Craving a good ol' fashion dinner hotpot? I have two words for you: Nabe One.
Nabe One has officially become my favorite place in HK for hotpot. Located near iSquare in TST, Nabe One is about three minutes' walk from the MTR station - just head out of exit H into iSquare, go up two escalators and then make a right turn.
I normally try to make a booking, but almost every time, they tell me that they're all booked up but that they welcome walk-ins. So we usually take a number and wait. When waiting, you'll be asked to pick your two soup bases first - more on that later. It'll typically be a good ten or fifteen minutes before you hear the best sound you could possibly hear at that moment - your number finally being called!
You'll have 90 minutes to eat as much as you want, and because Nabe One is usually packed, especially on weekends or on winter days that are abnormally cold, they're pretty strict on the time limit. Towards the end, they'll remind you that the time is almost up and hand you the bill. My trick is to start slow - don't eat too much and burn yourself out, or you'll be groaning about not being able to eat any more after half an hour!
When I'm here with my friends, we always get the miso and the tomato soup base. The miso soup base is good, but gets incredibly salty after a while that we have to keep asking waiters to add hot water to neutralize it. Despite that, it never seems to water down, so I much prefer the tomato soup base because it's a lot less salty. The choice of food here is pretty endless - vegetables, different kinds of meat, an array of sauces to choose from, etc. I have no complaints about the food here!
For dessert, frozen yogurt and ice cream is all-you-can-eat too! I don't really like the frozen yogurt here because it's way too sweet and doesn't have the tangy undertones that I like in my yogurt. Oh, and drinks are all-you-can-drink as well, so help yourself to the sodas and their different teas!
Like I said, the food here generally is great, besides that the miso soup base is ridiculously salty that after a while it's basically just a pot of sodium. But one complaint is that the booths here are super cramped. It's kind of hard to wiggle your way in because the benches are so close to the table. It's advisable to have the people who like being the ones to go out and get food to be sitting on the outside so that it's easier for them! read more