B2J Tasty Pot 不二家酸菜鱼 Austin — Restaurant in Austin

The highlight of this hotpot (no live cooking) restaurant is the signature “black” fish cooked your choice of soup. You can order one gigantic pot for the table or individual pots. Most order the former. They use a unique white fish that is incredibly tender and buttery. The beef option is also velvety and melt in your mouth. If you opt for the “best-value combo” option you get to pick add-ons (ingredients in the soup) and side dishes. Went with the Signature Spicy Sour Flavor soup, add ons: lotus root, pork meatball, black fungus, a choy leaf, side dishes: pickled chicken feet, spicy sour fern starch noodles, takoyaki, and crispy fried fish skin. Soup was perfectly pickled with chinese sauerkraut and the fish portion was generous. Lotus root was sliced thin, pork meatballs were succulent and bouncy, black fungus had nice crunch, a choy leaves blended in with the sauerkraut so be aware. The soup included tofu which was not an add on. Chicken feet were springy, chewy and vinegary. The starch noodles were not spicy at all, deeply soy flavored notes of sweet potato. Takoyaki had a gooey umami interior and a crisp exterior. Fish skin was super crisp and not too oily. Takeaway: you will not find another restaurant that serves this unique fish in Austin. The combo hotpots can feed a village or at least more people than the menu states. Side dishes all tasted amazing and they offer a good variety of them. A bit expensive but worth it. The restaurant is a bit small so you might have to wait depending on...

Updated Review: 3 Stars

Experience: We arrived at 5:15 pm and were told the wait would be about 40 minutes. By 7:00 pm, we were still not seated. The front staff complained about our party size (6 people, including 2 lap babies) and said they couldn’t seat us appropriately after 7:00 pm. This was frustrating, as it’s not the customer’s fault that the restaurant can’t accommodate larger groups due to limited seating arrangements. Asking us to place our food order at 6:25 pm, despite not having a table ready, further added to the confusion. Clear expectation-setting and consistent communication are critical in customer service, especially when operating under pressure.

Update: We were finally seated at 7:10 pm, after being skipped over several times. At least two parties who checked in after us were seated before us. The front staff later admitted that she had forgotten we could fit into a four-person booth with two lap babies.

Once seated, the food arrived promptly and was quite delicious overall, though a few pieces of fish still had scales on them. At 7:35 pm, the front staff came to our table to apologize and offered 20% off the bill, which we appreciated.

All in all, the food was very good, but the front-of-house management and communication need improvement. If the staff had managed expectations more clearly from the beginning, the experience would have been much smoother. I would recommend larger parties to skip to avoid...

Delicious and giant portions! Everything is done well and the food comes out fast. The smallest combo is honestly enough for three. But I did also see three people eating and finishing the largest combo next to me, which was..impressive, I guess? Regardless, the soup makes for delicious leftovers so order what you like.

Love that you can get both fish and beef in the soup and both are super tender. Soup has great flavor, and love that there are four flavor options. Comes with the chosen protein, sauerkraut, and frozen tofu. More add-ons either come with the combo or you can pay $5 extra per add in. I think everyone just gets the combo to make things easier.

Fresh milk mochi dessert is incredible, do not skip! Not like any other mochi I've had before (I actually suspect it might he the fried milk insides).

Very friendly service. Not for vegetarians and not...