8/29/2023 0 Comments Hot pot restaurant fight![]() ![]() But even the simplest soups are stuffed with a crisper drawer full of vegetables and no shortage of protein. The basics are fairly straightforward - simple Taiwanese-style beef or lamb soup based on broth that’s full flavored and nicely balanced with a hint of aromatic spice. Tasty Pot offers a dozen hot pots composed around different broths and mixes of ingredients, the only options being how spicy you’d like it and whether you get rice or noodles on the side. Of course, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t plenty of options. Perhaps more importantly, the broths at Tasty Pot are unusually well-balanced, and the items simmering within are a couple notches above the average hot pot joint. On the other hand, those who prefer a bountiful bowl all to themselves will find this right up their alley. Those who like the communal aspect, who prefer to cook at their own pace or who enjoy the flexibility of jumping up to grab whatever they like from the bar might find Tasty Pot limiting. The format has its upsides and downsides. Tasty Pot, on the other hand, serves its hot pot preassembled right out of the kitchen - a generous bowl filled to the brim with all kinds of goodies, perched on an ornate pedestal that conceals a small fuel source to keep the broth bubbling. You pick your flavor of broth - served individually or in a communal bowl on your table - and walk a buffet line featuring dozens of ingredients to cook. Most local hot pot restaurants have focused on an all-you-can-eat format. ![]() Where Tasty Pot differs from most of its local contemporaries is in the presentation. But the two critical components to any hot pot meal are a simmering cauldron of broth and an abundance of things to cook in it. Hot pot is enormously popular in Taiwan, and if you can think of a style or a format or a hook, you can probably find it there. ![]() To the extent Taiwan can be said to have a particular style, anyway. Sporting roughly two dozen locations across the country, Tasty Pot hails from San Jose, California, and bills itself as a Taiwanese-style hot pot restaurant. While this new restaurant at Mekong Plaza in Mesa differs slightly from the rest, it might also prove be one of the best. But tracking closely with a recent boom of Chinese hot pot chains in Southern California, we’ve suddenly been swamped by the likes of Yu Tian Xia Hot Pot, Kood Tea Bar & Cafe, PK Shabu & Grill, Jin Shabu and Hot Pot & BBQ & Sake Bomb. Mekong Palace Hot Pot and YZ’s Hot Pot & BBQ weren’t too far behind. Dunking vegetables, seafood and sliced meats into a tabletop pot of bubbling broth is nothing new, but the sudden popularity and ubiquity of Asian hot pot restaurants in the Valley certainly is.Ĭredit Johnny Chu for being ahead of the curve when he opened Tien Wong in 2010, later moving his hot pot restaurant to Phoenix and renaming it Shabu Fondue. In case you haven’t noticed - and if you don’t live in the East Valley, you’ll be forgiven for missing this one - hot pot is not only having a moment, but it’s also a trend that's quickly accelerating. View Gallery: Hot pot: Mesa's Tasty Pot might be the best in metro Phoenix ![]()
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