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Our Overall Score: 5.0/5.0 Amanda: 5.0 | Sean: 5.0 Google Score: 4.5 | Yelp Score: 4.5 Hot Pot | 520 Bergen Blvd., Ste 2, Palisades Park, NJ 07650 Cost: ~$23 | Portion: Buffet Parking: Medium Lot | Wait Time: None Seating: Decent | Ambiance: Casual Vegetarian Options: Yes | Time Spent: 2 hours “Can we go back for dinner tonight?" We went to this restaurant to celebrate Sean's mom and sister's birthdays on a Saturday at noon. Originally, we were going to skimp and order everyone the vegetarian buffet ($17/person), but since Sean and I were paying and his mom was very excited for meat, we went for the AYCE Regular ($23/person). AYCE Regular comes with 6 choices of meat, of which we primarily ordered the tripe, fatty beef, and lamb. For an extra $2/person, you can opt for the AYCE premium, which includes seafood options and some other cuts of meat, but we didn't think it was necessary. Also, it's important to note that the entire table must pay the same price per person.
Unlike most other hot pot places in NJ, here you get to go up and choose your items (everything that's included in the vegetarian option. You've got your collection of noodles, veggies, fish balls, rice cakes - all which you already get with the $17/person choice. For the meats, you push a button conveniently located at both ends of the table and a wait staff comes to you immediately, like we did not wait a second. Then, a few minutes later your meat arrives. Remember, though, this isn't prime business time and you may experience longer wait-times if you go for dinner. The theme for this restaurant is choice. From the food to the sauces to the soaps in the bathroom, you are offered a plethora of options, which can be overwhelming at times. My personal favorites were the green tea noodles, rice cakes, cheesy fish balls, and fatty beef. Sean loved, loved, loved the meat and claimed to have had the best ramen noodles ever. I have to admit, I was a bit ashamed that he was having ramen noodles at a hot pot place, but if they're the best ones ever then what's there to shame? Their beautiful sauce selection can also be a lot to take in for the infrequent hot pot visitor. For me, I fell in love with my combination of a ton of garlic, a little bit of oyster sauce, some hoisin sauce, cilantro, chive sauce, a drop of sweet chili sauce, generous amounts of soy sauce, a bit of sesame oil, and a lot of chili oil. It worked for me. What was your combination? Leave it in the comments below. I did not like the pre-made peanut-based sauce that they had, but again, that's personal preferences. I like my sauce spicy and salty. Okay, well, hold-up Amanda, back up and talk about broths. So they have 6-8 broths available, if I recall correctly, and 3 of them are only available during dinner. The waiter recommended the Dashi and Chinese MaLa broths. One of the reasons this place get a perfect score is that each person gets their own pot! No more fighting for food, but more importantly, you get to choose your own broth. We all ended up getting the Dashi broth and we asked for MaLa on the side, so that we could pour in just the right level of spiciness. This worked great and I didn't find the MaLa to be that spicy, but I do have a pretty high tolerance. Last, for dessert, they do have a soft-serve ice cream machine with vanilla, green tea, and mixed flavors. For my first soft-serve green tea ice cream, I have to say it was not bad and I secretly wanted seconds. Recommendations Ramen noodles - Sean Fatty beef - Sean and Amanda Green tea noodles - Amanda Chinese MaLa broth - Amanda Rice cakes - Amanda Cheesy fish balls - Amanda Seating Have a table less than 6? This restaurant innovates by setting up table dividers, so a table of 6 can become a table for 4 and 2 or a table for 3 couples. I just thought this was ingenious! If you have a large party, you can forget about Reservations. This place doesn't do them, but you can get added to the Wait List online. As I mentioned, though, Saturday at noon is a good time. Our table of 6 sat down immediately. Parking There are spots immediately off the road, such that when you leave, you'll be backing up into the main road. I am not a fan of that, so if you're like me, I would recommend that you get onto 10th Street behind the plaza and pull into the back of the plaza. #hotpot #chinese #korean #northjersey #nj #palisadespark #perfectscore #asian #casual #vegetarian #meat #celebration #buffet #ayce #newjersey |