As an avid fan of hot pot, I always make it a priority to try out most of the new openings as they occur. As fate would have it, there have been four new hot pot restaurants open in the southside of Brisbane recently. Yu Xiang, which has taken over the whole area where Little Taipei used to be, 6 Po Hot Pot near Mapo, Rong Fu along Logan road and David's Hot Pot at Calamvale Central. Compared to my usually preferred stores at Little Lamb and 100 Degree or Shabu House, these were firmly northern Chinese style hot pots. Kicking off the first of four, I tried the one closest to home, David's, Hot Pot and actually went twice in three days as friends decided to meet there.
My first time there was with Adam's instagram friend group. With a table of ten people, ordering was chaotic. Random ticks were strewn all over the ordering forms and food came at us from all directions.
Starting off, we got two pots to share between us all, both were the signature beef tallow base with a garnished mould. Both were ordered at a medium spice level (read: extremely spicy for everyone who isn't northern Chinese). Everyone was really impressed by the tallow moulds which were intricately sculpted and sat patiently in each of our pots amongst the piles of chili and szechuan peppers. It was only that night that I realised tallow was actually solid beef fat, a fact we only became aware of after the meal.
Hot soup was then added to each pot.
The tallow dissolved with the heat into a bubbling spicy hot mess.
If the tallow was not enough oil, each person was also given an extra can of oil in which to add to their DIY sauces.
At a compulsory charge of $3 per person, sauces were obtainable along the counter and there were quite a few options for you to mix and match.
Ordering an abundance of food, it would be hard to review each dish alone. Generally speaking, I found the food to be quite fatty, and not overly good value for money given what we paid for the portion sizes that were delivered to our table. Service was almost exclusively in Mandarin and also sporadic and chaotic. The hot pot was extremely spicy for every one at the table. Specialty dishes included the skewered beef which was heavy on cumin and chilly as well as the barbie doll beef which we had our doubts about hygiene, but gave bonus points for novelty. My favourites for the evening were the tender beef slices which were relatively less fatty and the fish balls with popping fish eggs inside.
At the end of the meal, most of us were still not entirely full, but gave up due to the intolerable spice. At $500 for ten people little lamb or shabu house would have been a better option. Having said that, the 8% discount for cash payment was a good incentive.
My second time occurred two days after when I accompanied Brisvegustation, who graciously took me when he won a competition from Calamvale Central. With my fresh experience, this time I came very prepared.
Kicking off the meal, I made sure to pick a non spicy, Hong Kong style golden seafood broth. Whilst it didn't contain copious amounts of tallow, it was still quite oily with an evident layer on top.
Having made sauces before, I knew instinctively to make my garlic, shallot and soy concoction. Shame there was no sesame oil to finish it off.
The seafood pot was quite flavoursome, a little creamy and a bit salty. It came with four prawns which we enjoyed.
Avoiding the barbie beef, we had standard beef rolls which were again very fatty and expensive for the portion that was provided.
We had another serve of the fish balls with fish eggs. Both of us really enjoyed it.
We also had a serve of potato noodles. Cooked through and tasted a bit like thick cut vermicelli and soaked the soup really well without going too soft.
Frozen tofu with its porous texture is always a crowd pleaser. I enjoyed it immensely.
Enoki mushrooms were generous in portion and fresh.
Rounding off on scallops, we had five pieces and they were quite plump but extremely frozen.
Was really glad to satisfy my curiosity about David's. Am keen to try out the other new hot pot places and was glad to learn from my experience and get non spicy or mild soup in the future.
Taste: 5/10
Value: 5/10
Service: 5/10
Environment: 7/10
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