Liuyishou Hot Pot

Liuyishou Hotpot Opens First NYC Location in Flushing | Eater NY

"I visited the new Flushing outpost of Liuyishou Hotpot at 136-76 39th Avenue — one of mainland China’s largest hot pot chains with more than 1,000 stores and over 4 billion renminbi in annual gross revenue — and found it specializes in very spicy Chongqing-style hot pot, with weekend waits already stretching up to two hours. The restaurant is known for a photogenic presentation of bright red meat slices arranged on a big wooden wheel that fits around the pot and for an extensive 32-item buffet-style sauce bar ( $2.95) that includes tripe salad, kelp salad, edamame, leek flower sauce, mushroom paste, and assorted fruits. Broth options center on a signature beef oil spicy soup base (available on its own, with a vegetable oil substitute, or as one half of a two-flavor combo) and range from standard choices like pork ribs with Chinese herbs, mixed mushrooms with Chinese herbs, and sweet-and-sour tomato soup to less traditional offerings such as boiled fish with pickled Chinese radish, braised duck with pickled radish, braised chicken with fresh coconut, and a three-flavor combo set. Ingredient platters span a $9.95 veggie platter (pumpkin, chrysanthemum, Chinese cabbage) to a $29.95 seafood platter (oyster, mussels, shrimp, sole fillet); the $14.95 beef and lamb combo is cited by manager Lucy Wang as the most famed option and the restaurant also offers a “traditional platter” with beef tongue and beef tripe plus a la carte items. They run a social-media promotion — post photos on WeChat, Facebook, Yelp, or Instagram to receive a house special plum juice (a sour-sweet drink made of fresh plum and Chinese-style cinnamon) — and bring back a Wheel of Fortune on special holidays. The spacious 19-table dining room accommodates groups of up to six comfortably, is open 11:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. seven days a week, and is part of a North American expansion that already includes Canadian openings and planned U.S. sites beyond this third U.S. location." - Caroline Shin