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Best Chongqing hot pot in San Francisco

“Spicy, numbing, shared: Chongqing hot pot is dipping and eating around a living pot of broth.”

Chongqing hot pot

What the real thing tastes like

Chongqing hot pot (simplified Chinese: 重庆火锅; traditional Chinese: 重慶火鍋; pinyin: Chóngqìng huǒguō), also known as spicy hot pot or mala hotpot, is usually eaten at restaurants, but otherwise is similar to roadside malatang. Chongqing hot pot is similar to the dry stir-fried mala xiang guo (麻辣香锅) which is also eaten in restaurants. The traditional way of preparing and eating this style of dish is to put the food in a hot pot, wait for the food to cook, and when the food is ready, dip the pieces in sesame oil and eat them. People choose various kinds of food to prepare in Chongqing hot pot, such as beef, pork, chicken, Chinese sausages, beef strips, pig blood, and duck intestine. It is characterised by its spicy and numbing flavour.

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Chongqing hot pot arrives as a bubbling invitation—a communal pot where beef strips, duck intestine, pig blood, and pork meet broth and heat. You fish pieces from the simmer, dip them in sesame oil, and chase the spicy-numbing mala burn with each bite. It's restaurant dining built on the street-food logic of malatang, where choosing what cooks is half the ritual.

Order it here when it has

  • characteristic spicy-numbing flavor
  • variety of proteins and offal
  • interactive preparation
  • restaurant staple

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