Red Pot – All You Can Eat Hot Pot

Red Pot

12119 Brookhurst St.
Garden Grove, CA 92840

714.636.7168

Chinese Hot Pot
If you have never had Chinese Hot Pot before, I guess the best way to compare is that it is like Shabu Shabu. (Fondue, for you Europeans) For $20/person, you are given a broth with which you cook your meat, veggies, etc. The big difference with Hot Pot vs. Shabu Shabu would be that, with Hot Pot, you cook more than just thinly sliced beef; you cook pretty much everything. And the broth would be a big difference. The broth for hot pot is also more herbal while I’ve seen many shabu shabu places use a simple broth flavor, or even water.

AYCE
I think this is a great place for people who want to try something different, love all-you-can-eat, and are getting sick of only eating meat (Korean AYCE BBQ).

AYCE Hot Pot has several advantages over AYCE Korean BBQ:

1. It’s not just meat. At Red Pot, you are given a list with a variety of things to choose from. We ordered: Lotus Root, mochi, enoki mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, baby corn, trip, shrimp, mussels, sliced chicken, sliced beef, sliced pork, fish balls, squid balls, beef balls, crab, spinach. And that wasn’t even the whole menu. I also like the fact that they had a lot of veggies to choose from. Take that Korean BBQ.

2. No grilling, no smell. What’s worse than stuffing yourself with Korean BBQ and feeling gross? Smelling like Korean BBQ in the car ride back. Since everything is cooked in a broth, you don’t have to take a shower or feel guilty for the rest of the day smelling like meat.

3. Sick of the flavor? cook it in a different broth! They have a choice of six broths you can choose from: Pork soup base, herbal soup base, spicy herbal soup base, miso soup base, curry soup base, vegetarian soup base. For a small party, you are given a choice of 2 broths. However with a bigger party, you allowed to choose 3 broths, which are all divided inside the pot. We got the spicy herbal soup base, herbal soup base, and curry soup base. And I liked all three. The herbal and spicy herbal pretty much taste the same, with the difference being the level of spiciness. The curry soup base was not too strong of curry.

4. Peace between vegetarians and meat eaters. Always feel bad about not being able to invite your vegetarian friend to AYCE? not anymore! If you go to Red Pot, you can invite your vegetarian friend, and order the vegetarian soup base and order a bunch of vegetables. (Half the menu is vegetables) Just fair warning. The pot will become segregated. Don’t start cooking your meat in the veggie broth now!

5. Sauce bar. I thought this was a great idea. You are given a sauce bar, and you can concoct your own mixture for the sauce. (or you can just stick to one sauce) However, I felt the execution wasn’t all that great. In reality there’s only so many things that can be mixed together and taste great. So in reality you were sort of limited to what you can mix together without looking like a weirdo. But I realized with the flavored broth, that’s all the added flavor I needed. I ended up not using my sauce.

Conclusion

Overall, I have to say I really enjoyed Red Pot. Out of the meats, I really enjoyed the sliced chicken. It was just really good with the different broths, and it wasn’t as heavy as eating the beef or pork. I wasn’t a big fan of the mussels. The mussels are good quality and they were big.. but I don’t know.. personal preferences, but I don’t like large mussels. The squid balls were pretty good too. And mushrooms.. YUM. I think I ate more veggies and fungi than meat. If you are getting sick of your normal AYCE Korean BBQ, I say this is definitely a great option to try.