The place is called "Rolling Pot Shabu Shabu" but it's not a place for marijuana cigarettes or shabu shabu in the traditional Japanese sense. Rolling Pot serves up all-you-can-eat Chinese hot pot for $18 per person[1]. Each diner gets an individual glass-top burner with their choice of broth to simmer any or all of the following on the menu[2]:
Beef* Pig blood
Lamb Pig kidney
Ox Tounge* [sic] Tofu/ Fried Tofu
Pork/ Shrimp dumpling* Squid
Pork/ Beef/ Shrimp/ Fish/ Squid ball Octopus
Pig liver Pig intestine, skin
Noodle Honey Comb [3]
Short Napa* Chicken
Spinash* [sic] Fried egg
Watercress Rice cake strip*
BUT WAIT. There's more! Winter melon, Mushrooms, Shrimp, Saugage [sic], Taro, Lotus roots, Fried Gleuen [sic], Corn and several other items.
After you've ticked off your choices on the order form, you prepare your little bowls of dipping sauces at the buffet that includes: soy sauce, hoisin, sesame sauce, cilantro, preserved eggs, chile oil among several other options. The abundance of choices will make you pop a few Ritalin tablets just to keep focus.
Soon the waiters will bring plate after plate of thinly-sliced meats, seafood, vegetables and starches. Don't bother asking what each item is (unless you speak Cantonese). Just drop it in your pot, swish it around, dip in your sauce, and chow down.
I had a gay ole time with the five other Yelpers I went with but a few things you should be aware of:
- This place was bursting at the seams on a Saturday night which is good in that you're guaranteed a high turnaround of ingredients but bad in that you may wait a while to be seated and then wait even more to get your food.
- The waiters are not going to win any Best Server in the Suburb awards and since the place was packed they seemed especially absent-minded and forgetful.
- You will leave reeking of EVERYONE ELSE'S hot pot. Now take a good look at the above ingredient list. You've been warned. (I got a full-on stank stew sauna when the lady next to me kept her pot on a furious roil and somehow the overhead ceiling fan blew her stank-stew steam directly into my hair and face.)
- The experience is akin to visiting a whorehouse; You will leave satisfied but also feeling a little dirty and gross.
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[1] $17 on weekdays; includes AYCE drinks and dessert
[2] I'm gonna bring a fine-tip red Sharpie next time to correct the typos
[3] Probably not what you think it is
* My faves of the night