OK, let’s talk hot pot. If steaming bowls of broth, tasty noodles, and a bounty of fresh ingredients are your bag, you’re in the right place. My youngest and I are obsessed with noodle soup; we make it at home regularly, and we’re slowly making our way around Oxford, finding ones we love. We were yet to try a hot pot, so when Mr Wang Hot Pot opened in Gloucester Green, it’s safe to say we were excited to check it out.

Let’s start at the beginning, though, where all good stories start. Mr Wang Hot Pot originated in China, then went on to grow internationally, including into the UK. The brand has locations in Edinburgh, Birmingham, London, Cambridge, Leicester, Southampton, Brighton, and now Oxford.

You walk into their bright, yellow, Gloucester Green restaurant, and are immediately greeted by tables set with soup ladles and chopsticks. The staff are friendly and accommodating, the space clean and minimalist.

Once you’re settled in, you’re given a little basket to collect your chosen hot pot ingredients into. Then off you go to ‘shop’ from the wall full of flavours. And there are loads to choose from: plenty of meat and fish variations, vegetables, herbs, dumplings, and noodles. The cost you pay is based on the weight of your ingredients, so go easy here if your eyes are bigger than your wallet! 👀 It’s £2.95 per 100g, and the recommended serving is 400-450g per person.

Harry went down the route of fish balls, rice cakes, dumplings and veg with ramen noodles; I went for special spicy beef, heavy on the mushrooms, beansprouts, bak choi, and a healthy dose of coriander, with dumplings and a slice of luncheon meat for good measure, with glass vermicelli.

Next, you choose your soup base – we agreed on bone broth – but there’s also sour & spicy golden soup, rich tomato soup, milky soup, or Sichuan-style spicy & numbing mix. Then you hand your ingredients over to the kitchen to cook up with your soup base, while you make up your dipping sauces. You can go DIY here or follow a dipping formula. I made up my own mix of soy sauce, vinegar, and chilli oil; Harry had some help from one of the team putting together a peanut sauce, which he loved!

Side note: If you hate the idea of choosing everything yourself, there are some rice bowls you can order. There’s also a selection of sides – the fried bread sticks make great dunkers for mopping up broth with.

The steaming hot bowls didn’t take long to arrive – and when I say hot, I mean lava hot. The first bunch of photos I took were a bust because my lens got so steamed up.

Your dipping bowl turns into a saviour at this point, embedding bursts of flavour into each mouthful, and allowing a welcome chance to cool. It was all really bloody delicious, cue a ‘happy food’ dance and a lot of food splashes as we slurped away.

The venue filled up while we ate, and Harry somehow managed to get through his vat of food, even stealing some of mine! We even managed to finish off a good amount of the delicious bone broth at the end.

Would I go back again? Absolutely, we were really impressed with the format, the variety of ingredients, the freshness, and the staff. It was a really easy place to enjoy, the food was great, and the format made it an experience. So when are you going?

Mr Wang Hot Pot
95 Gloucester Green, Oxford
mrwanghotpot.co.uk

We dined as guests of Mr Wang Hot Pot, all opinions are our own.