Hot Mess

Hotpot has come a long way. In Hong Kong before the 80s, the soup-base was usually a clear broth, maybe with a little cilantro and preserved egg. Satay-flavored broths were already quite an exotic departure. Then in the 90s, two mega-trends swept through town—Mala Huoguo (numbingly spicy hotpot) from Sichuan via Taiwan, and Macao’s rich pork-bone stock. Now, contemporary diners have myriad novel soup bases to choose from and a whole range of flavors and ingredients from all over Asia at their disposal.

Chinese

Gam Hoi Gok
This late-night favorite stays open until 4am and serves the only hotpot in town with a stock made from the head and tail of a big, fat crocodile. Not a crocophile? Lack a taste for thinly sliced croco-cheek and reptilian intestines? Well, you can always try their shark-cartilage-based broth with fresh geoduck, abalone and their famous homemade crab dumplings.
31-35 Tang Lung St., Causeway Bay, 2573-0552.

Hot Pot Instinct
Compact, comfy and modern, Hot Pot Instinct specializes in nu-school ingredients like drunken shrimp, stuffed deep-fried dough sticks, geoduck balls, and prawn balls with cheese. Try the New Zealand mussels, Canadian sea urchin sashimi, and creative soup bases with ingredients such as winter melon with dried scallops, dried Chinese yam and fish blubber. The ginormous condiments tray is fun as well, with a vast selection of spices and toppings.
52 Tang Lung St., Causeway Bay, 2573-2844.

Dong Lai Shun
This beautiful restaurant from Beijing is famous for its black-headed mutton dishes. While not really a hotpot restaurant, Dong Lai Shun is offering an Inner Mongolian mutton set this winter ($398 for two). Sheep-lovers can go mad and start off with a mutton terrine, then a hotpot with traditional mutton kidney soup or Sichuan spicy soup, with mutton rolls, mutton dumplings, mutton pancake, and soup noodles topped with stir-fried mutton and leeks.
The Royal Garden, 69 Mody Rd., Tsim Sha Tsui East, 2733-2020.

Little Sheep
This newly renovated restaurant—now with comfortable round booths and swanky modern Chinese tableware—is famous for its robust soup base with 20 cloves of garlic, a gazillion chilies and 60 different kinds of Chinese herbs mingling in mutton stock. The broth is so powerful that you don’t even need an extra dipping sauce. If you can’t stand the heat, opt for the milder Cantonese-style soup bases with seafood, and make your own dipping sauce from a tree of condiments. The mutton fat noodles are absolutely delicious when chewy, so don’t leave them stewing for too long.
2/F, Causeway Bay Plaza 2, 463-483 Lockhart Rd., Causeway Bay, 2893-8318.

Hot Point
Hot Point’s selection is not as varied as that of the new places, but it does boast fresh seafood and meats. They make fresh tofu daily, as well as innovative items like fish-stuffed tofu, but the real selling point here is their deluxe Cantonese double-boiled broths of fish maw and expensive fungi. The creamy Malaysian coconut satay broth is a delight, too.
B/F, 24-30 Percival St., Causeway Bay, 2838-3722.

Satay Inn
The restaurant at the Royal Pacific is offering a Singaporean steamboat hotpot with alfresco seating. Their tantalizing $400 seafood platter for two includes lobster, crystal whelks, jumbo scallops, snow crab legs, garoupa and deep-fried fish skin. Take the chill off winter with the Southeast Asian soup bases like heady Singaporean prawn broth, the herbal bat kut teh, a satay soup and “Rocket Fuel” (with cilantro, basil, lemongrass, galangal, shallots, chilies, lime leaves, tomato and straw mushrooms... well, basically a tom yum prawn stock). There’s a meat and seafood platter for carnivores as well.
The Royal Pacific Hotel and Towers, Shop 3, Tower 1, Podium, China Hong Kong City, Canton Rd., Tsim Sha Tsui, 2738-2368.