The Cube Hot Pot

Pretty good got pot choice for Brisbane standard. Situated at Sunnybank Plaza, there’s three restaurants all brand under the same chain. All you can eat buffet style with addition $ 2 for all you can drink softdrinks, pretty good bargain. The soup based is quite nice and often I like to pick and order the split hot pot with two soup base. Must have the spicy soup and the sour fish fillet soup based. There are some cold side dishes all you can eat as well. You can also upgrade to deluxe seafood all you can eat and it will worth the value even just order a better plate of beef each. The only thing I would say with the menu is the quality of meat can be a little bit better.

There’s not much to say about the food at a hot pot place. You dump a huge selection of food into soup and then you eat it. So it’s hard to do it wrong. The food here was ok and the prices were fine, and they generally brought us what we ordered, which is a bonus for hot pot.
I’m giving two stars because the level of cleanliness was sub-​par. Hot pot is messy, so there is a need to clean tables and especially the floor more regularly, which was not being done here. The dishes were dirty, I asked for replacements, and they were replaced with other dishes that were dirty. After that I gave up.

I feel I need to elicit a couple of words of warning for this place. Firstly, don’t let your excitement for seeing so many potential menu items cause you to go crazy and tick every box on the menu card when you sit down. Secondly, don’t order with your stomach, order with your head (probably the only time I’ll say that, but seriously, over-​ordering will only bum you out).
My insatiable appetite and desire to literally try everything I’ve never had/​heard of before, resulting in a trolley full of ingredients to materialise before us aside; this place is pretty tasty. Constantly packed with people who seem to have bottomless pits for stomachs, it’s easy to see why. The menu is very extensive (hello fish balls and tripe) and the thrill of cooking exotic ingredients for your friends in a steaming bowl of spicy stock is one not to pass up. Just be sure to visit with people who can handle the same amount of chilli and spice as you; thing’s can get very fiery very quickly.

The Cube Hot Pot is a giant watering hole for Chinese families to meet, eat, fawn over new additions to the family, and gossip. Hot pot or ‘dah bin lo’ is a very communal meal, and each side dish is cooked in a giant bowl of broth in the centre of the table.
Whenever I go to The Cube, I order the herb broth, but if you can’t choose from their selection of soups, you have the option of including a separator in your pot and having multiple options.
My favourite side dishes include lotus root, Chinese spinach, fresh fish fillet, and soft tofu. If you’re going for the beef or lamb, be warned. The meat served here is sliced very finely, much like the meat at Korean barbeques, and curls in on itself when cooked, so if you’re starving go for more than less.
The staff here are very efficient, and will come around with soup refills when your broth has mostly evaporated. I had a few troubles ordering drinks here. They had sarsaparilla and I ordered a can, but they brought out a coke instead. When I told them about this mishap, they brought around a tea. I got my sarsaparilla in the end, but it took several attempts.
But aside from that the language barrier has never been a problem. Occasionally, The Cube Hot Pot will have fruit for dessert — the first time I dined here they cut half a watermelon for us and served it to our table for free. It was almost a meal in itself.

I had an emergency situation on our hands the other night. I found out my good friend had never been to steamboat.
‘What’s that?’ she asked casually.
Oh, only the most enlightening culinary experience in the world. Okay, maybe not as enlightening as cooking for the Dalai Lama or hunting down my own food Anthony Bourdain style, but it’s pretty awesome.
There was no other alternative. I overturned my dining table ladened with food, found my car keys and whisked us away to The Cube in Sunnybank.
Steamboat or Hot pot is a Chinese style of cooking consisting of big bowl of soup stock in the centre of the table. There is a variety of soup bases from basic chicken to chilli or herbal. The soup is kept boiling the entire meal as everyone adds their choice of vegetables and meats to the communal soup. Of course everyone loses their food in the communal soup bowl so once it’s in there, watch it or lose it.
There are a lot of Steamboat venues in Brisbane but the Cube Hot Pot is my favourite because of their value for money, the variety of food options and their abidance for health and safety of staff and customers.
As you can imagine, having a boiling bowl of soup in the middle of the table in a busy restaurant could potentially cause a lot of health and safety issues. I’ve seen some restaurants which will remain unnamed with extension cords trailing across the floors while little kids tear around playing. It’s just an accident waiting to happen. The Cube Hot Pot has built in gas burners in the middle of the table. There is no need for extension cords or for wait staff to handle the boiling soup at all.
Once you are seated, the staff will hand you a steamboat menu. You simply choose your soup base, the heat level (I recommend mild to medium) and then tick whatever ingredients you would like. There are fish balls, meat balls, wagyu beef, tofu, udon noodles, a variety of mushrooms, taro — the list is endless.
I suggest you lay off the Szechuan peppercorns unless you are accustomed to it. These fiery peppercorns add a whole new dimension to the concept of heat — it causes my lips and ears to tingle with pins and needles.
After you’re finished, don’t forget to drink the soup stock. It will taste even better than when it came out due to all the ingredients that has been simmering away.
The Cube Hot Pot is always a popular venue so reservations are recommended especially for a Friday or Saturday evening, or weekend lunchtime.