The Hotpot (Publika)

The simple decor at this new steamboat place is pinnacled by an oriental painting and nothing else, which means the real allure is in its food. Introducing the concept of huddling over Cantonese-style hotpot while sipping on sake to its diners, The Hotpot makes a great dinner idea for your next group gathering. Of the five broths available (all boiled for a minimum of six hours for optimum flavour), the delicious but not overpowering Premium Cantonese Pork Bone Soup (RM25) is the clear winner. If you prefer variety, get a double soup base with something spicy on the other side — Seasonal Curry or the Spicy Szechuan Ma Lat Soup. Freshness is a key quality in the ingredients here, and Tastemaker Alyssia recommends ordering the handmade Fresh Prawn Paste (RM20) to attest to it. Also look to the Premium Beancurd Roll (RM15) that soaks up all the soupy goodness. Part of what we love about The Hotpot is also their stunning sauce tray — individual ramekins of sauce that come together to create a chef-curated blend of shacha sauce, chilli sauce, nam yue and bird's eye chilli. When here, don't forget to ask for a sake pairing (from RM38 for 200ml) to go with your choice of broth.
Avg price per person: RM50

A newly opened hotpot restaurant in Publika serving Cantonese hotpot and pair with Japanese sake. The restaurant focus on serving high quality fresh ingredient for steamboat.

We start off with a double soup base - a Premium pork bone broth and a seasonal flavour which is curry. Menu selection range from live fresh seafood, variety of homemade paste, antibiotic free premium meat slice and more.

I would highly recommend their fresh prawn paste. Its handmade by the chef you can taste the freshness of the prawn paste and a crunchy texture that is delightful.

Drunken prawn that lightly marinated in Chinese wine served in a bamboo container with some Goji berry. Chef recommend us to cook the prawn with the Chinese wine in the pork bone soup to enjoy the best of it. The prawn is very fresh, cooking in pork bone soup did enhance its natural sweetness.

Fuchuk lover will definitely love this place, aside from the regular fuchuk, they do serve premium beancurd roll and golden beancurd paper(SO GOOD). If this couldn’t satisfy your fuchuk craving, you can even make your own fuchuk with cheese!

The owner introduce us their signature dipping sauce to go with the steamboat, its start off with a taiwanese shacha sauce as a base, follow by fermented beancurd sauce, homemade chilli sauce, coriander and bird eye chili. It finish off with a tablespoon of pork bone soup to bring everything together as a creamy dipping sauce. Do give a try to add some vinegar as well, it add another dimension of flavour to the sauce! interesting.

As a Japanese sake bar for steamboat, they offer a selection of sake for you to pair with your meal. The recommended sake pairing for pork bone soup is the Gasanryu Junmai Fuka that pairs very well with broths & white meat. Its my first time having Japanese sake with steamboat, it’s surprisingly matching and the great things is it won’t get bloated easily compare to beer.

Its definitely a very enjoyable steamboat experience and can’t wait to revisit to try out the Ma-La soup base. Thank you so much to @thehotpotpublika for the wonderful dinner.