The place has a great concept - present the customers with a pot of boiling water and some spices, a Keno-style checklist of things that can be cooked in the boiling water, and then you just keep checking things off and they keep fetching them. We tried brisket, tongue, tripe, quail eggs, beef balls, spinach, fish, brussels sprouts, squid, hot dogs, mussels, shrimp, kelp and several things I could not identify, but eventually you just hurl it into the cauldron, let it pasteurize, fish it out and stuff it in your mouth because if a billion plus Chinese can eat it, so can you. read more

Let's start by telling you the usual reason for me and my friends to eat here: hangover! And what do hangovers bring us? Headaches! If you happen to be Asian, chances are your parents taught you that hot and spicy soups cure headache the best. So, what's better than gathering all your girls/boys/bgf together and dig yourself into a hearty and flavorful sizzling pot of soup. You can order whatever kind of meat or veggie you'd like and when you want more, they will refill it. That's the benefit of a HOT POT BUFFET compared to a regular hot pot place. Let me clarify that they do not have the best food in town. Their broth and meat selection is mediocre. What brings us here is the PRICE and for college students...we would obviously choose price over fancy tables and silverware. Please expect bad service and non English speaking waitresses. Most are very nice and will understand some English plus hand gestures if you are nice to them and do not ask for things every 5 minutes. Therefore, think carefully about what you want before asking them to run back and forth 5 times. After all, you wouldn't like doing that yourself, right? I've heard stories about people not leaving minimum 15% tip got called back. Not sure if this is true though. Never happened to me! Ahhh, also don't waste food. Order only what you can eat! Tips: 1. Lunch is cheaper than dinner...such a WIN! 2. If you order the Spicy soup and think that telling them Medium spicy will work for you. You're wrong! Medium spicy will still kill you. Just take the chili pieces out before they got boiled with the soup! Usually I order half Masala Spicy Soup and the other half is the House Special soup. read more

If you're wicked hungry & want to eat a lot, Hot Pot Buffet will be fine. If you like tastier but smaller portions, go to ShabuZen or the Q. Hot Pot Buffet is convenient to where I work, and I am a fan of hot pots in the winter. HP Buffet is pretty good, not great. They serve Chinese style hot pot, rather than Japanese shabu-- I don't know enough about the culinary differences to explain why the spicy hot Japanese broth is hotter than the spicy hot Chinese broth, but it seems to always be so and I like *hot*! I almost always get the mala. I've tried them all, though. They're a little bland. They're one of the only hot pot places that always has frozen tofu, which I love! Portions are big, the food is fresh enough, but nothing blows me away. I like a ton of different veggies with a hot pot & am disappointed that something is always missing-- last night, it was the bok choi-- and catching a waiter once the food is delivered is not easy. However, this wouldn't make any difference if I were just going for quantity! I'm usually here alone or with one friend, and this might make a difference: this is theoretically an "All You Can Eat" place for $25ish. Wagyu & some seafood are extra, but I've stuck to the basics. Compared to other Chinatown HP places, Hot Pot Buffet gives you a lot of food on the first round, and I have watched people order more than I can imagine! A couple of starving college students, or tourists who have been walking all day, might find $25ish a good deal. read more

Come hungry! Big selection of veggies, seafood, and meat to choose from. The food could be more fresh but it is an all you can eat after all. I say it is still good for what it is ($35 for dinner including tip). Dont be afraid to yell and wave to get the attention of the wait staff. They can get busy but you just have to know to get their attention. If they forget to bring stuff out remind them. You dont come here for the ambiance or the decor, just eat! read more

Ya gotta love a buffet when you leave it after eating a ridiculous amount of food and you don't actually feel like you have roll over and die. I don't know how that happened here, but that magic makes this place an overeaters heaven! For $21 you get all you can eat hot pot. You can order as much as you want in rounds from vegetables and noodles to all kinds of meat including lamb and beef to seafood with scallops and fish and even crab legs! It is pretty nuts. When you first look at the menu you want to order everything and you technically can. But then you see this little sign standing on the table saying Please Do Not Waste Food with a little happy face ha It is almost secretly staring at you while you look at the menu and check off the items you want just like at dim sum. Sometimes you don't really know what you are ordering, and I wish an order of noodles came with more noodles.... And their spicy broth is not really spicy either. They tried saying it was and you should watch them when they refill your broth in the pot too since they don't notice if you ordered a different kind than the plain one at the beginning of your meal. The scallops were good and the beef was good and so were most of the greens, but that chinese broccoli was way too hard to eat and cook in there and most of the fish didn't taste that great either. The crab legs, I know they are included in the buffet price, but those were the smallest crab legs ever and they came frozen so they were tricky to cook too. It is a fun spot to go with a group and you don't have to be shy about overeatng here either and this place is also huge! Even so we still had to wait 15 minutes for a table in a big double decker spot, so I guess the hot pot is hot :-) read more

Boston doesn't have a lot of all-you-can-eat hotpot joints. That is one of the reasons why this place is special. Sadly, I have only been here twice. But both times, I left there happy, full, and warm. There are SO many options and the service is pretty fast. You HAVE to go with a decent sized party or bring people who can eat a lot. Or else you can't order all the different items they offer - which would be a pity! The restaurant itself is your typical chinatown restaurant. Nothing fancy. But you don't come here to be swooned away by service and ambiance. You come here to eat! I am a hotpot/shabu fanatic...and this spot is perfect for the long winter nights! Their milk tea is really good too. That was a nice surprise :) read more

The food was very, very good. The waitress was really nice too. They make it easy to order, and the food came out quickly. I was new to the process, and the waitress gave me some nice, quick tips. The bathroom was a little small ... can get crowded, and a little messy. read more

I LOVE THIS PLACE! Thank god for the endless amounts of food!! I'm sick of being unsatisfied from the small quantity of food from shabu zen and kaze shabu!! Everything was so good! but don't eat too fast, my friend was so excited for the quail egg that the hot yolk squirted into the back of the her throat (owww!!!) We got everything and everything was really good! I'm going to come here all the time in the winter :) The only downside is that they forgot certain items, but just remind them and they'll get it for you. Also the waitress was such a cutie! (but she didn't speak english that well) read more

I LOVE HPB! Chinese spicy broth and all the meat/veggies I want -- I am indeed a fan. Service is not exactly friendly, but overall attentive. Never had a problem with small portions, even if we ordered 10 different types of meats and 15 different types of vegetables. I haven't tried all of the different broths, but the Chinese spicy is just soo good. While the outside of the restaurant appears to be a little sketchy and I've read other reviews about fruitflies/lack of cleanliness, I'm still a fan seeing as there have yet to be any bugs found in my soup and the food that comes out appears to always be fresh. It's worth a try -- $15 for lunch & $20 for dinner. The difference being that there are of course more options offered on the menu. I think it's just as good as other shabu restaurants and for a better price! read more

If you want decent hot pot for a good price, this is the place to go. For $21, you can eat for what would cost a fortune more at places like Shabu Zen. Of course the quality isn't as good, but little difference is noticed if you're hungry and in for a big meal. Plenty of vegetables, meat, and seafood. All the tofu you'll want. If they add in the Tom Yum broth, I'd frequent this place a lot more often (not sure why they didn't do it already, I think it's fairly simple since I can do that easily at home). Well, their spicy broth is a good substitution. The prime ribs are good. This is the only beef selection I like here. Chicken and pork are good as well. The lamb is a bit chewy. And the crabs, if you like that, you should come. Overall, worth the money. It's a place I'd come back now and then. One last note: It can get really hot and stuffy in there, even in the winter. The ventilation system they have is not sufficient for the many boiling pots going at once. If you get a chance, spin the fan your way :) read more

This is the type of place where you can bring friends with you to try something new. you get to cook the meal yourself. But if you don't like to make your own food, then this place for you. This place is great to teach another how to cook it. but if you have an open mind into trying something new, then it's great. The food was so delicious. the broths were to die for, and the feeling of the place is calm and relaxing. I would come back to this place with some of my friends. read more

This hot pot buffet is the best one around in Chinatown. I really enjoy dining here with my family whenever we are craving for hot pot. The services and foods here are really good. The only complain about this restaurant is that they needs to put in more ac or on high in the summer due to the heat from the streaming hot pot. After the customers are done with their meal, everyone look like their coming out from a sauna. read more

the meat quality definitely cannot be compared with that in Zen Shabu. However, the price is unbeatable! It is pretty good for a get-together. you can take your time, sometimes the whole afternoon, chatting and eating the buffet! definitely worth giving it a try read more

I came here on my birthday, during the day, and they seated us in the way corner of the restaurant, next to the kitchen door, even though there were plenty of open, empty tables. They kept hovering over us and asking if we needed forks the entire time. Yes, I am aware I am white. The food was just all right. I'd go back, it's well priced. read more

This hot pot restaurant is the best hotspot restaurant ever. It looks expensive but since its a buffet u end up saving lots of money. Most hot pot restaurants are cheaper but it is not a buffet so u end up spending lots of extra money just to get something extra like veges or meat/fish. The special dipping sauce is the best and I basically gothere just for the special dipping sauce. Trust me u end up saving a fortune even tho tho initial fee is $25 per person u end up saing twice as much money. Example i atr at this hot pot place right down the st and it was only $18 per person but they only gave u a small plate of vegetables and a very small plate of food and then they charge u just as much for anything extra read more

charged my credit card more then the amount on the menu price. will be disputing the charge. be careful giving them your credit card.

This place is awesome... especially for someone like me who likes hot pot and in large amounts. The broth is alright, and the sauce isn't my favorite, but when you have endless piles of meat, veggies, and seafood, it's hard to complain. I never had a problem with the service, and everything seemed fresh to me. The decor might not be the best, but it's one step up from the standard shabby chinatown restaurants. read more

I wish we had something like this in CO! I love the herbal and spicy broths. Such great food. I have to come every time I'm traveling to the east coast. read more

This place is easily maybe 2 stars, but I'm a sucker for all you can eat, so I have to give it a +1. The meat is really cheap, and has very little flavor. The seafood choices are also not very fresh and flavorful. The vegetables were alright, and the cooking soup was also spicy and tasty. I would return due to the all you can eat, and would also recommend the place to people who also love meat and all you can eat joints. read more

Best hot pot/ BBQ buffet ever! The food is really good especially the sauce! Love to hang out with friends in here! Definitely recommend! read more

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$25 a person was definitely worth it for the dinner buffet. My friend and I had such a hard time finishing everything. The flavors were amazing (especially the dumplings) with a good selection of meats. The staff was very polite and helpful. read more

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this place is untouchable! probably the best thing about chinatown/ boston! thats if their prices are still the same! $15 lunch and $18-$20 dinner? read more

Good value hot pot! Perfect for the winter. Meats are good cuts, and are very generous with the portions. We got the mala soup too, which was delightful. I would highly recommend that soup base if you have no issues with spice. read more

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Thankfully I had good company so the food was still good. Save for the two hairs in the food and dripping ceiling water from the steam onto our heads, plates, drinks, and finally the hotpot itself. I went with a group of 8, so we split into 4 and 4 for a pot. Ordered a ton of food and found that because of the rush, the beef balls and some of the meats were still slightly frozen. The veggies and seafood were fresh enough and the soups seemed legit. They jacked up the prices for the herbal teas ($2.75), which you can get for under a buck at the supermarket. Just fyi. Might try Van Shabu next time. read more

Easily my favorite Hot Pot place to go too. Parking in Boston in general sucks so don't get your hopes high with finding decent parking around here but, the food and service are typically great and they are open really late! My favorite part would be their dipping sauce they have to dip your meat or veggies in. Very Delicious. My only thing is that you have to physically ask for the rice. So if you order rice on the sheet you should probably just ask for it or you may never get it. Especially if it is busy. read more

I was looking for a good hot pot buffet after Jinn closed. So my search brought me to Hot Pot Buffet in Chinatown. $20 for dinner. I got the spicy and black chicken broth. The spicy broth is SPICY. I thought it was going to be mild, so I got a nice surprise. You'll be sweating from the steam and the spiciness of the broth. I think my group tried every meat on the menu. Unfortunately you could only get one serving of each meat at a time. I'm not a meat expert, however, I can tell the quality of the meat weren't that great. It'll fill you up though. read more

One of the cleanest hot pot places I've been to ever! We went in a big group of 10 and sat on the 2nd floor, sharing 3 pots. You have a choice of 4 different broths, and I'd highly recommend the chicken and the spicy broths. The ingredients are really fresh, especially the vegetables!! Highly recommend ordering the taro root, fried tofu, frozen tofu, and pumpkin if you're vegetarian. I have to admit though, it was a little too chaotic for larger groups because the servers were slow to come around with our food and they never gave us enough ingredients, so we had to re-order about 10 times!!! Definitely a little annoying to have to keep flagging someone down to ask for a new sheet. If only they'd just give us the portion we indidated on our sheets!! Overall, $20 for an all you can eat hot pot dinner. Fresh fish, scallops, beef, etc...worth every buck!!!! read more

Now, I have written on the subject of shabu shabu before- and there is not question that it is my personal favorite and Kaze Shabu Shabu is and always will be the tastiest and best quality hot pot that I have ever had- but Hot Pot Buffet is a really great way for hot pot newbies to experience a wide rang of ingredients for one low price. You can keep eating for hours if you want, and they just keep on refilling your broth and items if you ask them for it. They don't exactly offer to bring you things without you asking, but they were not the least bit rude about giving us another check off sheet. We had the chef's special broth and it was extremely bland, but the dipping sauce (satay and soy based) was not too bad. I would try a different broth with a little more flavor next time. We had a ton of stuff, but our favorites were the kobe beef, the scallion dumplings, the taro root, the salmon, and the absolutely delicious crab legs- we got two orders!! Really you can't go wrong here- unless you are bothered by the slightly fishy smell when you first walk in. But you get used to it! For $20.00 this is about the best deal in China Town. read more

all you can eat! They can seat for one or for many and they do take reservations. They serve plenty of food and you can always ask for more. The quality of the ingredients aren't the best but you get what you pay for. The spicy broth isn't too spicy unless you soak an item in there for some time (like corn.) The fruit smoothies are so so so good, but can be super sweet. Beware. Credit cards are accepted but make sure you carry an ID or else they will make you pay cash. There is an ATM inside if you need cash. to be honest, the people can be rude..they are always in a hurry even though there are so many people working. Be ready to eat a lot :) and sweat because it gets hot in there quickly with the steam everywhere read more

Some things (like bamboo shoots, seaweed knots, lamb, fried items) don't seem that fresh, but other things (Chinese broccoli, fish tofu) are consistently good--it's a little hit or miss. I suspect that they serve balls left over from dinner for the next day's lunch. That being said, it's a great value for lunch ($16, with a few options missing) and not a bad one for dinner if you're hungry and cold. I usually get a lot of beef (I prefer the lean meat) to dip in the sauce, some leafy greens, quail eggs, and mushrooms, and every fish-related item I see. (Fuzhou fish balls are a must--they have a pork filling!) I've only had half spicy/half herbal broth, but that is always a satisfying combination. I'll keep coming back here for the AYCE and because there always seems to be a wait at Q, but Q has better ingredients and atmosphere. read more

Yum! Plenty of delicious broth with TONS of different ingredients to add to your hot pot. Reasonably priced, good service, right in the heart of Boston's Chinatown. read more

Hot Pot Buffet - Chinese Near Me - Boston, Massachusetts

I went there twice in 4 days with my boyfriend. It was pretty delicious!!!!! Foods are wonderful and prices are cheap. My boyfriend and I had a very good time there. The service is cool too, the waiters were humorous and patient. I am willing to go there again!! read more

I can't fault Hot Pot Buffet for my disdain for hot pot/shabu. Being a germaphobe, nothing about hot pot seems sanitary. To me, picking up raw meat, putting it in boiling broth, taking it out and eating it with the same thing you picked it up with is gross. As is eating broth that's still cooking other raw meat... but I digress. $20 for an all you can eat buffet is awesome. Granted hot pot is actually a lot of work, so I never feel like I eat enough, but there was more than enough food for our large party. The menu has a lot of diverse offerings (pig's blood, tripe) which is pretty exciting. Some of the stuff I tried was very delicious (even though I sometimes couldn't tell when stuff was cooked). At any rate, this is a great place if you love hot pot. However, I probably won't be back. read more

Wow, i'm still quite speechless the night after. Walk in playing the tourist, and felt completely out of place. 95% Asians, of course, as expected. So we venture upstairs and sit down. After 10 minutes of weird stares, we get water and some ginger ale. 5 minutes later, we get a piece of paper to mark our order. Our raw food comes out 10 minutes later, only about half of what i ordered. Bok Choy, Cilantro, Woodear, Button & Enoki Mushrooms, Scallop, Shrimp, Shrimp & Pork Balls, Chicken, Rib eye & Pork. We ordered the yin yang pot with spicy broth & black chicken. Since we got our raw food first, we waited another 10 minutes for broth. Once it was out, nobody spoke another word to us, until it was time for the check. Everything was less than stellar, and unimpressive. Pretty flavorless unless it was dunked in the sauce. $83 for 2 adults and 2 kids created immediate buyers remorse. Overall not a place a we would return, I was hungry 2 hours later and could have also done without the slip on the water on the way down the stairs on the way out. read more

I LOVE hot pot. AYCE hot pot with pretty good ingredients is even better. We came on a particularly busy night and waited a while. I'm not sure if they take reservations so just be aware that there may be a wait. We sat down and quickly ordered our food. We had the spicy and herbal broth. We ordered a lot of different kinds of meats - beef, pork, lamb, etc and a lot of veggies - napa, tong hao, mushrooms, etc. Their fish fillets were also pretty good. With places like these, you never really know HOW MUCH food they will give you with each order, or whether they will leave something out. However, it's AYCE and you can order as many times as you want so if they forget something, order it again. If they didn't give you that many of the item you wanted? Order it again! Lol... Service was pretty good while we were there as we were always able to get someone's attention and get whatever we needed. I would def come back again! read more

Pros: lots of variety and options, spicy broth is th best Cons: price - expected since it's all you can eat Perfect for a hot pot fix whenever you are in Chinatown. Perfect for those gloomy, cold days read more

Hot pot, how I love you so. SO HAPPY THIS EXISTS. I haven't tried any other hot pot places in Boston yet, but so far I'm more than happy with HPB. I do miss Little Sheep in California, but this is a cheaper and almost as good (even better if you love all you can eat) alternative. The only downside to HPB is if you love having the yin-yang (half and half) pot where you can try 2 different broths at once. However, this place is awesome if you have picky eaters in the group since everyone gets his/her own pot...perfect for me since the bf is a veggie. Try: +Dried/Fried bean curd sticks +Fuzhou fish balls +Sirloin beef (if you like pho steak cuts or lean cuts) +Vermicelli +All the mushrooms (even the agrocybe...it's looks crazy weird but I couldn't stop eating these by the end of dinner) I seriously leave happily and painfully stuffed. And to top it off, go across the street to Hing Shing Bakery. Get yourself a coconut bun and an egg tart. read more

What can I say? Hot pot is pretty darn awesome, especially when it's buffet style and you have the stomach to make it worthy. Some complaints I have is that the service is sometimes lacking. Also, the meat is not as tender and fresh as shabu, but you can really blame them since it is a buffet. Otherwise, the food is pretty darn awesome and who doesn't like hot pot, right? read more

This place is mediocre. And even though it's AYCE, at ~$30 for the subpar quality of meat, it's more worth it to go to a normal shabu place. There isn't much broth variety here (2 flavors), and the meat doesn't seem as fresh as kaze or shabu zen. You definitely get full, but you have to think about how much you're spending. For $30, you can get more than enough meat at a normal hot pot place, and the food will be better quality. Unless you're planning to eat 5lbs of meat, I would save your business for somewhere else. read more

Feel like pigging out with some friends?! Come here for lunch! Bunch of choices for hotpot and it's all you can eat! Definitely not the highest quiet stuff but it's a buffet, not like they're supposed to be the best anyways. Came with a group of three and staff was really chill, coming whenever you needed anything and handed out new menu's for other rounds of food. read more