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Authentic Cantonese Hotpot Restaurant
We believe in using only top-quality produce and offer a vast selection of seafood, meat, vegetables, noodles and more. Melburnians seeking the indulgence of Sichuan hot pot cooking head to Tan Hotpot on Bourke Street in the heart of the city. Experience Melbourne’s only duck blood tofu hot pot restaurant, where softly glowing red and yellow lanterns set a moody vibe as you settle in to choose your soup base, ingredients and flavours to appease any appetite.
Unlike some of the other hot pot places on this list – it involves getting a bowl, picking your own ingredients from the glorious open fridge, and weighing your choices before choosing a broth and spice level. These legends have even created a vegan version of hot pot near me their original malatang soup base so nobody has to miss out – just don’t go in with an empty stomach or you might end up with a bowl made for two. But it’s the Isaan cuisine loaded with chilli and spiked with fermented fish that resonates most strongly here.

If you’re feeling a bit strapped for cash, Damiao Panda Fan has your back. They pride themselves on delivering high-quality ingredients for a fraction of the price – their lunch buffet will only set you back $35 per person. Dip pieces of Kagoshima A5 wagyu striploin or gold-dusted M9 short rib into your soup, sit back and let it melt in your mouth. Finish off the meal with the most intricately made purple sweet potato puffs shaped into black swans – even the ‘neck’ and ‘beak’ of the potato-crafted swan are entirely edible.
In the south-eastern coastal province of Guangdong, seafood takes centre stage. Wu Mi Zhou at the top end of Lonsdale Street specialises in mellow and comforting congee hotpots from the region. Yunnan hotpot is different again, using an array of wild mushrooms and flowers and the rice noodles for which the province is famed.

It's since carved out its own identity as the first spot to offer Thai-style hot pot and barbecue in Melbourne. Red plastic stools dot the eatery, tissue boxes hang on the walls and Thai Coca-Cola and Sprite signs light up the kitchen area. The venue replicates a busy street-side restaurant in Bangkok. Happy Lamb Hot Pot Melbourne encourages our customers to taste natural flavour of ingredients, fresh sweet vege & juicy meat. You’ll find Hot Pot Plus on Elizabeth Street’s lively, market-adjacent restaurant strip. Here the $2.80 per 100 grams price tag is about as cheap as it comes for malatang in Melbourne.
Made to cook-to-order with over 100 ingredients to choose from, spiciness-your-way, our customers can create endless combinations of hot pot that’s guaranteed to be delicious, every time. You’ve probably walked past Panda Hot Pot’s huge wooden doors and couldn’t resist snapping a pic or two. After taking over the old Dracula’s site in 2019, Panda has made its mark on Melbourne with its authentic Sichuan menu and free nightly entertainment.
The kitchen is the heart of the traditional Chinese home, and we cook with the same mentality, curating the aroma of fresh food and ambiance of sizzle to accompany your meal. We want you to enjoy our Cantonese food however you please, whether that means at a table in our restaurant or in the comfort of your own home. We offer dine-in and takeaway options to ensure you have a delicious meal wherever you are. While hotpot is definitely the star of the show at JiYu, lunchtime sees individual bowls of soup served up as well as plenty of little bits and pieces for grazing and sharing.

More than 100,000 Chinese students, who drive Carlton's dining economy (and were certainly Panda's target market), are stuck overseas. JiYu, which opened in late 2019 in the heart of Chinatown, is all about malatang, or Sichuan-style hotpot, done Thai style. A grand staircase sweeps up through the centre of the restaurant – which is decked out in red and gold, with lots of wood throughout – to a second level. Both levels are guarded by a 16-metre-long, 1.5-tonne steel dragon that was brought over from Chengdu, China , which is suspended from the ceiling. In late 2019, Carlton’s slightly spooky, super kitschy theatre restaurant Dracula’s underwent a $6 million makeover and became a palatial hotpot restaurant.
The standard beef broth here is excellent but beware the heat — we ordered medium hot and left humbled. Lau, or Vietnamese hotpot, has Chinese steamboat origins. Raw ingredients are dipped into a central, simmering broth. It’s a colourful spot with blue neon signage and bamboo baskets in the window, a modern-industrial fit out and laneway tables. Lau comes with rare sliced beef, mushrooms, fish cakes and seasonal vegetables.
The staff's hard work is a testament to the exceptional food that's dished out and keeps crowds coming back for more – waiting before the venue has even opened. Papaya is hand-cut fresh every day and the all-Thai staff buzz around the room. Lohayanjaree goes to sleep at 4 am each day and can be spotted working behind the counter, speedily mashing numbers into a calculator to organise countless guests’ receipts, as a queue of people meanders outside. Due to the pandemic, the venue lost a lot of workers and is actively hiring Thai people where it can compete with demand. OpenTable is part of Booking Holdings, the world leader in online travel and related services.

At Happy Lamb on Exhibition Street, marrow is steeped in the eight-hour broth. There are six bases and a selection of lamb cuts and platters, along with a range of handmade seafood balls and pastes. Best known for their viral Barbie dolls draped in slices of wagyu beef, this Melbourne venue is one of more than 500 stores internationally.
First, choose from their selection of seven soup bases — for those who are less spice inclined, don’t worry, there are heaps of chilli-free options. Then you can start filling your table with platters of fresh seafood, roses made out of ox tongue, or a smokey box of dry ice layered with their signature cuts of meat. If you feel like a break from Melbourne’s huge choice of Sichuan-style spots, this is the place for you. Choose between Jiyu’s signature sweet and sour tom yum soup or creamy Thai coconut broth – if you’re feeling indecisive, you can also opt for the two-in-one split pot which offers a taste of each. Seafood reigns supreme here with street food-style menu options like spicy stir-fried pips, oysters or Thai seafood fried rice.
Read More: https://www.davidsmasterpot.com.au/