Double 10 Mini Hot Pot — Restaurant in Madison

Growing up in East Central Wisconsin, I wasn't exposed to decent Asian food in the wayward days of my youth. My memories of this cuisine sadly consist primarily of overcooked veggies in gloppy brown sauce. As a result, I tended to shy away from Asian food in my college and young professional days. However, after recently taking a job on Madison's south side, I've enjoyed a Renaissance of sorts as I've enjoyed the vibrant flavors of dishes from Ichiban, Orient House and recently SoHo Gourmet Cuisine during my lunchtime forays. But I really didn't experience Asian comfort food until my recent visit to Mini Hot Pot. Maybe it was the fact I came in soaked from a mid-November rain, maybe it was because I didn't eat much breakfast during my early morning meeting, but my Spicy Pork Bowl was as a soul soothing dish I've consumed in recent memory.

Mini Hot Pot sits in an unpretentious Park Street strip mall next to the Pick n Save grocery store. I was immediately greeted by the owner as I entered the restaurant and he expeditiously escorted me to an open table. The interior of the restaurant (the former home of Mabuhay Philippine) has received a fresh coat of paint and new dark brown flooring. The restaurant was absolutely spotless, from floor to ceiling. While there is no booth seating, there are plenty of tables, with built-in heating elements and matching red and black chairs. While the restaurant offers free wi-fi, I couldn't figure out the password the owner shared with me.

My soft-spoken server appeared soon after I took my seat. He diligently explained the different menu options, but there was a bit of a language barrier, so I didn't quite comprehend all of the information he was sharing. I've been pigging out on pork lately, so I zeroed in on the prefabricated Spicy Pork Bowl ($7.95), ordered it spicy, and hoped for the best.

About five minutes later, my server dropped off my order and I immediately fell completely and hopelessly in love. The aroma from the garlic and ginger in the potent broth immediately snapped my senses to attention. To the delight of my taste buds, my hot pot was brimming with thick, chewy noodles, thinly sliced pork, plump dumplings and lightly cooked broccoli. I thoroughly enjoyed the all the variety the flavor-packed dish provided. The restaurant offers three spice level (mild, spicy hot and super spicy) and the medium level provided appreciated heat without blowing out my palette. While I normally loath Wisconsin winters, these hot pots are going to help my kick Old Man Winter's ass until spring returns to the Badger state.

Throughout the meal, both the owner and the server checked in so see how I liked the meal. My grin of contentment surely tipped them off that all was well. They will be seeing plenty of me in the coming months as I explore my way through their menu. This is yet another fantastic addition to the South Madison dining scene (along with SoHo Gourmet Cuisine and El Rancho). If you're in the area, I highly recommend you pay Mini Hot...

Double 10 fills their niche well; they offer personal pots for everyone at the table, and everyone also gets their own ingredients. This makes it very easy to accommodate different dietary preferences. Whether it be a variance in spice tolerance, certain allergens (though I cannot attest to all), vegan/kosher/halal/etc, people can still have a hotpot experience without worrying about excluding anyone.

However, if your party has no need for separate pots, I would not recommend the "mini hot pot" experience. The pots are too small to accommodate all the food you will be eating, which is especially frustrating when they bring all the food out at once and it covers every inch of the table. Unlike other places like Hot Pot 608, there's no way to easily get more or less of a certain ingredient. The only items you can supply to yourself whenever are noodles and potatoes, which is appreciated, though I would have preferred unlimited bok choy, personally.

The main issue that my party brought up was that Double 10 has no tongs. We searched their provided silverware and found none, and everyone around us also lacked tongs. This was of great concern to my meat-eating friends; while I was fine using my chopsticks to drop in and also eat my broccoli and other veggies, my friends were very concerned about their chopsticks touching raw meat. They combatted this by boiling the chopsticks alongside the meat for an extended period of time. Nobody ended up sick, so it didn't end up being that big of a concern, but still created some unease at my table.

A couple more notes:

Positives Food was very fresh Broths were very flavorful, more so than other hot pot restaurants I've been to Wide variety of options for making your own sauces Ample parking

Negatives Staff struggled to keep track of tables (we ended up eating someone else's dumplings before they took away everything on our table to give to the correct patrons) Menu is not very intuitive...

i give this restaurant a rating of 3.5 stars, rounding up to 4. i went for dinner with my family, and the food was pretty good. only thing I would say is there weren't many instructions, as we have never been to a hot pot restaurant before. we asked the waiter what to do with the sauce that had come w the noodles, and she gave us a rushed response. my sister got hot pot and ordered seaweed to come with it, but they gave her some shrimp paste thing instead, it wasn't too big of an issue as my mom liked it, and my sister just left it out of her portion. that brings up another thing: if you share your hot pot with another person, it is a 8$ charge? I myself ordered the beef Ramen, and the noodles were good, but my beef was quiet fatty, which resulted in me just avoiding the beef altogether. the dumplings with scrambled eggs and pork were very good. would we come back? probably. would i order the same thing again? probably not. (now don't get me wrong. i know, it sounds like I just listed a lot of things that i didn't like about this restaurant. but the food was quite good, and it was an overall good experience... is this the people pleaser in me talking?...