老码头火锅: Best Hot Pot Chengdu

Best Hot Pot Chengdu is part of the ANA, Take Me ‘Round the World Trip Report.

With one day in Chengdu, I wanted to do two things: 1) See the pandas. 2) Eat hot pot. I asked my friend, a former Chengdu resident, where to go. He said the best hot pot is 老码头火锅. There are two locations, the original and the one next to my hotel, the Grand Hyatt.

He cautioned me that it could be a bit challenging to order without being fluent in Mandarin, and he said it could be quite pricey. I can say beef, lamb, and fried rice.  Those words, and a few others, are the extent of my food vocabulary (next time, I’ll be fluent thanks to Yoyo Chinese).

While there was a menu in English, it was not very descriptive. The first choice was having the pot all spicy or half and half. Having been to Chengdu before, I tried the not spicy broth.  This time, I decided to go all spicy. That was a good choice. I also ordered cold beer, another good choice.

The waitress came with enough food for a family and proceeded to dunk it in the bubbling hot pot. She also created a spicy dipping concoction for the obscene amount of food I ordered.

Everything was great. I don’t think it’s a credit to my ordering skills but rather to the deliciousness of the hot pot itself.

As far as spiciness goes, it was spicy in a good way. I was sweating but I wasn’t habanero pepper dying.

The bill came out to 333RMB ($47). That’s considerably more than Chinese street food (see Cheap Eats Shanghai: Morning, Day, Night, Morning Again) but well worth it for this great dinner.

Overall

Don’t miss hot pot when you’re in Chengdu.

Best Hot Pot Chengdu is part of the ANA, Take Me ‘Round the World Trip Report.