Boiling Point — Restaurant in San Gabriel

The new Boiling Point opened up at the old location that used to be A+ Tea House. I saw on BP's Instagram that they were doing a limited time offer of a mutton hot pot so I wanted to go there and try it.

First of all, this place has a parking lot right next door, which is good. Street parking was not a problem either. It's a Saturday and there were a lot of people waiting outside already. I actually walked inside the restaurant to look for a waiting list but they directed me outside to a tablet that let you put in your phone number on the waiting list. Then you could sit on the benches outside and wait. In the winter, waiting outside for around 30 minutes is not enjoyable. (I actually got a cold after this visit which was not that pleasant.) Inside, there's actually a lot of space in the middle, and I didn't understand why they didn't add more tables. I guess they rearranged some tables for bigger parties.

My friend and I both ordered the mutton hot pot, and we also ordered an appetizer called Holy Cow, which is a combination. I could not believe the value of this appetizer. For $8, there were just a few pieces of pig's ear and stewed beef. It's more like a small snack. I commented on this ridiculous portion size considering the price, and the server boy only apologized. Nothing much he could do. I couldn't believe this rip-off! Do not order this appetizer! The whole thing is smaller than the size of a lady's palm.

The mutton hot pot itself was fine. It wasn't what I was expecting, but it's still fine. The soup base was very herbal. There are only a little bit of greens on top and lots of vermicelli at the bottom. I think the value of this is not as good compared to the other hot pots on the regular menu. I would rather get the regular items on the menu than this limited time offer.

Overall, I would give this place a 2.5-star rating, but since I couldn't, I'll round it up to be nice, as I did like this place before. It's just that the value of their hot pots were eaten away by inflation and it's actually expensive to eat here now. And the appetizer size is...

Seriously, only giving 1 star for the food. The customer service is so rude! I went to the promo deal of going last month and getting “1 small hot pot” I went during lunch time the following month to use the voucher. My friend and I both had one. We went during lunch hours and got the 1 of each of the “small hot pot (beef and Korean).” During all lunch hours up till 3pm, you are to get a FREE drink (green tea) with any hot pot item. THATS REGULAR FOR ALL LUNCH HOURS AT BP IN SG!! We also had the same promo with the “1 FREE DRINK” so we got another drink at the end. They said we had to give back our drink at the end (non green tea. we got another because we also had a drink voucher). We were told that we had to use our “1 FREE DRINK” voucher for the FREE LUNCH GREEN TEA DRINK. DISCLAIMER: WHEN I WENT LAST MONTH TO GET MY PROMO VOUCHER, I had to also buy ADDITIONAL drink to qualify for this deal. Last month, I purchase 1 hot pot and 1 drink and since I went during lunch hours, they also gave me a green tea. In total, 2 drinks and 1 hot pot to get this voucher. So how come I had to use my free voucher on a (lunch free) green tea and rudely be talked by and HAVE MY (2nd) DRINK BE TAKEN AWAY (told I can keep it if I wanted to pay for it). I believe this was even the manager who did this because she had a different uniform. I asked if it says anything about no free lunch drink included in hot pot, she said yes. This is the voucher, and no where does it say that. Boiling point, take responsibility and accountability for your own promotion except trying to steal from your...

Yikes 3 stars! To be fair, I'm giving 5 for the food, which is as good as any of their other locations, but 1 for the service! Though we were on the waiting list, it took us nearly 2 hours to be seated on a Sunday afternoon. This may be due to the incompetence of the staff, or maybe it's the growing pains of a new location. Their small parking lot is nothing to rave about either, but at least free street parking is mostly plentiful.

When we first got on the list, we were told the wait was around 45 minutes. After waiting almost an hour, I went inside to check with staff to see if we were going to be seated soon. I was told we still had to wait. Another 30 to 40 minutes go by and I decided to check again, this time with a different worker. To my surprise, I was told we were supposed to be seated already. After some awkward scramble to get a table cleaned up, they finally sat us down. An apology would have been nice, but we never heard such words. Keep in mind, we were waiting right by the entrance during the entire wait, just to make sure we wouldn't miss being called.

Tl;dr: good food, bad service,...