Tag: hotpot

For years I’ve walked past skewer hot pot restaurants, not really understanding how they worked, until now.

The concept of a skewer hot pot, as I learned through my visit to Six Po Hot Pot in Burwood, is similar to that of a sushi train. All items are arranged on skewers, collected in a self-serve fashion from a central fridge, with items of greater quality or expense attracting a higher skewerage or simply coming in a smaller quantity. Patrons collect their food, boil them at the table, the cost of their meal is calculated afterwards based on the number of empty skewers collected as well as any soup base, sauce, and other cover charges. This was not the experience that I had, because being quite hungry I led my friends down the path of a buffet with unlimited skewerage as well as unskewered foods for the princely sum of $50 pp.

Despite the buffet format of the meal, I did enjoy the pure utility of the skewers in being able to portion out reasonably small quantities of each particular item. Where at a normal hot pot restaurant you would hardly be able to order a single piece of broccoli or a single meat ball, a per-skewer cost of 70 to 90 cents meant that it was absolutely possible to just get a little morsel of something that caught your fancy.

For soup bases we had the chicken and mushroom soup combo ($19.80 paid separately above the $45pp buffet price), which we did not feel were particularly different from one another. Certainly they were topped up from the same kettle.

The beef skewers that came with entire chillis on them were actually quite spicy

Beyond the ample skewer selection we were also able to choose an all-you-can-eat quantity of cooked foods. We partook in some deep fried pork belly (pictured), as well as some deep fried rice cake with brown sugar and sweet ice jelly, all of which were not bad.

OVERALL
All you can eat is certainly a draw card for this restaurant, though for $45 per person we could’ve had 64 skewers each or 320 skewers in total, so I think I ultimately led our group down the wrong path. That’s ok though, the last time we had hot pot together it was like $90 pp.

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Six Po Hot Pot
146 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134
0416 477 881

Our bank accounts are very modest, and when my girlfriend suggested we go to the Dolar Shop for hotpot I very skillfully redirected us to YX Mini Hot Pot, a competent and reasonable alternative situated across the road.

One of the things I really like about YX Mini Hotpot are the semi-private booths that they offer. The interior is quite dark, and the spacious booths mean that you can enjoy your meal in private away from prying eyes.

We enjoyed YX Mini Hot Pot’s various hotpot bases. I chose the dual-base with preserved vegetable and fish (酸菜) and chili. I liked both bases but I wish that the fish and chilli base could be paired with a more neutral base like the mushroom base or the bone broth base. Unfortunately the combinations available for the dual broths were limited and I had to settle for two tasty broths.

My partner picked the mushroom base and the tomato base. The mushroom base was light and shroomy, and the tomato base was quite sweet. Both were quite good.

We enjoyed the assorted mushrooms and the bok choy. My partner particularly liked the way the oyster mushrooms were cut, which were flat and thin. One thing I would mention is that the bok choy was cut in a way where the stem and root end were completely removed, leaving only the leaf. I don’t know why they would have done this, as I quite like the stem part. As I was typing this my partner informed me that bok choy is her favourite vegetable to wash “as they have nice broad stems, and there’s not much room to hide dirt, and the leaves are easy to peel and detach.”

I can recommend both the fried tofu skin and the fresh tofu. Both were great at absorbing the taste of the soup.

As we are budget eaters, we ordered the normal sliced beef and sliced lamb. There were differing cuts and grades of wagyu on offer, however, for the discerning and wide walleted diner. The beef was very good and fresh. The lamb we found to be a bit lamby, however acceptable when cooked in the chilli soup base.

The assorted balls (meat and seafood) I thought was a bit missable. It was nice that they offered fresh stuff as opposed to supermarket freezer stuff, but they didn’t really wow me. If I had my time again I would not get these and get more meat or other seafood.

In conclusion: We really enjoyed YX Mini Hot Pot. We paid around $120 to satisfy two humans, which I think is a reasonable amount to pay for fresh ingredients. The ingredients were much fresher than Legend Hotpot Buffet in Emerald Square Burwood, however more expensive. We paid a similar amount at Chong Qing Ji Gong Bao in Kingsford, which is also a good option a bit further out from the city. I can recommend, however I can’t say anything about YX’s more premium offerings.

Yuxiang Mini Hot Pot Haymarket
1/102-108 Hay St, Haymarket NSW 2000
(02) 8065 9932

Let me tell you about the good vibes I have about this place in Kingsford. We went once in 2020, mid-June during the COVID-19 pandemic.
We arrive around closing time, but the restaurant was still happy to accommodate us.

The staff were Mandarin speaking, but also with English skills. Service was really nice, and the restaurant felt very homely. It was a cosy place and I felt welcome and at ease.

The ingredients were fresh and nothing out of the ordinary. Though being a specialty chicken hot pot restaurant, there was still the full variety of other animals to eat.

Verdict
I had a nice time. We paid only $90 for two people for a full meal. I would go back.

Chong Qing Ji Gong Bao Kingsford
516 Anzac Parade, Kingsford NSW 2032