Saturday, May 8, 2010

Full Service Hot Pot

Posted by She Said

Yesterday was a company-wide bonus day at Greg’s work. To celebrate the “big day”, everyone was given the second half of the day off. Several coworkers invited us to go with them to a hot pot restaurant that was a short thirty minute subway ride and a 15 minute walk away.

They had us at hot pot.

When we arrived, the 13 of us were directed to our own private room. We had to split into two groups to fit around the tables without clamoring for hot pot privileges. The kids, of course, ate their “chocolate sandwich” that I picked up from 7-Eleven prior to hitting the subway. Yeah, I know. I hate me too.

In my hurry out the door to meet Greg and his coworkers, the unthinkable happened. I forgot all four of our cameras. Maybe I should consider having one surgically attached like my mother did. This is incredibly unfortunate because this place was amazing. A-MAY-ZING.

The service staff was abundant and attentive. Dare I say, especially to Emily? *groan* I found it particularly humorous that one of Greg’s coworkers was asked by one of the staff if the children’s hair was “colorized”. No, no, it’s not. But I am considering a nice shade of black.

After our pots started to boil, a man came in carrying a tray, which he set down and took a small piece of dough from and slightly stretched it. Then he began to dance with the dough as he tossed it around, stretching it into scrumptious noodles. The dough flowed around him like the ribbon of a gymnast during a floor routine.

noodlemaker

Since I didn’t have my camera, it is obvious this is not my photograph. Meh, we’re in China, and copyright isn’t an issue, so thanks to whoever took this picture!

Ahhhh, then the food. It was amazing! To start, there was a sauce bar. There were dozens of options of what to dip your savory cooked pieces into. As if I could get past the tahini and cilantro. Pshaw! And as if we were attending the Rib Cook Off in Sparks, Nevada, they gave us aprons to wear so as to not stain our clothing during our chow fest.

There was also a kids’ play area, which we didn’t discover until we were almost ready to leave. We must have spent at least three hours on this glorious lunch. And as if the sauce, the food, the attentive and kind service weren’t enough, they have a FREE shoe shine station and a full-service manicure station set up right across from the computers with free Internet and small book library.

So, to recap:

  • delicious food
  • sauce bar
  • noodle dancing
  • great service
  • Internet
  • kids’ play area
  • shoe shining
  • nail painting
  • books (I would have put this one up higher on the list but I figure I probably can’t read any of them anyway)

Yeah, you’ll be lucky if you ever see me again.

_IGP8008

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like an awesome place. I'm a bit jealous of the free manicure I must admit.

    ReplyDelete