Growl Growl - New Hotpot Opening

11 w 36th St. , Midtown NYC

A brand new hotpot concept has just launched it’s soft-opening in midtown Manhattan just this past Monday, Nov. 17th! We are all so used to the traditional hotpot method - you first order the broth, then you order all of the ingredients you would like, and then you cook everything yourself! This makes for a fun social activity or even a very stressful time cooking all the ingredients (god forbid you forget about the tofu skin that has now clumped up into a soggy material in the pot)!

The Process:

Step 1

From the moment you enter through the doors of Growl Growl, you are greeted with a very boho entrance filled with drapey white curtains looming over the ceiling and a very vibrant bar. Very Tulum. The process seems simple, you start off by walking over to the ingredient bar - all stocked up with meats, seafoods, and various vegetables. You place all of the meats and vegetables in each of the trays labelled as “vegetarian” and “non-vegetarian”.

Step 2

You walk up to the cashier where they charge you per weight and then you get to choose from 8 different Asian flavored broths. What does that even mean? The broths at a traditional hotpot spot usually includes the pork bone, Szechuan, and the tomato broth. While they carried those broths, they also had Hong Kong Satay, Japanese Sukiyaki, and Thai Tom Yum.

Step 3

After paying, you get a table number and then you wait. Talking about prices, the bowl was about 1 pound, and the price came out to $15 and that was FILLING. While you wait, you can head to the sauce bar and make your dipping sauce. Around 15 min later, viola, you get your meal!

To me, hotpot is a very comfort meal and I personally only get Szechuan or pork broth normally, so as per schedule, I got the pork classic broth and loaded up with a lot of veggies and meats. The broth was comforting and tasty for sure, but was lacking a little salt, but the meat was perfectly cooked. To accompany our hotpot, we chose the Lychee Refresher and the Passionfruit Refresher. While there is a bar on site, I don’t think the restaurant had a liquor license when I visited.

The Matcha ice cream was the perfect sweet ending to my meal.

What were my final thoughts? Being a completely personalized hotpot experience along with these unique flavors make Growl Growl so different from other personalized hot pot experiences like The Dolar Shop or LaoJie. While it got rid of the anxiety of cooking, it wasn’t as fun as cooking the ingredients on your own in my opinion! This was my own personal take, but the experience is perfect if you’re craving hotpot and you have limited time. My biggest regret is not trying any of the other broth flavors - so if you do go, give one of the other broths a shot!