Local Gem: Want Hot Pot Will Definitely Leave You Wanting More Hot Pot

Local Gem is an exploration of Beijing’s diverse palate. Get out of your comfort zone and try something new! To share your own neighborhood pride, please contact us via editor@thebeijinger.com

Beijing isn’t exactly lacking in hot pot options, so it’s always nice to happen across somewhere a bit different. Want Hot Pot (捞王 in Chinese) is a chain from southern China that has since made it big across the country. There are a handful of locations in Beijing, including at Chaoyangmen Fullink Plaza and Wangfujing APM Mall, but we suggest traveling a little further afield to the branch at Changying Paradise Walk (easily accessible via subway line 6) to escape the crowds. 

Want Hot Pot specializes in more of a Cantonese style of hot pot so while you can get chili-packed soups here, you’re better off saving that for your next visit to a Chengdu-style place. Their signature soup base is a white pepper chicken and pig maw soup —yes that does mean pig’s stomach but don’t let it put you off. The broth base is simmered for eight hours with ingredients like Jinhua ham, pork bones, and chicken feet, giving it a rich, savoury depth and milky white hue. There is also a good nose tickling hit from the pepper. It's perfect for dipping simply-flavored ingredients like tofu and mushrooms, although it’s just as great sipped on its own (the staff will serve you a bowl before you start eating). 

Our favorite, though, was the fresh Sichuan pepper, sauerkraut, and chicken soup, not one we’ve encountered at other Beijing hot pot places. There’s enough chicken in the soup that you could forgo ordering any meats to cook at all, but the spicy-sour flavor does go well with beef. 

Soup aside, the restaurant offers all the usual hot pot fixings, as well as handmade options like shrimp balls filled with cheese. Being a Cantonese type joint, they also do a pretty good take on claypot rice topped with Cantonese sausage and cured meats, as well as desserts like mango pomelo sago.

Finally, don't forget to order the Yunnan five-color pearl meatballs. Not only are they delicious, but a portion of the sales of every dish is donated to the Xinhua Compassion Education Fund, whose "Hope for Pearl" project funds education for disadvantaged students in remote areas. Since 2018, the chain has contributed to education for high school students in the remote Dabie Mountain region of Anhui Province. 

READ: Local Gem: Can Shanghainese Find Culinary Peace in Beijing?

Images: courtesy of Want Hot Pot, Robynne Tindall, Dazhong Dianping