Xiangyang Tang Maodu

Dishes

Excellent for fresh ingredients, good variety of offal. Highlights include fresh tripe (crispy/chewy when cooked correctly), tender beef liver, and crispy yellow throat. Other dishes like beef offal and farmed eel are decent. The hotpot base is solid but milder compared to traditional Chongqing style.

Service

Attentive and helpful. Staff assists with ordering, serving, and even gas tank changes, indicating good customer care.

Precautions

• Be mindful of specific cooking times for different ingredients, especially tripe (7-8 seconds) and yellow throat (longer) to ensure optimal texture.
• Ensure tripe is dipped in oil immediately after cooking to cool it down and enhance flavor.
• Be aware that yellow eel blood can be toxic if not properly handled; the restaurant appears to handle this correctly.
• Some ingredients, like beef offal, may be pre-cooked and require specific cooking durations to avoid becoming too tough or too soft.
• The hotpot base, while good, might be less spicy/numbing than traditional Chongqing hotpot, so adjust dipping sauces accordingly.
• The dipping sauce can be quite salty, so add salt cautiously.
• If the hotpot broth has no foam, it might contain defoamers (though this isn't necessarily a negative, just an observation).
• The pork kidney (dadao yaopian) might be pre-processed, affecting its natural texture compared to fresh preparations.