Boiling Wok

Boiling Wok is a really good value if you’re splitting a hot pot with someone as there’s more than enough to share although when I say that I could totally do one on my own.
As far as «flavor selections» there’s a list of choices to choose from. Not knowing what to set, we got the lamb hot pot since most people on Unilocal seemed to favor it. And I have to agree with everyone else, it was pretty good. I’m pretty confident that everything else is pretty good and it’s just a matter of preference if something doesn’t click.
Finally, I think this is a good date spot given that your date is not cynical of everything and is cool with Asian food. The experience is very interactive and you don’t get that «Korean barbecue smell» that a lot of my friends complain about when they do Korean barbecue. It’s also priced pretty well and again, very tasty.

Love the food… specially the #4…the price is very reasonable …$ 10 per person for lunch… the service is great… they greet you with a smile… our waitress is super friendly… luv it… will visit every time we in town

Good sized portions. Everything I have tried here tasted great. Great place to come on a date or visit with friends.

I’m typically not a big fan of hotpot but trying Little Sheep and Zhabuki opened up a whole new world to me where the broth isn’t tasteless so one rainy day, I’ve decided to come here. I love the variety of broths and meats available. We ordered two hotpots, the lamb one and the spicy beef one. Both orders arrived beautifully, filled with meat and veggies. The lamb’s broth is a bit tangy which was good for countering any gaminess that it might have. The lamb itself was very tender and I really liked the garlic mushrooms. The beef one was very flavorful. It had a nice kick to it and a ton of meat. For $ 12.99 (weekend price), these were fantastic! We had enough leftovers to eat for the next meal. The portions were great, price reasonable, I see no reason why I wouldn’t go back. I’d love to return to try out their other woks!

This place is great. The price is pretty cheap compare to other hot pot places. Three of us ordered 2 dinner pots in Thai flavor and House Special. They came with the nice portion of meat and veggie. This is my second time and yea the Thai flavor is never disappointed me at all. House special is okay to me. The only problem is service. They could do better. After take your order, it is pretty hard to get your server refill the water and give you the bill. But this is not a big deal to me anyway. Still gonna come back.

Woah! This place was actually quite good. I’m surprised by the handful of bad reviews, because my family and I had a great experience.
My family and I ordered the spicy beef and the Japanese miso hotpots, as well as a green onion pancake. First of all, that green onion pancake was the bomb. It was super fresh out of the frying pan and, for $ 4, it was actually huge (maybe about a foot in diameter or so?!). The hotpots were also super filling and full of meat and ingredients (not just all veggies!). My family of four was able to finish both, but we were pretty full by the end of the meal.
Some might prefer being able to pick and choose ingredients to cook, but for those who hate the wait that normally comes with sticking raw meat in a pot of boiling soup, this place is perfect.

One of my girlfriends and I tried this place on a Wednesday night. First of all, the prices are great… around $ 13 for a huge hotpot. I got the spicy beef and she got the Thai flavored version. I love lemongrass and preferred her broth flavor over mine. When I come back, I’ll ask if they will put spicy beef ingredients in the Thai broth. If you like Vietnamese food, her Thai broth tasted like «Bun bo Hue». I loved it! I agree with most reviewers that one pot could comfortably feed two, but it it’s your first time, just go for your own hotpot! YOLO!
I also ordered us the scallion pancake… wasn’t too flavorful; don’t waste the $ 4.
I would definitely recommend this to people who like to try the H-​Mart area restaurants. You have to drive through the tiny cut-​through by Daiso and 99 Ranch to get to it. I think there was an old gym there. Give it a shot! :)

Hot pot always sounds good on a cold day. With very limited hot pot selections in the area, I am definitely glad they opened this restaurant. For the price, quality and quantity, it is worth a visit. To me, one order of the hot pot is shareable for two people. I would suggest ordering one without any add ons and you can gauge the amount from there. We had four people, ordered two hot pot; Spicy Beef and Szechuan. They both were very tasteful differently. Spicy beef was a top recommended choice. My favorite is the Szechuan but both in general were great selections. The content has an abundance of meat, veggies and seafood per pot. For noodle selections, we chose the egg noodles and udon. They say these two selections are spicy based on the name, but I can barely taste the kick. I say go for it!
Very friendly service, clean and spacious inside. Prices varies on weekdays and weekends during lunch and dinner but definitely a good deal. Just keep in mind that they bring out the hot pot with everything already added inside the pot so it’s not like you can add food to cook as you eat. Maybe worth a shot asking them to keep everything separated depending on your preference. Some people do not like all their food cooked at once when it comes to hot pot because it can get mushy. I was fine with what we had. Overall, our bellies and wallets were satisfied.

Came here on a Tuesday night and it was pretty empty. The décor is modern and sleek with wood floors. They have elevated booths and tables that give you plenty of room for your hot pot. I ordered the #4 and my fiancé got the #8. Both dishes for dinner were $ 12.99. You get to choose yellow noodles, vermicelli, udon, or rice with your soup and you can order additional things to add to your hot pot. The food came out in about 10 minutes and our hot pots were generously filled with plenty of food. One pot is definitely enough to feed two people.
We had to wait awhile for the soup to come to a boil and the soup had a ton of oil in it. The soup broth for my dish was salty, spicy, and very oily. My fiancé’s dish was similar but it was a little less oily, and I prefered the taste of his broth over mine. The meat in both dishes isn’t the best quality but I guess you can’t expect prime meat slices for that low of a price.
Service was good. They filled our waters and were quick to get us what we needed.
Overall we had a good experience and will likely be back if we’re ever craving hot pot.

So, if you ask me what one of my favorite places to eat in California is, the first thing that always comes to my mind is a restaurant called Boiling Point. Boiling Point is a restaurant that takes a Chinese-​styled food idea known as «hot pot», recreated it and made a twist to it. Let me further explain– for those of you who do not know what «hot pot» is, it’s a very unique, yet traditional form of eating in the Chinese culture that can often be seen at large family gatherings. Typically, you have a large pot of delicious broth that is rich in flavor (broth is key) that is continually boiling in the middle of the table. Surrounded by this boiling pot of broth is a bunch of raw foods including various seafood, meats, vegetables, noodles, etc. You then place these raw foods into the boiling hot broth which cooks the raw foods and then you pick them out and eat them while you enjoy some of the special broth. It may sound weird, but I cherish it greatly and it’s so very delicious and special. Now, back to the point, Boiling Point took this idea and recreated it, making individual-​sized hot pot portions with all of the ingredients already drenched in the delicious broth as they bring it out boiling hot to you. It’s great. Boiling Wok essentially seemed like a replica of Boiling Point from all the mouth-​watering Unilocal pictures so I had to give it a shot.
First off, Boiling Wok has a wonderful interior. It is a massive restaurant and has so much table and seating space. It’s actually quite nice because when they bring out your individual-​sized hot pots, you’ll soon learn that these are very huge and bulky pots and with little table space, it can sometimes get difficult to truly divulge in your food. This is not a problem here. The restaurant is well-​maintained and very clean. The menu itself is also quite similar to Boiling Point’s menu with very similar options. With each hot pot style, you get your choice of vermicelli noodle, udon noodle, or rice. I opted for the Spicy Beef Hot Pot (#4) with vermicelli noodle. My boyfriend ordered the Szechuan Spicy Hot Pot (#8) with rice. Service was quick, though we were also there at a non-​busy time (9 PM on a Wednesday night). We received our hot pot within what felt like only 10 minutes.
Now, on to the food itself… unfortunately, I ended up a bit disappointed. My broth was extremely watered down and had little flavor beside tasting like spicy water. I did, however, taste my boyfriend’s soup and his did taste better. They were very generous with their ingredients, giving you a large amount of meat and vegetables. However, although true, I felt that it was an overwhelming amount of meat and the meat was very tough and of poor quality. They overloaded on the meat and vegetables, but gave less of my more favorite and unique toppings such as the enoki, and various meat balls. On the side of the table is 3 sauces that you can self-​mix in a dipping bowl that they provide for you so that you can dip the ingredients in your hot pot in to give an extra flavor. This is very similar to Boiling Point, but I personally was a little disappointed with the flavor of the sauces as well. They all had a very salty taste rather than the rich flavorful bean sauce that Boiling Point has.
Overall, I give this restaurant credit for being the first to offer this type of food choice in Dallas but I still feel that there is room for improvement in terms of the taste and quality of the food. The service and maintenance of the restaurant is otherwise great.

Hmmmmmm. Came here based on earlier reviewers ravings. Probably should have rechecked Unilocal before coming. Really wanted to like this place. Love the concept. Booths are made for supersized americans.
The broth was OK, but the lamb was almost inedible. The spicy soup boiled about 15 minutes before the non-​spicy.
Spicy Sichuan beef was unremarkable.
Not sure if we’ll be back. There was one really awesome thing… plenty of parking (albeit hard to find tucked in back). Of co I rse, empty parking lot at 6:30 on a Sat should have been my first clue.

This place offers individual hot pots which is awesome for those who can’t do the all you can eat hot pot… But 2 people can share 1 hot pot.
My sister and I shared #4 which I think was spicy beef? Don’t quote me. They really only offer hot pot, you can add other foods for extra of course. You get choice of udon, rice, vermicelli, and one more option I forgot.
They brought out the hot pot and it’s kinda over whelming. We waited a minute or 2 to let it get hotter. Added the noodles. They have spice on the side if you want it spicier.
#4 has beef, tofu, fish balls, corn, lettuce, muscle, crab, egg, mushroom. I could be leaving something out but it was def a lot of tofu and vegetables. Broth was great.

was very excited by the pictures I saw on Unilocal to try it out. A friend of mine came out and told me it was good.
I had a very hard time choosing what I wanted to eat. I ultimately chose #8. :) I wasn’t disappointed. It was way too much food, but I ate most of it. LOL. I was really hungry!
The broth was piping hot and perfect hotness for me. Flavor was great!
my only complaint was that I couldn’t eat it all, and I didn’t take any of the leftover home (there wasn’t much left over).
I can’t wait to come back. :)

This place satisfied my hot pot cravings! I’ve been wanting to try it for a few weeks now & I finally had the chance to stop by and grab a bite and I must say it was pretty delicious. My cousin and I shared one instead of ordering 2 and we couldn’t even finish it, the portions were a good size depending on how much you can eat. I also liked how the manager or owner came out constantly and was involved with the customers, asking how everything was, making small talk so of course customer service was great. I would honestly come back for more!

I have had so many hot pot but this place was really unique! They come in individual hot pots but one is enough for 2 people! They give you a lot of varieties inside the soup too! We got the number one (seafood) and the number 3 (Korean) and I have to say that the Korean was the best one. The broth had a lot of flavor and I was so excited to eat it I burnt my tongue a couple times haha (don’t do that). The environment is pretty nice and it’s one of the better hot pot places I’ve been too. Service can be a little bit better.

This was my first time eating at a hot pot place here in the Dallas area and I was honesty happily impressed and this is coming from a California girl who has eaten at some really good hot pot places. The food and service was great. They kept coming back to check on how we were doing.
My party of 3 ordered #4 & 5 – spicy hot beef and hot lamb soup. Each hot pot came with a choice of rice or noodles. We ordered one with noodles and one with rice. We actually ended up ordering another side of rice along with a side of shrimp for the beef soup. The flavors tasted good and there were plenty of meat and veggies in each pot.
The amount of food was perfect for us. We also got to take home some soup home for lunch tomorrow. It’s definitely possible to share one hot pot with 2 people. Would definitely come back here when I’m craving hot pot again.

Do not over order! One hot pot is large enough for two people. We just got an extra side of noodles and that was enough for both of us. We got the beef noodle soup one I think it’s number 4.
I like that they give you a lot of meat but the lack of flavor in the broth really makes it disappointing. The broth taste very bland and isn’t spicy at all. We had to dump a ton of sauce in ourselves to make it flavorful. This place has potential to be good it’s just their broth has no flavor whatsoever. I would come back but only if I’m only ever in the area but I’m not gonna go out of my way to come here .
Service wasn’t bad and the owner seems nice. And our waitress wasn’t bothersome either.

Stopped in for dinner on a Sunday night during a slightly chilly rainy night and craving some hot pot. This place was surprisingly packed, but we were seated within 10 minutes. I’m no expert on hot pot, but this place is great!
We shared two hot pots (Spicy Szechuan and Japanese Miso) between three people and that was more than enough. Each soup comes with a choice of noodles or rice and served over mini-​stoves that turned off after around 30 – 40 minutes, which was really perfect timing because we were pretty much done eating around that time!
The soup base for both of them were so delicious, we repeatedly asked for more hot broth to refill it! With the personal stove, it heated back up right away and still tasted extra flavorful. The reason why I took a star down was that I wish they had more choices for toppings, I was craving some fish or shrimp balls and more variety of vegetables!
Service was very quick and attentive. Eerything was great overall and I would definitely come back again!

I want to give this restaurant more stars since my friends and families seems to love it, but I am basing it off on only what I tried.
I went with the seafood hot pot. The broth wasn’t well seasoned so it made the whole dish bland. But I appreciate that weren’t stingy with the toppings. The hot pot dish comes with the seafood and meats already cooked, so the purpose of the hot pot was to cook down the veggies and warm up the seafood/​meat, which I think caused them to be on the drier side.
The price is very reasonable and one hot pot dish is enough for two people to share. Service was good and the owner is very nice and friendly. I will give this place another try and maybe I’ll give them more stars then.

Boiling hot «bowls/​pots» in various flavors/​seasoning. They look like mini stainless steel «woks.» They offer: Herb, Thai Flavor, House Special, Seafood & Tofu, Lamb, Veggie, Korean Spicy Paste, Japanese Miso, and Beef Spicy Hot Soups. We got the Korean Spicy Paste and Beef Spicy. Both were DELISH! But our favorite would have to be the spicy beef. Each pot comes with loaded veggies, seafood, and meats. Depends on which ingredients you prefer. You get to choose either noodles, clear vermicelli, udon, or rice (which comes in small bowls –separate from your soup). Broth is very flavorful and ingredients are plentiful where you can get full without having to add noodles/​rice. They offer 3 different complimentary sauces, but you don’t need it. We had 4 girls, shared 2 pots, cleaned both pots out! Dinner for 4 was under $ 25! How awesome is that?! Service is friendly and quick. Would definitely be back!
Be careful getting too close to the burners though. Open flames can be scary for the careless. or if you have on a lot of hairspray that day and bend over too far. You can adjust the intensity — and eventually turn off when you’re done by pushing together the sliding doors underneath the flame.

I give this restaurant 3 stars because of my overall experience. We got seated pretty fast. The restaurant itself is very narrow and super loud. It also has a strong chemical smell because of the fuel beads they use to heat up the hot pots. The bathroom wasn’t that clean and the table and my spoon wasn’t clean. We ordered 2 hot pots and some dumplings. One hot pot came out first which was surprising because I was expecting he dimpling appetizer to come out first. We waited probably 10 minutes after ordering for our first hot pot to arrive, which was a pretty long wait to me. Then it took probably 15 – 20 minutes for the second hot pot to come out which with some Asian places I expect things to come out when they are finished because people usually eat family style. But here since we eat our own individual hot pot I think the food should all come out at the same time. I think it was unacceptable for a 20 minutes wait for the second hot pot, and frankly if I didn’t tell the manager that I was waiting for my food I probably wouldn’t have gotten it. After getting my hotpot we were still waiting for our dumpling appetizer. The waiter came over and said it’ll be an additional 5 – 10 minutes. When we got the dumplings the inside was lukewarm. I was very disappointed with the wait time for the second hot pot for our two person table when a three person table who arrived after us got all 3 of their hot pots within 6 minutes of each other. But I’m sure I wasn’t the only disappointed person that evening. There was an 8 person table behind us that had one person already with a hot pot when we sat down and the last person didn’t get one until right before I did. The lamb hot pot had nice flavor, I liked the broth and there was a decent amount of meat. I think there was too much cabbage filler and I don’t think they should advertise clams if you only get 2 in your entire hotpot. I am pretty disappointed with this place for their service and if I come back I hope my restaurant experience won’t be the same.

Today was a cold day, so we went here to warm up with some soup.
Atmosphere: (⁴⁄₅)
* Everything is casual and comfortable, except the seats are so far away from the table if you’re in a booth.
Food: (⁴⁄₅)
* Scallion pancake was good, especially with the sauces on the side.
* Nice variety of items in each hot pot. We got the lamb one, and there were also clams, crab meat, and fish balls in there. Good variety of veggies as well.
* Taking off one point because the broth was a bit bland. That can be fixed by adding sauces.
Staff: (⁵⁄₅)
* Very attentive, understanding and polite.
Cleanliness: (⁴⁄₅)
* Everything was clean in this restaurant except the bathroom.
Good hang out spot: Yes
Tip: Unless you’re prepared to eat a huge buffet, just order one hot pot between two people. It was filling for us and my husband eats a lot.

I came here again and definitely not consistent and how I remembered it the first time. The broth tasted a little bland today. I tried the tofu and it tasted like foam… immediately spit it out. I ordered extra seafood balls but they came out with two saying that they were low and that’s all they had… so we decided to get something else. Everything wasn’t as fresh today. possibly because it was a weekday?
I don’t think I’ll be back for a while

My boyfriend and I are HUGE fans of Boiling Point so we were overjoyed to find out that this place was extremely similar. The day my boyfriend found that it existed, we went that night for dinner.
Boiling Wok presents itself as a Taiwanese-​based hot pot restaurant. You get an individualized hot pot, which comes in a shallow bowl and a burner underneath. The flame is lit by some type of gel, which burns for a good amount of time and keeps your food warm until you are just about finished. The location does not have bubble teas (currently BYOB), nor ice cream macarons. There are also no spice levels when choosing your hot pot.
Each bowl is enough to feed 2 (relatively hungry) people. However, my boyfriend and I each ordered our own; he got the #4 Beef spicy hot soup and I got the #1 House special hot soup. I found that the House special was the easiest to measure quality due to the amount of variety that was present in the hot pot. Each item number that you order also comes with your choice of rice, vermicelli, ramen (noodles), or udon. I wish they had the signature Boiling Point sauces available, but they had the usual Chinese chili sauce, a soy sauce based mix, and a vinegar-​like peanut sauce.
The presentation was great. Very colorful display of fresh napa cabbage. Hot pot was much deeper than I anticipated. Portion size is very large. However, the taste was not what I was expecting. The soup for the #1 House was very watered down. It had a very strong tap water flavor that I slightly alleviated by using the soy sauce. The quality of the sliced pork was very poor; it was extremely lean and held no flavor. The egg was also hard boiled and overcooked. The enoki mushrooms were missing and it only came with one small piece of black mushroom.
Everything else in the hot pot was good, but the small little quirks made the experience relatively disappointing. Boiling Wok advertises itself as a replica Boiling Point, but it completely misses the mark. I would give this location more stars if they didn’t try so hard to copy a classic West Coast favorite. The quality just wasn’t up to par.
If you’re in the mood for Taiwanese hot pot, I wouldn’t skip Boiling Wok. However, there will be better options available in other places!

So we went on a busy Saturday night… being new, new wait staff, new system, we expected a wait and possibly mixed up on orders but they actually did ok might have taken a bit long to get refills and check but our waitress was really nice and gave service…
We had the number one house special which contains stinky tofu we were excited but kinda let down because it wasn’t really (authentic) stinky enough but the size was good and it was a lot of food!!! I got the spicy pot #8 and I like this a lot! Broth was spicy and flavorful and all the stuff is seasoned bc of the broth which tasted yum!!! Will definitively get again!
They had a small mixed up at check out but it’s no biggy… we left full and happy and is looking fwd to next visit…
–1 star for not authentic enough for the stinky tofu =(

meh. I was not impressed with the broth flavor nor the food quality. In addition, they weren’t allowed to turn on the burners on the day I went. The server patiently explained to us that it was for safety reason and the issue will be resolve soon. However, we were still very disappointed at the hotpots that have no fire underneath. The food got cold after 15 – 20 minutes.
I honestly love the concept of having individual hotpots and trying out various kinds of broth. Boiling Wok offers 10 different kinds of broth and they all come with cooked meat/​veggies/​meat balls, etc. You can also order additional items and they also have regular menu for non hotpot food. Me and my friends ordered 2 spicy beef hotpots and 1 house special (stinky tofu hotpot). I didn’t like either of them. The spicy beef broth is way too spicy and doesn’t have that much flavor and the stinky tofu hotpot only had small pieces of tofu. I had to ask the server if the stinky tofu hotpot actually comes with stinky tofu and even she couldn’t find it. The server was very generous about it and gave me a bowl of tofu on the side for free. However, the stinky tofu doesn’t taste right. it had weird Chinese medicine taste. I was not a fan of it. The meat was overcooked and veggies were average.
Overall.I’m very disappointed at this place and not sure if I will return. The dinner price is reasonable. Each pot is around $ 10.99-$ 12.99. Portions are huge and service is good for a Chinese restaurant.

YaY! Other than Little Sheep Mongolian, hot pot in Dallas is very rare. I’m very glad to see that a new hotpot joint has popped up.
I’ve been debating between giving this place 3 or 4 stars, 4 stars for the mere fact that, as noted, hot pot restaurants are rare in Dallas and that this place is def a steal for how much food you get per $$ shelled out! Unfortunately, the food and service itself doesn’t deserve more than 3 stars.
We arrived on Saturday night, a party of 4. The place is decent sized. But once word gets out, the lines here could definitely become miserable. Similar to other hot pot places in California, Boiling Wok serves individual-​sized hot pots which come out with all the food already cooked. Once upon a time, I was a huge fan of hot pott-​ing with already cooked food — I mean, you have to do absolutely ZERO work yourself — but after learning to appreciate the nature of hot pott-​ing, I’ve come to realize that the food always tastes better (i.e., not overcooked) when you have control over the cooking. In other words, don’t expect the best quality of meats in these pots!
We ordered the Japanese Miso, the Thai Hot Pot, the Beef Spicy and the Szechuan Spicy pots. Each pot comes with a different variety of meats and veggies (although, honestly, other than one or two items, most of the hot pots consisted of the same ingredients). My fav (as I think my other dining mates agreed) was the Japanese Miso. It seemed to be the most balanced of the broths. As for the other pots, the Thai flavor pot was more on the extreme sour side than a balance of sweet/​sour, the Szechuan Spicy pot tasted similar to Little Sheep Mongolian, although the deep of flavor was not as prevalent, and the Beef Spicy pot was honestly, too oily for my tastes, thinking about sipping on a pot of that broth gives me the shivers.
So out of 4 pots, 1 winner, 1 semi-​decent and 2 not for me … But because it’s only ~ $ 10 a pot (and yes, they let you share a pot, and I highly recommend you consider doing so), there’s a ton of food in each pot, and its one of the few hot pot places in Dallas … I’ll still be back.
As for service — it’s terrible. The servers are inattentive and despite the fact that there are only 10 items on the menu, the servers still can’t keep straight which one each pot is. But hey, maybe they’ll get that ironed out soon … it is new afterall.

YESSSSSSS a new hotpot place! Except you don’t need to do any cooking! All hot pots are made for each individual which comes on a burner to keep your food nice and hot. There are many different styles that can satisfy all tastes.
I ordered the Szechuan spicy hot pot which came with a little bit of everything from beef, seafood, tofu, etc. Though it hinted to be spicy it actually was not spicy. Surprisingly the broth had a nice depth of flavor. The BF ordered the lamb hot pot and we pretty much had most of the same components except he had more pickled veggies in his. His broth was a lot different than mine. His had more of an acidic taste to his… probably coming from the pickled veggies. Though he liked his choice, he still prefered my broth. Each pot comes with a selection of ramen noodles, clear noodles, udon, or rice. I thought I was going to receive instant noodle (which was what I wanted) but the ramen noodles are fresh here and of the thicker kind. (think of lo mein noodle thickness)
Of course the service was a bit lacking this first time. Our waiter did not understand english very well but I appreciate his efforts for the most part. Also the BF and I didn’t receive our food at the same time. It wouldn’t be a big deal if one of our pots were maybe 5 – 10 minutes apart but his hot pot didn’t come until 30 minutes after I recieved mine.
This might be hard to find but it’s location in the same shopping center where 99 Ranch and Daisho is. Drive towards the parking lot between daisho and 99 ranch and you should be able to spot it next to KTV.

This place reminds me of Boiling Point in Cali. I love the concept of being able to order your own hotpot in individual size. I had the spicy beef hot soup. The soup wasn’t spicy at all, but there are side sauces you can add to it. The portion is just right and the price is very affordable. Since it is a new establishment, they are trying to provide the best service they could. The manager was very attentive and friendly. I was told by the manager that they are looking for improvement based on the customers feedback, which is always a plus. Overall, service:5, food:4.

Boiling Wok is a hot pot restaurant in Carrollton’s growing K-​Town district. Bowling Wok has a unique twist in that everyone gets their own personal burner/​pot instead of having a central pot to share. It’s a unique concept and definitely makes cooking hot pot easy.
My Overall Rating — 3 ½ Stars (Atmosphere, Service, Food, Return)
Atmosphere — Boiling Wok is a new restaurant (¹⁄₂₀₁₆) and it’s nice & clean. There are plenty of booths & tables, and the restaurant has huge TVs hanging from the wall every few tables. The NFL playoffs were on TV during our visit, but I’m sure we may get some good K-​Pop during the offseason. It can get warm once you get multiple pots going, but overall is a nice place. 1 Star.
Service — I’ll say this: the staff was always on the move. Our waitress was nice, but you may have a number of folks bringing out the food. Because each hot pot comes with its own burner, things can get hectic. We had 7 orders put in, so we also had seven burners. The staff was literally running around getting things setup. They definitely put in plenty of effort. 1 Star.
Food — You choose from a number of hot pots numbered on the menu. I went with #1 — the House Special. Your pot comes literally with everything in it. So expect heaps of proteins (beef, pork belly, egg, tofu, more) along with plenty of fresh vegetables (cabbage, etc.) You can pair it with rice, udon, or noodles. The #1 is slightly spicy, but the broth was very good. Now, the dinner portion is pretty big, and you’ll need to cook it all before you eat. While it’s nice to have it all in one bowl, it’s harder to control things because everything is cooked together. The beef and pork belly were very tender. Also, once all the ingredients soak up the broth you may end up with just one flavor. But fresh counts, and the ingredients are top notch. One word of caution — it can get crowded on a small table if you’re working with multiple pots. Plenty of options available (Seafood, Spicy Beef, Vegetarian, Miso) so you should find something you’ll like. 1 Star.
Will I Return? — Maybe. Hot Pot is good eats in cold weather. While I like the individual hot pot, it can be crowded and you give up control of cooking items at your own speed. This can cause all the flavors to mash together. That being said, if you’re a fan of hot pot and are looking for a simplified experience, Boiling Wok is a good option. ½ Star.
My Unilocal Rating Scale (Sum of all parts):
1 Star — Atmosphere — Is it a cool dive? Perhaps an upscale place? No matter the type, atmosphere plays a big part and I’ll give a star if I like it or thinks it has great charm.
1 Star — Service — You can have a great meal with bad service. But that’s also what can make a five-​star joint drop to four. It’s important to the dining experience that service is great and on point.
2 Stars — Food — I’ll award up to two stars for the food, since this is the main reason we dine out. Sometimes the extra star is given for value, but it’s really all about the food.
1 Star — Will I come back? — If I know for a fact I’ll return, I’ll give this a star. A place has to make an impression for me to return.
Each Category can be given up to 1 star except food (2 stars) because I consider all these categories important to the overall dining experience. I will sum them up to provide my final Unilocal score.