Today we were at Liuyishou’s Burnaby location for something other than hotpot.
Their newest menu item is a 2 person Dry Hot Pot. Instead of cooking meat and vegetables in boiling broth at your table, this is a full pot of already cooked food brought out to you. Everything you like about hot pot, but without the soup, already cooked, and no need for any sauces.
Despite the marketing photos, it doesn’t actually come in a bamboo barrel-like pot. Instead, it is just a regular metal pot. The poster also makes it look like you are getting a lot more food, in proportion to the hand model holding chopsticks in the photo. Even more so when you compare it to the photo I took of my friend hand modelling for me over our pot.
However, despite the smaller looking serving size, this was a lot of food for two, with leftovers to boot. Especially when you add on additional toppings like we did.
This is available Monday to Thursday for walk-in dining. It serves as a great late night meal, especially when you tack on their Monday to Sunday 20% off soju and beer deal after 9pm.
There are three options to choose from, each comes with the same base ingredients of potato fries, Chinese cabbage, lotus root, onions, and sesame. Your choice comes from what protein you want with it.
There is the Tender Beef Dry-fried Pot, the Chicken Wings Dry-fried Pot, Shrimp Dry-fried Pot, and the Crispy Fish Fillet Dry-fried Pot. The latter three are $24.99 each, which is a great deal and enough food to feed two.
We were not interested in the lightly battered fish fillets dry-fried to crisp, so passed on those. We got the $29.99 flash-seared marinated beef, dried fried with chilies, and to it added on some crispy shell shrimp that was dry-fried to lock in its sweetness. Plus an order of the crispy-skin chicken wings dry-fried to a juicy spice on the side.
However, after trying it all, and if I was only going to spend the $24.99 on one, it would be for the fried chicken. This one comes with 10 wings, which was 4 more than what we got as a side order. Not to mention, that the chicken wings are fantastic with a terrific crispy coating.
Everything was so flavourful with a numbing peppercorn spice and tingle. I highly recommend getting a side of rice to help wash out some of the boldness, and one of their cold drinks to help refresh and cleanse the palate in between bites.
Our dessert of sugar jelly did just that, washing away spice with its sugar. I especially liked the texture of the jiggly jellies and the chew of the raisins.
I liked the concept and the price, I just wished for more options and a bit of customization. This is especially the case considering their regular hot pot gives you so much freedom to decide what does into the pot. Although at the end of the day, this is a great affordable meal for two that I can recommend.
Liuyishou Hotpot Burnaby
5507 Kingsway, Burnaby, BC V5H 2G3
(604) 559-9888
liuyishouna.com
