Duo-Pot

This is hands down my favorite dry pot place!!!
Never tried their hot pot or other stuff
But whatever’s since I asked my friends that has been here and they all agreed that the dry pot is the best to get anyways!!!
There’s usually empty seats here, though it’s always a bonus for me that I know I can eat here whenever I want, on the other side, I really like this place and don’t want them to close!
It is well seasoned and full of flavor!!!
The base of the pot comes with fried potato and lotus (seriously too good), carrots, cauliflower, bean sprouts as I remembered on the top of my head
Me and my friends usually get the «beef» as the base and add add-​on
— spam
— cauliflower
— tofu (that sucks up the flavor!)
— fish balls
— cabbage
I don’t eat spicy but I get the less less less less less spicy option ~
The plum juice there is pretty good too if things gets too hot and you need something to ease the spiciness.
I’ll definitely be coming back over and over again
P. s. Already bugged all of my friends and told them to come if they haven’t tried this place yet

I liked that there was dry-​pot and the service was OK, even though there were only two other groups seated midday.
They didn’t flip the meat or mix it for us as they would for the other groups.
The food though was plentiful and delicious. I would go again.
The location is obscure, sure, but that’s the whole plaza. It should be known that coming to this plaza that there are a lot, A LOT, of options. There’s outdoor options, an alleyway, and even and indoor plaza. Don’t hate them for you lack of discovery skills or understanding how big this plaza is even with the plaza sign in the front listing all the stores.

I like duo pot but it did feel a bit dirty. I try not to think about it when I eat there but sometimes it was hard not to. There were only two tables occupied in the restaurant and we still had to wave them down to get more water. They didn’t really come check on us they just stood at a corner and talked. Ugh it wasn’t even busy.

This place is not recommended for frequent customers. At least I will not come again.
Cons.
Hard to find, it is all the way to the end corner in the plaza. Too pricey. Costed me and my wife 70 dollars to eat there (not full), and I still have to order a noodle soup from next door after we paid. There is nothing so special about their food.
Pros.
I found there is no MSG in the soup they serve, because I did not get thirsty after. That is it.
I will give it only a 2 star 70 dollars for lunch, I expect something mug better.

I have been to the arcadia duo pot twice, and this is the first time I visited the Rowland heights store. The food taste about the same. Reason for two starts: 1. customer service makes us feel uncomfortable– one of the Asia waitress (we think she is the manager or owner) forced us to add dishes into dry pot, and constantly told us she knows what dishes we should order with very rude attitude. She was so insist that we almost argued with her. Then she went head starting put our dishes into the hotspot without our permission. It was so rude! 2. five of us spent $ 150+ in this store, average $ 30+ per person, and each dish’s portion is so little that it barely cover the dish bottom. Since I have ate hotspot many times before, I know we did not order too much food. We barely had left over. All in all major disappointment! Only reason for not giving one start is the food tastes is ok.

Strongly not suggested, expensive, waste money, taste awful. The owner of this restaurant try to give you suggestion «kindly», but her real purpose is just try to make you order more than you can finish. It taste like $ 10 per person thing, but it costs us $ 35 per person!
What’s more, the prices on the bill of beef and lamb slice are different from the menu. $ 4.95 on menu and $ 6.95 on my bill! What the hell cheating this is! I uploaded the pictures as proof.
Finally, Mention three times for important things, don’t go, don’t go, don’t go!

Pros:
–good service, my server helped me order and went out of her way to make me feel welcome
–well seasoned shrimp and broth
Cons:
–can be a little tough to order if you’re new to hot pot, BUT the server will help you

came here with a party of 8 we ordered 2 60 $ set for 4
waited forever for some water. Finally waiter brought 2 pitcher of water but how are we going to drink with no glasses… we literallly had to beg for water and glass.
The dry pots arrived and we were expecting more.
But the owner said thats it… for 120 $ its not worth it.
The portions are too small, we are not coming back.
The flavors are ok nothing too great.

The portions are huge here and the taste is amazing. I prefer this place to quiwei kitchen. The service here is amazing. I think management has made some changes after reading the previous Unilocal reviews. Our server was very helpful with our order and our whole meal. She made sure we didn’t order too much which was so helpful because the portions are big. Helpful tip: if you do the dry pot make sure you get the instant noodles (1 per person). It’s really delicious so you want to make sure you order enough for everyone. And just a heads up in case you aren’t aware, this type of food is usually oily and spicy.

My one my biggest pet peeve about a restaurant is uncleanliness. The tables and chairs were oily with left over crumbs. No matter how great the food is, it made me felt uncomfortable while eating.
My friends and I have the duo pot and it was pretty good. It was expensive, but good in portions. (we end up with three to go cups)

i got a shrimp/​squid shank/​tripe mild pot w soup. I love the potato chip. Its like a potato slice cooked like maduros. And lotus root slices, I never thought it would go so well with a dry numb spice pot since im used to lotus root being used in desserts where I’m from. I’m pleasantly surprised. It tastes refreshing and slightly crunchy in the middle. I also love the mung bean thick noodles, I love having these in hot pots and these have a Q consistency works well in dry pot as well. Good god is it expensive though and it adds up so easily. for the quality of the meat i got i felt like i got ripped off. The soup is ok. don’t get a refill unless you really wanna boil some meats inside. it really dilutes the taste of the soup.
i really recommend coming here as a first date or if you really wanna impress a wide eyed laowai with some duo szechuan sorcery.
i lijked the garlic dip and soy sauce dip for the spicy meats. i wish they have a sauce bar.
ill be on the prowl for a better more reasonably priced dry pot spot though. one that’s customizable and boils red chilli oil continuously.

Had this couple years ago in Arcadia. I still think this place is expensive. Food is good But in order for you to get full. It can get pricy. The duo pot is consist of dry pot outside and hot pot in the middle. Was expecting to eat the hot But always end up eating the dry pot only. So you can save your money by just ordering dry pot. Order what you want, they will stir fry it in the dry pot. When you order second round, you can tell them to stir fry it before serving to you guys. This place has skewers appetizers. It’s pretty food and Price is fair.

Dinner for two. Food is still delicious however it seems that after spending 45 dollars for two, we are still hungry. It looks like they do not give as much as before.

The quality of food here improved a lot since the last time I was here. The duo pot here is surprisingly good. If its your first time here, you got to try the duo pot. Their appetizers, like toothpick lamb and squid are so so, I had better else where. The service and price is probably the only downfall here. The place is bright, clean and roomy, I would definitely come back again.
Service: ²⁄₅
Food: ⁴⁄₅
Price/​Value: ³⁄₅
Ambience: ⁴⁄₅

Duo pot makes you can enjoy dry pot while having hot pot! I like spicy, the medium spicy dry pot is so good! Shrimp and pork belly are the best for dry pot, crispy and soft! Appetizers are good too, toothpick lamb is my first choice. The squid looks yum! Yellow peach juice is nice, really popular for girls.

«Don’t judge the book by the its cover»
I always wanted to try dry pot, this one always in my bucket list to try. In a short word, do not get fooled by the lack of customer. The food here is actually very good in a short summarized of my review.
Their best thing in this place, is their dry pot !!. This is what separate from a typical hot pot. The food in the dry pot tasted like you eaten in a wok. It tasted quite fresh in that style, a small pot in the middle for dipping meat and veggie. Most hot pot just serve you raw meat and you dumping all in the pot, but this one actually had gourmet side dish. Such as omg the toothpick lamb, I never see they serve this in any pot place. The spicy level here is higher than you typical hot pot, little hot is like medium hot for some people. The fruit and herb juice are not oversweet, it taste just the way it is.
The server was superb and very friendly, this is one of cleaner hot pot place I been too. I had to said the worst thing about this restaurant is the location. It located in the edge of the plaze. Next to the King Sticky Tofu and Boba Bear. Unlike the Arcadia location, which is in a much better location. Also their raw meat isn’t on par with some other pot. The beef tongue was very good, but the lamb and ribeye is just ok. The quality of toothpick is mix result, some piece are very tender, while other isn’t. Same goes to the tofu skin, which there were few hard piece. The dry pot food were delicious but is a bit oily
I think this is the only place in L.A. serve both hot pot and dry pot in the same pot ! It depend you taste preference, if you want to hit both in the same spot, then this is it. But if you prefer more in dry pot or hot pot. Then go to a specialty one. I am dry pot addicted now =)

I’m writing this review as I’m sitting on the toilet. I’m pretty sure this place is what made my stomach hurt and causing my butt hole to burn.
My friends and I came here last night and got the duo pot (dry pot/​hot pot). The whole idea and the food was not bad, the only complaint I have is that it was SUPER salty, very oily and filled with MSG.
Their pricing is really weird here. There’s little hidden fees everywhere if you don’t pay attention to it. Such as, the dry pot and hot pot itself was around $ 33 +$ 2 for shrimp +$ 2 for fish.
We also added lettuce, cabbage, oyster mushrooms (that they forgot to put in, but still charged us anyway), tofu skin, juicy fish balls, and lamb.
The oyster mushroom (they didn’t put this in) and tofu skin were the only two items that was suppose to/​was in the dry pot. Everything else was for the mini hotpot.
Since it was so salty, we didn’t even get to finish our food. Service was okay.
Overall, the food was okay. Total bill came out to around $ 64 for 3 people. Quite pricy for what it is and what we got, which was saltiness, bloating, possible pimples from the oiliness, diarrhea, and 3 burning butt holes.

FINALLY! I’ve finally found a place that sells GOOD dry pot that actually has an authentic Northeast Chinese flavor.
Little did you know, but the owner is actually from Northeast China (my city… represent!). She’s a super sweet, fun, friendly, and pretty lady (apparently we look alike? haha).
The waiters are also pretty awesome. Maybe because I came with a group who basically come here more than they go home, but they were so funny and I felt like i’ve known them since forever.
Anyways! Moving on to the food:
first things first… the spice was legit. When it comes to dry pot (麻辣香锅), you have to fulfill the 麻辣 first. Which is basically spiciness and numbness (?).
For the hot pot, we only had the Australian lamb and the premium beef. The meat was really tender and yummy and the broth for the hot pot was just the right flavor and saltiness. I loved it!
For the dry pot. we added A LOT of ingredients. Some of which consisted of my favorites: Lotus Root (I wish it wasn’t so scrawny and wrinkled), Shrimp (This was BIG. You are getting what you pay for. Lots of meat), Spam, Pork Belly, Bamboo Shoot, Fish Balls, Mushrooms, Potatoes (they were awesome), Bean Curd Skin, Vermicelli Noodles, etc. The menu here is very confusing btw.
Overall, the taste was what I was looking for. After constantly eating this in China, I was so desperate for something like this near me.
The pricing is decent. Yes, you may think $ 90+ for this meal is ridiculous, but this is similar to the pricing in China.
Anyways, I do like dry pot in China better, but this makes up for what I’m missing thousands of miles away.

I enjoyed my experience here.
How it works
–There are 2 sections in a pot. The outer rim (dry section) and an inner rim (soup section).
1) You have a dry section. You can opt to pick 1 meat or up to 4 meats. We picked stuff like intestine, pork, and beef. We also added veggies like mushrooms & lotus’. This is all stir fried and thrown on the outside w/​the sauce you pick (hot, medium, low spicy levels). It’s pretty darn tasty and our party of 4 had trouble finishing the 3 meat-​option. Everything is pretty salty tho. I wish they had an alcohol license ’cause this stuff goes perfect w/​beer.
2) You have a soup section (inside). We went w/​Szechuan soup base which was good, but really spicy. We also opted to add fish balls, hot-​pot meats, and some veggies to dip inside. The Szechuan soup is really good but too darn spicy. I’d opt for something different next time.
TIPS:
–Stuff here is super spicy. The stir fry we ordered was medium and that came out OK. the soup base, Szechuan, was waaaay to spicy. I think the Szechuan soups killed me You’ve been warned.
–I think the portions here are extremely large so it’s better to come w/​a large group
–Located in the same plaza as Hong Kong Supermarket /​Supreme Dragon

Now I’ve had my share of hot pot, but dry pot? My gawd… can I just say GAME CHANGER? Expect a long review (sorry!) as I’m going to try to be as detailed as possible since I was clueless coming in here.
Apparently Duo Pot is pretty new and opened like a month ago? It’s tucked away in the back alley part of Hong Kong Plaza next to a boba/​hookah place (random) and Tofu King (that stinky tofu place). Maybe because it’s fairly new, but when we went on a Saturday around 7pm there were only about three other parties there, so we were seated immediately.
SO. This place is obviously very Asian, so it would probably be best if you come here with someone who speaks the language. Luckily I came here with the boyfriend so it was good that he was able to communicate with the waiter to help us order. Now, I don’t speak the language so I didn’t really catch much of what they said (or any of it), but they do give you a menu and a paper menu where you check off the items you want to order.
That being said, we ended up getting the Duo Pot Combo which is a big tin where they put all the dry pot ingredients in and in the middle there is a small compartment to cook your hot pot. I didn’t know this since I’ve never had dry pot, but it already comes with a lot of veggies like mushrooms, lotus root, carrots, celery, and potatoes, which I thought was random, lol. We ended up adding pork belly and intestines to the dry pot and for the hot pot we got lettuce, beef tongue, and pork belly. Oh, and we got mild spice level. So how did it taste? SO GOOD. The meat was flavorful in whatever their spices are and I loved all the veggies with it. The hot pot was just whatever, but the beef tongue and pork belly were good. As for the spice level, mild is actually pretty spicy, but in a good way. If you’re like me and enjoy spicy food, I think mild is enough to give you a kick but no burning sensation. Oh, and I don’t recommend getting lettuce with your hot pot. Bleh. Some people might see this as a little too oily probably because they use chili oil to spice everything up, but I don’t mind it that much since I was distracted by how bomb it tasted! Oh, and this place has huge portions so it’s definitely best for groups and not greedy couples with eyes bigger than their stomachs…
As for service. Pretty horrible, but they’re Asian so it’s kinda expected. They don’t have a host to greet you at the entrance. You have to walk all the way in awkwardly to find a worker. We ended up having to ask for water because probably 10 minutes after ordering we realized they were going to leave us dehydrated. As I said, this place wasn’t PACKED when we were dining here so service should’ve been more attentive — we had to constantly haul someone down when we wanted something. There was one lady who I wasn’t sure if she owned it or what, but she was nice in the sense that she was the only one who checked on us to see if we were enjoying everything. But then I was getting kind of annoyed of her when she was packaging our leftovers and she kept commenting that we ordered too much. She probably said it over and over about 5x. WE KNOW WE ORDERED TOO MUCH, BUT WE’RE GIVING YOU MONEY, OKAY. Anyway, this place is pricey, but as I said, it’s for groups and the portions are generous, so I would think it would probably come out to ~$ 10 person if you came with a group of 4 – 5.
Overall, it was a pretty enjoyable meal. Service could definitely be improved, but it doesn’t bother me that much if the food is good, which it is. Oh, and I guess their original location is in Arcadia? Another great gem we took from the other 626 area :)