Simmer Huang 黄记煌三汁焖锅 - Temple City, CA

Slave girl and I saw this restaurant and always wanted to try it since we never had simmer pot before. Unlike hot pot, they don't put water into the pot and relying on the water from the vegetables to steam through the whole pot. It was a new concept and we couldn't wait to have it.

Once we walked in, we were greeted right away. The seats were cozy and decorations were nice. Apparently, it was a chain restaurant from China, but this location was the only one in the States.

The menu could be confusing for first timer. To break it down, we had a choice of having a single item pot or make our own. For make our own, it came with vegetable base already so we just had to pick out whatever items to be thrown into the pot. Lastly, we picked the sauce for the pot and there we had it. Since there was a minimum order of 4 items, each pot would average to about $45 or more depending on what you pick, but it should be able to feed 2 to 3 people. For us, we picked braised beef tripe, pork belly, braised pork intestine, pork jowl, frozen tofu, lotus root, and squid roll.

Braised beef tripe, pork belly, braised pork intestine, pork jowl, frozen tofu, lotus root, and squid roll

How the dish prepared was very unique. It was service heavy and it had to be done by the server, not us. The server brought us a pot and bunch of containers that had our vegetables and proteins. Then he placed the vegetables and proteins in different layers without adding any water to the pot. It took about 15 to 20 minutes before the server came back to add the sauce. To sit there and smell the pot getting ready was a torture because it smelled soooooo good. When we finally got to dig in, I was very satisfied. Great flavor, tons of food, it was instant happiness.

After we ate all the proteins, we had the option to ask them to add water to the pot so it became a hot pot. We were pretty full at that point, so we only ordered hand pulled noodles after adding the water. The noodles were pulled at the table side and it was a nice show.

Overall I really enjoyed the food and the service. I love the fact we were able to customize what we wanted to eat. We also had a great service throughout the entire dinner. I found out they actually imported their sauces from China directly, that explained why their food seemed a little pricey. I can't wait to go back to try different things again!