!), two kinds of kimchi (napa cabbage and cucumber), wakame seaweed salad, mesclun, French fries (surprisingly good for this kind of set up -- but unfortunately, the kiddos wanted to fill up on these), and SNOW CRAB LEGS. And some sort of tres leches-y type of cake.
The crab legs totally won me over -- even though I couldn't figure out how to extract the meat for a while, with only my chopsticks and bare hands at my disposal. Eventually, I had to ask our (incredibly nice, but very busy) server for a crab shell cracker. No picks were offered, but I managed to make do with a chopstick.
The cake totally won the kids over. Including the older than 40 one.
This is a fun experience, not overly high brow. Prices are quite fair, however, to my understanding ($32.99 for adults at dinnertime, $16.99 for children 7-10). And our server, Xiaoping, was extremely gracious and kind, though she seemed to be spread quite thin across a large number of demanding tables. It's busy on weekends at dinnertime, and there are no reservations taken, but we did not have to wait more than a few minutes for a table.
I'm probably too old and my appetite too small to really be all in on these kinds of AYCE places. (Quality over quantity wins at some point as one ages.) But the kiddos were so into this that I'm sure we'll be back. It's really good to have this in Danbury!! read more