Mr Wang Hot Pot Brighton — Restaurant in Great Britain

Date: 10th August 2024 Cost: £20pp inc. two beers each

A trip to Mr Wang’s was the pilot episode of our latest date night/explore Brighton initiative: Mich and I have decided to alternately select and pay for a monthly new restaurant visit, and this was an excellent first pick. We agreed afterwards it was the kind of place we’d unlikely pop into off the cuff due to the bright lights, its location and our unfamiliarity with the concept, and in fact we’d very nearly skipped it despite the pre-commitment. After a lovely day in town we couldn’t work out whether we’d prefer a few drinks and some live music, a supermarket charcuterie selection in front of the telly or another restaurant entirely, but we quickly warmed to the decision. The “have you been to X before?” you’re asked ubiquitously when eating at a chain these days was actually worth the friendly host’s breath here (take note Nandos/Wagamama) who, receiving a response in the negative, explained the set-up. You take a basket and a pair of tongs and, with one of a handful of broth options in mind, select your add-ins from the Wall of Ingredients to be weighed and costed (£2.95/100g), then wait ten minutes for them to arrive in a simmering, almost literal melting pot of goodness.

This is where the party really started. The Wall was a shelved refrigerator housing trays upon clinical trays labelled in handwritten Chinese and English, and after the definite nos (duck blood), the not-really-but-maybe-just-for-funs (whole squid), the got-to-reallys (fried boiled eggs) and the fancy-that-but-not-sure-it-goes (curled strips of lamb, chaldobaegi-style) we were still left with too many delicious-looking definites to realistically fit within bowl and budget. Given opinions differed as to what fell into which category it was prudent (and more fun) for us to take a basket each, so we did. Possibly overexcited by both all this and the prospect of the unlimited condiment corner, I ended up with a bit of a mish-mash of strange seafood (kitten paw-shaped shrimp ball anyone?) and meat; Mich played it a bit safer, loading up on tofu puffs yet wishing she’d got more, although having burnt her mouth on her first spoonful I could possibly have snuck a frog calf (quite bulbous for an English garden variety) into her bowl. Trying hard not to speculate as to the food hygiene rating displayed on outward-facing sticker next to our table, particularly given the absolute lack of regard we’d paid towards the order as to which we stuck our one pair of tongs each into the Wall’s trays - I possibly double-dipped the spinach, collecting a raw tiger prawn in between - we tucked in happily.

Although we began with the same medium spicy ox bone broth, mine had mutated into some deviant strain unrecognisable from Mich’s by the time I’d started on her leftovers, through the concoctions from Condiment Corner I’d over-added to it, at one point resting a frog drumstick in the soy sauce/chilli oil mix as it cooled. I reckon we’d both return regardless, but I’m excited to do so with this first experience under my belt, so I can be slightly more tactical with my approach next time - that is, if they’ll have us, after we painted their floor with fresh garlic and sesame. And the food hygiene sticker proudly...

Went to Mr Wang Chinese hotpot on Sunday with my whole family. Quite a risk when one of your kids is pretty fussy. I didn't need to worry, though. Even the fussy one loved her noodles because it is so fully customisable, and with such a huge variety of ingredients, there will always be something delicious to choose. When you go in you take your tray and some tongs and go to town choosing your protein, (we tried the massive king prawns, lobster balls, squid, seafood lucky bags, frog legs, pork balls, huge mussels, crab sticks and fried tofu, all totally delicious.) Then you add vegetables of your choice (lotus root, broccoli, seaweed but many, many others) and your choice of noodle. This then gets weighed at the counter, and you choose your soup, an Ox bone broth in a variety of spice levels or a tomato broth. The lovely staff then take away your choices and arrive a short while later with a lovely steaming hot, large clay pot full of luscious food. The bone broth and the cooking method feel really healthy and was deeply warming but the whole meal feels like a decadent treat with all the authentic ingredients. Once your pot arrives, you can augment it with chilli oil, spring onion, garlic, and our favourite, a creamy peanut and sesame sauce. It's rare that we all walk out of a restaurant loving our meal, but we certainly did this time. We are coming...

Wooo - this is So good and could be even better.

It's a little baffling, especially working out how it works. You have to pick the items for the hot pot and put them in a basket, guessing how much is right .. I had no idea, none of us did.

There's a fair choice of what, probably, is veggie but it'd be far more helpful if the veggie stuff was labelled and not mixed up among the meat/fish stuff.

You get the basket weighted (which is how most of the price is determined) and pick a soap base - I asked for one that was veggie but couldn't quite work out which one it was.

The food arrived in a B i g, individual, hot pot bowl, literally boiling.. it's really enough for 2 and I've no idea if you can share. It's too much - and quite expensive - half as much for half the price would be an improvement.

The flavours were amazing and I loved it. I'm absolutely stuffed and it'd have been great to have been able to order, for example, a small, medium or large and instead of adding the ingredients to a basket, to add them to the correct size pot so you have an idea of the amount you need.

This has great potential - they just need to think a bit more about what the customer will want. For me, that'd be less food and less money plus much clearer labelling of the veggie options.

Even with all of those comments it's a strong 4 stars...