China Hot Pot — Restaurant in Doraville

[Time & Date of visit]: 7pm on a Saturday night.

[Location/Ambiance]: The restaurant is located in the center of the L shaped plaza, next door to quickly bubble tea. Since the grand opening of Little Sheep, there's been a boat load of more cars taking the parking spaces then before and is pretty limited on a early weekend night. There is parking in the back, though pretty shady looking. I would suggest, parking in Asian square and walking with another friend or with a group down the block. Entering the restaurant there are tables to fit about 4 to a hot pot section, though the tables contain two burners, don't be afraid of being placed to share a table with strangers. I'm not sure how big of a group you would need for the larger round tables that are adjacent to the front entrance. After we arrived, there were smaller groups waiting for tables and crowding the front. Most patrons are Asian, specifically Chinese or Taiwanese, if that helps with how authentic the place is compared to what hot pot places you are used to.

Noise level was average. Lighting is decent.

[Service]: Here's where it get's tricky. That night, there were really only two servers who spoke and understood English that provided attention to our groups table. We'll nick name them, tattoo guy and tall, chubby guy with glasses guy. The other servers really couldn't understand our request for some basics. Water refills weren't really coming our way. They do, some how get your order rotations with the colored pens correct though.

Not everything is part of the AYCE menu, which is limited to 2 hours. And yes, your table is timed. And any meats and/or veggies that isn't in the broth or eaten, is charged to your table when you go to pay. As for ordering, we'll label these as courses. First course, you are given a specific colored pen. Mark your selections and provide a quantity. Then the server takes your paper menu with selections to the back, and sometime later they roll out a cart with your order. Second and third courses play out the same, but each time you are given a different colored pen to mark your options. So what if you're still hungry and it's the 4th, 5th, etc course? Glad you ask, you pretty much have to verbally ask a server for what selections you would like, a la AYCE KBBQ, and hope they remembered. Once the soup starts getting low, they refill each side with the same broth with a large kettle, yes, even the spicy soup.

[Food Highlights]:

Truthfully, I'm not that big on hot pot. So take my food section review with a grain of salt.... though my bestest would say I have plenty of it already. er. Well anyway, beef and lamb are cut fresh with a meat deli style slicer, so it's thin enough to cook fast. The regular broth doesn't have much flavor, but the spicy broth has a good amount of chili oil floating on top. I poured half a ladle each in my own small bowl. For those of you who didn't grow up eating spicy food, I would suggest ordering a coke or something to wash the spicy broth down after. Most items are included on the AYCE selection, except for my personal favorites; tofu fish cakes and quail eggs. 4 orders of these, and I was pretty much paying for two people. Pay attention to items that aren't included or watch your bill jump up.

For anyone that wants a little more flavor, on the tables there are soy sauce, minced garlic in oil, hot mustard and I believe vinegar or more hot chili oil. I can't remember at the moment.

[Total Bill w/ Tip & Tax]: Around $18 per person for the AYCE option.

{Summary}: Just like if you step into a Korean BBQ place where the servers really don't speak English, is going to be a challenge flagging down tattoo guy or chubby guy with glasses to get service. Maybe bring a friend who speaks Chinese would help out your meal. Though they are the only ones who have done it so far for a AYCE hot pot, there are a couple of things that needed to be ironed out. For now, I'll give...

I've visited China Hot Pot twice this summer, and I've loved every visit! I always leave stuffed and happy.

A friend of mine who grew up on Buford Hwy invited some of us from work to a hot pot dinner. There were 5 of us, and we got to sit at one table with a chair pulled up.

I'm thankful my friend was there to help explain things. We got 1 pot in the middle of our table, which was split into 3 sections so we could have different flavors of broth. We got spice, normal, and nutrition. The normal broth is a standard salty flavor and is the base of all the broth flavors. For spicy, they add spice, and for nutrition, they add ingredients that are good for your health (jujube, ginger slices, things like that). As we chowed down and drank some of the broth, the staff came by and replenished the broth from kettles of hot broth. My friend would dip out some of the broth to drink like a soup, and I liked doing this, too, after adding some seasonings from the seasonings counter.

The seasonings counter is near the front door, to the left. You can help yourself to all the things there. Sesame oil, soy sauce, salt, special sauce, fish sauce, garlic oil, etc. There is also a dessert and, I think, another soup of some sort there. I usually get two small bowls. One for garlic and salt and sesame oil and one for just soy sauce. Get a new bowl when you need more.

(The bathrooms are located beyond the seasonings counter, by the way. They are 1-stall single-use rooms.)

Now onto the menu! The price is $18.95 per person, all you can eat for 2 hours. I've seen a single person chow down by themselves, and I believe the staff adjusts the portions they bring out according to the number of people at the table. They're happy to accommodate your request for a small portion, too.

The menu shows a long list of options. Mark what you want brought to the table, wait patiently for a little while, then pass the raw foods into the boiling broth and dip it out with the ladles provided.

Golden mushrooms = enoki mushrooms Black mushroom = shitake mushrooms Fungus = wood ear mushroom (I think)

I highly recommend ordering the handmade noodles and the lamb pancake. The lamb pancake is brought out on a plate already cooked and crispy. The same goes with the buns, which I don't like as much. My other favorites are the golden mushrooms, vermicelli, nappa (cabbage), lamb or pork dumplings (which go into the pot), and sliced beef. I like to make sure I add in plenty of veggies like the cabbage or bean sprouts because these meals can feel pretty heavy after a while. The mussels, by the way, taste like the ocean, not like the kind I was used to that were simmered in butter and white wine, haha.

There are some premium items that cost extra at the bottom of the menu. You can have a delicious meal without them, so don't feel pressure to go all in.

When you want more food, you can mark again on your menu and let the staff know what you want.

My husband and I loved our first visit with work friends so much that we brought my mother here for her first hot pot experience, too! She's not good with chopsticks, so I made sure to serve her from the pot so that she'd get enough food.

There's a medium-sized parking lot for the whole plaza. If you're feeling really bold, there's a rolled Thai ice cream place a few storefronts down, but honestly, we were full enough from dinner and should not have gone afterward for dessert (both times).

The restaurant has TVs, very friendly staff, and a lot of tasty options. I highly recommend trying...

Bugs found in their soup, not only once but twice.

As I’ve been a frequent weekend goer to this spot, (2-3 times a month) I must let public be aware of this restaurant about its food safety and cleanliness issue.

I had first found a bug being inside their hot pot soup on date of September 18th 2021 as you can see in the attached pictures. When we raised it to the owner’s attention, she apologized and said that there were occasions when she had also found some flies in their vegetables, specifically watercress as she referred, and promised us that this won’t happen again by preparing ingredients properly. Since then, we never ordered watercress at this place hoping to avoid possibilities of having bugs again. But, our hope was short lived.

When I found a fruit fly in their soup tonight around 9:50pm and told the owner, first thing she told me was that it was “unfair” for them because I had already finished the meal when I was telling her about this. I have let them known as soon as I found it floating just after my group cleared out the soup, how earlier can I have them known? She then showed and bragged with all the receipts that she had tonight and accused me as some kind of a black consumer saying that it’s only me that complained about the bugs at their restaurant. Not only that, another waitress was asking us “Really, you’ve found a fly in the soup after you finish?” Then all of the servers gathered around the table speaking Chinese. Now, I could not understand what they were speaking, but I knew they were making fun of us by mocking in chinese.

The last time I found a bug, I paid the full price. This time as well. I DO have the money to buy a meal for myself and others so don’t accuse me as if I’m a black consumer asking for a free meal in front of people and humiliating me just because I’m pointing out your wrong for the better for the public. I was simply expecting an apology and your effort for the better service, never a ransom.

Well, fellow atlanta eaters who’s read this entire review, hope this helps you be aware of their services and what you may find in their magic soup that they bring out. If you’re a nature lover and enjoy bug broth because it’s nutritional, you do you. But I’m not spending another cent at this place for such cuisine. When you go there, don’t forget to turn off the cooktop and wait for a few seconds after you finish your meal and see what fortune you may get that day.. Just know, some things that go in your mouth may never see the...