Shu Dao Hot Pot opened recently, offering Szechuan hot pot.
They have several broths to choose from and you can choose to do a single flavor, a split pot, or the nine boxes spicy pot.
They have an extensive sauce bar where you can make your own dipping sauce. The sauce bar also offers two desserts, lotus seed soup and konjac jelly, to help cool you off after your meal.
There is a charge for the broths, sauces and of course all the ingredients you order. If you aren’t careful, the cost can quickly add up.
Even though I knew it was going to be spicy, I zeroed in on the 9 pot spicy pot which is a little more unique. The broth is divided into nine compartments. While it’s the same broth across the board, it allows you to cook different ingredients separately to prevent muddling and mixing together all your hot pot ingredients. I love the concept though I do wish they offered it for other broth types.
There are three level of spice you can choose from and we chose the small spice. However, the broth came out very spicy. It was hard for me to handle and I generally like spicy food. It had a good numbing spice to it but I felt the need for a non-spicy broth to alternate with.
Here are some of the ingredients we got for our pot. We tried to do a lot of combination ones so that we would have more variety.
Beef & Lamb
Intestines Combo
Fish Balls
Fish Dumplings
Vegetables Combo
I don’t know if you can tell but this basket was huge and stuffed with a lot of vegetables.
Tofu Combo
While there are a lot of ingredients to choose from, I felt that the quality for most of them were just okay and a little on the pricey side for what you get. The one exception was the vegetable combination which was a humongous basket of various hot pot greens.
Overall, we thought our first experience here was okay. I think the food is a little pricey and while the ingredients are fresh, the quality is not as good as other hot pot places like Little Sheep. The service was frustrating as there just wasn’t enough staff for the amount of tables. However, they only just opened so we will try them out again after they’ve had a chance to settle in. Interestingly, they are located in the same plaza as anther hot pot spot, Tasty Pot.
Shu Dao Hot Pot
4690 Convoy St Ste 105
San Diego, CA 92111
So how did I know you’d be hitting this place up as soon as it opened Kirbie? ;o)
haha, you know me too well!