Uniboil

Uniboil is located where the Hong Kong Plaza is. This place reminds me of Boiling Point. I wouldn’t say one is better than the other. Both Uniboil and Boiling Point are unique and special in its own way. Unlike Boiling Point, you don’t need to wait for a table and it’s not crowded either. For Uniboil, you can choose your own soup base and meat to go with it. Many people on Unilocal said great things about the tomato soup base so I got that with the certified angus beef. I’m not a huge fan of tomatoes, but wow the tomato soup base was really good! I actually burned my tongue a few times trying to drink it lol My friends got the Korean army and they both said it was really good too. Like Boiling Point, you can choose either noodles or rice to go with your hot pot. For lunch, you get a free flower drink to go with your meal. The tea kind of tasted like plums. I asked the waiter what the tea was called, but he wasn’t very sure either. They just call it flower tea. It’s really good though!
The waiter serving us was very nice and attentive. I also love the songs played in the restaurant. I was surprised that they play English mainstream music in the restaurant instead of Chinese songs since Boiling Point plays Taiwanese music.
The prices are about the same as Boiling Point. There’s an option on Unilocal for BOGO hot pot 50% off. It’s not a Unilocal check-​in thing. You have to buy it for $ 1 for the promotion to work. It’s pretty worth it though! The discount only works from Monday to Thursday.
I really enjoyed eating here. Uniboil is a great place to try if you want something similar to Boiling Point. I’d definitely come back!
4.5 stars!

I went here on a Sunday morning. I’m surprised that it didn’t have as many people as you would think. (It’s located near a busy Asian supermarket). In addition, we went on a great day because it was the last day that they offered the the AYCE meat deal. It was $ 15.99 for AYCE quality beef. I would definitely come back again. And don’t worry about it being the last day because they do have a promotion this week for buy one get one 50% off for a hotpot! The only tip that I would suggest is to stick with their medium because their spiciness level is a lot spicier than you would think. Their Szechuan flavored hot pot has a sour flavor that really brings out the spice, so a medium would be a perfect level to showcase the sourness and the spiciness at the same time.

It was a cute place with decent hot pot. I got the miso one and it was 2 $ off for checking in at that time. I noticed that they have interesting specials at certain times so if you’re lucky might get a good amount of discount. The food was okay, not the best spicy miso hot pot I ever had but their service was nice.

Very good ! Way much better than Boiling point. Good meat. Good soup. Good service. Must try restaurant in Rowland heights.

My Chinese speaking friend and I recently paid this hot pot place a visit on our trip to CA. The staff was welcoming and very helpful in making sure I understood how to order (although I have visited similar venues in other cities and knew the routine).
While the hot pot ingredients were excellent, including high quality meats, as well as the usual vegetables and fish cakes, what really stands out are the soup bases offered. They vary in spice level but are all distinctive and flavorful and truly outstanding.
We will certainly visit this fine restaurant again the next we are in the LA area.

Went here with some coworkers for lunch as we had a hankering for hot pot, but didn’t want to deal with the long wait at Boiling Point. What separates this place apart from Boiling Point i

Went here with some coworkers for lunch as we had a hankering for hot pot, but didn’t want to deal with the long wait at Boiling Point. What separates this place apart from Boiling Point is that instead of having the set hotpots, you get to choose your meat, and then choose your soup base. They also had some preset ones if you like that more. I ordered the aberdeen beef with traditional spicy soup. We also got a free flower tea for coming in at lunch. Overall, I felt that it was a much better deal than Boiling Point. They really included a lot of meat. I would probably say I slightly prefer the soup flavor at Boiling Point, but at this point, if we factor in the wait and Boiling Point’s skimpy meat portions, Uniboil wins. The soup here was still decently flavorful and we all walked out feeling satisfied. All in all, not a bad place to get your hotpot craving satisfied.

It was okay, but I like Boiling Point better. $ 11.99 gets you a standard base + choice of meat ($ 14.99 for seafood option), while their 3 special pre-​matched pots are $ 13.99. I went with the satay base with kurobuta pork + side of vermicelli (included), and my fiancé chose the spicy base with lamb. We both agreed the satay base was much tastier; his was a little on the oily side, but it did pack heat. I liked the pork, and it was a good amount (I’d say about 8 – 10 slices?). Comes with lots of other stuff (mushroom, imitation crab, corn, cabbage), but not as much as the pots at BP. I left full and satisfied, but it just didn’t hit the spot like BP does.

Uniboil is the real deal. With just one taste of the broth, the difference is clear. UniBoil’s broth is superb, free of MSG and high volumes of salt and oil that are present in many Chinese hot pot eateries. UniBoil’s biggest competitor in the same space, Boiling Point, doesn’t even compare. My order of tomato soup with certified Angus beef came with enoki mushrooms, vermicelli, imitation crab, cabbage, tofu, clams and fish cake. The ingredients are all very fresh, but the broth is the major standout.
The chef uses over 40 pounds of fresh chicken to create the base of the hot pot broths. The chicken stock is placed on high fire for 4 to 6 hours and then simmered for a total of 10 to 12 hours. The special tomato broth is made using fresh tomatoes daily. Even their hibiscus drink is brewed every morning using dried hibiscus leaves. For those that complain that they are not as flavorful as Boiling Point, etc, it’s because you’re used to all the MSG and extra goodies they throw in. If you know what good made from scratch broth tastes like, then you will throughly enjoy any of the broths at Uniboil.
The best tip I can give those that order the certified Angus Beef is to take out the beef on a separate plate as soon as the hot pot arrives. Then it will not overcook. Overall, I’m really happy with Uniboil. Everyone is always very nice. They always have a lot of deals and specials going on especially with the Lunar New Year coming up. I hope I win $ 188. That’s one of the prizes!

Move over boiling point! In a city with way too many hot pot options, I was surprised that Uniboil stood out. The pots here are packed so I can usually share with a friend and we’d both be satisfied. Also the soup here doesn’t taste like liquid MSG wooop :)
Order budae jjigae!

This place is alright. It used to be very busy when they had special deals and such back in October November 2015.
But now it’s a bit slower and for the right reasons. I think it’s quite overpriced for what you get. But yes, I know. Other places are like this too. But I honestly feel the amount of food they give you has declined dramatically. I don’t mind paying but when there’s not much in my pot, then that is when I’ll go elsewhere.
And yes the 5 star reviews from the beginning were from their deals. «Check in on Unilocal and rate us and we will give you something». Lots of places do this as an incentive and this place is no different.

You know how recently so-​cal has plenty hot pot places springing up? Well… this place is the worst of the pack I’ve tried so far. I’m the type of person who’ll review only when I’m very satisfied or very unhappy with the experience.
We came here and ordered 3 hot pot: miso, satay broth with pork, shezhuan spicy with Angus beef. None of us like it. The soup just tastes not right and the ingredients in the soup is also very lacking. Maybe it’s just us, but I really won’t come back…

Let’s make this quick.
I’m a little bit torn about this place. I had the Korean Army Soup.
I don’t know if I’d pick this place over boiling point though. I need to come back.
LIKES:
Kurobuta pork is good
I like korean ramen noodles
Slices of king oyster mushrooms
Your pot comes with an egg
GRIPES:
Not enough kurobota pork
No garlic and no cilantro for your satay sauce
Broth was not spicy enough; actually it wasn’t spicy at all. I added the chili paste to it myself
Broth also started to get salty toward the middle, so maybe you should order ½ salt
They ran out of the ham hock, which I was looking forward to trying
The cheese kept sticking to my chopsticks
Every day features a hot pot of the day for $ 3 off if you post a photo of your food on social media. Wednesday is the Korean Army soup.

Reviewers like to compare this place with Boiling Point. Personally, I think it comes down to soup base preferences. The ingredients and meat used are fairly similar in freshness.
So what differences are there? Price is one. Uni-​Boil tends to be cheaper cause of all the deals constantly being offered.
The soup bases are another notable difference. Soups at Uni-​Boil taste «clean.» They don’t over salt nor over grease the soup. At Boiling Point you can see the oil slicked all over the veggies. This over greasing is probably why I think Boiling Point soups taste better. :P
So why three stars? Honestly, Uni-​Boil is lacking some greatly needed ambiance.
For example, some of the silverware provided looked cheap and disposable. I rarely notice or even think about silverware, but when you’re using it to eat piping hot soup, you want a hardy pair of chopsticks. Furthermore, they use tiny styrofoam water cups. It feels ghetto. No one wants a small water cup that runs the risk of getting melted by their hot pot fire.
Last note, the service here is good if you can speak Mandarin. The waitress helping us was knowledgable about the menu and gave helpful suggestions. Tiny water cup was always quickly refilled and she was happy to accommodate my soy allergy. I liked her a lot.

[ B L U R B S ]:
Honestly, came here a few weeks ago for lunch and forgot to leave a review. But the fact is I don’t remember much of this place and that usually means the food and soup was average if it didn’t leave a decent impression.
[ F O O D ]:
But I do know I ordered a lamb hot pot that had a really clear bland broth. The meat wasn’t terrible though (at least it didn’t taste like it had a bad case of freeze burn) They boasted a «sauce bar» but when boyfriend and I got to it it was 4 dinky and dirty sauce jars with the caps half off like someone had forgotten to close them. The sauce looked like it had a dried/​crusted over on the top layer. We tried not to look too terrified as we backed away from the sauce table (plus, none of the sauce sounded appetizing). Boyfriend was thoroughly disappointed, he likes to eat his hot pot with sauces and this place severely lacked that option. Lunch comes with some sort of plum iced tea that was awfully tart that I took one sip and tossed it.
[ S E R V I C E ]:
The waitress that served us didn’t speak English very well (you can call me a douche for not speaking up in Chinese LOL) and had a relatively hard time trying to explain the menu. The thing that really bothered me was that they reused menu ordering sheets… So the paper was gr0dy and extremely wrinkled. You can see all the times the sheet was erased from previous orders. Seriously? You couldn’t spend a few more dollars and print more sheets? It’s kind of gross having to think how many other people used this sheet of paper.

More of a 3.5. This place draws a lot of comparisons to boiling point. I actually cant really tell the diff, but i dont eat boiling point enough to really know either. I felt the food was good, but nothin really special. Cool thing tho is that ur meal comes with a iced flower tea, which is really good. Also, they gave us free key chains. Another thing is every day they have a special, where if u order that item on that day, its 3 bucks off if you take a picture and post it on facebook or IG. You cant really beat that cause each hotpot is already bout 11 bucks so minus 3, it comes out to bout 8, which is a steal for hotpot!
I got the satay broth, which i wouldnt recommend. It was good, but you already have satay dipping sauce, so its just satay overkill. Id def recommend another broth…
Overall, not sure if id go out of my way to come back as there are so many other hot pot places, but this place def hit the spot.

This place is top notch!
I definitely prefer this place over boiling point.
It seems family run so the lady working seems a bit overwhelmed when there are a lot of tables, but she does her best.
The broth is flavor heaven and just amaze balls.

Wow. one server for the entire restaurant? Really? I certainly feel bad for the server since it was a packed house even though it was a Wednesday night.
Service aside, the food was ok. At $ 11.99, the portion of the lamb pot was typical. I went with the Szechuan soup base on the recommendation of the server. Along with the meat, there were several different varieties of mushrooms, tofu, fishballs, corn, some imitation crab meat and a bunch of cabbage on the bottom. Not really that big of fan of the veggies and the imitation crab meat as those items got soggy really fast after being boiled in the soup base. The soup base was a good recommendation though. The sauces at their sauce station was a joke. The sauce was just too watery for me. In the end, I didn’t really use much of it.
Probably the most disappointment part of the entire meal was the rice. I don’t eat rice that much. But when I do, I want to be cooked properly. The rice literally fell apart the minute I put it in my mouth — I ended up not eating most of it.
Prices are very similar to Boiling Point. If I was having to decide between the two, I’ll probably still opt for Boiling Point despite the wait because I enjoy the ingredients and service in Boiling Point a lot more.

Came here with a few friends of mine and since one of them were sick why not get some hot pot! Normally i’m a die hard fan of boiling point I decided to give this place a try.
Its in a huge lot that I never knew existed next to a ramen shop. When we stepped in was nice and neat. It seemed kinda awkward since there was no music on and you could hear other peoples small talk.
When we sat down we looked at this « Unilocal, wechat» paper that states if you share a picture of the meal you get to roll a dice. The number you roll corresponds to the amount of discount you get. I had my friend who was sick roll the die, he landed a 2 which is a 20% off the SECOND pot. (Sorry single diners no discount for you as if it was bad enough that you gotta come alone. Alone and no discount!!) I was like naw naw lemme roll the dice i got good luck. I rolled a 1 then we were like NOOOOO. We’ll take the 20% off please.
I got the Szechuan pork feet, cause it was on the special menu section. If its special it must be delicious right?! I ask them to make it as spicy as they can. You get a choice of rice or vermicelli noodles (Thick kind). I got the rice and it comes with rice seasoning on top, so yummy! The soup had those little peppers that make your mouth numb. I thought I would like it since I eat spicy food till I cry. Turns out numbness aint for me. Overall not the dish for me.
It was little strange my friend who order the same pot as me didn’t get a piece of corn like I did. Oh well at least I didn’t lose out on the corn.
Definitely going to give this place another try with a different pot.

Would come back again!
Personal hotpot and they’re flexible in a sense that they have set ingredients in the different pots they have but you are able to choose your soup base from four or five different soup bases.
They also do have a couple of pots that are set ingredients as well as set soup base, the Korean Army hotpot was one of them. I got this pot and was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. Sometimes I get put off by too strong of a kimchi flavor in hotpot, but this pot was just the right amount. It has a good amount of food.
They do have a «½ salt» and a «1 salt» option which I thought was weird. I recommend the «½ salt» because that was perfectly flavored and if my pot had double the salt content, it would’ve been too salty and just unhealthy.
I’m not sure if this is an all year round special, but if you buy one pot and roll their dice and post pictures of your food on wechat, facebook or Unilocal then you get % of your second pot off. So I rolled a 5, my table’s second pot was 50% off.
The sauce area was disappointing however, there was four or five sauces and a couple were empty and most were really low. The sauces are VERY salty. When I first tasted the sauces, I really didn’t like how salty it was. It essentially had no other taste to it. I got used to it by the end of dinner and it didn’t bother me too much, but if the sauces improved this place could be a solid five start place. They also should keep sauces on each table, the small containers at the sauce area isn’t enough to go around for the whole restaurant. Also, they give you a plate for sauce. Not a small bowl or even a tapered tray. It’s a plate and it’s extremely awkward to try to carry your liquid sauce in a flat plate.

Wow!!! I think boiling point has a serious competitor. UNI-​BOIL is a great alternative if you aren’t trying to wait for forever at BP. When I came here, the restaurant was about half-​filled and the restaurant is a decent size. Probably better that way in my opinion.
They have this dice game you can play when you first sit down. Depending on what you roll, you can get a certain discount. There is also a little sauce station right by the cash register so you can create any dipping sauce you want. The sauce plates are pretty flat so it’s tough to pile on a lot of things.
The prices, portions and taste are all comparable. The pot itself took forever to get hot though. After they turned on the flame, I had to wait a few minutes for my beef to cook in the pot.
I got the Certified Angus Beef Hot Soup in the Traditional Spicy broth. It was delicious! I liked the fact that my meat wasn’t already pre-​cooked and that it cooked right in front of me. There were plenty of other ingredients as well. I think they might have more tofu/​fishballs/​etc than Boiling Point. But when you add something more, you gotta take away something and this place has less veggies in the pot, which I am definitely okay with. The broth was delicious and you can really taste the spices.
I would definitely come back!

The food was just okay. The major pluses about this place was that there was no to little wait on a Friday night at 7pm (which prob explains why the food was just okay) They have about 10 table seating 2 – 4 ppl each.
SPECIAL DEAL for the month of September 2015. Post the pics of your meal on Facebook or write a review on Unilocal and get Buy 1 get 1 half off.
Pro– No wait at 7pm, but there was a slight wait starting at 7:30pm
–Mix and match soup bases and combination pots.
Cons– Not sure if you get a discount for writing a bad review. I opted for the Facebook option.
–The sauces are at a shared location and not at each table and it was kind of sloppy. They also do no have garlic soy sauce, which is what I love most about Boiling Point.
–They use American cabbage instead of the Asian kind.
–Broths lack a savoriness even after cooking down all the ingredients.
Other con that I didn’t factor into the rating.
–The vermicelli noodles are the thick kind. I prefer the thin ones.
Not bad, but prob suck it up and wait at Boiling Point for Hot Pot.
Total with Half off one Pot. $ 27. We got the Chinese Spicy Lamb and JP Miso Pot. We added another side of meat and Tofu for $ 3.95 each.

A new hot pot place opened up inside Hong Kong Plaza. They’re trying to revive it after Supreme Dragon (finally) got booted. The rating on Unilocal is definitely skewed, they give you free pig’s feet for ratings. And they have to rate right there so, I wouldn’t trust the lot of these.
The meat plate was very small, I would venture to say it was actually less than 5 oz. of lamb with this $ 10.99USD bowl. We opted for non-​spicy so we could taste the soup itself (spicy broths are sometimes hard to determine). It was definitely bone soup, freshly made, but also very bland. We did get the half salt, which could have been a major contributor, however, it was not as rich as one would expect bone soup to be. Disappointing.
The wok itself felt significantly smaller than places like Boiling Point, however it could also be that they just give you less items. My mom and I could share one Boiling Point pot, but we definitely felt this was not enough food. We added a plate of beef for $ 3.95 and it still wasn’t enough for us. (That’s saying a lot considering we share one pot at BP and leave full with a side order of meat.) None of the additions really accentuated the lamb, and at the end, the broth was still not rich even after cooking all the other stuff in it.
The whole meal landed us around $ 20 with the adds and they threw in a lunch tea for us. The service was really slow even though there were only 3 other parties inside, and they only served hot water. Maybe everyone else getting good service came during busy hours when they pay more attention?
It’s not terribly hard to make a hot pot joint, but it seems terribly hard to make a good one. If this place is going to survive, 1. stop bribing customers for Unilocal reviews and 2. up the ante on the broth. People don’t go to hot pot to eat veggies dipped in water. Ok, except the Japanese style shabu. Not likely to return.
Also, I don’t want to be mean because the owner was super nice, but he wore flip flops in the restaurant serving us and it just seemed really sloppy. And dangerous? I realize it was a hot day, but I’m there to eat, and I don’t really want to see my server’s toes. Man or woman. .Eck.

This place is a solid 3 star restaurant, nothing more. With an influx of hot pot places popping up all over OC and LA, it’s really hard to compete with the long standing locations who have built a name for themselves over the years.
This place is located in a humble plaza just off of Colima and Fullerton road. You can’t see it from the street, but it’s there. The restaurant itself is very clean, but small. I think you could probably seat about 20 – 30 people in there, max. The service is a little rocky as well, the servers just seemed awkwardly shy and didn’t really explain their concept well. We were faced with a menu that had about 5 – 6 soup bases and then 4 options for the hot pot itself. They also had a couple «specials» that were all inclusive hot pots, such as the Japanese miso (which is what I had), and the Korean army soup.
My boyfriend had the spicy soup with angus beef. The soup base was pretty good, as was my Japanese miso soup base. The pots themselves were seriously lacking though. My Japanese miso just had a TON of noodles (udon and vermicelli) and a ton of Napa cabbage. My boyfriends’ was just a bunch of mushrooms and bean sprouts. I personally enjoy eating hot pot because I love the variety that comes with each individual pot. Although the soup base was good, everything else was lacking.
The servers were nice enough and I think they tried their best. The food was just ok, I don’t think this would be a restaurant that I’d come back to regularly. There are many other substantially better hot pot places, especially in the Rowland heights area.
I suspect many of these stellar reviews are from people who were promised a free order of braised pork feet in exchange for a Unilocal review. However, the restaurant did not specify that it had to be a good review (because that would be wrong and I’d have to pull out my Unilocal elite cape and do something about that). Haha

Wife and I were invited to dine at this restaurant again.
We came around noon and was immediately greeted and seated by the friendly staff member. This time I ordered the lamb non-​spicy hot pot, which was delicious, the flavour of the soup was excellent. The portions were decent .
Wife ordered the beef Sichuan soup, which to her was delicious but for me was too spicy since I prefer things a little lighter.
The sauce station has improved and offers multiple selections.
Overall was more impressed than before with this particular Hot Pot joint and will definitely come back again to try the other things on the menu.
Restaurant offers music and gladly accepts c/​c.