Huangcheng Laoma

I'm not sure about the price as I did not pay for it... But from what the prices on the menu... It wasn't cheap. The bathrooms are relatively clean but that is "China level cleaness" so... Still dirty thought 🤔 They gave us the second floor and room all to ourselves 😁 at first there was a gentleman who took care of us and he was very very quick in getting things done. Also at the time we started ordering we were all hungry so we ended up ordering a little bit too much but he gave us suggestion that we will not be able to finish and we ended up with just the right portion. Afterwards my father asked for a show and as it was in such close distance all my family enjoyed it! But to our surprise it turned out that the person who was doing the show was exactly the gentleman who was serving us at the beginning! Which made it more of a surprise.

Chengdu Huangcheng Old Lady (English Branch). This is a delicious hot pot restaurant. It's a little expensive and it's crowded, so it's best to make a reservation. Fried rice is super delicious!

My first visit to this hotpot restaurant was some 20 years ago, I found it still as good as it was and even better in terms of service and overall ambiance when I visited last week. There are more than one locations and we decided on this one as it was the first one and now the headquarters of the chain. Very well situated in the city centre and everyone knew its existence. The restaurant had its own building comprised of a few stories, and we chose to be seated on the 2nd floor in the public dining hall as opposed to the private rooms. Dining hall was very spacious where there were enough distance between neighboring tables to ensure reasonable extent of privacy even in the public area. Order was made by ourselves on an iPad and payment after the meal was completed through WeChat pay app on my mobile. For the non computer savvy they would be pleased to take the order and collect payment the more traditional way. We had their famous marinated beef (which stayed tender no matter how long it was cooked in the hotpot), goose intestine, shrimps balls, spicy fish head, mushrooms and fungus together with some green vegetables. A double flavored soup base (red & white—chili & non spicy pork’s bone soup) completed and perfected the ordering. Beef was tasty and tender, the goose intestine was crispy, shrimp balls and fish head were all very fresh where you could taste its original sweet flavors of the flesh. Service was good and the wait staff was very attentive responding to our needs quickly. The wait staff would even offer to cook the food on one’s behalf at the table side, if you were a first timer of hotpot and were not sure whether some of the unfamiliar food items were adequately cooked and ready to be served. There was a performance stage on the 2nd floor dining hall where they offered traditional Chinese music and local Sichuan opera performances. Not to be missed was the performance of Bian-Lian (change of faces) performed each evening. One had to check with the restaurant it’s performing schedule though. About USD90 for a dinner for two with 5 dishes and live performances at the top rate hotpot restaurant was very good value for money. Highly recommend!

We told our guide that we wanted to try a Hot Pot restaurant, and this is where he took us. We had never had Hot Pot before, and he said this is the one we should try. We each had a small bowl of chopped garlic in sesame oil, along with chopped coriander, chopped green onions and oyster oil (a substitute for salt). The hot pot was brought to our table and the heat was turned on. Our hot pot was divided down the middle; one side a mild chicken broth, and the other side a hot spicy broth. They then brought out platters of raw beef, chicken, pork meat balls, and vegetables. As soon as our broth was boiling, we submerged whatever meat we wanted in the boiling broth. In a minute or two, we fished out the cooked meat and dipped in the garlic oil mixture. It was pure heaven, freshly cooked, spicy and hot. What a great experience!