| rev:text
| - I'm actually very impressed with Hopo. I've known about this place since they opened, but until today, I had never gone. I did my homework on Yelp and on their website. I also called them a couple times before I came. Based on the reviews, I wasn't expecting too much. However, I was hopeful. The pictures on their website looked good, and they matched up with the pictures that Yelpers had posted. That's a good sign.
I called twice before I came. I had a few questions. I wanted to know if they had some non-spicy options not listed on their website menu (Yes. They have regular beef hotpot, and miso seafood hotpot). I wanted to know whether their hotpots came with rice (Yes). I wanted to know whether they served non-hotpot meals (Not at dinner time). I asked if they would do separate bills (Yes). I made a tentative reservation for 10 people. About a week later, I had to change my reservation to 14 people. When I did that, they confirmed the date and time of my reservation, and asked if I still wanted to do separate billing. I'm very pleased with that. They kept a note of it. Good on them. Not many places I have been to do, and so I think Hopo should be commended for it.
I got here tonight at about 7:25pm. It was a full house. Four members of my party were already seated...at an 8 person table. There were no other tables open. I flagged down the staff, and inquired as to where our other table was. They told us that the couple sitting at the 8 person table behind us would be done soon and that afterwards, that table would be ours. We had to wait about 10 minutes. It was a tad chaotic for those 10 minutes because most of the rest of my party came, and they couldn't sit down, and the restaurant isn't big enough to handle that many people standing around waiting for tables (there was at least one other party waiting for tables). The waiters had a difficult time trying to maneuver around groups of waiting people.
Once we got seated everything went fairly smoothly. The tables and seats were very clean. Actually, the entire restaurant was fairly clean. I like clean. Clean is good. I ordered a spicy beef hotpot ($12.99). The menu lists it as 2 spicy peppers, but I was given an option of mild, regular, and hot. I found the notion of spicy mild amusing, so I ordered that. Upon receiving it, it was clear that it was not going to be mild. My fried tofu pockets (dul pock) had bits of red peppers everywhere. Fun. With the boiling hot soup and the spicy peppers, the warmth of the restaurant and me wearing a thick sweater, it made for quite the warm night. The standard drink is water with lime already squeezed into it (for those wondering what those bits floating around in their cup are). No ice. Yeah. So my spicy mild soup was not mild. It was spicy. It was very good though. I didn't have my rice (gave it to a friend). Had most of my hotpot (hotpot beef, wieners, imitation crab, fried tofu pockets, tofu, cabbage, vermicelli, tomatoes, enoki mushrooms...there may be something else I'm forgetting). Did not have my corn (I don't eat corn on the cob) or my quail egg (my friend loved these, so I gave mine to her). Very good portion to price. I was quite full after. I would totally order this again.
Also had a few pieces of my friend's Japanese popcorn chicken. Popcorn chicken done the Taiwanese way. Slightly floury batter - as in you can feel the powder when you eat it. Japanese style means lots of kewpie mayo, roasted seaweed strips (I think?) and bonito flakes on top (those flakes that wiggle when they get put on hot food). Yeah. The bonito was still wiggling, so it was still hot. The popcorn chicken was not cheap, but the price was not so bad for the portion either.
I quite wanted to try their desserts (because the website picture and the Yelp picture makes it look really good, and the prices are decent too), but I was full and my party wanted Chatime (which ended up being a disappointment). Oh well. Another time.
Tl;dr: Good food. Good price for amount of food and quality of food. My new favorite place for non-ayce hot pot.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)