Yuan's Hot Pot — Restaurant in Amsterdam

Reposting my Yelp review here, this was from when I visited 3 months ago!

Really excited to write the first review for this restaurant on Yelp. If you would to tell me that I will find one of the best hotpot restaurants in Amsterdam, I would never believe you, but that's what happened!

I was in Amsterdam for work and discovered this when looking up Chinese restaurants. When I dined here, the restaurant had just been open for 8 days. It was a Saturday night, and there was actually a line to get seated. One of the owner is from Chengdu, she told me this has been their busiest night since opening. The store apparently is a chain in Chengdu and there is a store in Vancouver Canada, but this one is individually operated.

Having used to waiting a long time in the bayarea for any good restaurant, it didn't bother me at all. After eating here, I told the owners to open a store in SF be bayarea right away!

The good: Broth and ingredients are excellent, especially the broth, it was very distinctly Chengdu, they have their own packaging (imported from China chain of the same name) for the sauce and each person gets a small sesame oil can to go with rest of the dipping sauce, very strange consider there is a full sauce bar.

The "chuan" in the name indicate the sticks in which many of the meats and vegetables get skewered onto, they thread each ingredient onto a long toothpick stick, very reminiscent of those fishball stalls in Japan and Korea. The meat ones are seasoned almost like Mongolian BBQ, except you dunk them into the broth instead.

The sauce bar was amazing, whatever chillies they put in one of the bowls made all the difference.

The bad: Given it's their 8th day open, I won't knock it too hard, but after waiting 50m to get seated, it took another 30m to get the pot onto my table. The waitresses that aren't Chinese, don't speak English all that well either. So a few times they brought out the wrong stuff or just very uneven service.

The ordering is all done using an iPad, cool but inefficient.

Also forget about getting water, you have to order a beverage, there is like no water, totally bizarre. I don't think I have ever been to any restaurant where they don't serve water to its customers.

Lastly it's very expensive compared to even the most expensive hotpot restaurants in the US. You can expect to spend €40-50 per person, because they cut everything into small pieces it adds up very quickly. I wish they would only do that concept for the meats, but not the other ingredients.

Overall though I would still very much recommend it, the food was...

Forget about the Chinese restaurants you've been visiting - both good and bad. Step inside Yuan's Hot Pot and you are guaranteed an experience like no other - unless you've been to Chengdu, China. From the modern, minimalist-fusionistic, cleanly styled interior, the panda & instagram videos on screen to the amicable hosts, this is an amazing place completely out of this (Dutch) world with a welcoming atmosphere that strangely feels like...home. And the food is yet to come.

Having been to China many times - and being a descendant of Chinese immigrants - I can't say I'm a native or even close to it - but as far as comparing tastes from my occasional travelling jolts goes, Yuan's Hot Pot is as close as it gets. For a moment, you're teleported thousands of kms away, erasing for the briefest of moments the notion of bikes, bitterballen and blunts, and instead finding yourself in front of a harsh winter's boiling broth of subliminal enjoyment - with friends. The iPad with which one orders food & drinks however, seems out of place for this rather ancient old Chinese tradition... but is somehow the calling of a new generation, the slightest attempt to confront the old with the new. Yin and Yang indeed.

And oh yes, the food. The Food. The adagium: try everything and you won't be disappointed. Across the spectrum there is something for everyone; from plain meats for the beginner, to their spicy counterparts for hot pot affecionados. The combination with fresh vegetables like pak soi, cabbage and the delicious but uncomplicated goji-berry and ginger infused broth defies the notion of the typical perception of a culinary experience - introducing what simple, warm, home-style cooking can do for a person during a cold winter storm outside. Soulfood perhaps?

Amidst the turmoil that you’ll find only in the truest of Chinese culinary establishments - a juxtaposition to the typical perception of a tranquil restaurant - the waiters, nay, the welcoming hosts are hustling to make sure their guests are comfortable and taken care of every need and delight, whilst patiently introducing the concept to hot pot virgins. Being the first Chengdu Hot Pot in Amsterdam, you are part of an experiment - and indeed you ARE the experiment. Act like you are and the result can only be overwhelming in the best...

As vegans going we thought there was a lot on offer. There was, that was awesome, our dipping sauce was addapted(without oyster sauce) and we moved on to ordering. Both soups and a whole lot if stuff to dip. We unfortunately had to ask to move tables as there where flies everywhere around us and where moved to the back of the restaurant. Our food arrived quickly and we turned on our hot pot n started to boil it. We realised very quickly that the soup was pretty bland and needed salt which we had to ask for as it wasn't on the table. It was also topped up with water without us being asked a first time, the second time they came with more water we declined. Our extraction fan above the table also wasn't working and meant that my boyfriend across from me was slowly stewing in the corner of the room. Really unpleasant since it was already really warm weather. The food that we ordered, tofu and veggies didn't really seem to benefit from the boiling method, it didn't really have any taste, and so the dipping sauce basically was the taste of the entire meal. I feel like if you are a meat eater this would be better suited to the concept. Would have been nice to see something like seitan on there that might mimic how meat absorbs flavour. Finally we were charged (2.50) for plastic boxes to take away the excess of food we ordered. This brought our bill to 95 euro which I feel is way too much for what we enjoyed as 2 people dining out. The mushroom platter was massive and we needn't order anything further mushroom wise. We really enjoyed the tea and gyoza and crispy pancake sides. I think that we liked the idea of the concept and that it was adjusted to our dietary requirements but we wouldn't...