Long Men Bay Hotpot

I'm always in the mood for hotpot, especially on a chilly day. This is one of my favorite Chinese hotpot places, and they've now opened a second location in San Jose, located in the Vietnam Town area. Both the broths and ingredients were delicious and comforting! Their side snack portions are generous too, and my favorites were cucumber salad, popcorn chicken, and the sliced oranges. The staff were friendly and the meal price was reasonable.

There were 6 of us and we split half and half pot. The spicy one is a lot more oily than I thought it would be. I tried black bean tofu (looks like a block of cement), which I don't like it. My friend does though. We ordered lots of meat and various fish balls. The shrimp paste was good, but not amazing. The sweet potato noodle was yummy. I mostly enjoyed the food in the spicy hotpot section. I didn't try much on the beef bone; however, everyone who didn't eat spicy food seemed to like it.

I had a fun experience trying this new place out. It's kind of like Hadilao along with alot of different skewer meats for your hotpot, and delicious tasting meat. I had some Sichuan beef, upon, beef balls, and some pepper wrapped in beef. All of which came out to around $60. I'd probably try their combination platters next time for more variety.

TL;DR: If the phrase "Haidilao but cheaper" wasn't already enough to compel you to come, come to also indulge in the generous and excellent sides. The Details: I came here with my wife and cousin on a Wednesday night around 7:30, so zero wait for our table. There's ample seating in the establishment with a clean modern interior. We did the half/half soup base of the medicinal chicken and slightly spicy, and ordered the shrimp paste, fried rice, beef / lamb combination platter, short rib, mushroom platter, napa, tongho, fish ball with roe, and of course the self-serve sauce bar. The medicinal chicken soup was lovely--very warming, with a strong but not overpowering herbal flavor. On the other hand, the slightly spicy broth was actually pretty spicy for me, and I'm able to handle spice pretty decently, so be warned! In retrospect, I wouldn't cook any vegetables in the spicy broth, haha. Each of the items we ordered was very tasty and fresh as well, and the meat had good texture. What stood out to me though was the generosity of their self-serve sauce bar, which also serves as a self-serve sides bar. They had fried chicken, clams, pickled cucumbers, seasoned wonton chips, sesame red bean balls--all unheard of to me that these things would be just laid out in an AYCE fashion. And they weren't haphazardly thrown together either--the fried chicken was crispy and tender; the clams weren't overcooked; the chips were savory; and the cucumbers were excellently seasoned. Throughout the meal we didn't interact much with our servers, but they were adequately attentive to our needs, refilling our water and broth, and overall amiable to interact with. Overall, this was a great experience and one I'll be recommending to my friends.

If you don't want to run your entire wallet at hadilao but craving some delicious hotpot, definitely give this place a try. Located in Vietnam town you can find this amazing place that offers such a cheap alternative to expensive places like hadilao. Came here with my girlfriend and we got the pork broth and the Szechuan medium. The quality here is amazing, everything that we ordered tasted super fresh! There is also a self serve bar where you can get sauces for your hotpot or little appetizers such as wonton chips, clams, seaweed salad and much more. When you order, it's also through a QR code and you barely get to interact with any of the workers here. I would also suggest scanning the wait list QR code on my photos so y'all could join to beat the line ahead!