Hotpot First

Definitely me and my fiancée’s favorite hotpot place. Reasonably priced and always have had great service.
We usually both get the Spicy & Numbing with lamb as the meat choice and add a side of ramen. Love the flavor of the broth. It doesn’t come with one of those pots with the flame underneath, but rather in a stone pot. Have never had the soup go cold on me, even towards the end.
On a side note, the smoothies here are delicious too.

Very tasty, reasonably priced and very local to me. This is my third time here now and I will continue to return. The soup has good flavor. Despite there only being a few options to select, i’ve never really felt shorted in that department. You got your generic Superbase, your spicy, and your tart flavors. Honestly, you don’t really need much more than that. Salty sour and spicy.
They have Milk Tea there. Only a few flavors, but they taste very good. I would advise you go to this restaurant specifically for their milk tea, but it’s a nice pairing.
The meat comes out juicy. Stripped well, so that it will cook quickly, but not so thin that it dries out in less than five minutes. A decent array of vegetables, and fillers come with the soup. You can add more at many hot pot restaurants I do, but it didn’t feel necessary at hot pot first. Pricing is about average, maybe tilting a little more towards the expensive side given the style of the restaurant (it’s very casual, local dining).
I will definitely continue to return. It gets a decent endorsement from me!

I wanted to give this review 4 stars because it wasn’t all too bad, until I took a bite into the beef.
My boyfriend and I both got the Spicy & Numbing selection with beef as our meat, which is nice because it comes with plenty of tofu, imitation crab, enoki mushrooms, napa cabbage, & vermicelli noodles served in a clay-​pot style bowl. There was also a side of rice with pork bits on top!
Now like I said, the thing that broke this place for me was the meat … It was super rubbery and really hard to even chew. My boyfriend said the same and even described it like sand paper.
The service was REALLY GREAT though — super attentive & quick-​on-​their-​feet !
I normally can handle my spicy food, but holy LOL the spicy was a bit too much for me because as Taiwanese people describe it, it tastes like «mala» which is the lingering, spicy sensation in your mouth and maybe even stomach ! The spiciness definitely creeps up on you overtime. I did appreciate that I was given a bowl of the mild broth in order to dilute my soup !
All in all, alright place — maybe it was just the beef specifically that was unchewable, but I’m not sure if I’d come back and try out the other selections when I can just count on Boiling Point :(

The others reviewers have written details on how to order, so here is what i liked and did not like about this place.
Likes:
1. Popcorn chicken (⁴⁄₅)
2. Fried tofu with a chilli oil (⁵⁄₅)
3. Hot pot, medium spicy, with beef (⁴⁄₅ for flavour, ³⁄₅ for quantity of the main protein, ⁵⁄₅ for quantity of other ingredients added)
4. Ambience (⁴⁄₅)
5. Cleanliness (⁵⁄₅)
The popcorn chicken and fried tofu were wiped out before i could stretch my hand to poke a few with the bamboo skewers that come with it.
Dislikes:
1. Fish balls in the soup were a little too strong for my palate.
2. Less beef (the protein i chose) in my hotpot.

Really 3.5 stars. Always a wait for lunch. The first couple of times I came, the soups were a bit bland. I wasn’t planning to return, but my mom wanted to eat here, so I went for a third time, and thankfully much more flavorful soup.
The «hotpot» isn’t served in a traditional aluminum/​stainless steal pot over fire. Instead, you get a large stone bowl, akin to what you’d get a Korean tofu soup or casserole served. The ingredients in the soup are a good variety, no skimping on vegetables or meat. Between myself and whoever I came with, I’ve tried the sacha, the mala «spicy and numbing», the tomato, and the miso. My favorite is probably the spicy and numbing– I don’t even get very spicy usually, but the other flavors were just so underwhelming. I do have to warn that this soup has peppercorns, which I’m not a fan of, but maybe other people are.
They also have other menu items including teas and taiwanese snack foods, which I haven’t tried.

Was really exciting to try this newly discover hotpot place and was very disappointed :(The soup was extremely bland, it wasn’t authentic Taiwanese hotpot at all (it requires to put a bunch of sacha sauce in order to make the hotpot edible). The ice black tea drink I got was mediocre. The only food item I actually like about was their popcorn chicken. Other than that, it was just so-​so, nothing special & they put too much cabbage in there (dislike).

Not the place to go if you’re craving shabu shabu or traditional hot pot, but absolutely perfect for a pipping hot bowl of soup that’s not 90% noodles.
When ordering you just pick your broth/​spice and meat. Then the kitchen throws everything into a stone bowl and puts it on their flaming grill, boiling the soup within an inch of it’s life. Ten minutes later you get an awesome bowl of soup with a little meat, couple of fish and beef tripe balls, a ton of veggies, a handful of noodles, and a small bowl of rice. It’s perfect.
I don’t eat noodles or rice, so if I’m looking for a giant bowl of Asian soup I’m limited to traditional cook-​it-​yourself hot pot or super custom ordering at a ramen place. But honestly, as much as I love shabu shabu sometimes I’m not just up for the long slow dining experience that comes with CIY. I absolutely love that I can order on menu here without saying more than «no noodles or rice».
I love the lighter broth too. Some hot pot or ramen places have incedibly rich broth (which is great!) but sometimes I’m just in the mood for something a little more healthy tasting and that doesn’t make me feel like I have grease on my face for the next 5 hours.

This spot was where the old Quickly used to be.
I haven’t tried any of their soups yet but ordered their snacks/​appetizers.
Tried their popcorn chicken and their gyoza. Tasted just like Quickly’s…which is GOOD.
Not a bad place for some snacking and quick grubbin.

Great new hotpot place! I have tried #1 spicy pot (medium) and #3 sasha pot, both were yummy! Soup is full of flavor and they give you a lot of food. Though they give way too much cabbage in comparison to other ingredients, I’d be perfectly happy if they halved the amount even if they didn’t increase anything else. I have also tried the popcorn chicken and fried tofu appetizers, both are good. The popcorn chicken is fried well and the tofu has a lot of good spicy flavor.
Once I went with a large group (14), and they were reasonably fast with the food. Don’t expect all the pots to come out at the same time though. And definitely make a reservation ahead of time. When in doubt, give the higher quote for your party size. They can always take away chairs but it was difficult to add after the lunch crowd start to come in.

Pretty yummy, but there was very little meat in my pot. Appreciated the free green tea and minced meat rice (even though there wasn’t much and it wasn’t that good, it’s nice that they tried to do a little something extra). A good alternative to phở or soondubu on a rainy day.

Came here to fulfill a strong hot pot craving on a super cold day.
I ordered the spicy & numbing hot pot at a medium spiciness with beef. It comes with rice that has little bits of seasoned meat on top of it which was a nice touch. The hot pot came with all the standard toppings: fish ball, cabbage, enoki mushroom, tofu etc. I would’ve liked it more if I could have chosen what to add and what to omit without having to pay more since I’m not a big fan of every item that comes in it. I also didn’t really like the spiciness of the soup, it kind of seemed like they just add additional spicy oil to your broth depending on what level you order. I love heat in my soups but this kind of rubbed my throat the wrong way!

The name of this restaurant is really deceiving, The usual «hotpot» is the one where you cook your food in a pot… This place is not really a hotpot place but more of a soup place as all the meat, veggies are already cooked when they arrived on the table… yes, the bowl is HOT but it is not a hot pot.
Anyhow… the place is clean and looked pretty well maintained. so I give them a plus on this.
I ordered their most popular Spicy soup base, level 4 (It think it was 1 level below the hottest one) with lamb. Each pot came with your choice of meat (lamb, pork, or beef) and meatballs, fish balls, veggies and mushroom as well as either a bowl of rice with minced pork or vermicelli noodles. I opted for rice…
The portion is actually quiet generous, smaller stomach can easily share a pot/​bowl… but again, It is more like a soup/​stew not a hotpot…
They also serve milk tea/​bobba here… and they sell the typical bobba snacks like sweet potato fries, popcorn chicken… we tried the blood rice cakes. They were just ok, not greasy but it was a bit dry and flavorless, imo. The popcorn chicken is also a bit bland.
It was a good experience but probably not a place I would go to if I want some hotpot…

If you grew up in an Asian household, hot pot was nothing special back then and probably an annual family gathering. But in recent years, hot pot has become a lot trendier and individualized. From Little Sheep to Boiling Point, it’s super easy to enjoy this ancient Eastern Asian tradition from over a thousand years ago.
Located in a quiet plaza on Lawrence, we had spots waiting for us because we reserved but be warned, it can get crowded even on a weekday evening. After being seated, we flipped through the simple menu and selected our hot pots. I went with the Spicy and Numbing flavor at Spicy level, while others went with safer non-​spicy options like Tomato and Shacha. Complimentary green tea from Unilocal check-​in was a nice deal and other drinks we tried were quenching. As we waited, we also ordered a couple servings of the popcorn chicken — delicious — and unfortunately the only highlight of the evening.
The first impression we all got when our hot pots came out was, «bibimbap stone bowls?!». Yep, forget about the flame or other fancy hot pots — this is a simple, I’ll almost call it cheating, solution and mostly already cooked and consistently losing heat. I think it serves the purpose well for the first 15 minutes but the problem is on a cold evening, the bowl lost the temperature quickly. This actually, believe it or not, had a effect on how the meats tasted. The spicy level was just right — spicy enough with the numbing effect, though apparently there is a challenge for an even hotter version. (The first three winners of each month get it for free.)
And with content, there was indeed a generous amount of veggies and typical toppings, but an overload of noodles and definitely not enough broth or meat, even with an order of extra meat. I think the noodles were there to hide the fact that there isn’t enough meat even with the extra order of meat.
Like other reviews have mentioned, there are so many options in the Bay and Hotpot First seems almost amateur compared to them. Prices are reasonable and service is attentive. Overall, popcorn chicken, good, but hot pots need more meat (even with the extra meat option) and less vegetables/​noodles. I think they’re pretty firm on using pre-​heated stone pots rather than a flame-​powered one so that’s another star lost.

I just can’t get enough of this place, it’s definitely one of my favorites places to dine at. My last visit was just two days ago on Friday night when I came in at 8:15PM. The entire restaurant was at capacity and yet, the only two servers at the time did a superb job at tending to everyone’s needs! I was really impressed with their teamwork and even more so with their patience, as more than half of the patrons still were finishing their dinner 30 minutes after closing time. Just props to everyone actually, owners, cook, dishwasher, EVERYONE. Thank you for still delivering amazing service, even after hours. Now to the food.
My spicy and numbing lamb hot pot is amazing (as usual!) but this time, I opted for FIRE level and it totally blew my mind. The level of spiciness was perfect but it did take awhile for the broth to cool so I couldn’t dive in immediately into my dinner. If your hot pot tastes bland, like some Unilocalers mentioned, I recommend you throw in a little sacha sauce (it’s the dark brown sauce next to the chili sauce on the sauce tray, I actually put a spoon full in hehe). you will NOT regret it, it makes it so much more delicious! I never get cabbage in my hot pots because I’ve had bad experiences where places do overload on it so I can’t say how evenly distributed they are but this seriously is my favorite hot spot joint because there’s always enough meat in the pot. Yum! I’ll be back again (:

This is a pretty awesome place! The restaurant and the name of the establishment isn’t going to scream «DELICIOUS» but don’t be fooled, it is quite surprisingly delicious!
I ordered the #1 Spicy and Numbing with medium spice. It wasn’t really in a hot pot style pot but more like a stone bowl with all the ingredients thrown in together. All the broths have a choice of beef, pork, or lamb for your meat. I chose beef and it was a good decision! The beef was plentiful and flavorful. In addition to the beef slices the stone bowl also includes beef balls, fish balls, imitation crab, fresh tofu, bean curd squares, enoki mushrooms, cabbage, and vermicelli noodles. I also requested to add udon noodles, which were good but not necessary because there was plenty of vermicelli noodles. And in addition to all of this, they also give you a bowl of rice topped with braised pork. The rice with braised pork was delicious! For $ 14, it was a lot of food and definitely worth it.
I also tried their lychee green tea which was a perfectly sweetened and had a good hint of lychee.
The service was ok. Nothing spectacular but the servers do walk around in case you need to wave them down for something.
Overall, it was a good experience and the food is great so I will be returning!

This place is disgusting! More than halfway through eating we found hair in my boyfriend’s pot and we showed it to them, and they said they can remake it in about 10 minutes. I told them we don’t have time because we’re heading to the airport and we need to finish soon, so what they need to do is take that item off off the bill. It doesn’t make sense for anybody to pay for food that has hair in it! (See picture) so they refused unless we let them take the pot back and throw it out. Okay that’s m fine. Not like we didn’t just lose our appetite anyway.
Also, the broth is really bland (got the spicy and numbing). We kept scooping up the 2 satay sauces on the table and throwing it in our soup to create a little flavor. They really need a better variety of condiments. And there’s way too much veggies and not enough meat, even though I ordered extra. They also don’t have quail eggs here. We ordered popcorn chicken and had to ask for the sweet and spicy sauce. And then the table next to us saw that we got some and had to ask for it too! What?! Since when did basic popcorn chicken not come with any sauce?
So don’t come here for the bad food and bad service. Boiling point is obviously way better!

After hearing all the hype about taiwanese hotpot, me and the boyfriend decided to give this place a try.
To be honest, I’m not sure what taiwanese hotpot is but how I understand it is you get your own tiny pot and everything comes precooked in the broth. You choose your broth flavor (spicy and numbing, laksa, shacha) and your protein (lamb, beef, pork). It comes with a generous assortment of veggies and toppings like enoki mushrooms, wood ear (rare for hotpot!), cabbage, and fish balls. Each hotpot also comes with a small bowl of rice and there’s shacha sauce on the table for dipping.
It’s pretty good. Definitely filling and cheaper than Mongolian hotpot. That being said, I think the meat quantity is lacking and the broth a bit watery. It doesn’t have the rich savoriness of little sheep’s broth. Even my laksa hot pot, a coconut curry base, lacked a creaminess that you expect from curry.

I’ve been here at least 3 times for dinner and I think Hotpot First deserves a SOLID FOUR STARS as a decent alternative to Boiling Point! WHY?
– You still get your individual-​sized hot pot if you’re not privy to sharing. I often avoid hotpot places where everyone just throws all their ingredients into one place because well… I can’t lie, I get TERRITORIAL!
– There is never any wait here! No fuss, no muss, so if you’re in the mood for hotpot you don’t have to wait an absurd amount of time. On the flip side, it’s also not awkwardly empty — there always seems to be a handful of people here at dinnertime
– You can check in for your FREE GREEN TEA on Unilocal
– Decent variety of FLAVORS for the hotpot like Shacha, Sour Cabbage, Laksa, Miso, etc.
– FYI, the pots automatically come with a side of rice (no extra vermicelli option)
I took off a star for lack of dipping sauces. They only offer one shacha sauce on the table, and as someone who’s obsessed with condiments, I’d appreciate a few more options!

I went here awhile back with a couple of friends for dinner! Simple menu with apps, hotpot selection, and tea beverages. Check out their add ons too for the hotpot!
We ordered a couple of appetizers: Fried tofu and Popcorn Chicken… I really liked the seasoning of the popcorn chicken, and the fried tofu had that crispy side like it should. For my hotpot I ordered the Spicy and Numbing (medium) w/​pork. I eat spicy food here and there and the «medium» was still really spicy for me. So if you’re not a big fan of spice stick with the mild or order something else. Our bowls came with a pretty generous amount of the traditional hotpot veggies, but not so much pork/​meat (so consider the add ons). Still, I liked the broth but not enough to come back for more.
SOLID 3 STARS!

After trying Fashion Wok in Foster City and being totally disappointed by their food and service, I took my mom here hoping it would be better.
The restaurant itself is located in a small plaza with a Pacific supermarket and a bunch of other small restaurants. The plaza has their own parking lot so you don’t really have to stress about that.
The inside of this restaurant is a good size with a decent amount of tables and room to move around in. One downside is that there’s only one bathroom and it’s unisex. My cousin ended up going in there after a dude took a dump. Sorry, bro.
Their menu is pretty short. They give you a few options for appetizers and then their different flavor soup bases for hotpots and you get to choose a meat, too. And definitely you should check into Unilocal when you’re here to get a free jasmine black tea. It’s yum. And for an appetizer, get the popcorn chicken. They’re doing that right here.
I ordered their miso based hotpot with beef and it was a good size for the price except for the fact that majority of the hotpot contained veggies and very little meat which is the expensive part. My mom got their sour cabbage broth and I can definitely tell you to avoid that. It was so sour that she couldn’t even drink the soup while keeping a straight face. LOL.
Service was alright. The Unilocal check in said free jasmine green tea but the lady let me have it with black tea instead so that was nice. And they kept a smile on so yeah.
Overall, yeah, it was good, but we got here after their lunch time special was out so it was a little pricey and the quantity of meat vs. veggies was way off. On the plus side, they give you a side of rice!