Would you like to be transported back in time to ancient china?…read more
How about just testing your spice tolerance to see if you can hang with the best?
Well, if you want all of that, PLUS hot pot, look no further - this is the place to be! There is a reason this is one of the highest recommend spots to visit when you're in Flushing.
First off, entrance? SO UNASSUMING. It's like, the tiniest door, with no real obvious signage. Once you go through, you basically feel like you're in one of the ancient alleys of China - decor is 1000% great. We had a larger party of 7, and they were luckily able to accommodate us since we lined up a few minutes before opening on a Friday. We actually got IMO the best seats in the house - towards the back, elevated up on some steps, a mini pavilion essentially.
But enough about the decor.. how was the food? Well.. GREAT! And honestly, for NYC prices, not too expensive (but a bit pricy for flushing I guess). The quality was top notch (highly recommend trying the mala quail eggs) and the spice of the broth was GREAT! We went with medium since our server (amazing btw, thank you Sean / Shawn / Shaun??) said that he can't even go near hot, it burns his eyes. Medium was just perfect - felt great eating it with some sweats, regretted it the day after, which means I couldn't have asked for a better experience!
Meats were good quality, veggies were yummy. I wish the shrimp paste had more in terms of quantity, we barely had seven bites for each of us, but it was really good. Also, pro tip, probably don't order Napa Cabbage, a lot of their other dishes will sit on top of a whole leaf, so you'll probably get enough from that unless you want to consume half a head.
Sauce bar is $2 a person - which might be shocking for some to know they charge it, but it's pretty much the norm at a higher end hot pot place in big cities. At least they don't charge $6-$8 like some places and only throw in a few apps/desserts to try to justify it.
Overall, really loved this place, and would definitely go back.