Hotpot Alley — Restaurant in Austin

Pretty mid tbh. 3.5 stars overall. 5 stars for the aesthetic and the community and conversation that hotpot typically generates. The staff are super friendly and work quickly to get your empty plates cleared and restock add-ons, they definitely need more help as they ran out of water carafes a few times. The tables are pretty small and you can feel cramped between the “privacy barriers” but the individual, backless seats pass the vibe check. You sign in through a QR code and can see your place in line. They’ll text you when you’re up. You choose your ingredients and drinks; different colors have different price points (decent variety of meat mr vegetables). Then your soup base(s) before paying. You bring your items to your assigned table and can go to the unlimited condiment bar(extra $3 charge) and grab your toppings (green onion, ponzu and oyster sauce, hot oil, etc). The water cups are right next to it in a chiller. The water kept in the chiller without ice in carafes. Every once in a while if they notice your pot is running low they’ll come by with some hot broth. We got the split pot with the house plain broth and the spicy Szechuan. The spicy Szechuan was a perfect amount of heat and very flavorful, only complaint was how oily it was. The house plain broth was just that, super plain, came with some veggies and literally tasted like water. As far as pricing goes, we spent almost $90 (with tip) for 3 people. Considering we didn’t even get a lot of meat it was pricier than other hot pot places we’ve gone to. This would be a great place to socialize with friends and family, especially on a cold, winter day, but as far as value go your money you’d be better at Korean barbecue or unlimited sushi. We’ll probably be hungry again in an hour.

Tl; dr overall pretty mid: 5 stars for aesthetic, 3 stars for price, 3.5...

TLDR: do not come here please and save your money

Service: makes me wonder why am I tipping 15%+ at the counter if this is counter service? Everything is basically self service starting from getting water for the table. My “server” only came over to give me broth and rice & buss my table. They reached out to me apologizing about the bad service and asked if I wanted my tip refunded with a note saying it’s for everyone working that day. That was not the point of this whole review by any means and I do not want to get my tip refunded. Food: would give negative stars if I could, whole bill was around 60$ including tips, 6 ingredients for hotpot (mixed veggie, mushroom, meatballs, round eye steak, corn, shrimp)+2 condiment area usage fee+4 bowls of rice that my bf and I ate since that was the only thing it’s worth eating here. The beef smelled before& after it was cooked. I’ve attached the picture of our double flavor hot pot and how much oil came out of the Szechuan half. I know there is a pretty good layer of oil on top for the Szechuan broth but this is beyond excessive. The picture of the hotpot is after I took out the oil and is what I expect in a “normal” Szechuan broth. But that only left me half of what I started with. Cost: I don’t really understand the $3 dollar per person charge for using the condiment bar. I thought this was already built into the cost of the soup. They said there are additional appetizers but there is actually 2: One spicy edamame and spicy potato string stir fry. Nothing non spicy but these two were also covered in oil. And there is watermelon just sitting out as dessert I guess. I almost wanted to cry because of the $60 I just spent for the two of us for a very very bad hot pot and even more upset this is the only Chinese hot pot...

Update: in response to the owner’s comment, this incident occurred sometime last year, and I have been meaning to write this review for a while. In her response to my review, she makes it sound like I could’ve just easily gotten some sauce, but the young gentleman working that night when I arrived told me no, I couldn’t get any sauce (“the sauce bar is closed”) even though it seemed like a matter of simply opening some lids so I could make some. Fine, maybe he’s just an employee and was doing what he was told. But the fact that she called later asking why I didn’t pick up my order, and her attitude(!),expressing that the sauce is unimportant… like hello, you own a hot pot restaurant, sauce is ESSENTIAL.

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As a pregnant woman craving hotpot, I drove 30 minutes to this restaurant (calling ahead to confirm takeout options). The woman on the phone (likely the owner based on her authority and attitude) sighed with exasperation at every question despite my making it clear I was willing to pay for any add-ons. When I arrived at the restaurant, I asked to make some sauce and was told the sauce bar was closed - making the hotpot essentially inedible. When I left without purchasing, the same woman called me on my drive home, questioned why I even needed sauce, then dismissed my frustration by saying 'you're pregnant, that's why you're speaking like this.' Completely unprofessional treatment from who appeared to be the owner. Save yourself the disappointment and drive the extra distance to Soup...