We recently fell in love dining at a new restaurant called Hotpot Kitchen. From the restaurant's name, it is common to guess that the food sold might be related to steamboat. Well, you're not wrong but the restaurant is not selling the usual hot pot (foodstuffs in a pot of soup). In fact, they are actually selling the dry version of hot pot originated from Sichuan Province of China. Sichuan pepper and herbs are the main ingredients in this nice, yummy and fragrant bowl of dry hot pot.
Why did we love this restaurant so much even though they are not the first to introduce Sichuan cuisine in Kuala Lumpur? It is because their introduction of a new trend whereby customers can choose the ingredients that they want (buffet style) and they will prepare the dry hot pot based on the preferred level of spiciness.
Upon entering the restaurant, you will notice two chillers (one for vegetables and one for meat). Each chiller has at least 15 different ingredients for you to choose. Since this is a self-service restaurant, you need to get the empty bowls and pick your own ingredients. Remember to separate the meat and vegetables into different bowls since they are priced differently. The vegetables are priced at RM3.99/kg while the meats are priced at RM5.99/kg.
After you are done picking your ingredients, bring the bowls to the counter for payment. The cashier will weigh the ingredients and also ask you whether you would love to have white rice or noodle. White rice will be served separately while noodles will be stir-fried together with the ingredients. The cashier will then pass you a pager which will light up and vibrate when your food is ready for collection. Oh, their homemade soya drink is a must try and it is always selling fast. Thus far, we only managed to order the soya drink once after visiting the restaurant a few times. Their homemade soya drink is really concentrated and "beany".
*dang dang* Our food is finally on the table! We ordered two bowls of different level of spiciness.
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| Spicy Dynamic |
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| Unique Platter |
For those who don’t eat spicy food, you can always choose “Unique Platter” which is not spicy at all. After trying Spicy Fragrant and Spicy Dynamic, we concluded that Spicy Fragrant is just nice and is within our acceptance level which enable us to enjoy the meal. Spicy Dynamic is quite spicy (the spiciness comes after a few bites) and we had difficulty to finish the food especially when the spiciness grows the more you eat. Of course, if you really love spicy food, you can always challenge the highest spiciness level, Spicy Xtreme.
After visiting the restaurant a few times, our favorite ingredients which we will surely pick each time are lotus root, cabbage, mushroom, toufu, red/yellow pepper, pork slices and pork balls. Sometimes, we will pick other vegetables and black fungus too. We always chose to add instant noodle into the bowl instead of eating with white rice. We felt that this is the best combination since the noodles will absorb the spiciness and fragrance after being stir-fried with the other ingredients.
What a good news it was to us when they opened more and more outlets in Klang Valley. At the moment, Hotpot Kitchen have three outlets; 1Utama Shopping Centre, Mid Valley and Bandar Puteri Puchong.
Hotpot Kitchen
Address: Lot S-045A, Second Floor, East Court, Mid Valley Megamall
Operating hours: 10.00am - 10.00pm (Daily)
Website: http://www.hotpotkitchen.com/
Email: info@hotpotkitchen.com
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