Jaew Hon — Restaurant in New York

When anyone mentions hot pot in NYC, the first thing that people think of are Chinese owned businesses. When people think of Thai food, they usually just think of the popular Thai street foods like Pad Thai. When I first heard of Jaew Hon a while back I was intrigued because Thai hot pot was a new concept for me....let alone hot pot in general. And I had stopped by a while back which was when I had little experience. But the place to me as memorable and now that I am more accustomed to hot pot I always thought of Jaew Hon and decided to go back recently.

That particular establishment is the definition of a family owned small business and has been in that neighborhood of Jackson Heights for many years. It is located on the second floor of the building and has a very cozy atmosphere. The dining area consists of tables along the wall as you walk in as well as some tables in the back.

They have a section of unlimited vegetables (chinese style lettuce and bok choys, mushrooms, bean sprouts etc) frozen items like fish balls. There is actually a great amount of stuff to choose from for sides. Then for rice you have the option of jasmine or garlic rice.

One nice surprise when I returned is finding out that in addition to the hot pot they are known for they offer a Thai style bbq option for those who prefer to grill the meats.

ALL YOU CAN EAT HOT or Thai BBQ $34.99 per person as of this review (price subject to change) 90 minute time limit Wasted food results in a surcharge

The hot pot option allows you two soup broths. The options include SPICY -Tom zap (beef or pork) -Jaew Hon (beef or pork blood( Yen Ta Fo (pork)

NON SPICY Clear (chicken broth) Yen Ta Fo (Chinese beancurd) Vegetarian (mushroom base) -Plain soup (water base)

The meats and seafood they offer will definitely fill you. You can get a max of three servings at a time for each meat but order but pace yourself as it can be a lot of food all at once. You get aprox 50z of meat per order. I usually just order three or four meats at a time. They bring you sauces to the table. The Jaew signature sauce is one of my favorites among the ones they offer and there is a newer miso type sauce that is tasty as well.

The menu consists of: sliced beef sliced fatty beef marinated beef beef liver beef tripe marinated chicken sliced pork marinated pork sliced pork belly marinated mince pork pork intestine pork liver pork kidney fish squid clams shrimp tofu

The BBQ option (Moo Ta Ka) was introduced last year and has become a popular alternative. You get a very unique grill surrounded by a ring of chicken broth so you can boil some food while other food cooks on the grill. For the grill you need to wait until it heats up and then use the piece of fat they provide to oil the top before you start cooking.

All the grills are portable tabletop and of course need to be refilled every now and then. The servers either come around or they leave a pot of broth at the table for you.

For drinks they definitely got you covered. There is a separate menu that consists of ice tea and smoothies, hot tea, colas, beers, wine and even soju! You always have to get the classic Thai ice tea but their coconut smoothies and ovaltine smoothies are quite good!

And I always tell people to save room for dessert. There is a very unique and refreshing ovaltine mountain ice dessert they make that is great for sharing with your table.

I would like to give a proper shoutout to the awesome employees who made my experience very good on my recent visit.

PJ was there when I showed up to eat late during a weeknight. It was not too busy and since it had been a while since I last dined at that establishment he explained some of the new menu offerings and policies to me.

Tom was the other server there and was also very polite and friendly. He is the one who makes most of the smoothies and desserts and he is very good at what he does.

There is a very nice lady who was also there but I unfortunately forgot her name. She always...

The tall male waiter is unprofessional. After finding this place I brought many friends, my brother, and my boyfriend here on numerous occasions and it is usually a decent experience. They accept only cash so when we plan to go, we always try to come with at least $50 cash per person. The last time I went with my boyfriend and brother after participating in a marathon. We did not plan to go out but we wanted to celebrate our achievement before heading home and knew we had enough for the bill. We paid and I told the female waiter who collected our check to not return with change and we gave almost all the cash we had, except for my last $20 to make sure my little brother could get home. The male waiter came to our table and loudly said “In New York, standard tip is 20% and you tipped 11%“. So i gave him my last $20 and told him not to bring me the change. he then said ”but now this is too much“. I did not mind overtipping because I knew that was the last time I would ever be dining at Jaew Hon because to shame a customer like that in front of others is rude and unprofessional and unwelcoming. Especially when I was a repeat customer. You never know what someone is going through and while I understand tipping is controversial in the United States, I am happy to tip but the way he handled it was aggressive and will lose them customers. If you like hotpot and kind service go to Hometown, Gangnam, or even Spring Shabu Shabu instead. They are bigger, have more options, and are more professional.

I wish that never happened so I could feel comfortable returning to Jaew Hon but...

I have been meaning to try this place for a while... hotpot with Thai-styled broth and flavors sounded amazing. Went with a couple friends on a Saturday night (they do not open for lunch service) and it was about an hour wait around 6pm. Totally worth the wait! They let you choose up to two kinds of broth. The Jaew Hon broth was savory and fragrant, not a lot of "blood flavor". The Tom Zap was lemongrass-y and not as savory, so I liked using that broth when I really want the ingredients' flavors to stand out on its own. I love that the restaurant was all you can eat, but they brought out the ingredients in small plates, so you can really order a lot of varieties. Keep in mind they will charge for wasted food, which is reasonable. I highly recommend the green fishballs, the minced pork, clam, and shrimp! The shrimp was so fresh and tasty, I didn't even mind the hassle of unshelling it. Pair it with a bottle of the Singha beer for a match made in heaven. There was already a lot of flavor from the broth, but they provide three dipping sauces: one was sweet and tangy, and the other two were different levels of sour and spicy So delicious! The decor was colorful and cute and great for photos. Service was super friendly and attentive. The only thing that could be improved upon is that towards the end of the meal, the soup boiled down to a really concentrated salty soup. It would be nice if they filled the pot with more hot water like other hotpot places, but maybe they didn't want to dilute the soup in general. All in all a great experience that I couldn't stop...