As March is coming to an end, the weather is finally starting to get colder and feel like Autumn! This means more coats, boots, sweaters and jeans coming into my daily wardrobe! But it also means more preference for HOT SOUUUUPY FOOD :)
Hotpot is the perfect meal to share with your family and a few friends over the Autumn and Winter seasons. Not only is it very communal and encourages socialising but its warm, delicious and hearty! I definitely prefer making it in the comfort of my own house because it is MUCH cheaper, you can eat as much as you want, and it's more comfortable that way. But sometimes when you're in the city or something, you just gotta go when you gotta go.
This place comes highly recommended and I've seen so many of my friends check into this place via Facebook. I didn't recognise it at first because for some reason it's simply listed as "Chinese Hot Pot" on Google Maps, but upon walking into this building on Sussex Street and seeing pictures and posters of the signature half half soup, I knew! And yes we did just Google search "hot pot" on maps and decide to go to the closest one ;)
Tfw when you are studying Chinese and you see two symbols you can read :') It's 火 and 王!
The interiors are nothing special, but inside it is very loud and noisy.
Very crowded and full of large groups of people chatting!
We were very lucky to get a table straight away as there was only three of us dining that evening. Me, Francis and his cousin Javierito!
While the menu is on an iPad, you don't actually order on the iPad, the waitresses still come around..
Those angled cups..
What sillies!
Half and Half Soup $15
- The waitress laughed as she promised she'd give us the LEAST spiciest soup for the spicy half but omg I bet she was laughing because she knew it was still spicy AF; casualties were had. We diiiieeeddd, but that being said it was really good. Probably just wouldn't put our noodles in this again
- The chicken soup was very flavoursome and offered so much comfort in contrast to the spicy side
Handmade noodles $5
- So good! Perfect noodles to go with the hotpot
Buckwheat noodles $4
- Uhhh wouldn't recommend. No matter what we did these noodles would just clump and stick together and they remained very very hard and chewy. Not like how buckwheat noodles should be at all! Don't say I cooked these wrong! I make soba all the time!
A selection of our hotpot ingredients chosen by Fran and Javierito. Didn't even let me get a word in after I chose the fish balls with roe :'( HAHA but anyway:
Fish balls w/ roe 8pc for $8
- Favoooouriteee, yuuuumm sahhhh geewwddd
Crab meat balls 8pc for $6.50
Beef balls 10pc for $6.50
- Uhhh well I think we were supposed to get 10 because that's how much is pictured on the menu but we only 9 haha oh well
- I didn't like them because they were so tough, I prefer the bigger ones my mom buys to put in her home made pho or banh canh!
Octopus $6.50
King Crab Legs $17
- Even though they were King Crabs and the meat was very sweet and abundant, I still felt this was overpriced ttm :'(
Did I mention how I probably wouldn't put noodles in the spicy broth again?
Yeah oh my goodness, look how red it is.
We should've known HAHAHA :''')
The finish!
We did a really good job if you ask me. Between three people we paid ~$23 each and we were all so full. Went for much needed ice-creams/soft serves afterwards. Lemme tell you again; MUCH NEEDED.
TL;DR:
Price: Pricey individually but go as a group and you'll pay much less than you think!
Service: Decent!
Quality: Really good
Ambience: FUN AND SOCIABLE :D
Shancheng Hotpot King
(also known as Chinese Hot Pot on Google Maps)
8a/363 Sussex St
Haymarket, Sydney NSW 2000
