Hotpot Express — Restaurant in Citrus Heights

[This review is based purely off of the hot pot]

Man, me and my girlfriend DESPERATELY wanted to love this place. Ever since HL Hot Pot in South Sac closed (for our money, one of the best Hot Pot places in California), we've been searching for a replacement. We saw the amazing reviews for this one, and the next night we found ourselves here. We drove 35 minutes to eat here...it wasn't exactly worth the trip.

With a nice atmosphere and nice service, the overall clunkiness of the experience, lack of decent options, and somewhat small portions take away from what could've been a great visit. But this place has GREAT potential, and we liked a lot from it -- the broths and the whole "self-serve" aspect especially. This place has serious potential.

Atmosphere: 3.8/5 -- Situated in a slightly cramped shopping center, it's nestled snugly next to a nail salon with a taco bell right across the way. Not exactly premium digs, but we easily found a parking spot. -- The inside is pretty nice; newly remodeled I'm sure. It was shiny, so I like that. It was also clean, which you would think nowadays is a given, but you'd be surprised. -- It's pretty small. Like, 6 tables and 1 giant table small.

Service: 4/5 -- When we got there, there was only 1 visible employee doing everything. He was really nice and helpful, but you could tell this was a little too much on his plate at times. -- When he did help us, you could tell he genuinely wanted you to have a great experience. Huge (+) plus!

Basically, there's three tiers of plates you can choose from: Green $2.95 --- Vegetables, noodles, tofu (and chicken ) Yellow $3.95 --- Meats, fish balls, etc Red $4.95 ------ Seafood, higher quality meats

Pretty simple, right? And color coordination makes everything easier too, which was kind of like their version of a self-checkout line. Nice.

Food: 3/5

• The broths we got (house special and spicy beef) were delicious, and pretty intense. The spicy is pretty spicy. Be warned that these two are very similar. Also, both of them were inherently Thai broths. We weren't really aware that this was more of a Thai hotpot place, but the menu suggests that. Shiitake mushrooms were part of the green plates, which is saying something because usually they're not included in hot pot or very expensive. Meat was good quality, and the vegetables were serviceable.

(-- --) The dipping sauces were....not very good. Two ladies behind us seemed to enjoy, but neither of us did. One was some weird Asian take on thousand islands, and it just seems totally mismatched with hotpot. The other was some overly spicy lime/chile sauce. That's it. (--) Not a huge selection on veggies at all, I was disappointed. Basic cabbage, bok choy, broccoli, cucumbers...and that's kind of it. Was looking for watercress, spinach, etc. (--) The set up at the table was just...clunky. Something just kind of seemed off.

-- Some things that we liked: Rice noodles (gave us so much more than the udon noodles plate), shiitake(!), lobster balls, and enoki. -- The seafood "medley" (frozen assorted seafood combination) was pretty gross, and it was $5. -- The plates that were available to us looked nothing like the plates from when this plate opened, so we were upset about that. Smaller portions and less options :( Price: 3.5/5 -- The prices are a little steep than the aforementioned HL Hot Pot (R.I.P.), but we got a check of $31 for 2, which we could definitely slim down next time. -- Drinks are pretty expensive, with no refills for drinks. Thai tea for $3.50? Yikes. -- The meats are pretty expensive here for the small portions, which would've been okay, but there were little vegetable options. TIPS: -- Tell him the broth (or two for an extra $3) you want right when you sit down. That way you can just get up and choose your food! -- Rice noodle value is better than udon noodle value -- Stay away from the medley, please.

This place could be great, but it's not yet. I don't think we'll make the drive up here unless it improves, but I feel like it...

When we first arrived the owner was friendly and continued to be friendly and helpful throughout our visit. The restaurant is clean. The issue is he stated we will be eating out of paper bowls and plastic spoons because people are masking back up. So I guess they don’t use bleach to clean and sanitize at this restaurant. The bowl became soft instantly and all of the broths seeped into the bowl making it quite hard to actually taste and enjoy the soups. He kept coming by and turning our hot pot down instead of allowing us to do it like at other hot pots. He eventually turned it down so low or soup became borderline cold. The noodles and vegetables do not come with the meal automatically like at all the other hot pot restaurants. On top of that there is no protein package like at other hot pots so everything is separate on individual plates with Saran Wrap. It’s odd he has us all opening the refrigerators during mask season but we can’t have real bowls and utensils. Not to mention the food seems quite old and stale like it’s been sitting for days. The restaurant was very cold and with the hot pot being low and food cold it was not an enjoyable experience. Our bill was out of line for the extremely mediocre food that we basically wasted because the broth selections were subpar. We were not provided with an itemized receipt neither so we are not quite sure just exactly what we were charged for. The only good thing about this restaurant is that the owner is...

While driving around the Sacramento area in the evening looking for a late-night dinner spot, I happened upon Hotpot Express.

Hotpot Express provides an innovative take on the traditional hotpot experience in which diners can select their broths (up to 3 different broths can be chosen) and then select their hot pot contents from a self-serve refrigerator. Diners are charged by the plate with each colored plate representing a different price point. They provide a medium-sized selection of noodles, vegetables, meats, fish cakes, and dumplings for patrons to enjoy. The owner was very friendly in explaining the restaurant's concept and providing us with recommendations, which we appreciated given it was our first time at this spot.

We went with the miso and authentic boat noodle broth. Both broths were very flavorful and I'm definitely glad we were able to sample both! From the fridge we went with a selection of noodles (egg and udon noodles), napa cabbage, seafood mushrooms, fish balls, and tofu. The hot pot ingredients tasted fresh and of high-quality.

If you're looking for a new hot pot place to try with a unique dining experience to go along with delicious food, then I definitely recommend giving Hot Pot...