Crown Hotpot review: I tried Leeds' first Chinese hotpot restaurant where you cook your food at your table
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Located on Blenheim Terrace, near the University of Leeds, Crown Hotpot has been on my radar since it opened last May and the interesting concept is what led me there on Bank Holiday Monday. It's the first restaurant of its kind in the city, with the entire menu dedicated to the Chinese method of cooking.
It’s simple: pick what you want to eat by ticking ingredients off a list and handing it to your server, then everything arrives raw and you cook the ingredients on the table.
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Hide AdThere are seven soups to choose from and we ordered the Sichuan clear oil pot in medium spice for £9.80. The ingredients come next and with a menu so extensive, this was a difficult choice to make. There was a variety of different meats, a broad seafood selection and just as large vegetable selection. There are some bean-curd options, rice and noodles as well as snacks to choose from too.
We chose the mixed vegetable platter for £7.80 which were three different leafy greens, broccoli for £2.80, and fried tofu, udon noodles as well as vegetarian dumplings for £3.80 each. As each item comes in a small side plate, I thought I would need to order a few more things as the evening went on. Instead, we found ourselves struggling to finish what was in front of us so there is no doubt that the food is fantastic value for money.
That’s not all – it’s delicious too. I was conscious the soup might just be spicy and not taste like much more, but instead it was the star of the show. When it was paired with vegetables, tofu and noodles, topped with some sauces from the bar, it was simply incredible.
There’s a certain charm to the restaurant, with a very comfortable atmosphere to take the meal at your own pace, and this lends me to understand why the restaurant has become so popular in the year it’s been around, particularly among students. The servers who attentively walk around to replenish items and carefully explain the concept to new customers, shout-out to Meng, also make the restaurant that much more attractive to visit.
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