All You Can Eat Hotpot: 14 Places We've Tried, With Prices
By Michael · October 15, 2026
All you can eat hotpot shows up on our channel again and again. Since late 2024 we’ve filmed AYCE hotpot in Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Orem, Denver, Toronto, New Jersey, Brooklyn and Staten Island.
This is the whole list in one place: what each one cost, what we ordered, the rules, and what we honestly thought. Prices are what we paid or saw on the day, so I’ve dated every one. They change, and in a couple of cases they’ve already gone up.
Our favourite, filmed start to finish: the seafood hotpot at Chongqing Wharf.
Quick answer
- Cheapest we’ve had: $29 a person at Old Town Hotpot in Denver (April 2025)
- Best value for beef: Kanpai BBQ & Shabu in San Diego, $40 with Australian wagyu (December 2024)
- Our favourite overall: Chongqing Wharf in Edison, New Jersey, for the seafood and the all-you-can-eat durian ($58.95 in July 2025)
- Typical rules: a 90-minute or 2-hour limit, premium items capped at one order per person, and sometimes drinks are extra
- Little kids: often free or a few dollars, but every place is different
All the places at a glance
| Place | City | Price per adult (when) | Standout |
|---|---|---|---|
| Old Town Hotpot | Denver, CO | $29 (Apr 2025) | Blue crab full of roe |
| A place in Staten Island, since closed | Staten Island, NY | $30 (Jan 2025), $32 (May 2025) | Abalone and blue crab, until they lost the crab |
| Mr. Shabu | Orem, UT | $32 (May 2025) | Oyster blade and a ramen station |
| An AYCE spot in Brooklyn | Brooklyn, NY | $32 (Jul 2025) | Blue crab and fatty beef |
| Top Hot | Staten Island, NY | $33.99 (Jul 2026) | Huge crawfish |
| Happy Lamb Hot Pot | Murray (Salt Lake area), UT | $34 (Apr 2025) | Ribeye cut like a whole steak |
| Dai Maru Shabu Shabu | Scarborough, Toronto | $34.99 CAD (Jul 2025), $92.99 CAD wagyu (Sep 2026) | Beef quality and fast service |
| Happy Lamb Hot Pot | Edison, NJ | $37 (Dec 2024, Sep 2025) | The soup |
| Kanpai BBQ & Shabu | San Diego, CA | $40 (Dec 2024, Mar 2025) | Australian wagyu chuck eye |
| A Korean AYCE shabu spot | Phoenix, AZ | $40 (Jan 2025) | Prime chuck eye roll |
| Liuyishou Hotpot | San Diego, CA | $47 to $48 (Mar 2025) | Lots of appetizers and desserts |
| Chengdu Hotpot and BBQ | Salt Lake City, UT | $49.99 (Mar 2025) | Lobster tail, one per person |
| An AYCE spot we tried in LA | Los Angeles, CA | about $50 (Nov 2024) | Wagyu, but slow service |
| Chongqing Wharf | Edison, NJ | $59 (Apr 2025), $58.95 (Jul 2025), $63.95 (May 2026) | Live mantis shrimp and unlimited durian |
Our favourites
Chongqing Wharf, Edison, New Jersey
This is our “we’re home” hotpot. Every time we’re back in the New York area after a long trip, it’s one of the first places we go. It’s not the cheapest. It was $58.95 a person in July 2025, and the bill came to $125 for the two of us, with Spencer free. By May 2026 it was $63.95. As I said that night, $63 is not cheap for hotpot, but you get what you pay for.
What you’re paying for is the seafood. The mantis shrimp come to the table alive and hopping, and they’re one of the sweetest shrimp there is. Every table also gets one free premium item, sea cucumber or lobster. We pick the sea cucumber. The prime steak slices melt in your mouth, and when your broth runs low they top it up with the actual soup, not plain water.
Then there’s the durian. It’s all you can eat, and I don’t know of any other hotpot spot in the country that does that. By our count, Spencer has turned it down about 20 times.
Kanpai BBQ & Shabu, Convoy Street, San Diego
For beef, this is the one. Dinner was $40 a person when we went in December 2024 and again in March 2025, and that gets you Australian wagyu, MS8 and MS9. The Australian wagyu is one order per person, but you can keep ordering the wagyu chuck eye, and it comes out fast. On our second visit I figured we were on maybe our tenth plate of it. Even Rina, who doesn’t normally like meats, was enjoying it.
We also tried Liuyishou Hotpot, also in San Diego, for $47 to $48. It had more appetizers, fresh watermelon juice and more desserts, but the best beef was limited to one order each and the wagyu brisket was tough. For really good meat and value, Kanpai is the spot.
Dai Maru Shabu Shabu, Scarborough, Toronto
This is Japanese-style shabu shabu, and it’s where we went for Rina’s birthday in September 2026. In July 2025, the premium set was $34.99 CAD a person Monday to Thursday and $36.99 on weekends. At the time I figured that was about $28 US. The beef chuck and brisket were already so good that we didn’t need the wagyu set.
The service is quick. The soup lands on the table before the server finishes taking your order. There’s a 2-hour limit, and they’re strict about it. They also give you an onsen egg to dip your beef in, and they refill your pot with your own broth.
By September 2026 the premium tier was $41.99 and the wagyu tier was $92.99. We went for the wagyu that time, and I wrote the whole night up separately: our $92.99 wagyu hotpot in Toronto. If you’re coming from the US, bring Canadian debit or cash. They don’t take credit cards.
Happy Lamb Hot Pot, Edison, New Jersey
For a long time this was our go-to in New Jersey, for the quality of the meat and the soup. In December 2024 there were three packages: $25 basic, $32 house special on the weekend, and $37 VIP with the premium meats. We got the VIP, with the bone marrow and tomato broths, and beef tendon from the self-serve bar.
It gets busy. We got there at 5:42 on a Saturday and it was already full, and by the time we left there was a long line. Go early. We also ate at Happy Lamb Hot Pot in Murray, in the Salt Lake area, in April 2025. It was $34, and it became our favourite hotpot around Salt Lake. Their ribeye is cut like a whole steak sliced paper thin.
The rest of the list
Old Town Hotpot, Denver ($29, April 2025). No frills, no self-serve bar, and a pretty basic beef selection. But the blue crab was full of orange roe and I ate about six whole crabs. In my words that night, they get all the basics right. Kids 3 to 5 were $6, which is uncommon, and Spencer, then 2, was free. Drinks were extra.
Mr. Shabu, Orem, Utah ($32, May 2025). A modern Japanese-style spot with a ramen station at the self-serve bar. The oyster blade and the boneless short rib were the winners. You can add all-you-can-eat sushi for $10 more.
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Chengdu Hotpot and BBQ, Salt Lake City ($49.99, March 2025). It looks high-end, with a pretty complete sauce bar and lots of drinks included. The beef was cut a little thick for me, so I gave it a 7 out of 10, maybe 7 and a half. My favourite was the lobster tail, but it’s one per person.
A Korean AYCE shabu spot in Phoenix ($40, January 2025). Excellent meat, with the prime chuck eye roll the clear winner. The seafood was lacking. The deluxe package was $5 more than the premium, and I don’t think we needed it.
A spot we tried in Los Angeles (about $50, November 2024). This was our Thanksgiving dinner, the night before Thanksgiving. The wagyu and tiger shrimp were good, but one server was covering the whole restaurant, there was a 90-minute limit, and the broth refills were just hot water. Rina’s verdict: it’s good, but it doesn’t match the price.
Staten Island. Our old go-to there was $30 in January 2025, with all-you-can-eat abalone and blue crab. By May 2025 it was $32 (plus $4 to add barbecue), the crab was sold out and the quality had slipped. It has since closed. In July 2026 we tried Top Hot, which was new: $33.99 for hotpot, or $38.99 with Korean barbecue. The blue crab was good, the beef tongue is a standard item, and Rina loved the crawfish.
Brooklyn ($32, July 2025). Reasonable and good value. The first batch of blue crab was full of roe, and the fatty beef was really good.
What we’ve learned about AYCE hotpot as a family
Judge it by the meat. You really judge a hotpot spot by how good their meats are. For me, the best beef is sliced as thin as possible so it melts in your mouth. Thick cuts, even good ones, are just not as good in a hotpot.
Watch the broth refills. A sign of a really high-quality place is when they top up your pot with the soup you ordered instead of hot water. Chongqing Wharf and Dai Maru both do it. It’s not common.
Read the limits before you order. The fanciest items are often one per person: the wagyu at Kanpai, the wagyu ribeye and short rib at Liuyishou, the lobster tail at Chengdu. And the top tier isn’t always worth it. In Phoenix and in Toronto, the middle package was enough for us.
Mind the clock with little kids. Most places have a 90-minute or 2-hour limit, and Chongqing Wharf stops taking orders when your 2 hours are up. With a toddler, we want food to come quickly so he can eat and so can we.
Check the kids’ pricing. It’s different everywhere. Spencer was free in Denver and at Chongqing Wharf when he was 2. At Dai Maru, the menu lists kids up to 4 at $3.
Bring the kids hungry. We stopped letting Spencer snack between lunch and dinner, and it makes his dinner appetite a lot better. On a hotpot night in San Diego he sat in his seat for about half an hour. To be fair, the next minute he was on the floor.
Make your own sauce. A lot of our viewers have never had hotpot, and it’s simpler than it looks. Order what you like, make a dipping sauce at the sauce bar, and cook as you go. Mine starts with sa cha sauce, then garlic, peanut sauce, a little soy and oyster sauce, cilantro and scallion. Play with it until it fits your taste.
Places change. Our old Staten Island spot was known for its blue crab, and when it lost the crab, we stopped going. Not long after, it closed. That’s the reality of hotpot spots: if people come for one thing and you lose it, they stop coming.
On nights we can’t get out, we make hot pot at home instead. And if you’re heading to Toronto, every place we eat there is on our free Toronto Food Map.
We have a whole video on our favourite: watch the Chongqing Wharf dinner here.
