One of my favorite Chinese foods is hot pot - I guess it's not really a food but a form of cooking but regardless, it's got a soft spot in my heart. Janet and I usually go to 99 Favor Taste in Chinatown but for some reason they had no openings on a random Friday night, so we tried a new place in the East Village.
The concept is the same, all you can eat hot pot for 2 hours with a same kind of ingredients and sauces. The one difference here is that you share pots but it is split into 2 so that you can try different broths but I kind of like having my own to dip and cook with. We got the herb beef and herb pork which was fine but the pork bone broth at 99 Favor Taste is much better. We got the usually suspect of ingredients: sliced beef, sliced pork, enoki mushrooms, fish tofu, fish balls, napa cabbage, shrimp, corn, and rice noodles. The portions are a bit smaller than 99 Favor Taste but since it's all you can eat, it doesn't really matter all that much but we did have to re-order a bunch of things several times which the wait staff seemed a bit annoyed by. It's easy to go over zealous with the food here, which we easily did here but that's part of the fun with hot pot.
They are a bit aggressive with the dish clearing, coming by every so often trying to clear our plates away but judging by the wait the place had, I can see why they are always hustling. They don't give you plastic bags here to protect your jacket and bags, so be prepared to just have everything on or near you smell like hot pot. Overall, it was a filling experience but I would still recommend 99 Favor Taste if you 're looking for better broth and slightly more ingredients (plus they do Korean BBQ there too but it's just always way too much food to do both). Total bill: $75 with tax and tip for 2 people
Photo Credit: Yelp
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