YinTang Spicy Hot Pot - Arcadia 隱燙麻辣燙 — Restaurant in Arcadia

I was surprised to hear that Sweethoney Dessert closed down, but even more surprised to hear how quickly Yintang Spicy Hot Pot took over the dessert joint. Most hot pot places around this area focus on individual hot pot bowls or AYCE, but very few have the concept of building your own bowl and paying for the ingredients by weight, Yintang's pay by weight concept does allow them to stand apart from other hot pot places.

Located in the Aldi plaza by Fork Over Pork. A good amount of parking even on busy days. The storefront has about 15 or so tables, which is decent but do expect a wait if you come during prime lunch/dinner hours. There's a whole section of the restaurant reserved for the food ingredients, so seating area is divided into two main areas.

There are two hot pot options - one is the curry/original flavor for $11.99 per pound while the other option is the spicy mix option for $12.99 per pound. Honestly not really sure what the difference is because you can adjust the spiciness level of the curry/original broth.

Grab a bowl and fill it up with ingredients. For the most part, they have a good variety of ingredients that can satisfy any hot pot lover's palate. Some items had Chinese description only, so if they could add the English that would be helpful. They have most of the basic vegetables (napa, cabbage, A-choy, crown daisy, spinach, broccoli, cilantro, etc.) as well as mushroom, corn, tomatoes, lotus roots. There's also a good amount of shrimp and lobster balls and fish tofu, etc. (no fish ball though); ramen, vermicelli, sweet potato noodles, udon, yam knots, egg noodle (and you can request rice for an additional price I believe). There's some seafood. The meat options were decent, but I was surprised they didn't have sliced pork. They only offered beef, lamb, sausage, spam, beef tripe, and shrimp. But since you're paying by weight and there's such an assortment of items, I was already pretty pleased with what they had to offer.

Apparently other reviewers mentioned that they do account for the weight of the bowl when they weigh your food. I didn't think I got that many ingredients, but my bowl was the heaviest out of all of us - probably because I loaded it with more heavy items (fish balls sigh). The worker asked how spicy I wanted my soup and when I said mild and asked about curry, he said beef soup - so I was pretty confused about the whole original/curry. They give you a number that's assigned to your bowl so that the workers can identify which is which. Food is brought out to your table (which was assigned to you when you walk in). And don't forget to take advantage of their sauce bar (satay, soy sauce, chili, peanut)!

Everybody ordered the original broth except me. My sister said that even though it was considered "original", there was still a slight undertone of spice. I could taste it - it's more of a small burn on your tongue since they use the Szechuan spices. The original had a more milky texture and the flavor was definitely lighter than my mild soup. Even for mild, I felt like there was more of a burn - but it's that good burning sensation that isn't too overpowering. Eating it with the meat and the sweet potato vermicelli, I thought the overall bowl was quite good. And of course I piled up on too many ingredients. I was already full after eating about half the bowl. The beef was tasty, but a little too fatty for me. I also wanted to try their egg tofu or pickled vegetables, but they came in a large amount and I didn't want that weighing down my bowl. If they can add some pork and taro, that would complete the ingredient list (at least for me).

If you strategize and go for the lighter items, your bowl will be more worth it. If you go over a pound, you're already paying more than $12. So some of our bowls came out to around $18, which I really don't think is worth the price. You get good quality ingredients, but I would rather go to an AYCE place and pay around that price to get as much as I want or just get an individual hot pot for...

HORRIBLE SERVICE ATTITUDE! This is the first time my wife and I came by this place and this will the last time. Horrible service attitude from the server below, enlarged picture below so everyone knows who I’m talking about, servers won’t give me her name, the cashier eventually said her name is Candy.

Horrible attitude from this server Candy, an attitude like that does not belong in the hospitality industry.

This place closes at 9:30, we came in at 9:05, we tried to get seated, and immediately Candy started scolding and yelling at us, telling us that they are closing right away. Lucky another server chimed in saying there was still time to order, but then we were given 5 minutes max to order while being rushed through the entire process of picking our food.

During this chaotic process, Candy was yelling and arguing with me because I could not understand why the closing time is 9:30 pm on Google & Yelp, but when I came in at 9 pm, you’re screaming at me telling me you’re closed?! Why don’t you just put 9 pm as your closing time? After some back and forth of arguing, Candy had the audacity to tell me their new closing time is now 9:10 pm…, really?!

So save yourself the headache, don’t come here unless you want a piece of Candy’s HORRIBLE...

October 2021 - I'm typically not someone to claim food poisoning from a place, however, this was the last full meal I had to the day before I started feeling sick about 10 hours later (at 2am in the middle of the night).

At first I thought it was just indigestion due to the chili in the soup as well as the chili oil they provide at the table, however, I kept having to get up out of bed to vomit and diarrhea until my stomach was completely empty. I'm not looking for a free meal or anything, just wanted to express my concerns and share my experience.

The food wasn't bad but the meat is just sitting out there for who knows how long until customers pick it up. Customers use the same tongs to grab meat and vegetables and while I was there I witnessed customers putting back items from there bowl.

Service was fine. But considering we were there for the first time, there wasn't much guidance with how things worked and water pitchers sat there on the counter but they won't let you refill your own water.

They charge by weight, $12.99 per pound. Quite disappointed with my experience and needless to say I...