Good Hot Pot, Shanghai
My friends know me to not be a big fan of hot pot. I never liked the DIY cooking aspect of handling raw food cooking in a pot. But it seems that girls really like hot pot. I am not sure why, but they just seem to crave it, such as Regular Cantonese style hot pot, Japanese Shabu Shabu, Sichuan Mala hot pot, and other types.
Good Hot Pot, located in Xintiandi, is a hot pot restaurant with a posh decor. As you walk in, it seems that you are in some sort of European restaurant. The white opulence setting and furniture, though a bit gaudy, is what the typical Xintiandi clientele come to expect. Foreigners and the newly rich would be drawn to this.
For our hot pot, we choose to have Hong Kong Style Pig’s Bone Soup and the Chef Special Consumme. Though the Chef special is the most popular, I insisted on the heartiness of the Pig Bone. I also wanted to split the Hot Pot soup with a mouth numbing Sichuan soup, but I couldn’t find any takers to share with me
Good Hot Pot has a nice selection of beef slices, ranging from different qualities. The differences of the cuts are correlated with the amount of marbled fat and tenderness of the meat. I tend to pick the best meat, since the marginal difference, will have me pissed off if I didn’t get the best – the whole night. We had 2 different types of beef, and we could clearly taste the difference. One of my favorite things that we had were the meat balls. We had dumplings, tofu, and vegetables to accompany our beef. I liked out our ginger and garlic, for dipping, was provided in small little globes.
In addition to our hot pot, we had foie gras as part of our meal. The large goose liver was presented with a bake bun and a couple of slices of veggies to offset the creaminess. I thought it was bit too much.
We finished off the night with this taro root jello pudding. I didn’t think anything of it, still I put it in my mouth. It was actually not too sweet and was creamy – like the foie gras.
Though i am not a fan of hot pot, Good Hot Pot was an fine choice. I think it is a good place to bring out of towners, if they want to experience some Shanghai Glamour.
Links cityweekend Enjoy Shanghai Dining Secretary
Rating 2 Pigs Price Range 3 $/¥/NT