I don't know about you, but in the winter all I want to eat is food in broth. It warms me up and is my go-to comfort food. One of the things I love eating within that category is hot pot - the ultimate food in broth experience. This past year so many different hot pot restaurants have opened up in Edmonton that it's hard to decide where to dine.

97 Hot Pot - 10602 97 Street - Edmonton AB

Last month, 97 Hot Pot was added to the lineup of hot pot restaurants with an all you can eat (AYCE) concept. For $25.95 per adult and $12.95 per child (3-9 years old) the prices are comparable to other hot pot restaurants in the city. I went out for dinner with my family on a cold Sunday night and the place was packed. Maybe their neon signage outfront really works to attract customers? For those unfamiliar with the area, the building for the restaurant used to be an Asian grocery store. Needless to say, extensive renovations have been made and each table is armed with induction cook tops to allow every customer to have their own individual pot.

At 97 Hot Pot, there is the option to have a flavoured soup base for $2 (chicken broth is free of charge). They've got a wide range of soup options and the individual cooking style is perfect when you and your dining companions like different flavours to your broth. I personally enjoy the regular chicken broth and choose to season my food with a combination of sauces for just the right flavour. Their sauce station is equally as impressive, with about 20 different options you can mix together to find your perfect flavour. I honestly think their selection is the best in the city, given that they have just about everything I could think of to offer!

At the table each person had adequate space and their own induction cook top for their pot. Each person was provided with a bowl, two plates, chopsticks and a mini ladle to eat with. The dishware that evening was very clean and featured a geometric pattern - but this might not last for long given that design will likely wear off. We were supplied one ordering sheet to write on for the table with about 100 items separated into different categories. Cold side dishes (pickled veg like cucumbers and kimchi) and appetizers (green onion cakes, spring rolls and edamame to name a few) are included and great to munch on while you wait for the raw food. I appreciated that there was a wide variety of food to order and everything was included in the price. Other hot pot establishments like King's Hot Pot and Urban Shabu charge extra money for certain items, so I was glad to see that we didn't have to pay extra for some of our favourite items (take enoki mushrooms and surf clams for example). And there's no limit to how many of each item you can order! My parents were pretty happy that they could have more than 2 oysters each.

Of all the items we ordered that evening, we really enjoyed the housemade meat/seafood "mashes" (shown below). They're basically different varieties of meat ground and seasoned so that you can form your own meatballs at the table. All the food that we ordered was fresh (especially the seafood!) and we were more than satisfied at the end of the meal. My aunt & uncle both ordered a flavoured broth, and felt that the flavours were watered down - so perhaps stay away from the additional soup bases. Saves you $2 too! At the end of the meal you also get complimentary dessert, and 97 Hot Pot offers up four kinds: osmanthus cake, daily tong shui (sweet soup), dessert tofu and ice cream. Of course I went with the ice cream, as I can't say no to anything mango!

One thing I should mention is their ordering system - when you order items that can be counted individually (like fishballs, meatballs, mushrooms, etc.) you write down the exact number that you want. With items that are harder to count individually (slices of meat, leafy vegetables, tripe, etc.) they have a set portion size, and the number you write down indicates the number of portions. A little confusing, but not hard to figure out.

I think it's pretty evident that I had a great night and have nothing but nice things to say about 97 Hot Pot. At least when it comes to the food anyway. Good service in these establishments is pretty hard to come by, and it is the same here at 97 Hot Pot. There aren't many servers so it can be hard to get someone's attention. The nice thing about it though is that there is a call bell at each table - if you need something, hit the button and the staff are notified that you're waiting for something. It's a temporary solution but nothing can replace the presence of another server working. Aside from this, I definitely recommend stopping by 97 Hot Pot for a delicious hot pot experience. I like that the workers and management do treat customers with respect and give you the best service they can. There's many hot pot restaurants in the city that don't necessarily adhere to giving the customer what they want. Restaurants like Urban Shabu and King's are well known (in the Asian community) for limiting your food - like "forgetting" your order of seafood, or "accidentally" giving you too much of a filler item that is inexpensive (like rice cakes or other starchy foods to fill you up quicker). Shady business, I tell ya.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that 97 Hot Pot is my top hot pot restaurant in the city. Great variety of food, nice selection of sauces and a price tag of $25.95 which is average for hot pot in Edmonton. Go check them out on a cold night - but don't forget to make a reservation first! Consider yourself warned.

Click here to check out Linda's review as well!

I've always wanted a restaurant in Edmonton to be dedicated to shabu-shabu or sukiyaki. It's something I always seek out while I'm in Vancouver, cause there's nothing like it here! While there's places to have hot pot, sometimes I crave the soy-based broth and not the typical soup seen in Chinese hot pot. I know that Sabu Sushi Bar previously offered shabu-shabu, but I don't know if that's the case anymore. So when I saw the signs for Urban Shabu on 97 St. go up, I was really excited, hoping that there was finally going to be the place I had dreamed of!

Urban Shabu - 9700 105 Avenue - Edmonton AB

Urban Shabu has taken over the spot last occupied by Spicy Garden, which I used to frequent as a young child with my parents after Chinese school on Saturday mornings. It isn't really anything to be missed, but walking into this new restaurant made me appreciate all the renovations that were done. The interior is very modern, with marble accents and lots of interesting lighting. On the walls are pictures of various cities around the world, including London and New York - and the white furniture makes the place look and feel clean.

Urban Shabu is actually related to Urban China - the restaurants are both opened and run by the same owners, hence the 'Urban' in their name. Having opened just a few days ago, the restaurant was bustling with activity at 6:30pm on a Monday night. Many tables were full of patrons, talking and eating, while a handful of staff walked around helping to bring out food and clean up tables. Now, unfortunately for me, this isn't a restaurant dedicated to shabu-shabu. Instead, it's an all you can eat hot pot place, yet again. Can someone please make my wishes come true!?

Anyway, Urban Shabu offers individual pots for each patron, with tables able to accommodate groups of 2 or 4, but tables can be pushed together for larger groups. Price wise, it's a little more expensive at $25.95 per person, with $2.00 per specialty soup base (chicken both is free), and no drinks included. Their sauce bar offers quite the spread of 16 options, including some special sauces like fermented red bean paste, oyster sauce & xo sauce. My one gripe is that they don't have fish sauce - always essential in my sauce mix!

Although the restaurant is a little more expensive, they have one of the most extensive lists for food that I have seen here in the city! I counted 90+ "raw" food items, and 6 cooked ones that you can order from the list that is included in the all you can eat price. They also offer some deluxe offerings like sliced geoduck (+$15) and fresh lobster or crab (+$ market price) if you so please. But based on the list included in the price, I was pretty happy with what was available on there. Notable item? Deep fried buns (man tou), which I loooooove to order when I eat Shanghainese! The soft buns are deep fried to have a crisp outer coating and soft interior, and served up with condensed milk. When warm, they're seriously delicious, and Urban Shabu doesn't disappoint!

Buns aside, the ordering system here requires you to peruse a sheet of items, and check off everything you want. Within 1-2 minutes of ordering, food starting showing up at our table! Talk about service. All the items were extremely fresh and thawed out if previously frozen (like beef balls & fish balls), but the shaved meats were definitely sliced upon ordering and sent to the table immediately. Items to note? The shaved lamb and beef were shaved paper thin and incredibly tender, while the lamb didn't have a strong gamey flavour. The white fish balls I also loved, because they were massive in size and had a nice 'elastic' bite to them. And I can't forget their shrimp - wow they were HUGE, literally the same length as my hand. The kitchen did send the ingredients out in smaller portions than I would expect, but for all you can eat, that may be better, as people tend to underestimate how much they can actually eat.

For the dessert crowd, Urban Shabu offers four different options after your meal: Japanese Style Sesame Balls, Sweet Tofu, Mango Creme Sweet Soup & Osmanthus Cake. I tried out their soft tofu (dow foo fa) which was very smooth and served likewarm with a light ginger simple syrup - a great end to the meal. I'm pretty curious about the sesame balls though, and will definitely try them out next time!

Although Urban Shabu isn't my dream shabu-shabu restaurant, I quite enjoyed my visit. The food was fresh, and individual cooking style gives everyone freedom to cook and eat at their own pace. I had the chance to try out their Tom Yum Goong broth which was very flavourful and I would highly recommend it as a soup base here. There are plenty of staff on hand and they're all very friendly as well - a huge bonus in a self-serve type of restaurant. Based on the environment, food, and service quality, I'd say the higher price is definitely justified. I'll be back when the weather is colder and I'm craving hot pot again, but in the meantime, for your visit, make sure to call ahead and make a reservation ahead of time!

As I always say, hot pot is a WINTER food, not something you can eat all year round. A lot of people disagree with me, but hey, I'm never gonna eat hot pot in the summer! It's just not satisfying and it makes you so much warmer than you need to be! (aka you sweat, eww.)

This week we had a hot pot get together at Calvin's. I'll admit it, when he first invited us all to his house for hot pot, I was a little skeptical about how it would turn out. I've never imagined being able to have hot pot with 15 other people at the same time.. and this week it happened! Kudos to Calvin, he's a genius! And the hot pot food was so delicious :)

Yum, happy hot potting this winter!

Yesterday felt like one of the coldest days of the year! No joke. Walking outside for 10 seconds made my legs feel like they were on fire! Then they went numb and I couldn't feel them. Ridiculous.

And just my luck, my button fell off my jacket as I was walking from one class to another, so I couldn't button my peacoat up! It was so cold walking about with my arms wrapped around my body, looking like I was stealing something! Haha.

Even better. Right when I got off class, my mother called me, and was freaking out because her car wouldn't start! Being the good child that I am, I decided to meet up with her and wait it out in the cold winter weather, until the guy from AMA arrived.

After what seemed like forever, we headed home, and my mom started freaking out again! It was supposed to be my birthday dinner with my aunties that night, but because she didn't get home at 2pm like usual (we got home at 5..) she had no time to prep or cook the meal she had planned for the night. As a result, I suggested going out for hot pot (my fave!) at this place I recently saw an ad for in the local Chinese newspaper, called 649 Restaurant. They advertised all you can eat for $16.99 per person, which is very cheap compared to other placers in the city that charge $21.95 and up.

We battled the quiet roads and slippery conditions until we reached a little strip mall in the Ermineskin/Steinhauer area in the south. The restaurant looked empty, and although a little hesitant, we walked inside to be greeted by a very friendly Chinese lady. There was only one other table occupied in the dining area, and I'm not going to lie, it had me a little worried.

So empty...

The Hot Pot menu consisted of 33 different items, some already cooked, and others waiting to be cooked in the broth. Despite the lack of variety, they carried the essential items that you could expect to eat at hot pot.


649's Menu

One thing I like about this place is that you can order any type of broth that they carry at no extra charge, unlike King's Noodle & Hot Pot which charges $7 for flavours other than satay & chicken. In addition, they provide patrons with a multitude of ingredients to create the perfect sauce for hot pot. Sauce is important!


Tons of sauce making ingredients!


Fresh ingredients for sauce

After dining here, I heard complaints from some of my friends saying that this place was terrible. But in all honesty, I thought this place was great for the price! At $16.99, there is a trade off of price for variety, but the quality of the food and ingredients is fantastic. The vegetables are fresh, and the meat is sliced and prepared upon ordering. For a 10 minute drive away from my house, I appreciate that I don't have to drive 20+ minutes to go to Chinatown and have hot pot.


Deeeelicious

Of course, if you're a fan of variety, I'm sure you wouldn't mind paying the $5 extra to go to Chinatown.

649 Restaurant
3014 106 Street
Edmonton AB