But really…

I live for Boiling Point.

I even considered adding four of exactly the same picture angled the exact same way from different days to prove how often I will take the drive to get it.

Boiling Point, located in Pasadena (the newest location), Arcadia, and Rowland Heights are the main locations I’ll visit, but the taste is just as good at every location. The Pasadena location has a lot better customer service than the other two, mostly because they get more diverse people coming in (rather than only Asians visiting the other two).

Boiling Point is Taiwanese, and I’ve tried Little Sheep in Pasadena (Mongolian) and Mokkoji in Arcadia (Japanese), and BP has to be my ultimate favorite. I usually get the Beef Hot Pot without the sauce (which contains peanuts–I’m allergic) so I get it with just broth but it’s still just as good! If you don’t have a peanut allergy, go ahead and get it with the sauce, I hear it’s bomb as well! You can choose a spice level ranging from original, mild, medium, and hot; I go for the mild because I’m weak shit.

Depending where you visit, at the Arcadia and Rowland location, it usually costs $11.99 during lunch and $13.99 during dinner; but at Pasadena, it’s $13.99 for lunch, and $15.99 for dinner–somewhere around there. At the Arcadia and Rowland location, if you go for lunch, you get a choice of a green or black tea for free, but you don’t get the same offer for dinner.

If you’ve never had hot pot/shabu shabu before, it’s basically meat (or vegetables/shrimp), noodles, vegetables, and soup all in one wok over a small fire; and you get rice on the side (Pasadena offers white and brown rice). Compared to other hot pot places I’ve tried, I’ve just found this to be the most satisfying to my own taste buds. I found Little Sheep to be too salty (and expensive), and Mokkoji was literally water (but I blame myself for getting the original base–it’s like actually water).

Definitely my go-to hot pot, and if there were one closer to the Valley, best believe I’d be there every week. But til then, the Pasadena location will be my holy grail hehe. Also! If you go to the Pasadena location, there’s lots to walk around and see in Old Town 🙂