5 Hong Kong hotpot restaurants serving everything from Instagramable almond daisies to sake bombs

If you’re a seasoned Hongkonger, you know the hotpot routine well: you call up friends or family, tell them to starve themselves until dinner, and then head out to feast on simmered meats, veggies and fish balls until your stomachs explode. All the while, you might be diligently slapping those stomach-filling noodles out of your cousin’s mouth because he’s still a young buck and doesn’t understand the intricacies of the city’s favourite winter pastime. (Don’t worry, he’ll get there someday.)

However, your hotpot regimen may be in need of a little refresh. Why not try something different this year and test the limits of your hotpot love? Try out some of the strangest hotpot restaurants in Hong Kong.

We have scoured the city for the weirdest – but most delicious – hotpot joints in the city so you don’t have to. Here are our top five for every type of hotpotter. Which one are you?

For that friend who’s always down for anything:

Restaurant: The Drunken Pot

Locations: Causeway Bay, Tsim Sha Tsui

Try: Sake bomb; private label Nagahama sake; five-in-one Drunken Pot

Hotpot billionaire Zhang Yong hits jackpot as Singapore’s richest person

The Drunken Pot is sure to take a permanent slot in your hotpot itinerary. With nearly 20 wildly creative broths, including four-in-one pots and the signature five-in-one Drunken Pot and Dream Garden of Live Flowers Pot, you’re going to be a soup-base winner this season.

Other than the exceptional soup bases, The Drunken Pot stands out with its weird and wonderful soup bombs. These soup base “bombs” (available in sake, black beer, numbing spice, cream and coconut milk) are similar to bath bombs but for your hotpot, adding extra richness and flavour to your soup base.

For that dude who wants to put cheese on everything:

Restaurant: Running Chicken

Locations: Mong Kok, Causeway Bay, Kwun Tong, Cheung Sha Wan

Try: Cheesy Chicken Pot

Will Wolfgang Puck open a fine dining restaurant in Hong Kong next?

Running Chicken claims to be the first and original cheese chicken pot in Hong Kong and has quite a cult following. The chicken pot is served with five kinds of cheese, onions, parsley, cilantro and a few other ingredients to complement the steamboat fondue.

For that special gong nui in your life:

Restaurant : Daiichi Hotpot

Location: Tsim Sha Tsui

Try: Black truffles and mixed mushrooms soup base; Japanese foie gras cuttlefish ball

Daiichi offers a fancy vegetarian broth featuring black truffles. The truffles and mixed mushrooms broth is made from assorted premium mushrooms including Japanese buna-shimeji mushroom, brown beech mushrooms, shaggy mane mushrooms and field mushrooms. Add to this some Italian black truffle sauce and you’ve got yourself an umami party.

For your mama who deserves only the best:

Restaurant : Haidilao

Locations: Yau Ma Tei, Causeway Bay and Tsim Sha Tsui

Try: The service!

Why traditional Italian treat granita is even better than ice cream

Some may think Haidilao is a cop-out on our list of the strangest Hong Kong hotpots. How is it strange, you may ask? If you are accustomed to the shouting match that is typical of Hong Kong hospitality, you will perhaps understand why ridiculously attentive service is deserving of a place on our list.

Manicures, massages and little wet wipes for your phone are just a few of the thoughtful details that await you as a Haidilao guest. Treat yourself like a human being that deserves love, kindness and a noodle-pulling dance.

As for dishes, Haidilao recommends the minced shrimp, duck intestine and Wagyu beef. You can also get half portions to avoid ordering too much of one thing.

For that one friend who can’t eat until they Instagram everything:

Restaurant : Quan Alley

Location: Tsim Sha Tsui

Try: Pork rose; ice pops; almond daisies

This hotpot restaurant from Taiwan takes food art to a whole new level. Swan napkins and broccoli “trees” are child’s play when compared with Quan Alley’s visual and gustatory delights.

Its meticulously-prepared dishes include the pork rose, lollipop and ice pops. The ice pops are actually a mixture of fresh squid, prawns and pork neck, with spinach bites and Taiwanese honey orange strips for texture. The lollipop is also savoury: sesame-glazed tofu sheets are wrapped in spinach leaves.

Where to eat in Hong Kong this October

Another signature item is the almond daisies, exclusively available in Hong Kong at the Tsim Sha Tsui branch. The dish is executed by manually inserting almond slices at an angle to create delicate daisy petals. Years of training is required to create this dish.

Want more stories like this? Sign up here. Follow STYLE on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter .