David's Hotpot — Restaurant in Melbourne

TLDR: It’s not a bad joint with not bad service, but I wouldn’t expect too much out of it. Not at least maybe until they get their staffing sorted. It’s an ok place.

Upon entry, there’s a sign saying that there is staff shortages, so we were understanding that service would be a bit slow & it was very much so. There will be language barrier challenges if you’re a non Chinese language speaker. To order, we were advised that only the soup base was to be ordered via a staff member & all other items via the QR Code on the table. Our cold meats arrived first, almost 10 minutes later, the soup arrived.

Food selection is not as varied & interesting as I expected it would be. The in house menu was a bit different to the online menu we looked at, but the soup bases are still the same. For the price they charge, a lot of the items on the menu are not made in-house, mostly pre packaged stuff you can get from the Asian grocery freezer section.

We ordered the 9 grid spicy 🌶 soup base with the 2nd spiciest level. We thought it was delicious with the extra fillings in them, flavourful & very, very spicy. The only thing we didn’t like & left a full plate of was the spicy pork ribs, it tasted too porky (boar taint) & was highly unpleasant. They don’t have wines on the menu, so we BYOed it.

Went to pay & the person at the counter added up the bill despite me telling him I have a membership (supposedly there are certain items with membership prices, hence the membership)

Upon checking the bill, there were items that we did not order & receive, added on our tab. These items were in fact received by the table across us & possibly ordered by them. This was easily fixed once explained. We also had corkage x2 on our bill & we asked if corkage was counted as per bottle or per person, as we had asked the wait staff about this when seated & was told that it was by the bottle. He said ‘I think by bottle’ & we explained we had only 1 bottle with us. He then gave us an amended bill & took my membership details. The decor is nice, I personally was a bit uncomfortable on the chairs & there’s only 1 toilet which was clean.

It’s not a bad joint with not bad service, but I wouldn’t expect too much out of it. Not at least maybe until they get their staffing sorted. It’s...

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📍David's Hot Pot Experience authentic Sichuan hot pot in a gorgeous retro 80s themed restaurant in Melbourne CBD! ❗Special promotion Lucky Zodiac Set Menu ($160) 12 side dishes, 4 mains, 2 soup bases, rice cakes, fried rice, and plum juice for 4 people

$40pp for hotpot is such a good deal, virtually #cheapeats

The tonkatsu pork bone soup and seafood soup bases were rich and flavourful, with plenty of seafood and meat in the soup itself. They refill it with soup instead of water.

Choose from a variety of premium mains - I liked the premium marbled beef, cuttlefish, tiger prawns and mussels. The beef was well marbled - not top grade, but good for the price.

There are plenty of options for sides from spicy marinated meat, fish, seafood, tofu, vegetables, and even duck blood and fresh intestines.

They don't offer top quality meat, like wagyu, but the meat is reasonably good for the price. Not somewhere I would go to for premium meat hotpot, but it's relatively affordable and I love the good value.

The marinated meats are savoury and flavourful with a kick of spice. It's marinated for a long time, and doesn't lose the flavour when it's cooked in soup base.

I really liked the fish mince - it was light and delicious in the seafood soup.

The set is perfect for big groups, and for fun nights out with friends! They also have a set menu for 2 people with 12 side dishes for $99.

Don't miss the promotion!

Excellent ventilation in the CBD store - it feels nice and airy, without an overwhelming hotpot smell.

It's great for a good deal, but I wouldn't go there for premium meat. If you're not too picky about meat quality or looking for premium meat, it's definitely...

The cold season 🍂❄️ is coming soon and what better way to welcome the season by going to David’s Hot Pot?! 🍜

Our feast consists of: 🥩 Premium Wagyu Roll 🥩 Tender Beef 🥩 Braised Beef 🥟 Prawn Dumplings 🦐 Seafood Combo 🍜 Handmade Noodles 🌱 Tofu, Cabbage 🟠 Sesame Balls & Fried Pumpkin Pies 🍹 Plum Juice 🍲 Tomato & Oxtail and Laksa Broth

This was actually Andrew’s first hotpot ‼️ We both couldn’t really handle the chinese spices yet so we got the Laksa and Tomato & Oxtail broth, both were so flavorful. Each hot pot item was so fresh, the portion was great to share between us two, and the broths were perfect for all the items we got.

They also have sooo much more items to choose from for your selection: meat, veggies, seafood, snacks, drinks etc.

📍 We went to their store in Melbourne CBD, but they are also located on Doncaster East, Point Cook and Brisbane.

Overall, we had so much fun dipping everything in the pot! We were burning our tongue cause we’re too excited to eat, my noodle went crazy when I tried to do a cool trick 😂

Ooo almost forgot the dessert! We had their Mango Bingsu and it was the bomb 🤤 Perfect to cool our mouths from the warm broths!

We definitely see ourselves returning...