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2014-06-12
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You want spicy hot pot but your friend doesn't eat spicy? Never again would you have to fight with your friends on hot pot flavors with your own personal hot pot at iPot! Located in Tin Hau, the restaurant specializes in Taiwanese mini hot pot with 11 flavors to choose from. Dinner set starts from ~$200 with your choice of quality beef, lamb, pork or chicken plus 2 hours of all-you-can-eat at the self-serve bar. Besides traditional hot pot, the restaurant recently launched 2 types of chicken pot
The restaurant was decently sized with various table sizes while the largest can accomodate 8 people. The air ventilation was pretty good so you don't end up smelling like your food for hours afterwards.
Each table comes with your own hot plate for heating up your own mini hot pot.
The chicken pot set costs $338 each and comes with a plate of meat, 2 hours of hot pot with unlimited choices at the self-serve bar, and beer. The chicken pot have limited quantity everyday as fresh chickens are used so it's best to call ahead and reserve if you want to try the chicken pot. The portions are huge as each pot contains 1/2 chicken!Top Grade Shaoxing Chicken Pot - the Shaoxing chicken pot looked a bit like your typical chicken pot with red onions and celery in it. The marinade sauce was also similar but a shot of Shaoxing wine was poured into the pot here on the spot for the extra kick in taste. The aroma was fragrant while the chicken pieces were very tender and well-marinated with flavors. Before chicken broth was poured into the pot for hot pot, a side portion of the original sauce was provided to serve as dipping sauce for the meat as well.
Traditional Kumquat Chicken Pot - the Kumquat chicken pot was something special as I've rarely had kumquat in cooked dishes before. The flavors actually worked quite well as the sauce was tart and sweet so the dish just ended up tasting like orange chicken. After chicken broth was added, the broth was now mildly tangy which turned out great for hot pot too.
For drinks, we got to choose from their selection of specialty beer as part of the hot pot set. J got the Gold Medal Taiwanese Beer while I chose the Mango Flavored Taiwanese Beer. The Taiwanese beer were pretty mild in flavor as mine was just slightly sweet and bitter. It was great though to offset the heavy flavors from the hot pot.
For meat, we chose to sample the US Boneless Short Rib Rolls and New Zealand Lamb Rolls for our hot pot. The lamb was pretty flavorful with a hint of gaminess while the beef had a nice ratio of fat and lean meat.
Then we went to the Self-Serve Bar to choose from a variety of hot pot ingredients like fish balls, tofu, mushrooms, corn, etc. There was quite a lot to choose from and most of the quality were good as well. I hate fish balls with a fishy scent but the ones I sampled here like the crab roe ball and lobster ball all tasted fresh and delicious. The corn was deliciously sweet as well.
On the other side of the self-serve bar were the vegetables, drinks, and noodles. I was impressed with the variety of noodles they provided like the Nissin instant noodle, udon, egg noodle, etc.
Like all hot pot places, they had a sauces station where you can mix and match your own hot pot sauce with soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, sesame, satay, and so on.
Lastly, our meal ended with a Häagen-Dazs ice cream that came with the set! Can never say no to Häagen-Dazs.
Overall, I think the food quality at iPot was quite good while the concept is fantastic. As I love to eat spicy, I would love to come back and try their "coffin" level Taiwanese spicy hot pot. Lunch is also available at half the price of dinner so who says you can only eat hot pot for dinner!
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