The funniest little discussion I had about this place was with a Midwesterner, who thought Quality Taste Pot, was well, something totally different. No, not quite, though good hot pot can be addictive.
It took a while for me to talk the Missus into coming here. She's been down on the Chinese food in San Diego for a while. Plus, the weather has to cooperate. We're not "hot pot is a way of life" kinda folks and have to be in the mood for it.
But since the place has the blessing of both Kirbie who has made multiple visits and Faye we had to get here eventually, right?
This shop was home to several iterations of China Chef, which, in spite of having a menu that was all over the place did have some decent dishes. I guess Hot Pot is the way to go these days.
The interior has been redone; understated, clean, and bright. I recognized the woman here as a former long time employee at Little Sheep. She was one of the really nice women who worked there.
Of course we came for the hot pot……but Kirbie raved about the Salt and Pepper Chickens Wings. And you know me and chicken wings, so……
The texture of these were outstanding, light, crisp, and very moist. A little short in the flavor the two times I had these, but quite good. One key point; eat them right away, don't get them to go. These get soggy and take on a greasy texture fairly quickly. Very nice.
DO NOT get the Yang Rou Chuan. In fact, I'm not sure why I ordered it.
Tough, dry, and short on flavor. 'Nuff said. We were really here for the hot pot, right?
We got the Special Tasty Pot – $14.95 for dinner. The Missus got into "Chinese" mode and quickly complained about the portion size….which ended up being enough for the two of us with the Chicken Wings.
I quickly mentioned that one of biggest complaints about the state of Chinese food in San Diego is the emphasis of huge quantities over quality, so we needed to give this place a chance. As you can see, this is not yuan yang guo, but a straightforward broth; decently flavored, quite low on scum. The proteins were passable, though only three slices of pretty good intestine and three slices of beef which for some reason dries out quite quickly. The dipping sauces were also passable, but not outstanding, the sa cha sauce was my favorite. The Missus hates fishballs, which were fishballs. She quickly got the half boiled egg, which She said was Her favorite. Too much udon noodle overall.
Overall not bad. The broth was probably the best thing about the hot pot.
So, I decided to return with YZ and Lily for lunch where the hot pot is $4 cheaper. YZ just loved the chicken wings and we thought the Special Tasty Pot was….well, they had the same opinion as I did.
We also tried the Lamb with Pickled Vegetable.
This was quite good; except for the shellfish which were past their prime. The lamb was nice and gamey, which I love. The suan cai was kind of weak, though perhaps I'm kind of picky since we make this at home; about 7 batches a year. This suan cai didn't quite have the nice, deep fermented flavor of good suan cai. Still, this was decent, and we'd probably return when the weather gets a bit chilly….though I do prefer mala yang yuan guo.
Service was decent, not overly friendly, not terrible. Perhaps worth a try…..
QT (Quality Taste) Pot
9225 Mira Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92126