Pot Empire: Personal hot pots in Burnaby
Pot Empire is a newish addition to the Chinese hot pot scene, opening back in February of this year with a location near South Burnaby/metrotown area. They offer individual-sized hot pots where you can choose your own soup base and toppings.
This review is based off of my in-dining experience at the Pot Empire Kingsway location back in March.
The vibe
One thing that really stood out for me was the neon signage theme they have going on 😎. It gave a really cool ambiance with the colours and makes a really cool backdrop.
The restaurant is kind of on the small side, with booth seating and table seatings focused primarily on tables of 4. Unfortunately, I came here as a group of 5 so you guessed it… we had to wait a long ass time to be seated – at least 1 hour 😱! This is probably my biggest gripe with hot pot restaurants – the long wait if you are more than 4 people.
Unlike some other hot pot spots where the stove top (?) burner is built into the tables, Pot Empire uses portable mini stoves to cook the hot pots, so I think they do have a bit more flexibility with seating as long as it can fit all the burners.
They also have this cute little sauce station where you can mix and make your own dipping sauce. You can put as much of whatever you want!
Food and drinks review
The menu for Pot Empire is similar to other personal hot pot restaurants. They basically force you to choose the hot pot combo, which comes with:
- Soup pot of your choice (different soup bases with different prices and toppings)
- Drink (milk tea, yakult green tea, unsweetened green tea). You can upgrade to a soda.
- Veggies (assorted platter)
- Side (rice, vermicelli, handmade noodle). You can upgrade for instant noodles or marinated ground pork with rice.
- Dipping sauce (seafood soy, sesame sauce)
- Seasonal side dish items
Hot special pork bone chicken soup pot (free)
So this is their default soup base, which is free (but don’t get confused. You’ll have to pay for meats and additional toppings). This free soup base comes with some toppings like chicken ball, stuffed shrimp ball, fish tofu, fish ball, corn, smooth tofu, enoki mushroom, deep fried tofu ski, cabbage, lotus root, shiitake mushroom and cilantro.
As a default soup base, it does its job. It’s a pretty clean broth and has a nice milky colour to it. It definitely has more of a chicken taste than pork bone though.
Sukiyaki soup pot ($7)
This is the sukiyaki hot pot, it comes with similar items: fortune bag, fish roll, fish tofu, stuffed shrimp ball, smooth tofu, enoki mushroom, cabbage, onion, green onion, shiitake mushroom, crown daisy. They also provide 1 raw egg for you as wel.
The sukiyaki broth is probably one of my favourites and I usually would choose it if I am at a hot pot place.
Taiwanese spicy soup pot ($6)
My friend loves spicy food and can handle some real heat, so he chose this soup hoping it is the spiciest choice. Again, it has some similar toppings as the other 2 (tofu, chicken ball, corn etc.). Some toppings in this one that are a little different include the pork intestine, clam and instant noodle.
I didn’t try this soup base as I thought it’d be too spicy for me.
Thai style tom yum soup pot ($6)
Lastly, one of my friends chose the Thai style tom yum soup base, which also has a spicy icon next to it on the menu. Again, the toppings are the same as the other ones (chicken ball, tofu, corn, etc.).
Although it isn’t an authentic version of the slightly sour tom yum soup, my friend said it tasted pretty good. Note that this friend also likes spicy.
Fatty short plate slice combo ($18/24)
So the meat or seafood or mix/match section is where the costs come in. As you have read from the soup section, the soup bases are all under $10 and come with toppings, but if you want to add some meat they will charge you on top.
First on their list of meat is the fatty short place slices, which you can order for $18 (5oz) or $24 (8oz). In this photo, I ordered the 8oz to share with me and my fiance. I usually would not be able to finish 8oz by myself since the combo comes with other veggies and the soup already has some toppings as well.
In this photo, you can also see the rest of the combo basically (it comes in a big wooden tray). So you see the assorted bowl of veggies, and most of us chose handmade noodle for our starch side.
AAA Prime rib slice combo ($25/$32)
My fiance got the AAA prime rib slice combo, which seems to be their best cut of beef but for a hefty price of $25 for 5oz or $32 for 8oz.
Yakult green tea
Just a quick pic to show you what the drinks look like (also comes with the hot pot package). They all come in this mason jar form. It mostly just tasted like a sweet green tea, but pretty refreshing to have with your hot pot. The milk tea was quite sweet.
Ice cream (free)
And to end your meal, we all got a free scoop of vanilla ice cream on a cone.
Final thoughts
Loewe’s rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
So I have to start off by saying I am a hot pot critic. I actually don’t love going to hot pot restaurants because I think they are all overpriced (hot pot is much cheaper at home… 🙄) and for me, the real joy of hot pot is having it at home where everyone literally shares 1 big hot pot. Individual hot pot places kind of lose that nuance with me.
Overall, I liked Pot Empire. They had a lot of choices for the soup bases, had a cool sauce station, and the interior is a vibe. Estimate of price per head would be around $35-45 unless you choose the free soup base and literally order no meats.
Compared to Gokudo, where we had a similar wait time of 1 hour (UGH hate the wait, especially in the cold 😫), similar pricing and similar individual hot pot options, I would say Gokudo tastes better simply because of their sukiyaki broth. And generally, I would say don’t come here if your group is larger than 4 people.
Recommended: Read my full review of Gokudo, a Japanese hot pot restaurant in Burnaby.
Will I return to Pot Empire? The short answer is if there’s a 1 hour wait, then no.
If there is no wait at Pot Empire but a 1 hour wait for Gokudo, then maybe yes.
Sincerely, Loewe