Flaming Pot

Tonight was supposed to be a great night to hang out with my friends, but turns out to be the worst night ever!
The spicy pot becomes bitter after we ate for a while. (It happens every time when I come here) The server blames on us for putting so much food in it, but the truth is there is only a few vegetables in it.
The server also gives us bad attitude! I’m definitely not coming back.

This has to be easily the worst hot pot place to eat in the entire Chicago area, and that’s speaking from someone who really appreciate good authentic Chinese restaurants:
1) the service is awful. There’s four waiter/​waitress at an early Saturday evening — which is plenty given that there’s only about 10 guests eating here. 1^st warning that I should just turn around and step out. Then once you were seated and ordered your food (which is just AYCE), you were basically left alone. All four of them sits in another table far away and either chatting to each other, eating their own food, or browsing internet on their phone. Don’t even bother call for service because they’ll conveniently ignore you however they can. Filling your water/​broth? Be ready to wait!
2) the sauce bar is basically empty. Hot pot enthusiasts know how important the sauce is. How ever the sauce bar is disappointing. The sesame sauce is basically made out of peanut butter — a big mistake for hot pot sauce. The chili oil is flavorless, and I’m sure the sesame oil is mixed with cooking oil to save money. All sauce bowls are almost empty, and they provide only super small spoons. It’s pretty clear they are finding ways not to let you eat up sauces to save money.
3) the meat is flavorless and not fresh. The waitress can’t tell either the dish is lamb or beef. Find I’ll try it myself to find out. Guess what? They taste the same, and you can’t tell what meat they are using. That happens only if you store meat frozen for over two weeks. The meat slice is also not firm at all. I wonder if they cut the slices last night and stored overnight until someone ordered it. It break apart quickly once you out the meat into the broth. The edge of the meat slice is already dried and became dark red — a give away that the meat is not freshly cut.
4) we ordered a «house special pork meatball». The meat grey and mixed with plenty cooking wine to cover the smell. But you can still tell the meat is already turn bad and has a weird taste (because I can believe I tried — I thought maybe it’s not that bad. Turn out it fxxxing is). We all had pretty bad diarrhea that night.
Seriously the management team? I’m better of eating hot pot home than spending like $ 100 for two.

Walked in at 12:30 noon today. sat at the table and got no service for over 15mins. the 2 young adults male and female sat in the back almost hidding no explanation of the menue, no water, no service. please Hire new staff who speak a little English and more friendly. Ill be trying back soon to see if any changes

Great place to eat hot pot. The only complaint that I have is that there is not an unlimited option.
The soup base and sauce were delicious and much more than other restaurants. Definitely would come back for more.

What a great spot to find in Chinatown! I highly recommend it! First of all, I have to say that the only hot pot restaurants I’ve ever eaten at have been actually in China. So this was my first American hot pot restaurant, and I was somewhat skeptical. We were in from out of town and wanted to introduce our friends to this fun experience, as they had not ever had hot pot. We made a reservation (for 7 people) at 4:30 p.m. for 6:30 that evening. When we arrived, we were warmly greeted at the door and shown right to our table. Upon seeing that we were Caucasian, the server politely asked if we had ever had hot pot before, or if we needed some help understanding the process. It should be noted that if you haven’t ever done hot pot before, it does take some instruction.
We made our selections the ½ mild ½ spicy broth base, with noodles, beef, chicken, and a variety of vegetables. They were brought out quickly and were soon boiling. The vegetables were all fresh and the meat looked great. Due to dietary preferences of some of our group, we ended up doing the mild as the vegetarian side and the spicy had both beef and chicken. The vegetables and noodles were distributed throughout both. As things cooked, they brought the apps (steam buns and beef skewers). They were both delicious, and the beef skewers were nice and spicy.
Our friends took instruction well and soon we were all digging in and having a great time talking and eating. The spicy was, in fact, quite spicy. But this is a restaurant purporting to be a Szechuan style hot pot, which is known to be the spiciest in all of China, so it was to be expected and welcomed.
The service was great! They were very friendly and attentive to our requests. They even came over and added more water to the broth without us having to ask. The bill, with the 18% gratuity that they tacked on (which, should warrant its own note that they very politely only added on 18%, I’ve known restaurants that have added on more than 20%, so we were happy with their choice) was $ 94, which ended up being about $ 13 per person, which is far less than some of the other hot pot restaurants I read about, especially the AYCE restaurants. We had plenty of food, with some left over, so I absolutely know that we didn’t need a pricier AYCE option to fill us up.
Overall, we were so happy with our dinner. The broth was flavorful, the veggies were fresh and plentiful, the meats were cold and looked to be of good quality, the service was great, and most importantly, the restaurant was clean. If we lived here, I’m certain we would come back every couple of weeks. Too bad we don’t, but next time we’re in Chicago, we’ll be sure to visit the Flaming Pot.

I’ve been here three times, and had diarrhea twice after I ate here. Their spicy broth is good but I highly doubt the food quality here! Sigh

Tasty, simply. Grilled food is ok level.

Flaming Pot is an ala carte style hot pot.
Located towards the end of Chinatown on Wentworth Ave.
BYOB.
Inside is bright and spacious.
Came here with some friends on a Friday night and had a great time here. We started off choosing our soup base. We got the spiciest broth (there are different levels) and the non spicy broth. Both were good. Then, we ordered what we wanted to eat. With the 7 of us, gratuity included and being full as heck, the bill came out to be $ 140 which is equivalent to $ 20 a person.
I suggest going here with a large group. Price seems to be the same as AYCE places and you don’t have to force yourself to eat everything you ordered like AYCE places require.

What makes for good hotpot?
The soup base: the soup bases are flavorful. Very umami (no need to think deeply about why this might be). Highly recommend getting the mushroom soup!
The ingredients: no complaints here. Everything tastes fresh. The portions are generous. The beef is appropriately «fatty.» We spent about the same as AYCE and left stuffed. Oh and the lamb skewers made for a great appetizer while we waited for our pots to boil.
The sauce: you mix your own sauces, which might be a challenge if you don’t know what you are doing. It’s ok, don’t make it too complicated. The soup base is salty enough that sauce is optional IMO.
Can’t wait for round 2!

As a Chinese, I have to say that this is the best hot pot restaurant in Chicago area. Before I went to the Flaming Pot, I don’t think there is single hot pot restaurant deserve the name «hot pot». The broths are all made by cheap ingredients and taste terrible.
I found that there are 2 major problems for most Americans. The first one is the price. Well, you just need more friends to come with, and the price will be much lower for each one. The second one is that you just don’t know what to do. My recommendation is coming when it’s not crowded and the waiter (waitress) will explain everything to you if you looked confused. Or you can just bring a Chinese friend.
Anyway, it’s a good choice to experience the original Szechuan hot pot.

The food here is excellent. Like a few other Unilocalers we were just unaware of how everything works. Confusion aside I will be back. Hopefully this guide helps other first timers out:
To order:
1) choose a broth– you can choose by level of spice or choose one that already has some seafood or mushrooms and have them spice that up as you like
2) choose your meat and veg –all of these come uncooked, you cook them yourself in your broth. Meat, veggie, skewers etc comes for you to cook as you see fit
3) there is a bar of sauces and toppings. We put these on side plates and dispensed them bowl by bowl. You could add them to your pot or just to each portion you have.
This bar also contains, bowls, spoons, forks and ladles that will make your hot pot experience easier and more enjoyable. Don’t be afraid to take what you need from here or you will wait a while.
Mesh all these components together, let them boil and enjoy!

Service is terrible and all the grill items are cold. They also served the dessert before everything else… I will never come back and will not recommend anyone to go.

You order everything a la carte. No all you can eat. But it’s still good and prices comparable. They have a bar for sauces you can mix up. Their classic broth is good sip as soup.

I’ve been here about 3 times in the last month. It’s cold so when I’m thinking about food, I always think about going here as a first option. It’s super close to where I live, which makes it an easier decision all the time.
There’s something glorious about a cold day and having a big pot of boiling broth sitting in front of you. I’m always a fan of cooking my own food, it allows the eater to interact with their food and with their guests more. I recommend going here with 4 people so you can get a bit of everything without breaking the bank. Most hot pot places around Chinatown are AYCE deals for about $ 20 bucks. This one is a la carte, and if you don’t watch yourself your bill is going to be more than $ 20! Therefore, if you go with 4 or so people, the cost per person goes down significantly. In exchange for higher prices, I get to eat at a well kept, clean, modern restaurant. The food options are larger in proportion, fresher, and overall just better quality.
Word of advice, if you’re getting spicy — get medium. Medium is still more spicy than the other places. They add those szechuan peppercorns that numb your mouth the broth. I’ve tried all 3 spice levels, the super spicy version is literally half peppercorns. You can’t dip your food in the broth without picking up some peppercorns. Medium works well. This is coming from a girl that LOVES spicy food.

DO NOT COMING! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
I had dinner in here, suddenly I saw a mouse ran over! oh my God! That is really disgusting, and they just gave me 15% off of my dinner to be the solution. God, I will never come here, it is really disgusting. after I leave there, I feel anxiety about myself health and everyone else who eaten in this restaurant before and future. I now I feel uncomfortable when I eat in Chinatown. I do not think this environment can open a restaurant, I hope some related departments could come to check this store’s environment. Before they checked by relevant department, I do not suggest us to eat in this restaurant.

Long line, food is not bad but the service process is so unbelievable bad. Not so clean… but not too many choices here, I know you do understand what I refer to…

The food was awesome — simple with fresh ingredients and meat. The sauce bar is the bomb. And soup dumplings are a must have. Definitely recommend.

This was my first time at one of these hot pot places, I have been wanting to go for quite a while but it always seemed a bit intimidating. While a bit confusing at first, a waitress who clearly recognized that we didn’t know what to do came over and explained everything to us. We got a split hot pot with chicken broth on one side and the medium spicy on the other. Along with that, we ordered an array of fresh veggies, lamb, chicken, shrimp and tofu. It was still a bit confusing as no one explained the sauce bar on the other side of the restaurant until about half way through but once we learned of it, we made good use of it and it really enhanced the experience.
For what we ordered, the prices seemed reasonable and we really enjoyed the clean and modern looking dining room. I am not sure I want to see the back rooms given the earlier reviews, but from my perspective of everything we saw, it seemed clean and well run.
Nice place, good food and acceptable prices. I will definitely return.

i have never heard of or had hot pot before. It’s fun to do with families and friends once a while. The restuarant is new and modern but the prices are expensive, and food is just average.
Also, i find that their self-​serving sauce table is quite interesting.

Deliciously authentic Sichuan-​style hot pot.
For hot-​pot newbies, hot pot is basically Chinese fondue. Waiters bring out broth and plates of raw veggies and meats. Like the entrée course at a French fondue place (like the Melting Pot) except the broth is infused with Chinese flavors. Highly recommend the ying-​yang (or mixed) broth option that splits the pot into two: one side as a savory Chicken broth + seasonings and the other with spicy Sichuan peppers.
In a section of Chinatown that’s a mix of little more touristy gift shops or super casual hole-​in-​the wall joints, Tasty Pot has modern décor and attentive staff. Nice surprise!