Boiling Pot brings hot pot, novel dining experience to Cedar Rapids

At this new Cedar Rapids restaurant, you can build — and cook — your own hot pot.

Boiling Pot, 5070 Lindale Dr. NE, opened in March, bringing the city of five seasons its first Asian hot pot restaurant. Eastern Iowans may be familiar with hot pot through MIX in Marion, but Boiling Pot has their own take on the dining experience.

Here, diners can enjoy all you can eat hot pot and a unique dining experience with family and friends. But don’t expect to pop in for a quick meal.

“When you come here, you’re gonna spend time with your family,” Nancy Doan, joint owner of Boiling Pot, said. “It’s not a quick meal ... you’re going to be here for an average of an hour.”

The restaurant has a calm atmosphere, inviting diners to relax, eat, drink and be merry.

The concept

Opening Boiling Pot together brings joint owners Nancy Doan and Febly Astuti’s friendship full circle. Years ago, they met while working at a Japanese hot pot restaurant in California. Both have extensive experience working in the restaurant industry. Astuti has worked in the food and beverage industry for 11 years, and Doan’s family owns Mai Pho, the Vietnamese chain in Cedar Rapids.

Hot Pot, an Asian soup dish, is Boiling Pot’s crown jewel. When you order hot pot, you opt into a dining experience where soup broths and raw ingredients are brought to your table. The diner will then assemble and cook the hot pot at their table, allowing for micro-level customization.

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When you enter the restaurant, the first thing you’ll notice are the hot pot tables. Each diner has their own burner — this is a detail Doan and Astuti discussed at length before opening the restaurant. Some hot pot restaurants have one burner at the table, so the soup dish is enjoyed communally from one big pot.

“We decided individual’s better because you’re not always with your family,” Doan said.

While it’s not common for restaurants in the United States to have a hot surface built into the dining table, these burners are not something to fear. They don’t get hot enough to leave you with a burn if you touch them, Doan said.

Astuti said that some first-time diners have been surprised to learn they cook their own food while dining at the restaurant, but it’s something staff walk through with each group. There are also guides with cooking times posted at each table. The longest cooking times are 3-5 minutes, and that’s for squid and fish. Most ingredients take 1-2 minutes of stewing in the pot before they are ready to enjoy.

Not everything served at Boiling Pot is made at the dinner table. Diners can enjoy an assortment of appetizers like crispy dumplings, crab rangoons, crispy calamari and fried fish tofu. If you aren’t looking for hot pot, Boiling Pot also serves hibachi options. End your meal on a sweet note with tiramisu, mocha cake, cheesecake or ice cream.

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Boiling Pot has an extensive list of beverage options — from cocktails to non-alcoholic options you won’t find in every Cedar Rapids restaurant, like bubble and boba teas. Boba teas combine sweet milk teas with chewy tapioca pearls.

Guests 21 and older can try Soju, an alcoholic drink that has a similar flavor to vodka. Soju originated in Korea and is distilled from starchy crops like rice or wheat. Boiling Pot has eight flavors of Soju, including grapefruit, green grape, plum and blueberry.

The hot pot experience

If making hot pot is unfamiliar territory, leave your apprehension at the door. Boiling Pot staff will walk you through everything you need to know. They’ll teach you how to turn on and adjust the burners and walk you through the cooking process.

First, decide what soup base you want to try. Herbal soup is a light but comforting broth, whereas the Spicy Szechuan base brings the heat. Astuti said they have tamed down the spice on the Szechuan base since they first opened to better appeal to their customers’ palates. If you want to raise the spice level, visit their self-serve sauce bar for fresh chilis.

A bowl of spicy szechuan soup broth and a variety of vegetable and meat options were laid out on a table at the Boiling Pot in northeast Cedar Rapids on Wednesday, May 7. The Boiling Pot uses individual hot pot bowls so each customer can choose their own broth to cook their meal in. (Elizabeth Wood/The Gazette)

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Thinly sliced beef, brisket, chicken, and pork sit on a plate at the Boiling Pot in northeast Cedar Rapids on Wednesday, May 7. To cook the thin slices of meat, customers dip them into boiling bowls of broth until they turn brown. (Elizabeth Wood/The Gazette)

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Crawfish, fish fillet, squid, mussels, and clams are some seafood options at the Boiling Pot in northeast Cedar Rapids on Wednesday, May 7. At each table, a sheet helps customers with the cooking time for menu items. (Elizabeth Wood/The Gazette)

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Fresh chili peppers are available at the sauces bar for those who want to add a little spice to their hot pot at the Boiling Pot in northeast Cedar Rapids on Wednesday, May 7.(Elizabeth Wood/The Gazette)

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All of the soup bases, except for the Szechuan, are gluten free. The broths are also lactose-free and peanut free.

You’ll have to pick out all of the ingredients you want to mix with the base. Choose from an array of sliced meats and seafood, from sliced beef and pork belly to crawfish and shrimp. They also offer fried and soft tofu, dried bean curd and soya ring rolls.

There’s a long list of vegetables to choose from, including broccoli, bok choy, enoki mushrooms, leafy green choy sum and kabocha squash. You can also add a variety of noodles like udon, ramen and glass noodles.

“There’s not really a right or wrong way to eat (hot pot). But we do go over the list of what Americans like or what Cedar Rapids would normally order,” Doan said. “We keep that in mind when we decide what to add in our menu.”

To cook, submerge the ingredients in the simmering pot of broth—but be prepared to pull them out promptly.

“They cook really fast, like the meat is so thin that they cook in like 20 seconds,” Doan said, “and the vegetables, they do have a different cooking time depending how you like the consistency.”

Each diner is equipped with a variety of tools to help you pull your ingredients and broth into a dish to eat from.

The response

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Astuti and Doan said that hot pot is still so new to the area that many diners don’t know the process when they walk in. But they leave with full bellies and a taste for hot pot.

“We have a lot of regular customers that come in and it feels like a friend that comes in,” Doan said.

Astuti said they have had customers travel from Iowa City and Waterloo just for hot pot. Plus, kids love the hot pot experience.

“They’re really excited to try it,” Doan said of children. “They love it.”

Boiling Pot is expanding to offer options to enjoy hot pot at home through DoorDash.

“Some people, they’re familiar with hot pot. They prefer having the food, like the ingredients raw, and then they would have their own hot pot at home. We provide the broth, the ingredients, like the veggies, the meat and then they would cook it at home,” Doan said. “And then we will also have an option that we cook it for them. So we pack everything separate for you and then you just add it to your broth when it’s ready.”

They plan to launch DoorDash later this month.

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Comments: bailey.cichon@thegazette.com