Hot Pot City

Not so great. It’s super expensive, the selection is lacking even though they claim to have a massive selection. They give decent service, but they come around a bother you every couple of minute. It is all you can eat so that’s a plus, but with the tiny selection there’s not much to choose from. The gross part is my friend found a hair in his food and all they could say was «sorry». Over all a cool atmosphere but not my first choice.

Would rather give half a star!!!
1. Buffet is not like pictured on the gallery
I literally just ate here and the selection was a third of what u see in the pictures
2. Service is dry and apathetic
They keep coming over to check on u which is annoying, when do u want a stranger in ur face every five minutes?
Not to provide u with anything as much as to stare at u and ur food while it cooks
3. Bathroom is super gross and looks haunted
4. Pubic hair in food
I remembered why I never get soup from Vietnamese restaurants, u never know what can be lurking
I knew and I should have known better
STEER CLEAR
IF YOU WANT TO MAKE THIS FOOD AT HOME
JUST THROW YOUR OWN PUBIC HAIR INTO A BOWL OF RAMEN…
AT LEAST IT WILL BE YOUR OWN

I love this place. Easily my favorite/​most visited restaurant. Ruby and Jack are always friendly and extra attentive when I bring my 2 year old nephew in. I’ve tried a few other hot pot restaurants around town and they can’t compare.

If you’re craving for an all you can eat hot pot joint, this is it. My siblings (3 total for our party) and I went here for lunch around 2pm on a Sunday. We got seated right away and started loading up on our sauces and food onto our plates.
The lunch variety included bok choy, bean sprouts, two variations of tofu, beef, chicken, fish, their hand made dumplings, imitation crabs, fish balls and your three variations of noodles just to name the ones we actually ate.
You usually start out by deciding whether you’re sitting on the standalone counter or sharing a hotpot with other members at the table. By then you have a choice of seven different broths. I always go to my usual favorite, their #3 spicy Thai broth. Their vegetarian and meat based broth aren’t bad either. I just happen to loveeeeeee spicy food.
Jack is the main server there, his humor is what makes the place –homelike– always eager to make sure you have extra broth if needed. Even though they close at 3pm for their employees to have lunch, we were there until 3:30pm and he made sure we can continue to eat with a full menu bar.
If you’re craving for an all you can eat decent hot pot, come give this place a try. Their lunch price for drinks included is only ~$ 11 per person. Just make sure you don’t waste food. You’ll end up paying $ 10/​pound of food wasted. I’m an advocate for this place, all the freedom to eat as much as you want without the hassle of having to go grocery shopping and prep work.

When I was pregnant I would come here and fill up plate after plate with kale and spinach, mushrooms, lotus root, beef, chicken, herbs, so much goodness and always a beautiful variety!!! I have birth to a gorgeous healthy strong boy made up of many hotpot soups hehe. Jack is so funny and wonderful and since I have a baby now I haven’t been back, but I think about HPC ALL THE TIME! And wait for the day to bring my baby in and eat all the homeade dumplings my heart desires! Yum yum yum — I was hesitate to write a review because I want this to be a secret spot for as long as possible, but it’s best to share the goodness– plus I will not reveal the best time to go be sure to go 3 times, the first two times are trail runs, you will not know what you are doing! Watch the other people around the hotpots (especially the Chinese) and stick with it!

Only problem I had with this place before was that it was not ventilated and kind of dirty… BUT they just reopened and it’s super clean and ventilated!!! Woohoo!!! Cheapest and decent for the price all you can eat hot pot. It’s my boyfriend’s favorite place. He was literally screaming yelling «YES» in the parking lot when he saw that it was open today. If you are comparing it to hot pot places in LA, it would be 2 – 3 stars due to ingredients not being fresh. However, it’s an okay place in Portland.

It’s a friendly buffet place if you are craving for Hot Pot. Unlike the hot pot broth in Asian market, the broth of Hot Pot City is light but healthy. You can always customize your own broth by yourself!

Cheap, neat, and gets you full. AYCE hot pot for 17 bucks a person for dinner, 14 bucks for lunch I believe. They have a variety of meats, veggies, and noodles you can choose from for your hot pot. It’s a simple process, choose a broth, make your dipping sauce [ I suggest this healthy mix: ponzu+ sesame oil+ garlic/​ginger paste+jalapeño soy sauce+ green onions], then choose your veggies, noodles, and meats and bring it back to your table. Once your broth starts boiling, add in your raw foods, make sure meats such as chicken, lamb, etc cook for a little longer. Once they’re cooked, start picking them out and dipping it into the sauce and enjoy! I like hot pots whether at home or at the restaurant, this place could use a renovation, but if I don’t feel like making this at home, hot pot city it is!

This is actually a fairly mediocre hotpot place by hotpot standards, but probably above average for a place like Portland. My dad heard about this «Taiwanese owned hotpot place» so decided to try it with me when I visited him in Portland.
The restaurant is not too big, but has a fair amount of seats; some tables for larger groups offering large shared hotpots in addition to a U-​shaped counter area with individual hotpots. Pick a broth to start, although they are fairly simple broths (I opted for something I had never had before, a 皮蛋 and cilantro broth).
The buffet area is small but is stocked with quite a few hotpot items, many of them frozen. They restock regularly, and sometimes the items change. You can also make your own sauce at the sauce station. One drink cup is included in the price of your all-​you-​can-​eat meal. The price for the meal is fair.
I will admit that service is just okay, especially considering that Taiwanese people are generally friendlier. I feel like some of the foreigners got better treatment than we did! Perhaps it also helps if you are a regular.
Anyway, it’s exciting just having a restaurant like this at all in Portland. I think there are some Sichuan hotpot places too, but Hot Pot City offers a different style hotpot. I certainly wouldn’t have minded having a place like this back in Richmond, VA.

I’ll admit, my first time here Jack and Ruby are a bit standoffish. But now that I’m a regular and know their humor and know them they’re great. This isn’t a high end place. Don’t expect fake smiles and someone asking «is everything great?»
Is it sad I enjoy the bad reviews and people saying they won’t come back so I don’t have to wait to eat here? Yea I’d be upset if I went to melting pot paying $ 50 bucks for frozen food and bad service (my theory is 90% of the time you get bad service is because you’re a bad customer)
You’ll know who the regulars are easily since Jack has a pretty good memory of what people order. There’s plenty of spices and sauces to customize the broth to your flavor so pretty much when people complain their food was bland I think «well you did add spices and sauces to it yourself so you just have yourself a bad rating»
This is a hole in the wall mom and pop place. Great food and atmosphere. Nothing flashy. For $ 12/​$ 16 bucks I’m happy and fill.

I had high hopes for this All You Can Eat bufett style Hot Pot Restaurant. Unfortunately, it was a big disappointment. Right off the bat, the place is grungy with dirty sticky tables. The Hot Pot broth was nothing more than walter with a flash of spice granuals that were added on top.
We just added meat, fish, Vegetables, and seasoning in until it tasted like soup. Still, our first batch was bland due to the watery broth. Finally we had a decent bowl with out second boil. I dont recommend this place.

I personally love hot pot city! I dont care what anybody else has to say about it. It is what it is. For 11 $ its all you can eat and they have a good variety of ingredients.
The only downside is if its super busy you can wait for a pretty long time. Also, if you don’t know Jack and Ruby then they can come off as rude (when they’re busy and stressed) but once you get to know they’re both really nice people.
Most hot pot places are way more expensive so what you get at hot pot city is a good value. I recommend getting the thai style soup!

What to eat when you are in a cold Northwestern city like Portland and with the Chinese fam? Of course… hot pot!
I’ll admit I was a bit apprehensive about taking my family here. Coming from California, we knew that it would be a long shot to find a good hot pot place in a city like Portland. However, I was pleasantly surprised with how Hot Pot City was!
Lunch is $ 12 and dinner is $ 17 for AYCE with soft drinks. When you arrive, you have the option of either having an individual hot pot or a group one. All of the meats, veggies, and carbs are laid out above some ice for you to come up and grab as you please. Please know that hot pot is NOT vegetarian/​vegan friendly, so I would definitely try somewhere like «The Melting Pot» if you want to have some kind of dipping meal and get your moneys worth.
With that said, the food here during dinner was not bad at all. Sure, a lot of it was frozen over, but that was to be expected given the price. From the pork and lamb, to the noodles and cilantro offerings, there is something for everybody. Dip it into a sauce of your choice (and I recommend the special «BBQ» sauce as well as the classic peanut sesame) and enjoy!
The service here was also great considering there isn’t a lot to be expected. We were able to chat with the servers, and they were all very nice! There was even a nice gentlemen who seemed to be a frequent customer making conversation with the servers. I wouldn’t come in here expecting 5-​star service, so for that, they were fantastic.
A couple stars down simply for the food selection and the overly frozen options at that. Hot Pot City still stands well on its own, and I’m glad I got to take my family here for our first meal in this rainy city.

The customer service is horrible. They always run out of sauce or meat or whatever. I know they have these in stock cuz my friend got mad about running out of sauce, but later they gave her the sauce.
Also the seafood isn’t fresh at all. I got stomachache every time after I ate this hot pot. Also a friend of mine went to hospital after eating the oyster. Not recommended!

You have to come here with an open mind and empty belly.
This restaurant is great for lunch. It is about $ 11 per person for all you can eat hot pot and soda! Most of the other reviews mention traits about the staff here but I don’t think that should sway your decision to come here.
They talk about how the staff is rude, bipolar (that is hurtful and unecessary), ‘the worst ever’ but just as most life experiences you just have to make the best of it.
Select your vegetables, meats, sauce (my fav was the Jalepeno soy sauce), and select your favorite soda to wash it all down with. Finish your judgement free and happy time with family and friends with a complimentary tootsie roll.

I must say that after all of the reviews, this place was awful.
I came here with my boyfriend and another couple, and when we entered, the windows were fogged up with steam, and the entire building smelled of spoiled fish. We should have left, but we were all terribly hungry so we stayed.
My boyfriend and I are vegans, and the options were not great. Noodles, lettuce, zucchini, and tofu… well, almost tofu. They ran out as soon as we sat down.
All in all, I started feeling like I was going to throw up towards the end of the meal, and we bolted and lamented on how we spent $ 40 to cook our own shitty food.

Usually we have a great experience here. Today was horrible. They ran out of divided bowls so y very tall son had to eat at the bar where there is little leg room.
The buffet was wiped out and only a few items were replenished. The noodles were not one of them. Even when we politely asked for them.
They also ran out of cups so half the restaurant had nothing to drink.
Unbelievably disappointing. I won’t be back.

This place used to be good.
Quality has really fallen especially when it comes to the ingredients provided at the all you can eat buffet area.
STAY AWAY FROM THE MUSSELS! they have freezer burn and the mussel meat is green looking. Meat quality is very poor, a lot of the items here have freezer burn and taste funny even after letting it stew in your hotpot broth.
The hotpot broth here is beyond bland there isn’t much flavor regardless of whatever flavor option you pick. And if you ask them to increase the flavor in your broth, you’ll get a lot of BS about how you’re going to cook the meat anyway and it doesn’t matter OR some more bs about how you can’t handle the spice. They will try and steer you toward the soy sauces and chili sauce to avoid this.
The owners are very bipolar and will either welcome you with love or ignore you and your party followed by some pretentious Chinese shit talk.
They will also watch how many plates you’ve eaten and charge high fees for any uneaten foods.
There are better places for hotpot, this used to be the place to go but no more. I’m actually surprised they are getting away with the health inspections because this place is dirty!
At times when you walk in there is this weird smell of bleach and wet dog that lingers. And the bathroom area is horrible very dark and eerie reminds me of a horror film.
Not worth the all you can eat.

The experience began with my family and I entering the establishment hopeful and hungry. We LOVE hot pot, and we were hoping to find a restaurant that could be a regular spot for us.
It smelled delicious but looked a little run down. Some of my favorite restaurants are a little run down so it wasn’t a big deal. The older lady who I understand is the owners wife was very nice to us while we waited for a spot to open at the counter. We checked out the ‘salad bar’ where all the ingredients were laid out and while it may not have all been top quality, at least it appeared to be fresh.
Once we sat down, we ordered our broths and began to make our soup. The waitstaff were friendly if not a little racist. They, and the woman sitting next to us insisted that our white palates were too delicate to handle the spicy broth and that we should go for the bland one instead. Whether or not this was an inside joke to goad us into ordering the spicy broth, or simply a cultural blunder on their part I don’t know. If I want spicy broth, I’m ordering spicy broth damnit.
Everything seemed to be going pretty well, right up until a FAT FREAKING ROACH crawled up on the counter by my aunt’s hand. It was a fucking roach. Where there’s one, there are millions more you can’t see. And this guy was out in broad daylight on the fucking counter. We called over the waiter and he winced, like, ‘Not again,’ and then he smashed it with his washcloth that he was still wiping down tables with when we left. ((Insert manic internal screaming here))
Needless to say after that, we all lost our appetites. We tried to be polite and we didn’t want to alarm the other patrons, so we told the owner’s wife when we paid and she said, ‘Aw. That’s too bad.’ Excuse me, what? How is that even an appropriate response to hearing that a roach tried to take a dip in my aunt’s soup bowl? A little shock and outrage would have been well placed here, but sadly by the look on her face, I could tell this was a regular occurrence.
I will not be returning to Hot Pot City, and I encourage you, the reader and potential soup eater, to avoid it like the plague. You may in fact catch plague there. I don’t know.

Food was good but customer service was horrible. Especially the old lady, she’s the owner’s wife. She’s so creepy, she looks at you when you get too much food from the food bar. I felt discomfort throughout my meal.
Oh and she would talk bad about you in front of the chinese customer. Act like i didnt understand chinese but luckily one of my friend does (she thought he’s japanese) he told me that they were talking about my friends and I.