DIP DIP HOT POT: À LA CARTE EASILY HOLDS ITS OWN AGAINST ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT COMPETITORS

SPONSOR'S LINK: DIP DIP HOT POT

In Flushing, people commonly crave hot pot, huge doses of it, and fast. Flushing’s all-you-can-eat (AYCE) hotpot haunts are pretty much engineered for these scenarios.

But maybe tonight, you and your date are nostalgic for a more authentic hot pot meal. You want exceptional meat quality over quality (think delicate ribbons with evenly-distributed fat marbling!) enjoyed in a leisurely—yet intimate—à la carte dining experience.

Fulfill these desires at Dip Dip Hot Pot. In a 180-degree contrast from the lackluster curb appeal, the spacious settings resemble a tastefully-thought out movie set:*

– versus –

While the floor plan may seem open, your meal experience will have a welcoming sense of privacy during your meal. Other than guiding your party through ordering and dutifully checking on beverage or soup water levels, servers leave you and your guests be to muse over below options:

Rich ambience and intimate setting aside, food quality stands as the true draw to Dip Dip Hot Pot. On our most recent visit, Flushing Food opted for a medicinal choice: the Tibet Palm Ginseng and Black-Bone Chicken Pot.

While most traditional Chinese medicinal soups wholly substitute beneficial ingredients in lieu of taste considerations, Dip Dip Hot Pot’s interpretation was an utter exception. The soup was so savory—yet light—that two of us managed to polish off nearly three pots over the course of fifty minutes. Refills were with more soup, not water. We left our tea cups largely untouched.

Once the pot reached boiling point, our waitress brought over our à la carte selections of fatty lamb, fatty beef, shrimp, and flounder fillet. The lamb and beef were vibrantly-colored slivers of meat with nearly-perfect swirls of fat. Even more amazing was that the cuts were paper-thin, ready to be cooked with ease in 20 seconds or less.**

We snuck peeks at other tables during trips to the bathroom to see if our table had received special treatment. Not the case. Meat cuts were as tantalizing colorful as they were thin.

As for seafood, the shrimp impressed us more than the flounder. Each piece was large yet succulent once cooked (for some reason these attributes tend to be mutually exclusive at many restaurants).

Finally, our vegetable selections dismissed any remaining doubt of Dip Dip Hot Pot’s adherence to food quality and freshness. Vividly-colored tomato slices, spinach leaves, and taro left nothing to complain about.

So what’s the catch? Prices are higher than at nearby ACYE hot pot options. A bill for two could easily run over $60.00.

But again, you didn’t come here for some run-of-the-mill hot pot. You came here for the real (hot pot) deal.

May Flushing Food suggest: wriggling the meat slowly so pieces don’t break off to be lost forever in the delicious abyss of the soup.

----
* http://www.yelp.com/biz/dip-dip-hot-pot-flushing
** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_pot

Picture credits: Helen Y.