Hot Kitchen Skewer Hotpot & BBQ

I went here about 2 months ago because I wanted to try a different Chinese place, not one of those "5 Items for $6.95" type deals. After perusing Yelp, this seemed like a good spot.

I had the Eggplant with garlic sauce, which was not overly greasy but I felt there was way too much sauce on it and it was laden with MSG.

And then later, I got food poisoning. Very unpleasant.

Maybe the eggplant was a bad idea, but I won't be visiting this place again.

Honestly, I was underwhelmed overall. The restaurant was empty when my cousins and I walked in at 7pm on a Tuesday night. We made reservations, but there's no need to. Staff looked bored and the atmosphere was just dead. We ordered the spicy hotpot and beers. Once the pot was ordered, you head to the back to pick out skewers. There's meat, veggies, tripe plates, mushrooms, tofu, meat balls, and noodles to choose from. I believe the skewers were 60 cents or so, but there were barely any meat/grub on them. There's also a sauce station, but beware... they charge per sauce dish (I think it's $3). I'm just not a fan. Flavors of the pot was spicy and that was it. I'll have to keep searching for other worthy hotpot spots to dine in, in the city.

This place is seriously underrated. I see too many people coming here to order basic Americanized Chinese foods like fried rice while missing the true selling point - hot pot skewers. It is rare to find this style of Chinese food because it is so informal back in China and not well known in America, so it was a nice surprise to discover this restaurant. I seriously come here too often but there is never too long of a wait and the food is unpretentious but delicious. I once came here after trying Maison Yaki because Maison Yaki was just too overpriced, over seasoned (too much greasy sauces), and overall inauthentic drivel. This place is just like the street food I would eat in China. I hope this restaurant never closes because I don't know any others that offer hot pot skewers in the village, let alone Manhattan.

The skewers are 60 cents each usually, and the broths for boiling are nicely varying. They also do a good job roasting meat such as the slow roasted lamb ribs. This place is great for a few friends or many friends. In fact I like to bring my friends whenever we meet up because we split the cost of the broth and we can pay for our own skewers or split that bill too, it is so easy. I highly recommend the new watermelon slush drink that is made fresh and without added sugar! It is a great pairing for hot fresh skewers.

This spot used to be a good go-to for Sichuan food, but with their menu overhaul, they got rid of pretty much all their old dishes (no more mala xiang guo, no more double-cooked pork, or anything stirfried) and now only serve skewers in hot pot, grilled skewers, and some cold dishes. Customer service wasn't great and when I asked about pricing for some of the stuff in the fridges in back, I was told a much lower price than what they ended up charging.

Skewers were pretty small and the bill definitely adds up. We got two soup bases (~$20) and asked for them to be spicy, but only one (the beef base one) ended up being spicy. The grilled eggplant was good, lamb ribs were meaty and tender but not seasoned enough and overpriced. Grilled enoki mushrooms were a fairly big portion and tasty. You pay an extra $2/person for sauces. Cold noodles were okay but nothing crave-worthy and they'd run out of smashed cucumbers. I'd say the meat and veggie selection is fairly lacking, compared to normal hot pot spots.

All in all, I'd rather get real hot pot or Sichuan food over the new Hot Kitchen. Super disappointed since I was really in the mood for Sichuan food that night and had already stood around waiting for a while beforehand so couldn't really switch gears. Not worth the wait at all.

Despite the negative reviews about overpricing and lack of flavors, I truly enjoyed the experience. Flavorful broths, variety of skewers, and fun to eat! Each skewers are 60 cents, I'd say 20 skewers will fill up a normal person. Drinks are reasonable too, $5 for beer, $7 wine.
Only complaint is they charge for $2 for dipping sauce which is unheard of anywhere, and the charge is snuck in since it doesn't say that on the menu or on the condiment station. Customers should never be "surprised" of any charges on the bill which left a foul taste at the end. Good advice will be to 1)not charge for condiments (I mean really?!) 2)post it on the menu if you must.

Found this place based on the yelp reviews while visiting NYC. We took a chance since my sister was also there and visiting from Germany where they don't have much asian food selections.

We ordered 4 dishes which was plenty of food for 3 girls. We ate just about everything. The dishes were all good I just wished it was a little bit more spicy.

The waiter was attentive and the place was modern and clean. Small but so are all the other places in NY.

Will def visit here again should I visit NY.

CLOSED called to confirm the restaurant is closed and no longer in business.

CLOSED called to confirm the restaurant is closed and no longer in business.

Bummer.

Terrible Restaurant attracts terrible customers, I don't wanna be one of them, so I won't come here any more.

The fact that there are some mother fucking idiots sitting there eating makes me wanna throw up. I must tell you I felt extremely unpleasant during my dinner there.

What's more, I hit my face onto there motherfucking Glassdoor when leaving. Put a fucking sign on the door. Don't hurt innocent ppl!

To lead a positive life, please keep away from Hot Kitchen.

Great food, we really enjoy it! Especially the oysters. But unfortunately, the waiter blundered our account for $16, we told the waiter, and he just mentioned we ordered two open plates( without telling what we ordered). We got so confused, but we paid the bill and left the restaurant. We finally figured out he calculated our bill in a WRONG way after we left. What a pity we didn't go back and get our money back! The food was great through!
感谢回复！我们点了36个签的串串，4个生蚝，4个扇贝，open plate了一桶粉条，鸳鸯锅底，羊肉串一份，鱿鱼尾一份，韭菜一份，北冰洋一份，蘸料两份。但是真的没有点其他open plates，我们没也没有吃什么蔬菜。那两个open plates各$8，一共$16。为了方便您的查询：我们总共消费大概$150，时间在5.28。在我们最初去吃的时候，先上菜了鱿鱼，接着我们去拿串的时候发现吃饭的盘子不在了（可能店员以为我们走掉了），然后我们坐下又上了两个盘子给我们吃饭用，估计店员把这两个白色的圆盘子当成了open plates。谢谢您的回复！Can you pay back our money now？We are not in New York and not able to come to the restaurant to get our money back.

The food was really good. No complaints about the food. My friend and I got the sliced whole fish with sichuan peppercorn in spicy broth and the fried diced chicken with dry pepper and fried dough twist. We also got soy milk to drink, which was good, but wouldn't order again because I can get it for much cheaper from a Chinese supermarket than the $3 they charged us.

Our food took about 30 minutes to arrive which was a little longer than expected but they were busy so I was fine with it. The service was pretty bad though. We had to wait 10 minutes after we got both of our dishes to get our rice. We literally had to flag down 3 different servers to finally get our damn rice. It was really annoying. Like, why couldn't the dish and the rice just come together?!

Overall, I would still come back for the food even though the service could be much better.

Great Sichuan food with reasonable price and great location in east village.

Well balanced between spiciness and aromaticness! A few really good classic Sichuan dishes here - ma la pots with seafood/ pig blood (more exotic for ppl never tried. But very good indeed)/ fish. Pig feet soup - really good with spiciness from black pepper that warms up my stomach in this cold weather! And must-try spicy tofu with minced beef. Soft tofu immersed in hot spicy meat chili - yum yum, very satisfactory and goes really well with rice.

They served dishes really fast as well.