Boiling Point

Just plain terrible. I gave the waitress my stamp card and when she came back, she claimed that she never saw it. Never again.

Food was good. Didn’t take too long to get our food. Even our waitress that was a new trainee was nice and even refilled our broth before we could even ask for it.
So why the 1 star rating??(it should be zero stars but it won’t let me continue unless I close one star) While I was eating with my boyfriend sitting across from me, I kept feeling a splash of water hitting my face. At first I thought it was him being sloppy but it kept hitting me and it was cold splashes instead of hot splashes. Then I noticed water drops on the table. I wiped the table down to make sure it wasn’t coming from above and guess what… fucking two water drops fell from the A/​C vent. While we were trying to flag someone down to report it, it kept dripping. I was so disgusted because my food was originally underneath that vent and even after I moved it, my rice bowl was still underneath the area. But what made it absolutely worse was when they sent someone to clean it by wiping it down while standing on the booth that I am sitting on and using a mop like item to wipe the vent without warning! I could of moved my food at least! I couldn’t take it anymore and had to complain to the manager.
I felt like I shouldn’t have paid for my meal at all but after complaining to the manager expressing my concern, she gave me a «what the fuck do you want me to do about it» as if I was in the wrong for complaining over something that is not my fault. So I was like fuck it I’ll pay for everything else but my own food and she was okay with that since she’s not losing out on money.
That was when I fucking lost it and just wanted to pay my tab and leave. I swear I never experience that ever and I still can’t believe she does not understand why I am so upset about the situation. What happen if there are some type of bacteria sitting in those vents and it’s been dripping in everybody’s food that’s been eating there since day one. What happen if people got sick? I am not willing to risk my life over what ifs.
Please do not come here to eat or if you still do, request to sit AWAY from the vents

I understand every location is different but this is the worst one yet. Not sure if it’s because of their ventilation system but our experience included smelling propane the whole time. The Seattle location or San Gabriel aren’t like this at all. Service wasn’t the greatest. Had to request for water a few times and it took almost our whole meal for someone to bring it. I usually order the Taiwanese special, forget the name, and it really lacked flavor.
Advice: Go to the other locations instead.

Food is still good but service is astoundingly awful. They forgot our order, we asked 2 waitresses and neither of them came back to confirm with us and then we had to ask a third before we finally got our drinks or food.
Parties after us began eating before we got our drinks. Original waiter was a tall skinny male with a very soft voice.

location is convenient
price is the same as other location
service is definitely a lot attentive than san gabriel location and faster
food is the same no change, good as expected.

I really love hot pot and boiling point is usually somewhere I end up with my family when I come back to visit. There is usually a crowd though and wait times can get ridic.
I took a star off because the last time I was here, their waitresses were literally like space aliens visiting from another planet. I couldn’t understand anything they said and when I would ask for water or napkins they looked at me like I was insane. Not to mention, service was really really slow.
I still like the food so that is what makes me come back. I just wish it wasn’t so crowded!

First time at this location and the wait wasn’t too bad, about 30 minutes. This location is probably smaller than the other ones.
I usually go for the beef hot soup or the Taiwanese hot soup but I wanted to try the new pomelo hot soup they had after reading several reviews about it on Unilocal.Probably the worst decision I’ve made at BP. The soup base was way too citrusy to consume. I knew that pomelo is a citrus fruit but I did not expect it to taste that bad as a hot soup flavor. Thank god for the dipping sauces though, I had to dip everything in the dipping sauce to cancel out the citrus taste. They have 3 sauces at every table, soybean paste, garlic, and spicy. I like to mix the 3 together for extra taste. They also have really good jasmine milk green tea! Yum!
I’ll probably come back again but I will never order pomelo again.
Also, the fire in my pot never turned on after several tries and the server just gave up so my soup was just warm instead of boiling.

Boiling point is probably the least cooperative single-​person hot pot place I’ve ever been to.
The wait is certainly long, a sign that it’s popular. I wouldn’t have minded if it weren’t for the strange attitude the company has on its hot pot options, which kind of added fuel to my fire. Cue rant:
You might be wondering, why would one choose to eat hot pot on a blistering summer afternoon? I don’t know, but that’s what I did with my boyfriend and his mom, after a 40 minute wait on an outdoor bench in front of the adjacent business. The location itself is pretty small and off the street, so it’s hard to get to.
I’m a patient person, so this wasn’t much of an issue. The main problem I had with Boiling Point was their ability to account for people with different diets. They don’t allow you to remove items from their set hot pot options if it’s something you don’t eat or are allergic to. I understand no substitutions, but they can’t even take it out for you? I wanted my pork removed (from my seafood hot pot, no less) but it couldn’t be done. On a separate day, my boyfriend’s sister, a vegetarian, had no options available because they ran out of the veggie pot… before noon.
The hot pot itself was okay, I’ve definitely had better, more generous portions. At the end of the meal, they give you some sort of translucent drink with chia seeds that tasted mildly of lychee. I saw a sign advertising that they carried macaron ice cream sandwiches, so I tried one out for the heck of it. It was tiny, no bigger than 3 inches. I know macarons themselves are small, but I expected a little more.
I have to say, my most positive comment would have to be that the décor was trendy and unique.

Always a crazy wait here. One of the smaller locations with no wait area except outside.
Put your name down. Take your number and wait. Wait until they call your name. FYI, we were here on 12÷17÷15, and they had the AC on full blast. It was cold AF, and they wouldn’t allow us to move. I had to have my peacoat on for majority of the meal. AND it seemed like only one person was really working and the others were just standing around on a really busy, cold night.
Parking: Street on Garvey or the side street (Baltimore Ave).
Tastes like every bp. I think it’s a chain thing, where their broth is either frozen in cubes, or in powder form.
Love the lemon chia seed drink they give you for dessert (maybe a drink that you can order off the menu?)

I think the concept of a personal hot pot restaurant is really great but I feel like it ends up having a couple drawbacks in execution. I came with a friend for lunch last week. We were craving hot pot because it was so cold outside! When we got into the restaurant it was even colder inside than outside! They crank their A/​C up really high, so make sure to bring a jacket if you’re coming to this location.
The lunch special is a great deal, you can choose a hot pot, rice/​noodles and black/​green tea (unfortunately, the tea is all premixed and is very sweet) for #10. Certain hot pots are more expensive and cost $ 15 for the whole lunch deal.
I opted for the taiwanese spicy hot pot, which I thought had some great flavor. The issue with the hotpot is that they bring it to you with all the items already in the boiling water, and then they put it on a stand so that they can light a fire underneath and keep it really hot. This makes it really hard to eat because it never really cools down to a non-​mouth burning level. I ended up asking them to put out my fire so I could eat. The other issue is that since the food is in the pot for so long, everything ends up super mushy. With other types of hot pot you normally get everything served uncooked on the side so you can cook it as you go, to your liking. While it’s super pretty to get all your food already in the hot pot, it really just makes a mushy mess. The restaurant was pretty busy, so it was really hard to track someone down to ask them to bring us an extra bowl so we could pull some of the cooked food out of the pot before it got over cooked.
I really liked the flavor of the hot pot and the garlic sauce they had on the table. The only really big bummer was that the food just tends to get so overcooked in this style of hot pot that I know if I came back I’d have to make sure to ask them for a bowl up front to put everything in.

Okay, I’m going to be completely honest. I had high hopes for this place. I mean the photos make the food look so good, but as they say looks can be deceiving and I was definitely deceived. I’m not saying this place is bad, the food is actually pretty good but as the two star Unilocal rating says «Meh. I’ve experienced better.»
I ordered the tofu and seafood kind, and it was pretty good but not «wow!» All the toppings were pretty good. I just wish there had been more. I didn’t really get to try the broth, but I got mine medium spicy. The medium spicy wasn’t even all that spicy, and the individual sizes made it kind of hard to eat anything. I mean you would go for one item and something else would get in the way.
If you go during lunch time you can get the lunch special which comes with a drink. The green tea is really nice, mild flavor and pleasantly sweet. However, there are no drink refills. You also get to choose between rice and noodles. I chose the noodles.
Long story short, the food is good, but not worth a 30 minute wait in the cold. Call me old fashioned, but I prefer traditional style hot pot.

4 stars because ocassionally service is not up to par.
I think the best time to go is during lunch because waiter and waitress are more attentive and you get a free drink with your hotpot. Who doesn’t like free freshly green tea? (Perfectly sweetend and brewed.)
Order number 4 beef, fishballs curry (seasonal), Kim chi (seasonal), spicy Taiwanese or the seafood hotpot.
Love love the complementary lemon flavored drink with basil seed that they give you when u get your bills. Mmmmmm!
Don’t forget to use their to die for condiments. :)

Summary: disappointed with the mild house special but the Taiwanese spicy (which was really spicy) was much better and more «authentic». Probably won’t be coming back but the boba was good…
I made a mistake with getting the house special in a mild spicy broth. There just wasn’t as much taste as the Taiwanese spicy soup that my friend got and I regretted my choice. The dipping sauces they have offset the bland soup but for me, the soup is equally, if not more important than the the dipping sauce.
Also, pro tip for anyone who does hot pot in Asia often, these folks put the meat inside the hotpot so by the time you get your boiling soup bowl the meat is already cooked. I was waiting for the meat only to find my meat cooked and all stuck together like a pancake. I had to pry all the pieces apart and it just sort of killed my excitement haha
We got extra noodles but they gave us the long rice/​clear noodles when I thought they were gonna give us the instant ramen type noodles. No biggie tho as I’m down to slurp anything.
Will find a better hot pot place. I’ve had too many good ones in Asia to use up my calories on this place…

The weather finally cooled down so I went to get soup. THIS PLACE HAD THE AC BLASTING!
Haven’t had boiling point in a while but now I know why… it lacks flavor in the soup…
Anyways, the reason for this review is that I went to warm up and left sick.
I now have a cold thanks to boiling point…

Some people have a love-​hate relationship with this place and I’m one of them. But still giving a 4 star review because I love it more than I hate it. Came here twice in one week and got a stomachache from the second time :(Reason is unknown, but be careful!
I’ve tried the Taiwanese Spicy, Curry Fishball, and Japanese Miso and I love all of them for different reasons. My criteria for pots is usually if the soup is yummy but because the Taiwanese Spicy isn’t drinkable (to me), I like it because of the ingredients. Each bowl of theirs is unique and it really takes a few visits to see which one is for you or if you even like this place in general. I recommend the Japanese Miso for those who don’t like spicy things but if you think you can handle the spice, Taiwanese Spicy is definitely for you. Don’t be shy to ask for an empty bowl (or two) to scoop that spicy oil out because no kidding, ITS HOT!

This location is a lot smaller then the others so I don’t come as frequently. But when I do I TRY going here during lunch hours only because the pot i have ALWAYS gotten (beef pot) is one of the pots that are $ 1 off. In addition, you get a free black or green tea! The black tea is my fave of the two choices. With this lunch deal going on, every time I dine for dinner I feel ripped off because the tea is like $ 3.50 lol. Booooo!
Anyway, I love their beef pot. There’s so much variety in it; some examples include: cabbage, enoki mushroom, meatball (half lol), tomato, corn, vermicelli noodle, tofu skin, and imitation crab. I would love to give this place 5 stars, but the service isn’t always great and there’s almost always a wait during the times I want to dine. Seating can get really cramped if you’re not at a booth either… request it! I definitely would like some more space while dining.
Street parking only!

I don’t know how you can get a better value if you want a boiling hot pot of flavorful stew filled with an assortment of meat and vegetables. There’s not a lot of customization, but the options are quite distinct and you would probably be able to pick from a few that you like. It’s a lot of food for the price, and it’s even better at lunch time because a tea is included. The drink complements the hot pot very well – would’ve been too hot and spicy for me otherwise.
Be aware that you might come out smelling like hot pot since that’s what everyone else is eating! Also, their service wasn’t spectacular (the waitresses just looked unhappy the entire time), but one wouldn’t expect much more. I had actually wanted to try the little ice cream cube desserts after the meal but they just gave us the receipt without asking about dessert so I just didn’t bother.

WOW!!! 5 stars for this location specifically.
I usually frequent the Irvine location but just last week I got to try this location with a friend since it’s closer to where I live now.
I ordered the Pomelo flavored hot soup as the toppings sounded fantastic and the soup seemed interesting. Pomelo rinds??? Nevertheless, it was delicious. It’s light and citrusy, and the tanginess added a nice kick to it.
Okay so usually I come go to BP strictly just for the good food. Service has always been disappointing in the Irvine location as orders are always forgotten, servers forget to bring out water (even after asking like 3 times), and ridiculously long wait times due to overcrowding. This location is smaller and is definitely less busy than the Irvine location but we had no issues with the service whatsover. We were seated right away and our hot pots were brought out to us in less than 10 minutes. So efficient. Love it!
To top it off, they give you a tiny shot glass of some sort of tea (citrus juice?) with basil seeds inside to wash your palate down after your meal. The Irvine location never did that, so it’s a plus for this location!
Overall, I’m a huge fan. Come to this location, you won’t be disappointed.

This place is a must try! Personal size hotpot that continues to boil while you’re eating, keeping the ingredients fresh and hot. The broth is my absolute favorite; a packed flavorful punch with all the ingredients.
They offer you a choice of rice or glass noddles, but I’m a huge noodle fan when it comes to hotpot because the noodles soak up the broth as it cooks– a glorious delight in your mouth. The sauces are also a must try!
I came on a weekday at 5pm for dinner during a summer and there was no wait :) beware of winter season though when the wait will be much longer!
If you come for lunch, come before 12PM before there’s a wait. Lunch also comes with a free drink!

I am a big fan of hot pot and when one of my foodie friends told me about Boiling Point, I was so excited to try it out! I loved the fact that the items came already cooked in the pot (talk about me being lazy!). I looked over the menu and there were a wide variety of items to choose from. My friend recommended the Pomelo Flavor soup which came with shrimp, pork belly, various veggies and and baby octopus. I had no idea what to expect for the flavor but it was surprisingly refreshing, sort of lemony. My friend also showed me how to make the dipping sauce– 3 parts bean paste and 1 part garlic (something like that). It was delicious!
I think my only disappointment with Boiling Point is the fact that you can’t really customize the different options. You may add additional items to your choice of soup but that’s really it. Normally, I would’ve chosen the Japanese Miso option but it’s a couple bucks more expensive since it’s a larger size and has more seafood items. I probably would have to share it with another person if I ever want to try that one out.
The Monterey Park location is very small. The parking lot is incredibly tiny so I just parked on the side street. I also really like the stove that the soup sits on, it keeps the food at a nice hot temperature. This is the perfect cuisine for a cold day and I look forward to trying more of the different soups in the future!