E & Drink opened recently in San Diego, located inside the 99 Ranch market plaza. I noticed it right after it opened and wanted to check it out but didn’t get a chance.
The small restaurant offers individual hot pots, Taiwanese tea drinks and some small appetizers/snacks.
The individual hot pots come with rice or noodles. During lunch, they also come with a free green or black tea drink.
Surprisingly, the tea drinks come in enormous beer mugs. Look at the appetizer dish on the side for size comparison.
Complimentary cold appetizers
There are about 10 different hot pots to choose from. I originally had a picture of the menu but I seem to have lost it.
Seafood Hot Pot
I chose the seafood one. Since I don’t normally like eating a lot of rice, I opted for noodles and chose vermicelli noodles, which are traditionally eaten with hot pot. Next time I’ll order a different noodle though because the vermicelli noodles were already included in the hot pot ingredients.
My hot pot had fish fillet, shrimp, squid, fish balls, imitation crab legs, egg, clams and vermicelli. The quantity was quite filling and I actually didn’t finish mine.
Hong Kong style curry hot pot
DH chose the curry pot because he loves everything curry. This had various seafood and meat in it and was slightly spicy.
You could also get dipping sauce for the hot pot items though we chose not to use it since the broths were pretty flavorful. You can order additional add on ingredients for your pot too.
House Special (Marinated pork ear, seaweed, peanuts, dry beancurd)
I thought the cold marinated appetizer was just okay. Nothing particularly special and I probably wouldn’t order it again.
The service was pretty good. They checked on us several times, refilled our pots with more broth, packed the leftovers for us. They greeted us warmly when we entered and when we left. For $10.99 per pot, I think this is a nice spot to satisfy a quick hot pot craving.
E & Drink (inside Ranch 99)
7330 Clairemont Mesa Blvd #112
San Diego, CA 92111
