King One Hot Pot - Saturday, 16 May 2015

I availed of one of these promo thingamabobs and bought 3 vouchers.

The place is on the second floor - right opposite chili's (a place i know very well as i love their fajitas), nice, relatively new and the staff are polite and courteous, and not just that, but eager to serve.  It was equipped with an elevator, which was a plus for me since i am disabled.  stairs can be difficult for me, particularly narrow, steep ones.

The winner in the appetizer section was the fresh ampalaya.  It had a dash of salt and garlic, some acetic acid (vinegar, that is).  The adobo eggs were alright but some were a tad burnt.  The tofu was fine, but my bro's fried tofu is much better.

We had a choice of soup, so we got the split version - but neither one satisfied me the way Luk Foo's soup did.  The viands were fine - the shrimps (my nephew who is allergic to shrimps was not with us) were small, but was okay.  The meats were not as interesting.

They were billed as the best hotpot.  not quite, not for me.
but it wasnt bad.

i'd have to vote Luk Foo still.
i must remember to eat at David's Tea House. I think i already forgot the taste - that is, if it is better than Luk Foo's or not.

A Korean Hot Pot - Nowana U&I

Ensogo offered a deal for Nowana U&I - unlimited shabu-shabu for 2 and an order of Bulgogi.

Our family loves hot pot - so i bought a voucher and brought my nephew to this new place ,,, along Mother Ignacia.

It is a new resto, but if you are disabled, you must be prepared to negotiate the stairs.  I had a bit of difficulty and asked my nephew to hold on to my cane.  The stairs are a bit narrow, like some of the old houses in Manila.

The Bulgogi was too sweet and too liquidy - and this didnt match the hot pot.  I would have preferred it a little less watery, with perhaps a thicker sauce, and with a little bite.  Moreover the meat was practically the same one in the hot pot.

The hot pot ingredients were pretty standard - tofu, veggies (2 kinds), some shrimps. fish balls, fresh eggs, and meat that you had to ask for.  For seasoning there was garlic, onions, red hot pepper (red sili), green hot pepper.  Then they served a concoction they had prepared.  We requested for soy sauce and calamansi, since both of us like soy and the tartness of calamansi.

Once you've layered the taste, the soup was good.  we had a lot of it.  we had 2 servings of the meat, and we went to get ingredients twice.  as my nephew puts it, there was nothing special.  it was okay, but not special.  

The soup was good - after we added spices.  i can go there again for the soup, but i have to think about the stairs.

and oh, the bathroom was clean and nice.  Of course, we were the only guests there....... as the resto had just newly opened....

i wanted to say that you should take advantage of the ensogo offer.

and oh, i told the servers that their pot was too shallow.  i mean hot pots were meant to contain lots of soup, and their pot just didnt do it.  also, their tables didnt have the sunken thing for the hot pot, so the pots were on the table, with this cookware that uses gas in a canister.  The disadvantage, hard to get the soup

Hot Pot recs - Luk Foo and David's Tea House

i love hot pot, i think they call this shabu-shabu, a term i confuse with shawarma.

yes, i know. totally different but sometimes word associations can be iffy

but hot pot, yummy.  nothing to beat it.

we are a family who love soup, so hot pot is a favorite with us.

Luk Foo's hot pot is, to my -our taste, one of the best.

Unfortunately, not all Luk Foo places have hot pot.

In Luk Foo - you have to choose the items you want in the hot pot, there is regular beef, imported beef if you wish, pork, veggies (corn, bok choy, pechay, chinese cabbage, young onions, leeks), mushrooms (several kinds), fish/shrimp/squid balls, squid, shrimps (we couldnt have any as my nephew is allergic)....

There are only 2 - the one along E. Rod (cor. Araneta ave) and the one near the airport

The one near the airport has a ghost,and when we were there in 2011 (it really is too far otherwise) to have dinner with my brother - who was returning to the USA

I also tried David's hot pot - oh, also very good.  will visit again and this will probably be sooner than later since this is much nearer.  David's tea house is in the corner of morato and timog and is in the 2nd floor -----

at David's i was on solo flight so i couldnt have a lot of stuff as i wouldnt be able to finish it.  Still, it was good..

if you know of other hot pots, let me know.  Oh yes, i've tried tong yang - when it was along Quezon Ave.