The Boiling Bay

Part of the Boiling Bay ownership is now involved with Ipoh Garden in the same space

Sooo good!
We usually order food from here when we are smoking hookah at the Cloudz Hookah Lounge.
The service is always good: they were able to modify all the dishes for me so that they don’t include garlic, the popcorn chicken is amazing and their soups are great too!
Love their cucumber salad!
I’m a fan! Hookah+Korean Food a little weird, but enjoyable!

4 major things I noticed about this place. 1. Dirty bowls, you can’t even find the clean 1 for putting up ur sauce, 2. Slow service, only 2 staffs we ordered Saporo beer but got it like 20 mins later! 3. Seafoods are stale… Clams were deadly opened, you know what I meant if you good at eating the seafood. 4. They had nothing in stock, as we ordered ALL YOU CAN EAT, but there was nothing much you can get, you want corn they have no corn, you want the white meat they had no white meat, you want mushrooms they had no mushrooms you want taro they had no taro, what the fuk was that all about? And soy milk was some kind of artificial crap, and too much sugar in it.
I wanna talk something good about this place… but they really taste dull, and you know it’s hard to make a hot pot so tasteless… I would rate it just 1 star but yeah… I am a good guy

One of the worst restaurants I’ve ever been to. I ordered a variety of items from the BBQ Skewers section and 30 minutes later I’m still waiting for most of my items. They’re coming out at a rate of one item every 10 minutes. And apparently I’m never getting my order of noodles because the chef who cooks them isn’t here or something like that, I can’t tell through the broken English. They could have just told me the food was going to take a long time to come out because they’re short staffed, I would have went to another place instead of sitting here waiting.
The portion sizes are also surprisingly small, I just paid $ 2 for a sausage a quarter of the size of a normal hot dog.
To top it off, they advertise free wifi but it’s slow to the point of unusable.

The food is terrible and never consistent. One day you’ll show up and the chicken will be decent the next day it’s cold and looks like it was sitting under a heat lamp for 3 days. The customer service is horrendous and things are not done in a timely fashion. The waiters can barely speak English and half the time they don’t know what your asking for. Would not come back. Hookah lounge in back (cloudz) is awesome though!

After having the maternity photo shoot done, I had a craving for shabu2 or hot pot. So, my husband and I went to Boiling Bay in Millbrae, we walked in and we were told it’s closed by the waitress. Then, the owner lady saw us, and told us to stay and would serve us because I am pregnant, a pregnant lady needs a special treatment. Whoa! We were given a great service! Not only that, the hot pot was delizz and pretty big in size!
Great food, great service, great price! What else can you ask for?

Takes foreverrrrrr. (sandlot voice)
And well… YUCk.

–Terrible food. — Terrible service –Poor sanitation
We went here looking for some dinner. We ordered the beef hot pot and several BBQ (grilled) items that are ala carte. What a terrible disappointment first off, we walked into this little Chinese bistro to be greeted by gangster rap blasting away! Our kids do not need to go to a restaurant to hear a singer using *F* and *MF* words! After enduring a stream of this stuff, we asked the waitress to change the selection. clearly not dinner music in a restaurant!
The hot pot was small and bland. The beef was limp and flavorless, and the stock was dank. The best part was the mix of fresh veggies.
The grilled ala carte items were an absolute nightmare! We ordered 6 different items after seeing employees feasting on beautiful grilled items on another table! Well, it turns out you have to work there to eat good!
Everything we ordered was covered in a bitter tasting powder… likely paprika. It was terrible tasting. They should just use salt and pepper! But they didn’t even use salt! Just that red bitter dusting of something strange tasting!
The beef and lamb cubes that were grilled were filled with gristle and fat. And not in a good way either! The meat had a freezer burn taste and texture. The grilled veggies were covered with oil and that terrible red powder!
And the food wasn’t the worst part! Clearly, the employees just don’t care about running a restaurant. There was a guy at the bar drinking beer, burping
Out loud, and blowing his nose in the dining area. We thought he was just a slob until we saw him going in and out of the kitchen, then eating dinner with the other employes! Are you kidding here?
There was one waitress, who seemed more like socializing with friends than attending to customers.
The restrooms… you don’t want a description… all I can say is Lack of Sanitation! Health department alert!
The ONLY hope for Boiling Bay in Millbrae California is to be featured on one of those «Restaurant Rescue» TV shows to pull them out of this pit and teach them how to cook!

This a really fun place. I’ve been there twice, first just with my family, and then with friends. In addition to good food and service, the place offers an activity that keeps everyone busy. It’s like running your own kitchen for an hour. First time we got a table with one burner in the middle, but the second time we had individual burners. This was even more fun because at some point we realized that we can actually try many different flavors by dipping our meat and veggies into different boiling pots. Kids just loved it!
Area to improve on: ambiance. But hey — this is not a 5-​start restaurant. If you a are looking for that go to the French Laundry :-) I bet it’s not as much fun, though (and yes, I’ve been there).
Boiling Bay is a good value and a lot of fun for the money.

I’ve passed Boiling Bay numerous times since its opening. A few weeks back, I got off the BART and decided to just peek inside. I liked what I saw and planned on having dinner here one night.
That night was last night.
Boiling Bay is one of those places where the table itself is a boiler, and they bring you the food raw and you just boil it yourself.
First off, The girls I had for staff were super friendly and nice. one of the girls even gave us a small sample of their house made «tea» with tapioca balls which wasn’t too bad.
We ordered chicken, tofu, egg noodles and I got BBQ chicken skewers.
The portions were very generous for what they charged. The soup was fantastic and by the end of the meal, I was full.
Price matched portion size and the food was good.
Service was good (it was not super busy) and they were very friendly.
Parking is a long the street, but also a small lot across the road as well.
*** Just my opinion*** I dont judge a place by comparison, I judge a place on how they are towards me as customer.

the only reason i came here, was with my housemates because they told me that this was the «best» hot pot place they ever been to. –_​_​_​_​_​–
EW. NO. GROSS! The sauce selection area was really gross– some of the little saucers they had weren’t washed off completely because they still had hard leftover remains– WTF.
WE FINISHED EATING BEFORE ALL THE FOOD CAME OUT, AND WE SPENT 2 HOURS THERE. ARE YOU KIDDING?! took them FOREVER to give us our bill, they tried to compensate us by giving us *free* sesame mochi ball dessert but of course — we had to wait another 15 minutes for them to give it to us, AND THEN they gave us the bill.
NEVER AGAIN.

A couple of friends brought the girlfriend and I here for the Tuesday all-​you-​can-​eat special. It’s petty empty at 8:15 with only two other tables. We sat at one of the individual pot tables and ordered a spice, a pork bone, and two preserved egg cilantro soup bases.
The place is very clean, well, it wasn’t busy anyways. Not sure how it’s like when it does get busy. I love the temperature control which sits right in front of you and flush to the table. That way it’s easy adjust but no table space is wasted.
Selection of ingredients, soup bases, as well as dipping sauces are limited. There are still plenty of choices for $ 20. The stand outs are…
— Beef
— Beef stomach
— Beef tendon
— Cold tofu
— Taro
— Vegi
— Last but not least, the soup
One important thing to be noticed is that some of the food are actually pre-​cooked. Like the tendon, stomach, and the taro is lightly fried. That’s good for two things 1) safety, in case you don’t how when it’s done, 2) doneness, just warm it up and it’s cooked perfectly.
Lastly, the service. With two waitresses plus a manager the staffing is more than enough to serve five tables at the peak of the night. Everything was provided promptly. Ok, our group speaks both Mandarin and Cantonese so there is no communication issues. It’s all-​you-​can Tuesday but we’re not wasteful people so we asked for just a few pieces of corn and black fungus to try and they’re happy to do just that.
We ordered about 30 items total plus four drinks. I know hot pot dinner is simple to prepare at home but I don’t think buying 30 different ingredients in small batch is an easy task. If I want a seafood hot pot fest or pig out on Kobe shabu shabu, I would do that at home. Otherwise, Boiling Bay is a great choice.

The service here is very inconsistent so be prepared to spend an hr here or a whole night here.
It look literally an hour for our soup broth to arrive and the food came probably about 1.5hrs after we sit down. Why it took so long still puzzles me… the place only had 5 – 6 other tables. All you have to do is cut up some meat and veggies and take some meatballs out of the freezer. How could it possibly take so long? It also took 1.5hrs and 5 reminders for my raw egg to arrive. They must have been waiting for that chick to give birth in the back. Our bowls of rice and pitcher of beer also took a few remindersa and 30mins after we order. My whole dinner was from 7 – 1030. They should pay me for wasting my time next time.
And Oh my God… the waitresses here… They don’t remember ANYTHING. They are constantly forgetting your things and have not a clue what’s being brought onto your table. «Is this meat or lamb?»…“Oh i don’t know. I just know it’s yours.“
If they would just get things right the first time, they wouldn’t be having to give out any discounts and freebies all the time. The food is not bad. It has potential but the service is just horrible. Hurry and fix so you don’t go out of business please.
Sorry for the 1 star but time is money.

I’ve read through other reviews and was apalled with why this place has a 3-​star rating. It is a bunch of people complaining about quality and service. First of all, the prices are cheap for the portions given (big ass portions of meat). Second of all, there is a degree of quality at all hot pot places, you won’t get the fresh-​fillet-​mignon-​style at ANY hot pot place. Lastly, service varies based on waiters, so why complain that yours was horrible? Cut back the tip and the bitching. Now, onto the food:
I got the house spicy hot pot soup and chose the lamb as well as their house spicy soup special with 5 choices of ingredients (they cook it for you). I got pork blood, enoki mushroom, bok choy, yu choy, and cilantro. The hot pot soup came out to be $ 3.75, lamb $ 6.75, and 5-​choices soup was $ 7.99. Soup was unlimited for free, just ask them when and they will serve it.
Each person gets an individual pot and cooks the food in their pot. Cook how raw or how cooked you want it, better than McDonalds. Unlimited toppings and sauce, garlic, green onion, soy, satay. Good for chillouts, closes around 10 on weekdays and 11 on weekends. Greatly satisfied, especially for the price and options.
PS: show some love for the waiters and their lack of English. They’re trying their best, so don’t review down because you were screaming at their faces and they didn’t understand what you wanted.
Peace, love, and good eats.

Came here for lunch on a Saturday.
Just don’t eat here. Bad quality, poor service, and relatively expensive for what came out.
Our order
Shiitake — decent and sadly the best part of the meal
Napa cabbage — had a piece of white hair, didn’t bother complaining
Premium beef slice — decent
Scallops — bad. fishy
Seaweed bow ties — unwashed
Rib eye –DO NOT GET THE RIBEYE. It came frozen with small chunks of ice still attached to the meat, browning edges (freezer burn?) and tastes old in general.

Working late has its ups and downs, being stuck at the milbrae caltrain station for about an hour is not fun, but fortunately there is The Boiling Bay (TBB) very near by. I originally stopped in to stay out of the cold weather, but the place soon grew on me. At first glance, TBB seems to be very low key and cater to a certain crowd, but the more time I spent there I found myself trying new cuisines and flavors.
I come here about 4 times a week, usually very late due to having to catch the 11:04 caltrain, they are always accommodating and very nice, not matter how late it is. They treat me like family, and even create dishes that aren’t on the menu just for me. That’s what I call service.
The décor has been greatly updated, they added two flat screens and will put on anything you request, it feels lighter and more spacious for some odd reason. There is now a draft beer available, which is always nice. But the best addition by far is the new late night (1am) BBQ that they offer on the back patio, thanks to the weather getting nicer, it’s has become quite enjoyable to sit outside and munch down on the BBQ fare they offer, most of which they make to order, the best part is that you can watch them cook it, so you know it is fresh and the prices can’t be beaten, before you know it you will have racked up quite a bill if you aren’t careful, it’s so good!
Overall, I think this is a great place to stop by if you want an fun tasty snack before hopping on caltrain. If you tell them you are going to be grabbing a train, they will do everything they can to speed up your order. So go here, try the food, have some sake… it makes the ride home a little easier.

Just read through the bad reviews… not sure if the owner reads them, but apparently there has been a huge improvement.
Came here for the very first time for a simple reason – a seemingly Taiwanese enough place near SFO. We were the only customers at 4 pm, but the waitress quickly greeted us and was very attentive the whole time.
Food quality is not bad at all, we had a shared hot pot with the Taiwanese Spicy broth and the House Special broth – both were good, but the House Special was superb.
Some notes:
–Specialty drinks, try the milk tea with a… milk cap on top? The green milk tea was also good.
–Grilled skewers, about $ 2 – 4 per skewer, we tried the lamb and chicken. These aren’t Taiwanese style though, more like Xinjiang-​ish with cumin and spicy peppers.
–Hot pot has good selections and descent meat, but it’d be nice to have some sort of combo platters with most of the a la carte items, also rice costs $ 1.
I do wish they can have some sort of all-​you-​can-​eat option. Their sauce bar is free now FYI (some older reviews complained about how they charged for sauces).
Overall not a terrible experience at all, although it is a bit pricey, I’ll be back.

come on, people. it’s not THAT bad!
i went with very low expectations, but still wanted to try boiling bay for myself. we were helped by many people and they were all very eager to explain the menu for us. we tried the house original and spicy broths which both tasted quite good.
the beef was sliced thinly to cook quickly, but still thick enough to hold itself together without crumbling and getting lost in the soup. the vegetables were thoroughly washed and were fresh. they even have a sauce bar near the back for you to create a dipping concoction for your boiled goods. i went with a mixture of soy sauce, sesame oil, sesame/​peanut paste, garlic, and green onions.
altogether it was at a reasonable cost and the food came at a decent pace in the beginning of the meal. it was not horrible at all. i was actually pleasantly surprised. i was however, rather concerned with the messy duct taping of their electrical outlets and hot pot plates which seemed quite unsafe. other than that, try it for yourself.

I actually don’t write reivew for restaurants unless it’s extremly horrible…
I was very excited when I passed by this new hot pot place in Millbreae, I have been wanting to try a hot pot restaurant especially owned by Taiwanese ppl so the flavor would be closer to my hometown. The business was quite slow on Friday night but i insisted on trying even my hubby didn’t agree to try it (the review was not too good)
however, the décor was decent, the location was great too but besides these, everything was below «standard». We ordered original soup base, which looked ok to me (like white milk base) and when the beef and seafood and veggies were delivered to our table, i almost fanted… it looked super unfresh, the meat’s color was off and the veggie and fried taro were all looking very old… like very very low end grade ingridents (obiviously to save the cost on it as traditional chinese ppl would do). Later they brought our rice, the rice looked like 3-​day old, I smelled it… smelled like something being warmed up for more than 2 – 3 times (trust me, i cook, i really know food… you would know too since the rice was «yellow»)
We were very pissed but due to too hungry so we just compromised and ate it without saying anything… later, we ordered anoher bow of rice, it was even worth… i could’t stand this anymore, i speaked out to the waitress and askef for a new one, so she went back to the kitchen and came out to say that they would re-​cook new rice and just 5 minutes wait, (i was like… wow, you can make new rice within 5 mins, how come i never know there is a such fast thing in the world. haha)
anyway, we waited for 35 mins to get our new rice finally… we asked for tea cup, was not there even i asked for three times, the dressing sessection was dirty and disorganized, everything was off…
I was very very upset and decided to tell the waitress… she said the owners were not there so ppl were slacking off but how could them order such a low grade ingridents for hot pot… how hard it would be for a hot pot restaurant, just need a good soup base and «FRESH ingridents for hot pot», that’s all… why they used such a cheap materials… the waitress agreed it totally and said that they would make an improvement.
I told them that I bet you… you guys would close the restaurant wihin next few months if you don’t change… it’s such as waste that they spent so much money on getting this good location and decoaration but servinig horrible materials, this is not acceptable at all.
I really don’t know why they had no idea about it… if you don’t see «customers» on Friday night, something wrong and it’s very to find out what the true cause was… the food was horrible.
I am so disappointed… even i wanted to support Taiwanese restaurants but it’s hard for me to convenience myself to eat there again…

I’ve been dying to try this place since it open and was stoked when I can take my family to try it.
The service wasn’t too bad, they were very helpful.
We order the tomato broth. Order a variety of meats: Chicken, beef, lamb, steak and veggies. It turned into a tasteful broth. I think perhaps the flavor is purposefully mild, but I like my food to pack a bunch. If I were to come here again, I would get only lamb and beef, plus I would add a shit ton more seasoning.
Overall, I give kudos to our wonder woman server, but the food just wasn’t that spectacular. I would be hesitant to go back.