Hongjie Hotpot

Hongjie Old Hot Pot (鸿姐老火锅) is a hugely popular, authentic Chongqing-style hotpot chain in Shanghai. Famous for their authentic Chongqing beef-fat spicy hotpot, many visit them for their signature dishes like spicy braised beef offal, crispy tripe, gongcai (celtuce), meatballs, and freshly fried crispy pork

We visited the Qian Tan outlet, which was one of the quieter outlets since we were in the new Pudong area

The restaurant decor and vibe are retro and nostalgic, with market-style seating and both round and rectangular seating. The restaurant is quite spacious, with many tables, which were quite empty as we came during a weekday

They had a condiments counter for customers to make their own dipping sauce. Like the usual suspects, you can find garlic, spring onion, coriander, chilli paste, peanut sauce, sugar, soy sauce and vinegar

The most famous broth was the mala dried chilli pot, followed by the chicken collagen soup. We also ordered something we have never seen before, which was the lotus root with pork rib soup base

The ingredients were very fresh, and I like that all the meatballs were freshly made and not the frozen kind. They had a great variety of beef cuts, lamb cuts and a limited pork and chicken selection, so I had limited stuff to eat and ended up eating more vegetables than I usually would. For a non-beef eater, there was a limited number of items you can enjoy, but for beef eaters, my colleagues really enjoyed themselves as the beef was fresh and delicious. The soup was also very strong in beef flavour and smell from the fats, so I was only trying the non- mala versions

They also had quite a number of cooked items on the menu, as well as desserts like the rice cake, which I couldn’t take a picture of in time before my colleagues devoured it, and the only fried fritters with pork floss and cream cheese. Both were quite nice but a bit heavy after the heavy savoury meal

Overall, I couldn’t give a very accurate review of this restaurant, although the service and environment were great. My beef-eating colleagues did say the meal was very nice, and the best part: the prices were extremely affordable. After doing a search, I realised that we had this last year as well in another Shanghai outlet and back then, as we did not order mala, the soup was mostly bland. You can read my review here

Address: 2F, S1-212-1/2, No. 90 Qianjiatan Road, Pudong, Shanghai

Opening hours: 11 am to 2 am