San Xi Lou

Warming, both from the buzzing atmosphere, the red Chinese décor, and the Sichuan spiciness, in this place, the company is just as important as the delicious cuisine. Don’t come here alone or in a party of two. Bring friends, and get ready for something spicy!

The service here is notably fast, as the servers use walkie-talkies to speed things up. They use as many local ingredients as possible, most notably their locally sourced beef and pork for hotpot.

For their hotpot, there are several different types of broth, but the must-have is of course the Sichuan Mala broth. Don’t be scared of spicy; you can specify this broth to have a small, medium, or large amount of spice. Highly recommended to get two different flavors of broth. Must-have ingredients for hotpot include their locally sourced, uniformly marbled beef and bacon slices, as well as the nutrient-rich King’s vegetables (hint: cook in spicy broth to overcome its natural bitterness), and the polarizing Deep Fried Fish Skin, a Hong Kong classic.

San Xi Lou is unique in that it has a separate condiment bar, featuring various condiments and sauces such as Chili Oil, Sesame Oil, Shallots, Garlic Paste, Fresh Garlic, Coriander, and Fresh Chili, all nicely labeled and arranged.

Non-hot pot dishes are also very good here, including Sichuan Spicy Boiled Fish, Sichuan Fried Chicken, Crab with rice vermicelli, Garlic Friend Shrimp with Pepper

They also specialize in classics such as Dam Dam Noodles, Mapo Tofu, Kung Pao Chicken, Water-Cooked Dishes, Fuqi Feipen, and of course their Sichuan Saliva Chicken.

It is located on the 7th floor of the Coda Plaza, close to Hong Kong Park in Midlevels, Central.

Expect to spend HKD 200 – 350.

Hours: Monday - Sunday 11:00 - 23:00