Hot Pot Kitchen & Cajun Seafood House — Restaurant in Rockville

Great place to go to if you're super hungry and it's one of a handful of hot pot places around. As I walked in on a Friday night, there were so many people waiting by the entrance inside and outside. As you can see it's quite popular. I was greeted by their hostess, she seemed like an owner or manager. She was very nice and told me it was about 30 - 40 min wait. I was super hungry so I was ok with it.

I waited a few minutes for my friend to arrive and we just walked outside and talked to kill time. We got back and waited another 20 minutes. Throughout this interval, the same lady kept calling my name saying or table was almost ready. It was 3 times this happened. Also, as we waited, another person handed out spring rolls and bread to everyone waiting. This was super generous of them and I enjoyed the gesture. I guess it's one of the many perks for dining at a restaurant when they're a few hours away from closing.

My friend and I finally got seated and our waiter came to take our orders. Because it was just the two of us, we were given separate bowls. I got the spicy schizuan soup base. My friend got pork soup base. We ordered pretty much all the meats. This all came out in line 5 minutes. Wow super fast. We walked up to gather all the other sides like fish ball, tofu, spinach, mushrooms, other veggies, etc. I love that this place is all you can eat. Yum!

We got back to our seats and started cooking our food. From beef brisket, octopus, to fish and dumplings, the food was not as good as I had hoped. It was was pretty average. My soup was also way too spicy for me so I asked them to change it to pork. Much better but the taste was still subpar. However, everything else about the restaurant was phenomenal. Especially the service. Everyone was super enthusiastic, funny, easy to talk to, and they were always checking up on us making sure we were good.

We kept cooking and stayed till closing. I think my favorite meats were octopus and beef briskets (i think it was the brisket lol). My favorite side dishes were tofu, and fish balls.

Here's my tip: If you decide to come on a weekday, I recommend making reservations on their website or calling. It gets super busy. If you're dining on the weekend, then be ready to wait at least 45 min for a table during peak hours. They don't take reservations on the weekends.

All in all great place. The only thing slacking is the taste of their food. Otherwise it would be perfect....

Hot Pot Legend is an authentic Sichuan Hot Pot restaurant located near Bread Corner Bakery. When you arrive, they ask you where you want to sit and whether you want a big ying yang pot or individual pots. For broth, you can pick from 8 different broths - Sichuan Spices, Pork Bone, Tomato, Herbal, Mushroom, Pickled Cabbage, Kimchi, and Milky Broth. All of them by default are pork-based broths. However, most of them except Pork Bone and Milky Broth can be substituted for Vegetarian or Chicken Broth due to dietary restrictions.

For meats and seafood, you can choose multiple proteins including fatty brisket slice, sliced beef, marinated beef, beef tripe, sliced lamb, pork belly, pork liver, pork kidney, pig intestines, sliced chicken, chicken gizzard, mini pork dumplings, sliced fish filet, shrimp, clams, scallop, squid, mussel, and crawfish. I wish that they had fish pastes that could be made into fish balls. My favorite meat item was marinated beef. It was tender and flavorful.

Unlike other hot pot places, you have to grab your own vegetables, tofu, meatballs, and noodles. Some of my favorite items were taro root, lotus root, pumpkin, mushrooms, corn, bok choy, baby bok choy, cabbage, napa cabbage, crown daisy, tofu, fish cake, fish tofu, beef ball, fish ball, shrimp ball, and lobster ball.

They had a wide variety of sauces to make your own dipping sauce including soy sauce, chinese BBQ, curry sauce, honey mustard, balsamic vinegar, sweet and sour, peanut sauce, fermented tofu, sesame oil, miso sauce, hoisin sauce, teriyaki sauce, thai sauce, chef's sauce, and chili oil. My favorite sauces were soy sauce, miso sauce, and teriyaki sauce. I liked to add garlic, cilantro, and green onion. My only complaint is I wish they had sweet black vinegar and soy sauce with oil as dipping sauces.

We were rushed that we didn't have time for coconut sago dessert but we...

A little hard to find as of October 2018 the directions led me to the apartment buildings instead of the actual restaurant. It is located in the blue buildings right behind Popeyes.

I came here on Columbus Day and it was busy. I waited for about 15 minutes for table of one. Lunch is normally 1799 and I thought that that was the price I was going to pay but on holidays I think it is dinner prices which kind of was a downer.

as soon as you sit down you are given a plate of the sweet fried bread with condensed milk and an egg roll and a couple of seconds later it will be followed up with the seaweed looking thing which I did not like because it was sweet but it also had like raw garlic in it which was a really odd combination.

Those peanuts were delightful and filled my soul the joy. It was savory and that is the best I could do with my description for these peanuts... I can't even describe the flavor profile but just know that they are good. I need to buy at thesaurus or something.

I opted for the Tomato broth which really does pack a tomato punch along with lamb and the fatty brisket. Took about 6 to 8 minutes to get out another four to five minutes to get the broth boiling even though it felt like an eternity, the old adage of a watched pot never boils definitely originated at a hot pot joint.

Meat was like any other place nothing special but still good. service was still very quick and attentive even though it was very busy. The manager was on point, he was wearing a blue shirt and was helping to servers clean stuff off the floor and hosting...very hands on manager.

overall a great experience and I would definitely recommend this place to anyone who is looking for a all-you-can-eat...