The (almost) definitive guide to Shanghai’s best hotpots

Photograph: courtesy Diantaixiang

When winter hits, there's nothing quite like warming up in Shanghai with a steaming hotpot. From Shabu Shabu chains to spicy Sichuan-style broths to a completely organic hotpot, here's where to get your fix this season.

Around 100RMB per person 

Photograph:  courtesy Dintaixiang

Diantaixiang

Have you ever thought that you’d like to wait four hours for hotpot? If so, then this one’s for you. Besides massively long queues since opening in the early autumn, this hip Chengdu brand has brought its mouth-numbing, tongue-tingling mala hotpot to Hongkou. The vibe is distinctly Chinese retro – green-and-white tiled interior, sturdy metal stool set around tidy hotpot tables and harsh overhead lighting. Besides the usual hotpot suspects, try the restaurant’s house specialities: handmade brown sugar mocha and brown sugar jelly.

📍Diantaixiang, 444 Jiangwan Dong Lu, near Sichuan Bei Lu.

Three Travellers

Founded in 2001, with over ten branches in Shanghai, Three Travellers has won accolades for their hearty pork leg bone hotpot. The bones are boiled for more than ten hours with Sichuan spices, creating a rich broth. Although you can order the typical lamb and beef slices and fresh vegetables, the giant terracotta pots come to the table already jam-packed full of delicious tofu skin noodles (houbaiye), crunchy bamboo shoots (sunjian), various dumplings and, of course, the pig bones. Once you’re done feasting on everything else, you lug the bones out of the pot, pull on plastic gloves and put your straw in to suck out the luscious marrow. Different branches have varying levels of cleanliness. The branch on Zhaojiabang Lu is pretty shabby, while the one on Julu Lu is decently clean. Service is extremely casual.

📍Three Travellers, 879 Zhaojiabang Lu, near Wanping Lu.

Yi Pin Ju

Photograph: courtesy Yi Pin Ju

Look only for the butcher furiously sawing at a hunk of bloody lamb on the sidewalk and you’ll know you’ve arrived. This is the real freshly slaughtered deal, not for the squeamish nor the hygiene-obsessed. This tiny Beijing-style hotpot joint is packed to the rafters come cold weather when everybody, from club kids to local families, lines up for some of the freshest, most flavourful lamb in town. Inside, coal-fired braziers fill the battered room with steam and heat, and the floor, especially the astonishingly narrow and steep staircase for those eating upstairs, is fearsomely slippery – we have only admiration for the servers barrelling up and downstairs with the boiling hotpot cauldrons.

📍Yi Pin Ju, 352 Wulumuqi Zhong Lu, near Fuxing Xi Lu.

Around 150RMB per person

Photograph: @pacific_place via Instagram

Holy Cow

One of Shanghai’s finest hotpot restaurants, Holy Cow is our go-to choice for a great value and exceptional-quality beef hotpot. Using never-frozen beef from Dalian yellow cattle, there’s well over a dozen different cuts from fatty filet mignon to rib-eye to shank. There’s also a variety of meat and fish balls, as well as fresh vegetables and the unmissable xiaolongbao. Given how fresh the produce is here, sauce isn’t a requirement, but certainly justifies the indulgence. Mix your favourites together with confidence; we’re yet to find a wrong combination. For the broth, we recommend a half-half pot of spicy, and clear beef broth (MSG and additive free).

📍Holy Cow. Third Floor, Bldg 1, Bingo Mall, 341 Tianshan Lu, near Weining Lu. Multiple locations.

Yi Ye Yi Shijie

Photograph: Christopher House

This vegan hotpot places does things a little differently from your regular hotpot joint in that each person gets their own little mini-pot. The broths are made from tea and herbs, and the food options are completely plant-based, including items like vegan shrimp and vegan bacon.

📍Yi Ye Yi Shijie, Fifth Floor, 818 Plaza, 509 Nanjing Xi Lu, near Shimen Yi Lu.

AQ Shabu Shabu

AQ Shabu Shabu is a Japanese institution, constantly packed with locals who come for the all-you-can-eat deal on shabu shabu and bubbling sukiyaki hotpots (160RMB). As well as sweet and savoury sukiyakis (the former is the speciality), there are ten kinds of broth, from kelp to curry, tomato and Korean-style.

📍AQ Shabu Shabu. 351 Wuyi Lu, near Dingxi Lu.

17th Dock Hotpot

Photograph: Yang Xiaozhe

Diners with sensitive noses could be sneezing before they’re even in the door at this stylish hotpot restaurant on the northern reaches of Jiaozhou Lu. Sister establishment to Chengdu-based hotpot chain Old Dock, this branch has elected not to dial down the spice levels for the local market with their first outlet in the city.

For those who aren’t fans of heat it’s possible to select mild broths or have a split pot, but for those who are, the hottest soup – the zhong la (重辣) – should only be attempted with a beer or Jiaduobao to hand to extinguish the fire on your tongue. Into this, you can dip a wide range of rolled meats and fresh vegetables, though be warned that the menu is in Chinese only. 

📍17th Dock Hotpot, Third Floor, Changjiu Tower, 945 Jiaozhou Lu, near Changshou Lu.

Hong Chang Xing

Hong Chang Xing serves halal meat – meat that’s been prepared according to Muslim law – so it’s great for followers of that faith or for people who just love good food. The hotpot is fairly standard, but tasty – we had a vegetable platter (48RMB) and mixed cuts of lamb (78RMB). The highlight of the meal wasn’t the hotpot itself, but rather the perfectly seasoned lamb kebabs (12RMB each). 

📍Hong Chang Xing, 1 Yunnan Nan Lu, near Yanan Dong Lu.

Hai Di Lao

Photograph: courtesy Hai Di Lao

This ever-packed Sichuan-style hotpot chain is rightly legendary for its service, which involves everything from free shoe shines and manicures while you wait (and you will wait) to noodles that come with a kung fu performance. So it’s easy to forget how good the hotpot actually tastes – from the speciality beef balls and mutton coils to streaky pork, scallops, oysters and special mushrooms, it’s all fresh and top quality. The fact that the wait staff treat you like royalty as they serve it up is what makes it a genuinely entertaining evening.

📍Hai Di Lao, Third Floor, 1068 Beijing Xi Lu, near Jiangning Lu. Multiple locations.

Yuan Shi Zu

Yuan Shi Zu is modern hotpot done with style. There are black wooden tables crisply lit with small spotlights, deep red walls and a carved wooden centrepiece as the sauce bar. Launched in Taipei in 2005, this Mongolian-style hotpot specialises in unique fish and meat balls like yu baodan and richly-flavoured beef balls – which are a far cry from many hotpot restaurants’ wan, boring meatballs. Don’t skip the beef and lamb shaobing, small crackly flatbreads stuffed with juicy sautéed meat and sweet onion. The location may seem a little far-flung, but it’s under ten minutes walk from Line 10 and worth the journey.

📍Yuan Shi Zu. No 28, Lane 463 Jinhui Lu, near Wuzhong Lu.

200RMB per person and up

Photograph: courtesy Elixir Health Pot

Elixir Health Pot

Hengshan Lu spot Elixir is perennially busy, and when the giant duo pot of medicinal broth arrives at your table, you’ll start to understand why. The ‘health pot’ bases here – the ‘Wulao spicy aromatic pot’ or the ‘healthy creamy tofu pot’ – are a real feast for the taste buds, brimming with all kinds of spices, chilli, tofu and red dates.

To add to the already flavoursome broth, there’s plenty of beef, lamb and pork. There’s also an array of fresh seafood and vegetables, plus numerous varieties of tofu including a tasty ‘ice cream tofu’ option.

Although on the pricey side, we love Elixir Health Pot, and so does the rest of Shanghai, it appears – their windows aren’t permanently fogged up for nothing.

📍Elixir Health Pot, 2 Hengshan Lu, near Dongping Lu.

The Drunken Pearl

The Drunken Pearl is a little more upscale than your standard Hai Di Lao or Shabu Shabu (and nearly twice the price), but with their fresh, high-quality ingredients, good service and long list of options to choose from, we’re not complaining too much. They have several fish tanks in the back, where you can pick out crab, lobster or other fresh seafood for your pot. At 488RMB for 500 g of hairy crab, you might want to save the live seafood for a special occasion.

📍The Drunken Pearl, 98 Changshu Lu, near Changle Lu.

Qimin Organic Hotpot

Photograph: Yang Xiaozhe

Owned by the same folks behind speciality grocer Green & Safe, Qimin prides itself as a healthy hotpot restaurant, focusing on organic ingredients sourced directly from its own farm in Kunshan and a menu that changes every two months to ensure the freshest seasonal ingredients. Unlike your usual hotpot experience, here each guest gets their own individual pot, making it a great spot for vegetarians.

📍Qimin Organic Hotpot. Third Floor, 191 Hengshan Lu, near Yongjia Lu. Multiple locations.

More from Time Out Shanghai

Click below for more from Time Out Shanghai