Urban Hot Pot - unusual and fun restaurant experience!

[MickinMD ★]

My nephew Ryan discovered an Asian-run restaurant in Columbia, Maryland called "Urban Hot Pot" which has mostly Asian cuisine (see 2 page menu at bottom with location info & phone) and also a Cajun menu. We did Asian. Ryan took his father, Brian, there for his birthday on Tuesday (between fake snow days) as well as his mother Donna, my sister the retired nurse, and me.

I was a fun, unique experience for us.  There are two of these restaurants, the other in the D.C. suburb of Rockville, MD, and they're not near your and it succeeds and spreads or there are similar restaurants near you, we highly recommend it for at least 1 time - we are sure to return on occasion, depending on how the pandemic effects things.

You cook your food in front of you in a small pot of broth on your seats-six booth's table that heats quickly to a strong boil: there are about a dozen spicy, chicken, miso, etc. broths to choose from and, since it's all you can eat, you can switch to different broths if you want.  The bill including drinks and included desserts and 18% tip was only about $117 for all 4 of us for lunch!

It's cooked on an induction plate that doesn't get hot so you don't have to worry about burning yourself. If you want to slow down the broth evaporation there are off, low, medium and high control settings, but the waiter/waitress will add water to the broth if it starts to get low:

You order the stuff you want to go into the hot pot with a tablet that sends the order directly to the kitchen.  It's been shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, but there's also normally a small "train" or flat belt that runs on a loop and carries food past the tables so you can add stuff to your pot - reminiscent of the Lazy Susan in the middle of each table in restaurants in China that are loaded with group dishes filled with various stuff to choose from.

The choices of food (see menu at bottom) include different types of beef, pork, and chicken, seafood including shrimp, vegetables ranging from baby bok choi, to broccoli, to unusual enoki mushrooms (bottom middle of the first pic below that look like white sprouts), to potatoes and Chinese yams, as well as things like quail eggs, oriental dumplings, udon and various other noodles.  They also have stuff like hot dogs, but we wanted to experience unusual stuff - like the quail eggs, Chinese yams, beef carne, etc.

The tablet is passed around, each person selects anything desired (remember, it's all you can eat), and the food is brought out on plates. You also pick sauces including soy, chives, peanut, sriracha, fish, sesame oil, sesame seed, garlic, and lots more.  You put root veggies in the broth for a few minutes to soften, the leafy stuff for a minute or so, and the pre-cooked meat is hot in less than a minute.

You have various implements: tongs, ladle, spoon, fork or chopsticks to move the food to and from the hot pot and your plate and to eat it. Some people pick from the sauces and mix them together in the provided bowl and others, like me, sprinkle them directly on the plate of food.  Holding your spoon in the boiling broth ensures you're avoiding spreading germs:

There was a limited choice of dessert - the best in my opinion was "cake of the day" where you got up to 3 of these little cheesecakes per person, which I got despite wanting to try new things. I wasn't brave enough to try "Sweet White Fungus w. Jujube" as the last taste to remain in my mouth!

We all had fun.  If restaurants are still open at the end of the month, Ryan wants to eat at the Urban Hot Pot again for his 20th birthday!

The menu. We saw it and chose from it right on the tablet which varied a little from this online menu:

[bikeman564™]

very cool, and a great report  

[ChrisL]

Yeah that is tasty.  The style of cuisine is called Shabu-Shabu   https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shabu-shabu  and we have had them out here for ages.  I worked with a guy who loved it and we would go there at least 2X a month, sometimes weekly.

Good stuff!

[Ralphie ★]

2 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

Yeah that is tasty.  The style of cuisine is called Shabu-Shabu   https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shabu-shabu  and we have had them out here for ages.  I worked with a guy who loved it and we would go there at least 2X a month, sometimes weekly.

Good stuff!

Hmm - I thought for sure that Kramer had invented that!

[ChrisL]

9 minutes ago, Philander Seabury said:

Hmm - I thought for sure that Kramer had invented that!

Seinfeld?  I never got into that show so am missing the reference.  

[Ralphie ★]

Just now, ChrisL said:

Seinfeld?  I never got into that show so am missing the reference.  

Kramer had the great idea to start a make your own pizza place.

[bikeman564™]

2 hours ago, ChrisL said:

The style of cuisine is called Shabu-Shabu 

 

and its not too shabby shabby

[sheep_herder ★]

One of my favorite places to eat while in China.