This review is based on a Thursday evening at 6pm.
White couple who loves them some food and doesn't give two sh*ts that we are the only white people in a joint...You don't speak English-great I'll point to things and smile. Our server doesn't give us every tiny helpful detail-because it's our first time...We do not care! What we order isn't what we are are given-awesome it probably tastes better anyway!
So on to the meal...it was our first revolving Hot Pot experience and so that fact is going to be reflected in this review.
We loved it! The service was good. Our server was a laidback dude, some would call him aloof, but he was polite and helpful, but didn't pester. Him being soft spoken and wearing a mask made for him having to repeat himself quite a bit with all the various tables. He smiled-even got a few chuckles out of him, kept our waters filled, tended to our sake and brought extra napkins...like what more do we need!
THE SAUCE STATION....I repeat the sauce station!! That was the highlight...we took full advantage of it..the special sauce was delish and spicy...yum! We love our sauces and dipping things in ALL the things!
Meat selection-Thin sliced..pork belly, brisket, lamb and chicken. You have to request these separate to what is floating around on the belt. What is on the belt is seafood related and these tiny little sausages which were a yummy little porky treat...I'm pretty sure I ate my weight in them.
~They were out of mashed proteins because of "labor shortages"-we didn't miss them, because we didn't even know they were really a thing to miss.
Seafood-whole shrimp, mussels, clams, white fish, some other white fish, squid and fish balls,
Veggies-Wood ear, mushrooms, fungus, cabbage, mixed greens, taro, radish, more cabbage, potato, chrysanthemum(which is really good), bok choy and I'm probably forgetting a few others.
Other offerings-Thin and thicker rice noodles, glass noodle, ramen noodle, pork dumplings, fried dough, tofu-couple of varieties...what I think was rice cakes, it very well may have been sliced radish. Kelp, beef/pork/fish balls, corn and probably 2-3 other things I'm leaving out. I'm sure it varies based on volume and availability of things.
The broth we picked was Tom Yum and Tomato. Both were a little on the bland side, but after a couple of spoonfuls of the various sauce station pickings-we were in business..but wanted to make note of it. You will probably want to add additional seasoning before you dive in with all the meat/veg. We are dippers so we were perfectly fine dipping our stuff in the sauces too.
~Don't forget to grab a ladle, you'll want it for chasing the floaty bits from your broth-if you don't see it, then ask!
~May also want to ask for a bowl...they give you plates, but a small bowl would have served as a better food vehicle. Not a knock-but looking back I wished I'd asked for one.
Two people, a medium bottle of sake 20% tip ran us just short of $100 bucks. Not cheap, but we've wasted way more on crappy food...so I think it was reasonable.
Would go back again....but not on a weekend. read more