Boiling Passion

Boiling Passion is a new restaurant that recently opened on Convoy Street, offering individual hot pots.

Individual hot pots are quite popular in Taiwan and I’m always on the hunt for a good one. I’ve been pretty disappointed with most of the offerings in San Diego but was eager to give this one a shot after reading through Kirk’s visits.

There are 10 hot pot broth flavors to choose from and I was pleasantly surprised by the wide range including a milk base, which is really popular in Taiwan, but not one I see often in in the US. Milk sounds a little odd, but when done right, it is like a lighter version of a cream soup. The pots are $12.99-$13.99 for lunch and $13.99-$14.99 for dinner. Both lunch and dinner come with a choice of rice, silk noodles (glass noodles), or noodles. Lunch also comes with iced red or green tea.

The interior of the restaurant is quite dark, even if you go during lunch.

Green Tea and Red Tea

The ice teas were quite refreshing with the steaming hot pots. They came pre-sweetened. Next time, I’m going to try to request unsweetened.

House Special Hot Pot

I had a hard time choosing between the House Special Hot Pot and the Taiwanese Spicy Hot Pot. After a heavy previous day of eating, I wasn’t quite in the mood for something very spicy, so in the end I chose the House Special Hot Pot.

While the pot isn’t brimming with ingredients, it actually was a good amount of food and I was glad to see that they included a fair amount of each of the listed ingredients instead of just stuffing the pot with napa cabbage or substituting with cheaper ingredients, which I’ve experienced at some of the other individual hot pot spots in San Diego.

The broth had a good flavor, slightly more pungent from the fermented tofu. For those who really love fermented tofu though, that fermented flavor was pretty mild.

Service was pretty attentive, offering us several refills on the broth.

Satay Beef Hot Pot

This was Mr. K’s lunch. The broth did taste pretty different from mine–with a strong beef flavor that seemed to be produced from a bullion cube or other type of concentrated enhancement. It also had a hint of nuttiness to it. It didn’t quite match up to my expectation of a satay flavored broth, but Mr. K really enjoyed it.

Overall, we had a pretty pleasant meal here. While it doesn’t compare to Taiwan or even some of my favorite individual hot pot places in Los Angeles, I do think it is the best option in San Diego and we’ll definitely be back to try out some more. The restaurants that have occupied this space haven’t had much luck so far, but hopefully this one will be around longer.

Menu:

Boiling Passion
3904 Convoy St, San Diego, CA 92111