Xiangbala Hotpot

Glasgow

INEVITABLY I’ve forgotten how long my prawns have been in, whether the fuzhou fish balls were meant to get two or four minutes' cooking and I can’t even find the scallop which is ducking and diving somewhere beneath what is now a bubbling sargasso sea of soup.

At least the pickled cabbage broth that is cooking these and many other items – including those surprisingly delicious, crispy and crunchy slices of lotus root; that creamy radish and the beef sliced so thin it immediately turns to wispy ruffles – is nowhere near as forbidding as the waitress suggested.

“Salty,’ she had said, clearly directing me to something else, “very spicy, not like Polish cabbage.” I, of course, then considered having my hot pot filled with ox tail broth, tom yung kung broth, even special chicken broth. But soon discover one of the advantages of ordering from a wipe-clean laminated menu with a great big green marker pen to put crosses beside the dishes you want is this: you can order what you bloody want.

So I tick the kelp. I tick the konjac filament. I tick the Japanese fish ball. And I tick the pickled cabbage broth. Tick, tick, tick goes my thick green marker pen as I pick everything that doesn’t repel me: there's simply no way I'm taking the tripe.

For £16.99 it’s eat as much as you like in two hours. And if I don’t fancy the look of it, I don’t have to cook it. By now the pot full of that pickled cabbage broth is boiling furiously on the ceramic hot plate set into my table, I’ve been given a tour of the sauces table by the extremely pleasant and helpful waitress, and I’ve followed instructions and filled a bowl with sesame and peanut sauce and ladled in hot smoked chilli, garlic in oil, coriander, crispy onions, soy something…hang on you’re thinking, that can’t be right. But it is.

I watch young Chinese families with young children, couples with phones the size of laptops, groups of cool young Chinese dudes all doing the same thing. Or pretty much the same.

Now, if you have not done the hot pot hoop-la before then here’s what happens in Xiangbala. All that stuff that’s been ticked is brought over on a very large platter. You dunk it in your boiling hot pot then fork, chopstick or even ladle it out when cooked, dip in the sauces and eat.

Yes, it’s a bit sloppy and slidey. Yes, the whole place is a more than a little bit Bladerunner with its sparkly topped tables, spooky, shabby entrance up one of those long twisty and very run-down closes that spill from shabby, seedy and even more run-down Union Street. There is even a neon light flickering somewhere outside tonight.

Yet I’ve got to say the atmosphere is pleasant, the whole place very relaxed as people crack the dark shells on their tea leaf boiled eggs, or suck down on chilli chicken feet (optional).

Whole crab goes by, platters of barbecue fish follow, sadly not available to those eating alone and big bunches of those spectacularly strange-looking long needle mushrooms are also on the special list. I can have them. Out they come. Dunk, they’re in the hot pot. They’re fine, slender, exotic.

I also really like these little noodles tied like a package of shoelaces, but I don’t remember ordering any noodles.

“They’re not noodles,” she says. “That’s the konjac filament, made from vegetables and no calories.”

They soak up the taste of the zingy, spicy broth which lightly flavours everything, even that rich kelp, the really fresh pak choi and Chinese leaves. The broth is there to flavour everything, not to be drunk. In fact the waiting staff are over with kettles of boiling water whenever they think your soup is getting too strong.

It’s all good food theatre this, healthy too. Surprisingly enjoyable.

Xiangbala Hotpot

27 Union Street,

Glasgow

0141 847 0093

Menu: Cook your own dinner of meats, fish and fresh vegetables in a bubbling Chinese hot pot at your table. Extremely fashionable in the Chinese community. 4/5

Atmosphere: Up a close, round a corner and through a tatty door off Union Street; maybe a little bit Bladerunner but relaxed and interesting. 4/5

Service: Unusually for a Glasgow hot-pot place they bring your choices on a silver platter, then it’s self serve. Staff are young, friendly and very helpful. 4/5

Price: At £16.99 for an endless buffet it’s hard to fault the value, especially as a lot of the vegetables and fish seemed very fresh. 4/5

Food: Surprisingly the lotus root, the radish and the lighter seafood tasted by far the best in the zingy, spicy hot pot soup. Eat all day without putting on an ounce. 7/10

23/30