1 Pot

A couple of weeks ago, my friend and I were going out for dinner and was heading out to our usual Pho place in Chinatown. Then I saw 1 Pot, and realized it was the new restaurant my other friend told me about. Where you get your own single hot pot and is all you can eat. Similar to ones in China and Taiwan. This would be the first restaurant in Calgary that serves the single hot pots. The other ones in Calgary tend to be a big pot for two or more people. The restaurant closest to this style would be Hot Point Fusion Cafe on Macleod Trail near Chinook and next to Koreana. Though with Hot Point, their hot pot is more like a dish that is already put together. When you pick a soup base, it comes with a preset selection of ingredients and cooked using one of those heating oils (I don't know what they are called and can't seem to find its name.. sorry) at your table. You can't pick the food that goes inside of it, you can only add more, so it is not really a real hot pot experience.

Back to the point, we decided to try out 1 Pot and luckily for us, it was before the dinner rush so we got a table. My first impression was that the restaurant looked nice. They use electric hot plates instead of the normal portable gas ones. The hot plates are inside the table with a hole for the pot to go in, so it saves table space. That is pretty brilliant in my opinion. They even have a small pull out tray under the table so we have more room to put our food on. The chairs also have a golden covers which is designed for the customers to put their jackets under and reduce the hot pot smell clinging onto them. Though we were just too lazy to do it and didn't care too much for the smell.

The menu offers a large number of soup bases for the all you can eat, starting at $26. They had my favourite of Szechuan Spicy soup. They are offered in a range of mild, hot, extra hot. Yay! I picked out the extra hot but didn't realize that costed $2 extra. My friend and I went on to order a variety of foods for our hot pots, including soy sauce chicken feet, seaweed, beef, meat balls and veggies. We also ordered Sprite since my friend was thirsty and didn't know if water was complimentary. They listed water in the menu so it was slightly unclear.

The drinks came first, they are in the glass bottle and it was a novelty at first. But when we both thought about paying $3 for just a glass bottle of Sprite when you can get 4 for $5 or so at the grocery store, it made us regret the decision a little bit. Though that's the price you pay for drinks when you eat out right?

Our hot food came first, which was the chicken feet. It was good. It was not overly salty despite being cooked in soy sauce, and it was not gummy. Then our hot pots came, and oooh boy was I excited to see the chili peppers floating on top. Right after the hot pots, our food came so we can start putting them into the hot pot. First thought on the portions are.. they are SO small!! There was only 2 chicken feet in one order and only about 2-3 pieces in each order of meatballs or veggie. Only the meat came in more pieces. We were expecting more than that. So I was thankful we ordered a lot of food at first, or else we may have been constantly reordering.

The best part about the meal was definitely the broth. It was not too salty and it has the perfect amount of spiciness without the presence of the Szechuan peppercorns. The peppercorns are awesome for the numbing/tingling feeling on your tongue but is a pain in the butt when you are trying to eat your veggie and every bite is the crunchy and sandy peppercorn. We found that the broth was good enough for the food without the additional seasoning or dipping sauces. So kudos on making good broth. That is the most important part to a hot pot in my opinion.

Now on to the bad part of the meal. I find their poor ventilation to be really bothersome. They do not have the typical huge ventilation fans in hot pot places since they are using electric heating plates. I was sitting facing the door, and every time someone open the door, the steam from my hot pot would blow in my face. It would fog up my glasses and I had to constantly lean to one side so I don't get hit with another bout of steam. That would be something they need to deal with. I can't imagine how it would affect the ventilation and the walls. The constant steam probably will eventually leave layers of grease on the walls and in the air ducts. The other part I didn't like about the meal was the cost. The whole meal cost me close to $40 including tips. Our usual hot pot place, the Regency in Dragon City would cost me close to $30 including tips. This is also an all you can eat and the soup bases and drinks are all included. They offer the same type of ingredients as 1 Pot and you can grab as much as you want at once. I also think I can probably put together a person hot pot with better ingredients for $40.


Overall, I find the atmosphere and customer service at 1 Pot was quite good. The servers were attentive and service was fast. I love their broth and thought that was the star of the entire meal. Their offering of hot pot ingredients are same as others so nothing spectacular. There are a lot of additional costs to the meal so if you are not careful, it can add up to quite a bit of money. I think because of the price itself, I wouldn't go back again. I didn't feel like we got our monies worth.