UYE: Hotpot @ 99 Favor Taste

One thing I can tell you about LL’s events — and that goes to both of them — click «I am in!» and do it fast! There are two main reasons you want to do that — those events never a miss and they fill up rather quickly.
As a tradition goes with them — be it food or drinks — it’s outrageously good, and the company is always best one around.
Now, this is LL Squared event we are talking about now, image that?
We managed to squeeze our butts into the booth/​room, and even with all the food consumed, we still fit into those seats and benches — this is have to be Christmas miracle on it’s own!
It was pretty cool setup, actually, since room makes the event semi-​private, and tight space with everybody sitting around one big table makes it perfect for socializing and sharing.
Soooooo much food — meats, seafood, mushrooms, veggies… I was stuffed thanks to Hillary and her amazing hot pot cooking skillz — seriously, best person to sit next to at hot pot event! (take notes, people!).
Pig bone broth was totally yummmm when it finally cooked down — I wanted to drink it out of the pot!
Very Important Note:
…next time everyone bring some rice for Spencer, please…
See ya all next time, crazy people!

Wow another 5 star epic UYE. This time we convened at 99 Flavor Taste for hotpot. The venue itself, near to Grand Street subway, is not what I expected somehow. It’s larger than other venues I’ve been to on the area and split over two levels, so can hold a large number of people and for or a Tuesday night it was packed to the rafters.
All 15 (ish) of us packed into a booth around a large table which was, let’s just say ‘cosy’!. We shared a soup base between two (mine was pork bone, mmmmm, Reggie M. Had spicy which was just a tad hot for me) and then the proteins came. And came. Seemingly endless plates of beef, pork, chicken and seafoods. We certainly got our money’s worth! And dessert? Pick it up on the way out as they don’t serve it at the table!
The company as ever was great. Some old faces and some new. Thanks Lori for putting this together and brig on the next one!

Another wonderful UYE!
Great turnout of 16 Unilocalers for a night of hot pot, fitting for the rainy, cold weather. Swam here after work to be greeted by old and new faces. So nice to finally formally meet some of my Unilocal friends.
We were seated in a booth on the second floor which somehow fit us all perfectly. Over the next two hours, we had our fill of meats and seafood and tons of fishballs in shared pots. but not without some amusing mishaps, most notably pots taking forever to boil and orders not going in. Spencer tried to order rice 3 times unsuccessfully. Makes no sense to me – you’d think they would bring it to us in a heartbeat in order to fill us up and have less room for the protein. Wrong!
Wonderful time all around. Thanks Leo and Lori for organizing. Can’t wait for the next!

Well, the UYE itself was a rousing success! However, 99 Favor Taste really needs to get on the ball with shortening its lag time between orders, and, well, getting Spencer his rice. I’m just sayin’.
Thanks to Leonard and Lori for an absolutely amazing dinner experience! I had so much fun and was borderline jovial the entire time, obviously punctuated by my giddiness and occasional awkward comments. (Actually, that’s pretty par for course for those that know me well. Hi, Lori. Hi, Hilary.) Props to Lori for becoming de facto server, organizing our broths, proteins, and vegetable orders with relative ease.
Thanks to all of the older and new acquaintances that I made! It was an honor to dip raw pieces of meat into boiling pots of broth with you all. :-)

An LL squared double deckered AYCE shabu shabu UYE in Ctown NYC?!? I’m so there!
Leo let Lori do most of the heavy lifting in planning the event.
? If there were an Asian Superman comic book, they would be the Asian Lana Lang & Lex Luthor of Unilocal.
Highlight of the Night: The White Rice Debacle
Hey Leo, you could have leaned on the waiter a little and gotten Spencer his rice! Truthfully, I don’t think the english-​challenged waiter had a clue what Spencer said. He just nodded, smiled and GTFO. I feel bad, so at the next event, I’m taking it upon myself to bring a rice cooker in my backpack. I got you covered, bro! I just gotta plug into Ron’s Motorola Droid and we’ll have white fluffy rice in no time! He was the only one getting any reception on his phone anyway.
I didn’t get my check-​in ice cream either! But I promised to buy Spencer & Hilary each a scoop of durian at Chinatown Ice Cream Factory, which we’ll have to do on another warmer day. Hopefully, they won’t close the steel gate on our toes again the next time.
It was a great time seeing all you Unilocaler faces, old & new. Kudos on another spectacular event, Lana… I mean Lori and you too, Lex!

This was probably one of the best UYEs I’ve been to… food and company. I’m amazed that we managed to squeeze 15 around the table! Plus it was a fun communal time sharing foods and broth just like all the other families at the restaurant.
It was great meeting Unilocalers that I had previously known only through Friending or Talk (hey Leooooo! hey Adam!). That was almost, just almost, as enjoyable as my consumption of over half the whole shrimps, prawns, «ha» (or whatever word I could use to get the waiter understand what I wanted) that we ordered. I’m surprised Chun’s photo didn’t have me with my head bowed down sucking the shrimp heads LOL.
Howard B and I basically finished all our broth. The only thing left were two pig bone knee caps. Yes, I think we all got our monies worth. I hope to return to this place really soon. Anyone want to join?
Thanks Lori & Leo for orchestrating this event!
Oh, this was my 200^th review! Y’all should be honored to be a part of this epic milestone LOL! I’m sort of floored that just 14 months ago I only had 5 or so reviews.

Success! Lori’s hotpot UYE was fiyahhh! Really great seeing familar faces as well as meeting new. Food was delish but the company was even better.
Highlights as followed
— being called a stalker by Ron (lulz)
— Lori writing the groups orders on a napkin
— Spencer asking for rice 3 times without success
— Spencer asking for ice cream without success
— Jo is a disney connoisseur
— 16 people can really put down a lot of meat
Great time with dope people. This one goes in the books.

It was befitting to attend Lori L’s hotpot UYE at 99 Favor Taste in Chinatown. With the foul weather of windy, cold and wet air, all I desired for was an unlimited hotpot for two hours.
As soon as we were all seated our waiter started prepping the table with nibbles (relishes, mushrooms, peanuts, cabbages) and it was followed by two huge trays of raw proteins, vegetables and noodles with many varieties of broth (spicy, pig bone, original style, et cetera) to choose from and a colorful array of sauces for dipping.
It was scrumptious and of course fun doing hotpot with the company of old and new Unilocal friends. Big thanks to Lori L. for organizing such a lovely event.