OMBU Hot Pot — Restaurant in South Salt Lake

Hot Pot 101:

Any restaurant that has a big pot of "tea leaf eggs" welcoming you as you walk in the door, instantly has my love and admiration. Ombu Hotpot is easily one of the most authentic Chinese meals you can get anywhere in Utah, and because of this, I highly recommend going with someone who has even a little experience with traditional hotpot restaurants. The staff will do what they can to help you along the way, but don't expect someone to hold your hand through the whole meal. Many of the employees learned English as a second language and may not be super fluent.

If you are new to hot pot restaurants and would like to experience a new culture, but dont have anyone to show you the ropes, here are a few tips.

As you are sitting down, find where the temperature controls are on the table. The person who wants to have a very active part in the cooking experience should sit near there, and try to always maintain a light boil. When you add new things turn up the heat, as it starts boiling excessively turn it down.

Broth matters. The broth in a hot pot imparts a lot of flavor to whatever you are cooking. Ombu does an excellent job of giving you several distinct broths to choose from that will dramatically impact your meal. I highly recommend the split pot with one normal and one spicy choice. Caution: the numbing spice broth is pretty potent, especially once things stew in it for a while so be careful how spicy you order. They offer several spice levels to choose from.

Order and start cooking thicker items first. Their tablet ordering system is very convenient but it helps to keep in mind common sense cooking times. Thicker things like beef balls and potato will take longer to cook than super thin slices of meat.

Dipping sauce. While you are waiting for your contents to cook is a perfect time to make a dipping sauce and grab a few sides. Everyone has their own preferences so feel free to experiment, but my personal sauce starts with minced garlic and onions, add the gritty part of sacha sauce, put a little chili and Sesame oil on top, then finish with enough soy sauce to thin out the dipping sauce. As for the sides, grab a tiny bit of anything you want to try until you know for sure if you like it. These are meant as a palate cleanser to break the monotony of the constant stream of delicious meats and veggies you are about to enjoy so grab sparingly, you can always get more later.

Last, enjoy a communal meal. Everyone should take part in adding things in to cook. It is part of the fun and cultural experience. Be courteous though and try to let people know when you are adding in raw ingredients so people have a chance to grab anything already cooked first. You can use a separate set of utensils for the raw stuff, but traditionally we just leave our chopsticks in the boiling broth for a few seconds and then you are good to go. Up to you and your comfort level. I usually fish out anything I want to eat and put it in a small bowl to cool for a little bit first, then it goes for a quick dip in some sauce then straight to my mouth. Near the middle or the end of the meal, you can start to add different noodles to the pot to fill people up and enjoy more of the soup that has picked up the flavors of the ingredients that you have cooked so far. Try to order only what you can actually eat. Sometimes it is hard to see just how much stuff is left in the pot so once people start getting full, slow down on ordering and finish everything in the broth before you order more.

I hope this review helped and will get more people to try this amazing restaurant and experience a whole new culture. It is a great way for a family to bond and have a chance to sit and talk over a warm and filling meal. I highly recommend Ombu Hotpot and hope they continue to bring a little part of Chinese culture to the...

"New is better" definitely does not apply in all situations, including this one. Everyone speaks of Kungfu hot pot like it was a mythical land of wonder, and that Ombu Hot Pot will fill the void. I have to disagree fully. I came in at a reasonable hour(6ish for a slightly early dinner), on a slower day of the week and I was seriously met with a staggering number of disappointments.

The service was probably the biggest letdown, my glass of water remained above the empty mark for a least half an hour a couple times. Maybe they were short staffed, but it seems a bit high still. I like the iPads for ordering, but they seriously need a check and balance system as the missed the 7 requests for water, 2 for broth and sodas, and one set of meats all together. I watched another table try to aggressively flag down the attention of the wait staff 4 times to no avail. Despite coming to our table multiple times, it seemed that the staff was oblivious to the giant pile of empty plates that were never cleared. There are more examples, but these were probably the biggest.

As far as the food itself goes, I was not expecting the medium spice broth to be under a 1/4 inch layer of chili oil, which wouldn't be as bad unless you recall that my glass was always empty. The only meat that actually stood out as being flavorful was the fatty beef. It was pretty good and worked well with the flavors. The home made noodles were actually really good as well. But, you don't really go to hot pot for one meat and noodles.... The sauce bar was ok, not a ton of variety and quite a few empty containers. The broth felt lacking and not very flavorful, even after boiling down and condensing. The desert soup and seasame/redbean balls on the bar were pretty good as well. Nothing else really stood out as more than 3 stars at best.

I seriously wanted to like this place, as I like hot pot and Ombu grill, it just makes sense that the fusion would be good. This was one of the worse experiences I've had with no real offer of apologies. Maybe when they get their act together I'll revisit and revise. I would have said one star, but they were only open a week and I'm hoping they were just terribly...

Sorry, not impressed. If this is owned by Ombu, it gives the brand a bad name. We were "greeted" at the front by a gentleman that was too distracted by the iPad to even welcome us. Once we told him how many were in the party, he continued fumbling with the iPad while he walked us to our table, with no direction or letting us know what was going on. After we sat down, we waited for him to give us instructions and he was still fumbling while he waited in silence. When we finally received instructions on what to do, it didn't get any better. We had asked for waters and we had to ask twice (20 minute period) to get them. Once we ordered the food and got the first round, we ordered the next round and it never came after about 15 minutes. We flagged down the waitress and she told us we needed to give it a bit more time and didn't bother to check on it to be nice. Another 15 or so minutes goes by and we ask again. This time she actually went to go check and then tells us that they never received it and to order again. While we waited, we asked for more water and again, it never came. I ended up picking up the pitcher myself to fill waters for our table. The entire experience lasted about 2 hours, which is pretty standard, but it really left a bad taste in my mouth with the service. The food was mediocre, the "salad bar" was pretty empty and wasn't constantly refilled with the sauces and other condiments. Our dirty plates weren't ever removed during the meal and we had a large pile by the time we left. The only real good thing about the place was the sesame balls, which were likely just bought from a restaurant supply place. This place needs to work out a lot of kinks with their iPad, staff, and their food selection. I know they are still fairly new, but there are high expectations when this used to be Kung Fu Hot Pot and already had a decent following. I would consider changing my review if I have a better experience, but it will likely be some time...