Ipot Restaurant | Pyrmont
Ipot is the perfect place for those who love hotpot, but hate sharing. This describes us to a tee as we are germaphobes to say the least - hence why we tend to avoid hotpot with large groups. Ipot allows you to enjoy your own hotpot with individual soups. What an interesting concept right? How does it work? Have a look below! It's a unique experience however be warned, the soup is extremely hot, like, piping hot! You can adjust the temperature of the electric table from low, medium to high allowing you to cook your selection of ingredients to your liking. This place is also not cheap but it is definitely worth every cent if I can eat hotpot again!
Sauce Bar
Funny enough, hotpot is actually not focused on the soup, but rather the sauce. The first time dining here, we thought the best idea was to have separate saucers for the different sauces we wanted to try, but to our surprise they are actually there to make your own creation. Christie was slightly skeptical that this would cause an upset stomach but it didn't! Christie mixed mine with hoisin sauce, chilli mince sauce and oyster sauce, but you can also ask one of the friendly staff to help you with selecting a combination that works well with your selected soup.
Smokey Mushroom Soup (top) and Hearty Beef and Tomato Soup (bottom)
The soup as mentioned above isn't supposed to taste amazing as it's supposed to compliment the selection of ingredients and sauces. If the soup is too vibrant with flavour then it can overpower your palette and when combined with the sauce, can become sickening. The mushroom soup had little to no smokey flavour but was subtly enjoyable. Matt had the beef and tomato soup which had a very light tomato base soup through it.
We sampled a few ingredients from the Ipot menu.
Queensland Rangelands Aged Beef
The meat provided is sliced quite thin, frozen and served defrosted. The thin portions means that it cooks within seconds. The beef was nice and soft, but we found that it had the taste of being frozen. Luckily that is what the sauce is for, it changes the flavour significantly.
Succulent Lamb
Many people agreed that this was quite nice. It had a strong lamb aroma when cooked and melted in my mouth. This was the first time we have tried lamb with hot pot before so it was an enjoyable first experience.
New Zealand Green Lipped Mussels
While nicely presentable on the plate, the mussels were definitely not our favourite. We had some "bits" is probably the best way to describe them in the shell, so it may have just been that this particular one wasn't cleaned well and hence we decided not to eat it.
Australian Scallops
You know the drill, scallops are our favourite so we will NEVER pass the opportunity to entice on their soft, milky texture. They were served pre-cooked (we think) so placing them in the hotpot was only done to warm them up. Nice and light menu item that is equally as tasty!
Basa Fish
When faced with Basa fish we normally tend to push it aside. This is mostly due to the stories about Basa farming that make us hope that Australian restaurants are not purchasing from. We did enjoy this fish though, it looked quite fresh and we thought we would give it a go! The real challenge was trying to pick it up without the fish breaking on your chopsticks! It was cooked almost instantly and was so soft. We helped ourselves to seconds!
Ipot Egg Dumplings and Prawns
The egg dumplings were a little disappointing.. there wasn't much flavour and they were quite sloppy after being warmed up in the hotpot. The prawns were beautifully presented and were a vibrant orange colour. We didn't get the chance to eat one as we were busy enjoying the other food on the table. But presentation is king!
Wah
No we are not confused of the name of this dish, that is actually it! Wah is handmade by finely grinding meat or seafood. Christie opted for the seafood wah. It was enjoyable and had the texture of a soft fish ball or shrimp ball you find from your local Chinese supermarkets.
Mini Wah
These are mini wah's which are hand pressed into shapes to be dropped right into your soup. There are many selections to choose from and to be honest, we had no clue what we were eating. We managed to try most if not all the different types and let's just say its a fun experience trying to find it among your soup!
Homemade Cuttlefish Noodle Wah
The entertainment factor from this dish alone is worth ordering. You are served with a piping bag and are told to squeeze the contents into your soup, watching as it wiggles its way to boiling point. The cuttlefish noodles were bouncy and the flavour was again quite subtle. These noodles mixed in with your sauce is something to be experienced. The sauces really compliment this dish if none else and we were happy to have tried something new.
Snapshots of Food dined as guests of Zomato and Ipot.