Hotpot City, Bankstown
After months of being in hiatus (due to unforseen circumstances), I am officially back and back into eating. Bearing that in mind, I thought it would be great to share my recent hotpot experience with you all, because who doesn’t love all you can eat hotpot with no time-limits, over 30 sauces and 11 soup bases to choose from.
Hotpot City is located in Little Saigon Plaza, Bankstown and having recently moved into the area, I was keen to try it out. We arrived to dine here on a Thursday afternoon just before 6pm, to find the venue relatively quiet. First step, is to pay for the buffet at the front counter, $35 per adult for dinner, slightly less for lunch. We were then ushered to our table by the friendly staff and provided with some menus, an ordering piece of paper and instructions on how the hotpot buffet works. We opened the menu to also find a guide to how the buffet work.
Firstly, we needed to decide on a soup base and record this on our order sheet. Hotpot City has 11 soup bases to choose from, with varieties including the traditional chicken soup to Sichuan soup to Oxtail and herbs. One of the good things about Hotpot City, is that everyone has their individual mini hotpot, and can choose their own soup bases. This is a great concept for people who all prefer different stocks, or are not comfortable with the ideal of communal eating. As there was 3 of us dining today, we opted to go for 3 different soups, the chicken soup, the stock soup and the Sichuan soup. You will also need to record any drinks on the order sheet as well, Hotpot City is a licenced venue so along with your standard drinks, and they also offer Sake and Soju. Once completed, you take your order sheet to the bar to order the stock base and pay for your drinks
Chicken Soup Base
Stock Soup Base
Sichuan Soup Base
It didn’t take too long for our hotpot soup bases to come out in their individual pots. As the staff placed them on the hotpot plate, they showed us the remotes connected to the table to turn the hotplate on and off, and the 5 cooking settings available, which was all pretty nifty. We set our hotpots onto the highest setting to get it going and Step 2 - the buffet bar.
The Hotpot Buffet Bar
Now I have to admit, when I first walked in and saw the buffet bar, it was pretty damn impressive. The unlimited bar was position against the back wall and corners of the restaurant, and filled with hotpot goodness. Hotpot City pretty much had everything you would want for hotpot, assortment of vegetables, noodles, fish and other protein balls, meat, seafood and also fruit to end your meal. There was a big variety on offer, and I could go through it all, but I think the pictures presents it pretty well. What I can say though is that we found the ingredients didn’t disappoint being both fresh and plentiful. We quickly stocked up our first plates and brought them back to the table where our stock bases were on a rolling boil.
Options at The Hotpot Buffet Bar (above)
Our First Plates
Just as we were about to start our hotpot experience, we realised we had forgotten about Step 3- The Sauce Bar. The sauce bar is pretty well stocked at Hotpot City, with over 30 different types of sauces and condiments, you can simple enjoy them as is, or make your own combination, they had all the standard staples including sesame paste, soy sauce, Chinese BBQ sauce and much more.
May The Sauce Be With You
Our Sauce Combinations
Now that our table was stocked with a rolling soup base, unlimited ingredients and sauces, we were ready to dig into our feast. The first thing I did was try the stock base, I had chosen the classic chicken base and was not disappointed, the stock was very tasty and flavourful, a simple comforting stock for hotpot. We ordered the stock soup base for my mum, which was pork and herbal based, she said it was quite nice and not overwhelming with herbs. My brother had the Sichuan stock and although found it abit too spicy for his preference was still flavourful and tasty, he swapped with mum after she finished eating and used her stock soup instead for the rest of the night. We spent most of the night back and forth between our table and the buffet bar hehe.
Delicious Hotpotness
Overall we had a great experience at Hotpot City. Once the formalities were done, we were left to enjoy all the hotpot ingredients for as long as we liked without being disturbed. Staff were attentive and friendly during our visit, and made the occasional trips to our table to refill our hotpots as they started to reduce. The variety of hotpot and sauces are extensive, and we truly feel that this restaurant is value for money. Hotpot City we will be seeing you again soon!!
Hotpot City
Little Saigon Plaza Bankstown,
Ground Floor Shop 22-25, 462 Chapel Road, Bankstown NSW 2200
(02) 8764 8112
https://www.facebook.com/hotpotcitybankstown/