Holy cow, what a find!

After my crash course in customisation at Mr Wang’s Hotpot on Regent Street – where I picked ingredients from a fridge and handed them over to the kitchen to be cooked – I caught wind of a brand-new hotpot restaurant on Quayside offering a similar experience, BUT with a dedicated hotpot at each table. This allows you not only to entirely customise your hotpot, but to cook it there and then!

The idea reminded me of Yori on Green Street with the barbecue grills at each table, but with a very distinctive Chinese twist. I was so excited to try this out as I know what fun cooking at your table can be, especially with friends.

Despite the similar concept to Mr Wang’s, the two restaurants couldn’t be more different in style. Tripot offers a light, airy, and beautiful interior with traditional tables, each with their own built-in bowl. I have always loved the full glass walls at the restaurants on Quayside ever since my days back at Teri-Aki, and this one is no different. From the moment I walked in, I knew that this was not going to be a value meal, but a premium experience.

Fresh Milk Tea

The restaurant also offers a selection of Fresh Milk Tea with numerous options to choose from. Expect everything from Oolong to Green to Earl Grey. I must admit, I thought £5.80 was damn steep for tea, but you get a full range of options to customise, including different sweetness levels. I grabbed myself a Chinese Earl Grey Milk Tea that was served in a cup with a paper lid that you pierce the straw through, making it great to drink on the go. It had a lovely thick creaminess to it, and I highly recommend getting it served at 30% sweetness to allow the flavours to stand out.

The Menu

There aren’t as many options available on the menu when compared to the giant fridge at Mr Wang’s (which also allowed me to see the ingredients before choosing them). At Tripot, you tick the items off a laminated menu, making the finished product feel a little less certain – but rest assured, the descriptions are clear and every ingredient sounds well-sourced, with high-welfare lamb and 35-day dry-aged beef, just to name a few.

You are given the choice to customise every part of the hotpot from start to finish. This includes the broth, vegetables, noodle type, and meats; including ox tongue, tea-infused beef, chicken, lamb and pork. Seafood, soya, mushrooms, and a selection of chef’s favourites are also available, giving you endless ways to make the hotpot yours.

For anyone reading this and feeling like they would be out of their depth, relax – the staff team here are exceptional and talk you through everything thoroughly. I had no idea what I was doing (what’s new?) and they were incredibly patient with me. Each item on the menu has a number representing how many minutes or seconds you are supposed to cook each item in the pot for to prevent over or under cooking.

Let’s get cookin’

The Broth

There are six broth options available in total, including bone broth, tomato base, and vegan options. Unsurprisingly to regular readers of the blog, I opted for the spicy broth – and when I say spicy, they aren’t kidding! This thick, oily broth was swimming in red-hot chillies reminiscent of molten lava, so I highly recommend you don’t wear a white T-shirt around it.

The Meat

I couldn’t resist the pull of the tea-infused beef for my meat option which came in a smaller portion than I would have liked. It is served raw and ready for you to cook in a shredded texture, but once cooked, it ended up fusing together into one big lump. I am not sure if that is supposed to happen, but when an inexperienced customer like me is allowed to handle the cooking, things are bound to go wrong! The great thing about this concept for Tripot, though, is that the prep can never be blamed on them.

Veg & Greens

For the sake of the blog, I decided to order their greens and mushroom selections to get a wide variety of options. While usually best suited for groups rather than a guy on his own, it offered a fantastic introduction to this style of dining. Everything arrived remarkably fresh and beautifully presented in charming little baskets that added a real touch of class. Care and consideration had clearly gone into the sourcing as much as the aesthetics, featuring an impressive variety of Chinese mushrooms and greens – seriously, I was spoiled for choice!

The hotpot is divided into three different parts to allow the ingredients to be cooked separately before being put into your bowl. This also allows you to manage cooking times in a more organised way and prevent cross-contamination. The bowl can be set to different temperatures with a remote control fitted to the side of the table too, allowing you to put it on a simmer or blast it to oblivion.

I couldn’t help but feel that this was tailored more for Westerners rather than Asian visitors who have grown up with hotpots and know exactly what they want. With its curated selection baskets containing a bit of everything, it felt very much like an introduction to hotpot, a high-end crash course for anyone who has never tried it before, or is looking to explore the cuisine even further.

It is easy to rack up the bill when everything is artisan and well-sourced, especially when ordering from a menu rather than by eye. Everything here came to £60, but it was easily enough to feed two hungry people. I was glad to see no service charge added to the bill.

Despite the price, I couldn’t argue with the flavours, the freshness, and the fun experience. It is a fantastic way of dining with friends – and I can already hear the mocking laughs of my wife and friends as they watch me splutter broth all over the table on my next visit. There are dozens of exciting things on the menu that I want to return and try, making this a restaurant with huge repeat-customer potential.

This is a truly unique experience for Cambridge that is well-executed in stunning surroundings and a pleasant part of the city. With that said, I can’t see this being a place for students to grab their daily hotpot meal due to the premium that comes with this high-end sourcing. Though for a group of friends or a family looking to have a social and experimental meal together, I cannot recommend this enough. Tripot is a perfect place for a crash course in Hotpot 101, with the reassurance of knowing that this is going to be one of the best examples of it.

Thanks for reading!