Chinese hot pot eatery Dragon Hot Pot, has recently launched two new locations — in QV and Box Hill in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs — bringing their total number of venues to four.
The concept, created by owner Louis Kuo, combines a supermarket style set-up, where customers can pick and choose from over 100 ingredients. A range of five base stocks are provided with customers paying $3.20 per 100g of additions, with a minimum spend of $12.80 (400g).
The Signature Ma La Tang broth, available at all stores, is cooked with more than 24 wild herbs from Mount Emei, Sichuan, China, and follows the century old Sichuan hot pot broth recipe to produce a unique and golden thick fragrance. Other bases, not available at all stores include, the Sichuan Hot and Sour, Pickled Mustard, Collagen Bone Broth and Ma La Spicy Stir-fry.
The Sichuan Hot & Sour includes aged Chinese vinegar, Sichuan chilli oil, and Sichuan hot & sour sauce to produce a hearty flavour; the Collagen Bone Broth uses fresh marrow bones and cooks for more than 12 hours to produce a mild stock that is silky and flavourful; Pickled Mustard is a combination of bone broth and pickled mustards that have been fermented in crock for more than six months to develop a rich mild flavour; and the Ma La Spicy Stir-fry, known as a dry pot, is tossed with Chinese herbs, dry chilli, Sichuan peppers and the Dragon Hot Pot signature spicy sauce.
The array of additional ingredients range from bok choy, chicken, wagyu, shrimp, enoki mushroom, fish balls and octopus balls to tofu fish cake, pig’s kidney, duck blood, egg, seven variations of noodles, crab stick, and even frog’s legs. Customers can choose their own spice level, from mild and hot to fire hot and dragon hot.
With their Russell Street location currently open 24 hours, Dragon Hot Pot have plans to make all CBD locations 24-hour service by the end of this year as well as franchise expansion plans into interstate markets.
“It has been a very exciting and rewarding experience for myself and the Dragon Hot Pot team over the last 12 months, to see how the Melbourne market has accepted our concept and offering,” Louis Kuo, Dragon Hot Pot. “In the coming year, we are planning to go into major shopping centres in Melbourne CBD and western suburbs and are also talking to interested parties in Sydney, Adelaide and Perth to make Dragon Hot Pot a national brand. We are thrilled at the prospect of customers across the country enjoying our delicious hot pots.”