Sizzling Pot King

I'd been meaning to visit Sizzling Pot King since I noticed they had replaced Qi Wei Kitchen back in December of last year.

But for some reason, I just wasn't very excited about eating here. Perhaps it was the very lackluster visits we had at Qi Wei and the menu didn't seem that much different at all. What finally got me visiting was meeting up with Xiāngjiāo and her hubby MichaelFC. We had drinks at Poseidon and XJ brought this along for the ride.

This was actually pretty good! Decent spice, some definite numbing (麻) going on. Not too salty, loved the frozen tofu, and tripe and tendon just seemed a good fit for this. Nice job XJ!

They had me take the leftovers home; the Missus really enjoyed it!

So guess where we went a few days later?

The place looks pretty much the same as Qi Wei, except for all the "stuffs" on the walls. Also, it seems the cooks eat pretty well here.

So here's the drill for us; Large Dry Pot ($30.99), with Beef Tendon and Tripe (you get two "meats" - $10.99 for additional, not worth the upcharge IMHO), Medium Spicy, Ma-la, with frozen tofu ($2.99 extra). Delivered over a heating element, just like hot pot, you give it a couple of good stirs to mix all the flavors together.

Seems on the pricey side; but consider that it's 2-3 meals for us, which breaks down to $10-15 a meal and I'd say it's not priced too bad. This is a total 180 degree turn from Qi Wei, from the decent spice....medium isn't too much; you can still make out all the flavors, to a decent numbing from the Sichuan peppercorn. The tendon has a nice texture, as does the tripe. The frozen tofu soaks up all of that chili oil based sauce. For some reason, the Missus really likes the potatoes and cauliflower in this. I'd love a bit more celery though.

Still, not bad.

So basically, this has turned into a nice take-out option for us. I also took Calvin and JohnF to lunch here, and even though we had John who destroyed a Bandejas Paisa with us, there were left-overs.

I did also try the Won Tons with Hot Sauce ($5.99), which was fairly mediocre, slightly spicy, but quite one dimensional, lacking the rather nuanced flavors and the "kǒugǎn", the "mouthfeel" if you will of really good wontons.

The sauce was also a bit too thin for me; I'm still looking for a good version locally.

In the end; this is sort of like comfort food for the Missus and I. Nothing fancy, but good grub that's great take-out....it gets even better the next day as the spice settles and that frozen tofu sucks up all the sauce. I think tripe, tendon, and intestine are probably the best meats, since beef and chicken would tend to dry out a bit.

The service can be rather uneven, but one of the young men there is quite nice. Not sure about some of the other dishes as I've never seen folks ordering anything other than the dry pot.

Sizzling Pot King
8058 Clairemont Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111

Comments

[SomTommy]

Finally got to try this place. It is very good. A new regular stop for us.

[Kirk]

Glad you enjoyed it ST!