For many of Metro Atlanta’s Asian community members, a hot pot dinner serves as a default vehicle for holiday dinners or just celebrating the week with family and friends.
“In the Japanese tradition, hot pot is usually shared between close family and friends, and even co-workers, at their holiday meal,” said Sachiyo Nakato Takahara, third-generation owner of Nakato Japanese Restaurant. It’s also the preferred way to welcome someone into a circle — a new team member joining the staff, for example.
“The same chopsticks that you use in the hot pot go back into your mouth,” Nakato Takahara said of serving yourself from the same dish. “It’s a trust thing where you’re part of the family now.”
It’s difficult to narrow down a Western equivalent to hot pot — in terms of execution, the closest relative is fondue, but the family-style ethos is a tenet in countless cultures. Nakato Takahara likens hot pot nights at home to the pizza nights that carried the U.S. back in the 1980s and 1990s. “In Japan, it’s like mom prepares leftovers or leftover ingredients from the week and then [does] a big hot pot at the end of the week on Fridays.”
The origins of hot pot trace back to China. During the 12th century, when Chinggis Khan was conquering the Chinese mainland, the Mongolian emperor had his soldiers flip their metal helmets over and boil water. “All the vegetables and beef were cut really thin so they could eat it quickly and efficiently and save the resources of wood burning,” Nakato Takahara says.
Nakato serves three types of Japanese hot pot: shabu-shabu, sukiyaki, and yosenabe.
Shabu-shabu is a mizutaki (“cooked in the water”) that starts with dried kelp and aromatics like vegetables and mushrooms and gives way to flash-boiled, thin slices of beef dipped into ponzu or a sesame sauce. Fun fact: “shabu-shabu” is an onomatopoeia referencing the sound of the boiling meat.
Sukiyaki starts in a cast-iron pot, starring meticulously tender beef and a sweetened sauce served with vegetables and rice.
Yosenabe (“to gather”) cooks all the ingredients – typically seafood, mushrooms, and vegetables – together in a dashi broth.
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Today, it’s fair to say most East Asian cultures (and regional subcultures) have their own style of hot pot. Each has unique quirks, preferred ingredients, and cooking styles. The biggest distinction between Chinese and Korean hot pot is the type of broth, said Ming Han Chung, co-founder of Korean beverage company Minhwa Spirits in Doraville.
Chinese hot pot has a wide spectrum of broths and sauces. An increasingly popular style of broth is mala, a numbingly spicy Sichuan or Chongqing broth made with beef tallow, chili oil, and spices. (In 1997, Chongqing became separate from Sichuan, its surrounding province, but the culinary and cultural overlaps remain.) However, non-spicy broth is common in Chinese hot pot as well.
Korean hot pot, known as jeongol, leans towards heartier, spicier broths and regional ingredients.
“[Koreans will] put in certain things early on into the hot pot just because we know that flavor will come out as a soup develops,” Chung said, citing tomatoes, corn, and clams as go-to ingredients in a liquid akin to Southern potlikker.
Atlanta offers a wealth of hot pot restaurants with Chinese, Japanese, and Korean styles (the most widely available style in the metro area). Newer establishments even combine cultures. Chubby Cattle Shabu in Duluth, for example, simultaneously honors Japanese hot pot’s dedication to quality beef and Chinese hot pot’s luxury of accouterments, most notably the wide variety of sauces found in Chinese hot pot establishments.
Chung said that hot pot’s appeal has grown among Western nations as large format East and Southeast Asian soups — think the pho and ramen crazes of the 2010s — have become an efficient way to feed a group. Restaurateurs have caught on to hot pot, too, and particularly mala’s appeal.
“There’s a lot of immigrants who opened up new hot pot places, especially Chinese-style where there’s a lot more broth, and I think people just started opening up because [they] got introduced,” Chung said of why there seems to be a sudden proliferation of hot pot restaurants in Metro Atlanta.
Hot pot’s greatest gift is the agency it grants individual diners – a delicious, piping-hot paradox.
“It’s a very group-[oriented] thing, but you can also be very personal at the same time because of the choices of what you want to eat and the sauce,” Chung said. “It makes it very interactive.”
Hot pot styles run the gamut at Metro Atlanta restaurants. Below are five hot pot restaurants of varying styles to try.
China Hot Pot
Intown Plaza, 5090 Buford Highway, Doraville
This Doraville spot is one of Atlanta’s better values for Chinese hot pot. The all-you-can-eat menu doesn’t skimp on quality and is well worth the price.
Nakato Japanese Restaurant
776 Cheshire Bridge Road, Atlanta
When Nakato opened in 1972, sukiyaki was one of the restaurant’s initial draws. Now, Nakato offers three styles of Japanese hot pot: sukiyaki, yosenabe, and shabu-shabu.
Xi Hot Pot
Duluth International Village, 2645 N Berkeley Lake Road, Duluth
Get yourself a good dose of mala at Xi Hot Pot, a Chongqing-style hot pot restaurant in Duluth’s International Plaza. Expect a higher bill in exchange for premium meats like abalone and sliced lamb.
9292 Shabu
Satellite Shops, 3780 Old Norcross Road, Duluth
9292 Shabu specializes in Korean shabu-shabu, serving a variety of broths, including deungchon spicy, dashi, and maratang (mara). The restaurant also features a gluten-free menu.
Chubby Cattle Shabu
GW Marketplace, 2180 Pleasant Hill Road, Duluth
As home to a J’s Mini and Nine Spices Hot Pot, GW Marketplace is no stranger to good hot pot. Chubby Cattle Shabu, which opened in May 2024, lifts the standard even higher. Come here if you want a spectacle or high-end Wagyu beef.