Restaurant Review: 97 Hot Pot

97 HOT POT 10602 97th Street Instagram: @97hotpot Co-Diners: The E.A.T Crew

Full disclosure: My experience with hot pot has been minimal up to this point. I've been a handful of times but somehow never felt as if I'd really gotten into it. So when I decided to visit 97 Hot Pot I was feeling admittedly intimidated and as if I would surely be "doing it wrong." But how else can we learn if we don't try? Hot pot is of Chinese origins where a literal "hot pot" of flavourful broth is brought to a boil and left simmering for the duration of the meal. Raw ingredients, such as meat and vegetables, are placed into the simmering broth and cooked. It's actually very similar to the Swiss concept of fondue. When 97 Hot Pot appeared on the Edmonton Food Faves We Crave 2022 list as a Favourite Comfort Food, I knew that it was time for me to finally dig into this beloved cuisine. 97 Hot Pot is located on 97th Street in Chinatown (the name is not a coincidence) in McCauley. It's hard to miss the distinctive signage with red stripes and yellow lettering right on the corner. Inside, the large open dining room is filled with rows and rows of tables - the dining capacity is huge. The most notable aspect of the space is that each and every table is outfitted with a heating element at every seat. These special tables facilitate the entire hot pot experience. The walls are mint green and there are some cute Chinese decorations here and there. The menu is extensive and can feel overwhelming, with many different sections of food and seemingly one hundred options. To add to this, there is also a piece of paper and a pen on each table which is to be used to mark down your selections. This part is actually quite fun! The food is considered all-you-can-eat and for $32.95 you are free to feast until your heart is content for a maximum of two hours. The appetizer section (which isn't hot pot) is also included in this price - if you want to order 12 spring rolls, you can. I feel that this is actually quite an amazing deal given the absolute multitude of options. However, to avoid food wastage you will be charged extra if you order a ton of food that you don't intend to eat. The first thing to figure out is your soup base. This decision is key because the broth is the most important part of the entire meal. Each person gets to pick their own, because again, each person has their very own element right in front of them. There are at least 15 types to choose from, from Chinese herbal, to thousand egg and tofu, to aweto blossom. (I didn't know what half of these were either.) I decided to go for the Tom Yum Kung ($2.00 extra) because I enjoy a bit of spice. Although the Szechuan Spicy Chicken was a near second. It took no time at all before the bubbling pots of broth arrived and were placed on the elements before us. The pots are sunken into the table which makes it easier to avoid touching hot surfaces. Each person also has a small control panel to manage the heat in their pot - turning it up to 5 results in a hard rolling boil, while a 2 or 3 seemed to maintain a nice amount of simmer. I liked that each person gets to choose their own broth and it's not a sharing situation for everyone at the table - not everyone has the same tastes! On the other hand, the entire experience felt extremely communal and sharing a meal like this with others seemed to play a major role in the overall feast. It didn't take me long to notice that the menu has marked some of the items as "chef's recommendations." As someone who didn't exactly know what I was doing, I used this as a helpful guide. My general rule of thumb is to order at least one item from each section. The menu includes; meat & poultry, fresh meat and seafood mash, seafood, tofu & noodles, meatballs, and vegetables. As I mentioned earlier, there are cold plates, appetizers, and dessert as well but I personally didn't see how I would have any extra room to eat any of those things. We went though the entire menu (which took some time!) and checked off each of the items that appealed to us on our piece of paper. We ordered at least 25 different items. Our server took our paper away and the chorus of food items began to arrive in no time at all.

A trolley cart was placed at the end of our table to house the extra plates that there wasn't any room for. Another aspect of note is that there is a sauce bar at the back of the room that must be visited. Here, you are able to fill little trays with various sauces and toppings which you can use with the rest of your meal. I loaded up on chopped peanuts, OX sauce, sesame sauce, and sriracha. Where to begin??! Well. It all begins and ends with the broth. As with all Asian broth-based soups, the broth is king. The broth is where the magic happens. I'm not sure why I would have expected any less, but the Tom Yum Kung broth was an absolute dream. Big, bold depth of flavour with the perfect amount of heat. I was pretty blown away by the clear attention to detail in creating this stunning broth. The soup wasn't only liquid either, each one came with its own profile of floating items, like lemongrass and ginger in mine. I would order this broth again in a heartbeat because it really was the highlight of the meal for me.

From the seafood section I was interested in the New Zealand Mussels, Surf Clam, and Sliced Basa Fillet. There are no instructions on cook times, so you kinda just start tossing items into your pot, trying to remember what's in there, and fishing things out as they become ready. The seafood items were fresh and cooked in no time at all - each getting infused by the spiced tom yum flavour of the broth.

For meat & poultry, we tried sliced chicken, sliced pork belly, sliced marbled beef, and sliced lamb. But there are far, far more adventurous items to choose from like lamb stomach, beef tripe, pork intestine... On this first visit I kept things pretty tame. I really enjoyed the marbled beef and lamb a lot. The meat slices arrive at the table frozen and then cook to a beautifully tender texture once they hit the broth.

We also ordered Sweet Potato Noodles and Egg Noodles for a noodle component and Broccoli, Sliced Taro, and Shiitake Mushrooms for some vegetables. The party plate for me was the one that contained all of "the rest." These might have been my favourite items of the meal and they included such things as; SPAM, Quail Egg, Lamb Mash, Korean Rice Cakes (Tteokbokki), Deep Fried Tofu Puffs, Deep Fried Bean Curd Skin, Lobster Balls, Pork & Vegetable Dumplings, and Japanese Crab Sticks. I loved the SPAM (in fact, we asked for more) because I just enjoy SPAM! It's delicious. The quail egg was especially lovely because once heated, the inside took on a wonderful creamy consistency. The "handmade mash" section of the menu was a complete mystery to me but I tried the lamb mash and it turned out to be one of the best items of the meal. It was pretty much just a meatball (although there is a separate meatball section which makes things confusing). The lamb mash was tender and flavourful and makes me want to try the other types of mash. (This all sounds hilarious, I know!) I loved all of the fluffy, fried tofu items, especially the bean curd skin. The lobster balls were nice and the dumplings were great. Again, imagine that you are constantly tossing items into your pot and doing your best to pull things out when they appear to be ready. It's really a whole activity. I kept looking around the room to see "how other people were doing it" and expecting to find that somehow I was doing it all wrong. But to the contrary, it really seemed that everyone was doing the same general thing. You can keep ordering more and more items as you go and even the broth is refillable. You will NOT be leaving hungry, that's for certain! At the end of the meal our server informed us that ice cream is included (although, I'm pretty sure that any of the desserts are included) and we agreed to ice cream. I picked the Mango flavour.

A perfect round scoop that tasted exactly like mango. Actually, a bit of ice cream after this meal is the ideal way to go. Not only does it serve to palate cleanse but eating something cold after a hot meal (putting too many way-too-hot items in my mouth) was exactly what I needed. 97 Hot Pot was an experience to say the least! I really feel like I've finally had the full hot pot journey and I enjoyed myself very much. In terms of hot pot, 97 Hot Pot is at the top of their game and easily one of the best places for hot pot in the city. I am filled with confidence that I could visit again and branch out to trying even more from their extensive menu! If you've never tried hot pot before 97 Hot Pot is the place to do it and it's going to be a worthwhile adventure.