A “hot,” new, all-you-can-eat option

I really missed Little Sheep Hot Pot when it closed, so I was elated to see the vacant spot at Ward Centre stir to life again with a new hot pot restaurant, Chong Qing Hot Pot.

In the turn-key swap of one hot pot spot for another, the interior remains the same as it was. The only change is table tops that now accommodate recessed individual pots as well as communal pots of broth.

Chongqing the city is known for its Sichuan-spiced cuisine and red pepper-filled hot pots. But it’s much tamer here. Neither the spicy broth nor “numb” broth, in reference to the tongue-numbing effect of the Sichuan pepper, is particularly strong.

The house broth is actually a milky colored pork bone marrow and chicken broth that I enjoyed. On a second visit, I ordered the herbal marrow broth that simply included a handful of goji berries and a couple of jujubes that don’t add to the flavor of the broth but make a sweet finish when you fish them out and eat them when you’re done with your meal. Other broth options are tomato, tom yum and vegan mushroom.

To start, you can opt for an individual pot of broth or a communal pot if everyone is in agreement over the choice of broth. Even though the hot pot was intended to be a communal experience, I do like the personal pot and having control over what goes in so ingredients don’t get lost at the bottom of the pot because of people who habitually dump everything into the pot and forget what they’ve added.

I love that an equivalent sauce bar is back. You can take your pick of seven sauces, including shoyu, ponzu, garlic and sesame oil, plus condiments of chopped garlic, green onions and cilantro. You can use the virgin version of the sauces, but I choose to mix them up. My go-to is the thick sesame sauce with a little bit of chili oil, and fishy Taiwanese sha cha, with a little bit of garlic, green onions and two heaping portions of cilantro.

At the same time you’re gathering your condiments, you can pick up pupu of salted peanuts and shrimp chips, as well as sides of kimchi and seaweed salad.

The single-price all-you can-eat format makes it carefree to order without having to count up individually priced plates of ingredients as at a la carte haunts. Adult prices are set at $33.99 for lunch Mondays-Fridays, and $38.99 for dinner and weekend lunch. The cost for children is $21.99, but children 4-foot-2 and taller will be charged at the adult price.

Orders are limited to three rounds, a wise decision by management, as I only recently learned that the Brazilian all-you-can-eat churrasco restaurant Tudo de Bom, which opened in McCully in 2004, eventually closed because of a bottomless pit audience that ate them out of business.

Orders are measured in pieces — that will initially shock those expecting a whole plateful of ingredients as common elsewhere. I’m talking meat orders of 10 pieces at a time, and side ingredients of two pieces at a time, meaning two pieces of clam, two pieces of corn cob, etc. So, it’s important for everyone at the table to figure out how many pieces they’ll eat and do some multiplication.

The menu is much more limited than in the past when there was more seafood and a wide variety of dumplings offered. In fact, you’ll pay extra for a couple of seafood items on the menu, like abalone (three pieces, $3.50) and surf clams (two pieces hokkigai, $2.50).

Also conspicuously missing were some of my favorite ingredients such as kabocha, enoki and shiitake mushrooms. Instead, there are chewy king mushrooms and gelatinous wood ear mushrooms that suffice but wouldn’t be my first picks.

The first order of business is to choose your meat, which for me at hot pot restaurants is always lamb.

Here, it may be too gamey for many to tolerate. Next best thing is the fatty and flavorful beef short plate. Other options include “supreme” beef, pork belly and chicken thighs.

What follows is a free-for-all depending on your cravings. There is tripe, Spam, fishcake, quail eggs, basa fish fillets, fish tofu, imitation crab, mini pork sausages and cheese fish sausages. It didn’t look like much when it arrived, but the shrimp paste with center of crunchy roe turned out to be one of my favorite ingredients.

As for veggies, there are the standard baby bok choy and Napa cabbage. There is also taro, watercress, broccoli and choy sum.

For a classic finale, there are fresh-cut noodles, mung bean noodles, udon, glass noodles or rice you can add to your pot. Then, return to the sauce bar for helpings of fresh sliced pineapples and oranges. There are a couple of mini single-bite wrapped cheesecake offerings, but a strawberry version was so sweet I couldn’t finish that tiny portion.

Chong Qing Hot Pot

Ward Centre
1044 Auahi St., Honolulu
Food: ***½
Service: ***
Ambiance: ***½
Value: ***½
Call: 808-591-8411
Hours: 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 10 a.m. 6 p.m. Sundays
Prices: About $70 for two for weekday lunch; $80 for two for dinner and weekend lunch

Nadine Kam’s restaurant visits are unannounced and paid for by Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Follow Nadine on Instagram (@nadinekam) or on YouTube (youtube.com/nadinekam).