Word of a new Taiwan Style hot pot restaurant had been circulating around for a while, so after reading and deliberating, and schedule making, I rounded up some of my eating buddies (K and J) to go check it out a few months back. We found it to be very economical, and every left with a Euphoric Sense of Well Being™. Unfortunately that time noone had a good camera with them. We finally managed to get everyone back together again for another visit this evening
sweet home cafe
The restaurant is tucked into the strip mall at 2334 S. King street to the left of Kozo Sushi. Upon entry, theres a familiar homely feeling. At times it can get pretty crowded though, so make a reservation if you’re planning on going during the dinner rush time.
The first-timer to this restaurant may find the format confusing, so I’ll try to describe how it works. The menu shows you several broth selections, you’d choose your broth and meat items off the menu. The rest of the ingredients that you would want in your hotpot are alacarte from the reefers in the back of the restaurant. Theres a wide selection of stuff, and the items are price coded by the color if their plate.
Here you see beef and lamb for the meat selection, and under the cover is a sake broth. In the dishes to the side are rice noodles, corn, potatoes, aburage, squid, seafood balls, scallop mushrooms, and shingiku. The latter item, I’m not sure how to explain. It looks like mizuna, but has the bite of a mustard cabbage. Also pictured are flower tea and boba milk tea. There are a whole plethora of dipping sauces available, our favorite are the “traditional” (anchovies, and numerous spices that I cant name) mixed with their homemade shoyu, or the goma sauce.
Half the fun is cooking your stuff! With the power of the Inductive Cooking surface, there is almost no waiting for your hotpot to come to boil.
After almost 90min of yapping and cooking and eating and yapping some more, we had eaten everything. Be sure to leave some space for dessert though, their shaved ice is pretty wonderful. Its a fine texture, drizzled with condensed milk and brown sugar syrup and topped with fruits or azuki.
This was my 3rd visit, on previous visits, I had the herb broth and the spicy broth. So far I’ve not been disappointed! Remember to take the leftover soup with you, it makes a excellent base for something the next day. Like ramen.
4 out of 5 happy euphoric monkeys.
*NOTE: On a popular restaurant review site, you may find mention of “Mean Curly Hair Lady”. I have to completely disagree with that statement. Shes really nice! On all three of my visits, she made it a point to know the first name of at least one person at every table, and came by often to see how things were going.
This looks like a “can’t go alone” kind of place. Do you figure 3 or 4 people is about right?
FYI, Shungiku is edible chrysanthemum leaves.
You *might* be able to go alone, but you wouldnt have much variety. with 2 persons its okay, but with 3-4 people you can really get a bunch of stuff for maximum enjoyment.