Came here last year for Valentine’s Day and the food was great! Portion size was good too! However, the service was...it could’ve been better, let’s just say. We got there and it was right before they were about to close during the afternoon and start their second session, but she decided to serve us anyways. And then when the food came out, she was super quick to kick us out. The server literally let us “eat” our food for no more than 10 minutes and then told us to leave. We didn’t even get far into our food at all. She made us pack it to go, so we had to finish the rest of our food at home. Kind of disappointing. But, I do recommend the hotpot there. It’s delicious.
Bethany Zhao
There was a wide variety of sauce ingredients and food to put in the pot. This isn’t a seafood hotpot if that’s what your looking for but the service and food is pretty good. However, don’t have the spicy pot if you know you can’t take it. It’s full of peppercorn and spices so I suggest the mixed pot. You can adjust the temperature to your liking.
Yuanyuan X.
Very good price and convenient location! It is inside the Ranch 99 mall. Plus the food is good!
Yuchen Z.
Great location, right next to the 99 ranch. Lots of food options and the sauce bar is great even from a Chinese person's perspective. Price is competitive for a hot pot all you can eat place. Will come again!
Monika T.
Being there are no good hot pot places in the East Bay, I was super stoked to try this place. Came here on a cold Friday evening. Food choice was limited... many items were out by the time we ordered. What is most damn disappointing is that since then I'd had diarrhea for the past day, this morning still doing the duty... as I am writing this. I've been sick to my stomach, no appetite, cold, and shivering. I was basically in bed all day. Perhaps its food poisoning... or maybe its my weak stomach. But I should've paid more attention to the health score. In pain for now, but this experience is a big no no Service wasn't horrible, but I'd still had to flag people down. There was 1 waiter, 1 front desk gal. She was the waitress too!
Karen L.
The hot pot was just ok. Not too much variety. It's not a good place to go with just 2 people cause they give you too much and we couldn't finish it and I thought it was a waste. They should give less depending on how many people in the party. This way we could of ordered a more variety than just leaving what we didn't finish.
Kevin W.
I'm beginning to like this place more and more each time I come here! They have a fruit and sauce station while you wait for your food. Decent selection of meats, vegetables, and seafood! Best meat selections are the premium beef and lambs. My only grievance or dissatisfaction against this place is that they need to hire more people and start being more attentive. Sometimes it takes a while to flag someone down to take your next order and you can be left waiting a while. Other than that, for the price you're paying, it's not too shabby!
Toshiaki M.
First time and last time. Super bad service! Not enough employees. One young waiter serving about 50 customers himself. Waiter's not happy, no smiling. He apologised when we were paying the bill. Food; however, not so bad.
Jessica T.
I haven't eaten at this plaza for a long time so my friend and I dropped by on a cold rainy day to see what's new. Hot pot is the best to warm you from the inside out! This restaurant replaced the old Taiwanese restaurant that had been there a long time. I like how they redecorated the interior. AYCE for $25 is pretty good and they have a wide selection on the menu. I shared the half & half with spicy and original broth. Both were quite flavorful! I couldn't eat anymore of the spicy broth halfway through because it was too spicy haha. They have a communal sauce and toppings bar with a good variety. One of their unique sauces is a leek sauce, it was good but a tad salty.
Frances C.
Food is meh, there's a decent amount of selections for all you can eat hot pot. But the soup base is not impressive at all...the spicy one has no flavor and the non-spicy one.......has no flavor either. Their dessert is really good tho (some sort of brown sugar jelly? With crushed peanuts on top) It's refreshing and satisfying. Sauce bar - this should've been the sign for me to not go in. Future note to self: if there's a sauce bar at the hot pot place, that means their soup base is lacking..... Service is lacking (understaffed). We had to go up to the counter to get the menu and walk up to put in the order multiple times. They also either forgot or didn't put in one round of our order. I most likely won't be back - unless they lower their price...by a lot. If I'm craving hot pot, I'd rather pay more to go to Zabu in Berkeley or go to Little Dipper instead.
Came here on a Saturday afternoon for $25 ayce hot pot. The two things I remember is the great value here ($25 for ayce can't be beat) and the EXTENSIVE dipping sauce bar. I saw everything I normally get, including satay sauce and cilantro/scallion, but I saw a bunch of sauces and powders I haven't seen offered before. Including MSG. I know there's a lot of hate for MSG but I personally love MSG in my food and it was awesome sprinkling some of that into my dipping sauce. They also had oranges on the side to help cleanse your palette and make you feel like you're being somewhat healthy. As can be expected of AYCE, the meat quality wasn't superb. I've definitely had better meat in other restaurants, but not at this price. If I'm in the mood for a cheap hot pot, I would definitely come back here.
Justin S.
After having hot pot at home twice in one week, I decided to remind myself how hot pot at a restaurant worked. On a Saturday noon, I ended up at Hot Pot Fusion with some friends. We all decided to get the spicy soup base because, if you go to a spicy hot pot place and get non-spicy broth, did you really go to hot pot? Each of us paid $25 for AYCE. The various meats and vegetables seemed reasonably fresh. Notably, the menu has some esoteric options, such as cow throat, available for order. Otherwise, the soup base itself seemed appropriately seasoned; the earthiness of peppercorns and the fragrance of chili & chili oil seemed sufficient. I do wish the soup base had more spiciness, though I did end up sweating quite a lot regardless.
Lulu Y.
I am going to endorse this hot pot place big time (lots of love). It's located in the major Chinese mall in east bay next to El Cerrito. (It's convenient for Berkeley students ^.^)With 99 ranch next to it, the place was newly opened in the area. The restaurant has very good "all you can eat hot pot deal" featuring authentic Chinese Sichuan hot pot soup base , high quality meat (much better than average "all you can eat" deal else where) , niche products (like cow throat , bone less duck feet), fresh vegetables and authentic Sichuan desserts like bing fen ("iced jelly" which is a type of natural jelly like Aiyu, with Brown sugar water and mashed peanuts over it). The price is $24.99 per person for 2-hour feast. We had two rounds of meat, niche food and dessert hot pot with free scoops of ice cream in the end. They also have good deals like if you come here (with overall 4 or 4+ people) and one person in the group happens to be on his/her birthday , he/she doesn't have to pay for the meal :)
Chris C.
AYCE is a great value here! I also think they listened to comments on yelp because the pricing model changed. We got a half and half broth and used the sauce bar and weren't upcharged. Meat and veg were fresh and delicious. Strong recommendation for the streaky pork and for the fatty beef - delicious and the fat adds a lot of richness and flavor to the broth. Staff was quick to bring out more portions when requested. Great experience and my new favorite AYCE hot pot in the Bay Area!
Rosalyn M.
Came here for lunch. $12.99 ($14.19 with tax) for the lunch personal hotpot. Pretty big size comparing to Tastypot in Berkeley. The trick to enjoy hotpot is to be patient. If you are not, then you'll burn ( temperature) your tongue. If you do, eating the rest of the soup won't be so pleasant. So, if you aren't so patient, get a small bowl on the side. Use the small bowl to transfer a smaller portion of your soup at a time, so it will cool down faster. Utilize the sauce bar. They have a good amount of sauces or toppings you could mix n match to your preference. The only thing is that here, they don't give you cold tea, and Tastypot in Berkeley do.
Came here last year for Valentine’s Day and the food was great! Portion size was good too! However, the service was...it could’ve been better, let’s just say. We got there and it was right before they were about to close during the afternoon and start their second session, but she decided to serve us anyways. And then when the food came out, she was super quick to kick us out. The server literally let us “eat” our food for no more than 10 minutes and then told us to leave. We didn’t even get far into our food at all. She made us pack it to go, so we had to finish the rest of our food at home. Kind of disappointing. But, I do recommend the hotpot there. It’s delicious.
There was a wide variety of sauce ingredients and food to put in the pot. This isn’t a seafood hotpot if that’s what your looking for but the service and food is pretty good. However, don’t have the spicy pot if you know you can’t take it. It’s full of peppercorn and spices so I suggest the mixed pot. You can adjust the temperature to your liking.
Very good price and convenient location! It is inside the Ranch 99 mall. Plus the food is good!
Great location, right next to the 99 ranch. Lots of food options and the sauce bar is great even from a Chinese person's perspective. Price is competitive for a hot pot all you can eat place. Will come again!
Being there are no good hot pot places in the East Bay, I was super stoked to try this place. Came here on a cold Friday evening. Food choice was limited... many items were out by the time we ordered. What is most damn disappointing is that since then I'd had diarrhea for the past day, this morning still doing the duty... as I am writing this. I've been sick to my stomach, no appetite, cold, and shivering. I was basically in bed all day. Perhaps its food poisoning... or maybe its my weak stomach. But I should've paid more attention to the health score. In pain for now, but this experience is a big no no Service wasn't horrible, but I'd still had to flag people down. There was 1 waiter, 1 front desk gal. She was the waitress too!
The hot pot was just ok. Not too much variety. It's not a good place to go with just 2 people cause they give you too much and we couldn't finish it and I thought it was a waste. They should give less depending on how many people in the party. This way we could of ordered a more variety than just leaving what we didn't finish.
I'm beginning to like this place more and more each time I come here! They have a fruit and sauce station while you wait for your food. Decent selection of meats, vegetables, and seafood! Best meat selections are the premium beef and lambs. My only grievance or dissatisfaction against this place is that they need to hire more people and start being more attentive. Sometimes it takes a while to flag someone down to take your next order and you can be left waiting a while. Other than that, for the price you're paying, it's not too shabby!
First time and last time. Super bad service! Not enough employees. One young waiter serving about 50 customers himself. Waiter's not happy, no smiling. He apologised when we were paying the bill. Food; however, not so bad.
I haven't eaten at this plaza for a long time so my friend and I dropped by on a cold rainy day to see what's new. Hot pot is the best to warm you from the inside out! This restaurant replaced the old Taiwanese restaurant that had been there a long time. I like how they redecorated the interior. AYCE for $25 is pretty good and they have a wide selection on the menu. I shared the half & half with spicy and original broth. Both were quite flavorful! I couldn't eat anymore of the spicy broth halfway through because it was too spicy haha. They have a communal sauce and toppings bar with a good variety. One of their unique sauces is a leek sauce, it was good but a tad salty.
Food is meh, there's a decent amount of selections for all you can eat hot pot. But the soup base is not impressive at all...the spicy one has no flavor and the non-spicy one.......has no flavor either. Their dessert is really good tho (some sort of brown sugar jelly? With crushed peanuts on top) It's refreshing and satisfying. Sauce bar - this should've been the sign for me to not go in. Future note to self: if there's a sauce bar at the hot pot place, that means their soup base is lacking..... Service is lacking (understaffed). We had to go up to the counter to get the menu and walk up to put in the order multiple times. They also either forgot or didn't put in one round of our order. I most likely won't be back - unless they lower their price...by a lot. If I'm craving hot pot, I'd rather pay more to go to Zabu in Berkeley or go to Little Dipper instead.
Restaurantji Recommends
Came here on a Saturday afternoon for $25 ayce hot pot. The two things I remember is the great value here ($25 for ayce can't be beat) and the EXTENSIVE dipping sauce bar. I saw everything I normally get, including satay sauce and cilantro/scallion, but I saw a bunch of sauces and powders I haven't seen offered before. Including MSG. I know there's a lot of hate for MSG but I personally love MSG in my food and it was awesome sprinkling some of that into my dipping sauce. They also had oranges on the side to help cleanse your palette and make you feel like you're being somewhat healthy. As can be expected of AYCE, the meat quality wasn't superb. I've definitely had better meat in other restaurants, but not at this price. If I'm in the mood for a cheap hot pot, I would definitely come back here.
After having hot pot at home twice in one week, I decided to remind myself how hot pot at a restaurant worked. On a Saturday noon, I ended up at Hot Pot Fusion with some friends. We all decided to get the spicy soup base because, if you go to a spicy hot pot place and get non-spicy broth, did you really go to hot pot? Each of us paid $25 for AYCE. The various meats and vegetables seemed reasonably fresh. Notably, the menu has some esoteric options, such as cow throat, available for order. Otherwise, the soup base itself seemed appropriately seasoned; the earthiness of peppercorns and the fragrance of chili & chili oil seemed sufficient. I do wish the soup base had more spiciness, though I did end up sweating quite a lot regardless.
I am going to endorse this hot pot place big time (lots of love). It's located in the major Chinese mall in east bay next to El Cerrito. (It's convenient for Berkeley students ^.^)With 99 ranch next to it, the place was newly opened in the area. The restaurant has very good "all you can eat hot pot deal" featuring authentic Chinese Sichuan hot pot soup base , high quality meat (much better than average "all you can eat" deal else where) , niche products (like cow throat , bone less duck feet), fresh vegetables and authentic Sichuan desserts like bing fen ("iced jelly" which is a type of natural jelly like Aiyu, with Brown sugar water and mashed peanuts over it). The price is $24.99 per person for 2-hour feast. We had two rounds of meat, niche food and dessert hot pot with free scoops of ice cream in the end. They also have good deals like if you come here (with overall 4 or 4+ people) and one person in the group happens to be on his/her birthday , he/she doesn't have to pay for the meal :)
AYCE is a great value here! I also think they listened to comments on yelp because the pricing model changed. We got a half and half broth and used the sauce bar and weren't upcharged. Meat and veg were fresh and delicious. Strong recommendation for the streaky pork and for the fatty beef - delicious and the fat adds a lot of richness and flavor to the broth. Staff was quick to bring out more portions when requested. Great experience and my new favorite AYCE hot pot in the Bay Area!
Came here for lunch. $12.99 ($14.19 with tax) for the lunch personal hotpot. Pretty big size comparing to Tastypot in Berkeley. The trick to enjoy hotpot is to be patient. If you are not, then you'll burn ( temperature) your tongue. If you do, eating the rest of the soup won't be so pleasant. So, if you aren't so patient, get a small bowl on the side. Use the small bowl to transfer a smaller portion of your soup at a time, so it will cool down faster. Utilize the sauce bar. They have a good amount of sauces or toppings you could mix n match to your preference. The only thing is that here, they don't give you cold tea, and Tastypot in Berkeley do.