Hot Pot 2023 review: So many good reasons to get on board Hobart’s hot pot train

Fresh ingredients, no shortage of flavour options and generous portions of soup made this a satisfying and healthy meal, and I’m looking forward to visiting again soon, says food writer Alix Davis.

ALIX DAVIS

3 min read

November 25, 2023 - 10:00AM

Hot Pot 2023 owner Eric Yang at North Hobart. Picture: Chris Kidd

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It is a truth universally acknowledged that there are some common gripes about eating out. A venue that’s too noisy to hear your dining companions is one, servers who refuse to catch your eye is another, and restaurants that begin the evening with “Have you eaten with us before?” is a third. That last one usually results in an eye roll and mutterings along the lines of: “We’ll order food, someone will bring it to us and then we’ll pay for it.”

However, when recently faced with a conveyor belt of random ingredients, an individual cooktop and a QR-based menu that seemed to have an infinite scroll I dearly wished that someone would come and ask us if we’d eaten with them before and then proceed to explain how it all worked. I am well-versed in combining ingredients and a cooktop when I’m at home, but in a restaurant, it’s another thing entirely.

Thankfully, while the DIY vibes are strong at North Hobart’s recently opened Hot Pot 2023, we were able to flag down a friendly employee who ran us through the basics.

First up, don’t get distracted by the myriad ingredients moving past your counter seating – yes, there are fish balls and six different types of noodles and slices of cheese and packets of M&Ms but that will all make sense later. For now, focus on the menu you’ve accessed with the QR code and pick a soup base. There are 10 soups ($5) to choose from including curry, miso, three delicacies and pickled cabbage. I decide on tom yum, while my husband opts for a classic chicken soup.

Hot Pot 2023 at North Hobart. Picture: Chris Kidd

Keep scrolling to select ingredients to add to your soup. Some of these are available on the conveyor belt, while others need to be ordered off the menu. There’s a huge variety of proteins, vegetables, noodles and wantons and we select some basics – Australian premium wagyu slices ($14), sweet corn ($5), vermicelli noodles ($4), from the menu and figure we’ll pick up the rest from the belt. Check your cart, then press order. Easy. Some fat-finger work meant that my husband accidentally ordered two portions of corn but before we’d even had time to flag it, a member of the kitchen team came out to check whether he’d made a mistake.

Hot Pot 2023 owner Eric Yang at his new freestyle dining restaurant in North Hobart. Picture: Chris Kidd

Hot Pot 2023 is at the start of the North Hobart strip and has a fresh and spacious fit-out. There are tables for four and six as well as plenty of counter seating for singles and couples. Every seat has its own hotplate and access to the conveyor belt. There’s a sauce and condiment station in the corner where you can gather a bowl and spoon along with as many condiments as you’d like. I recommend the mushroom sauce and the spring onion sauce while husband went for soy sauce, satay sauce and some sesame oil. The soundtrack is firmly early 2000s R&B and I wasn’t unhappy about that.

Wagyu slices are one of many ingredients diners can add to their pots at Hot Pot 2023. Picture: Linda Higginson

Our soups arrived in pots that fitted perfectly into the cooktop and the server showed us how to adjust the heat. As my husband – who is a dab hand with a toaster – dropped slices of wagyu, a block of noodles and pieces of cabbage into his pot, he declared that he loved cooking.

My tom yum base came with a vibrant slick of chilli oil that took me by surprise but was rich and full of flavour once I’d given it a stir and added my noodles, wontons and sweet corn.

Ingredients on the conveyor belt are priced by plate colour ($2–$5) and we grabbed some broccoli, chicken strips and tofu knots as they went past.

One of Hot Pot 2023’s tasty mushroom soup dishes. Picture: Linda Higginson

Once we got into the swing of it, this was a fun way to eat, with each of us being able to customise our own soup, making it an ideal dinner location for groups or families with different dietary requirements or preferences.

I think a “cheat sheet” of suggested ingredients for your selected soup base would be a good idea, but we certainly made the most of our freestyle dinner without any guidance.

Fresh ingredients, no shortage of flavour options and generous portions of soup made this a satisfying and healthy meal that my husband – with his newly discovered love of cooking – is looking forward to visiting again soon.