Melbourne's Best Hot Pots

Bringing a theatrical aspect to each dining experience, Panda Hot Pot will light up the Melbourne food scene with live cultural performances on a nightly basis. Our Melbourne team is passionately hands on, embracing all aspects of the ancient craft of the hot pot. Your dining experience means the world to us and we will tailor an unforgettable epicurean adventure. There's street parking outside the restaurant with a maximum of 2 hours till 8.30pm at $7 an hour, though if you're going for a late lunch, you need to take note that at around 4pm it becomes a clearway till 6.30pm.
For your Safety and Victorian freedom, We would love to have you in our restaurant... Melbourne is having a hotpot moment, but it extends far beyond what you might know from China. Dig deeper and hot pot near Melbourne you’ll be rewarded with varieties from different countries that vary from region to region. TrySofia Levin's top hotpot picks and take a foodie tour around the world without leaving Melbourne.

There's the signature, and half signature Sichuan spicy soup base you can order at the heat level you can handle, eg. Other soup bases to choose from are the pork bone broth, mushroom and tomato soup base which are not spicy. There are more than 100 ingredients you can cook in your hotpot, from thinly sliced Wagyu, pork meatballs and marinated lamb, to scallops in the half-shell, soft tofu cubes and lotus root. Try deep-fried pork cutlets dusted with chicken salt, sticky sweet rice cakes, classic egg fried rice or spicy Sichuan-spiced French fries.
For a mammoth army stew, try Darac on A'Beckett Street. Han Guuk Guan, tucked away near the corner of Victoria and Exhibition Streets, has a huge selection of traditional Korean hotpots, including sundae and trotters with potato. It is estimated there are about 20,000 hot pot restaurants dotted across the city. When it comes to gear, Hot pot does require some equipment and set up. But it’s pretty inexpensive and everything lasts several lifetimes.
There are six bases and a selection of lamb cuts and platters, along with a range of handmade seafood balls and pastes. Melbourne's Panda Hot Pot is one of more than 400 restaurants around the world and will feature the group's signature hot pot recipes with ingredients, and chefs flown in from China's Sichuan province. Periodically add ingredients in the soup like mussels or fish balls as you like, but it’s always polite to add more than just your portion. As someone will always want to try some (and it’s honestly part of the fun). So if you find something in the broth that you didn’t put in, ask around if anyone’s waiting for something to cook.

So make sure you have plenty on hand – nothing kills a party faster than running out of gas. To avoid stress, there are also electric stoves and stock pots too. Some of my fondest memories and strongest friendships are made around the hot pot.
Choose your base stock, then pick from over 100 fresh ingredients to make your own unique hotpot. For introverts, WeLive for Hotpot has timber separators and single serve hotpots. Takumi is better for feasting with friends, thanks to an all-you-can-eat $45 per person menu for a minimum of two. Hot pot is more fun if you can see what you’re cooking. Or if you spot a surprise ingredient that you really want to try, so don’t be shy. Grab it in one hand, get some height and go fishing for goodness.

We’re so excited to share, Chef David the upmarket eatery has reopened, not as a hotpot restaurant, but specialising in authentic Sichuan Cuisine. The decision to shift from swirly and spicy hot pot to barbecue grill came about during Melbourne’s intense stage 4 lockdown in 2020, as soupy broth was difficult to transport. Get yourself comfortable and strap yourself in for the experience. Take note that the traditional Chinese tables have a framework that hangs a little lower in the row of tables I sat at, which might be a bit uncomfortable for some whose thighs may be wedged up against it.
Priced at $90 per head, you’ll choose five items from their tasting menu to start off with – think M9+ wagyu nigiri, Tasmanian uni served on a crunchy nori cracker, or the most luxuriously silky lobster bisque soup. Other stand-out additions include their thinly sliced M6+ wagyu beef slices, fresh tofu, pieces of purple corn and cucumber filled with prawn meat. Even dessert is soup-ified, with a sweet Chinese-style soup made of brown sugar jelly, red bean, sultanas and goji berries. Mookata hotpot comes on a gas burner with a raised grill plate in the centre of the appliance. Pros grease the grill with a chunk of lard and pour stock into the moat surrounding the grill. Crack in an egg, give it a stir and then add the vegetables and noodles.
This is the first Panda Hot Pot outpost in Australia, but there are more than 400 outlets across China, Japan, Malaysia and the US. The chain’s signature spicy broth is cooked for 12 hours with Sichuan peppercorns and chilli ordered in from Chengdu. Lau, or Vietnamese hotpot, has Chinese steamboat origins. Raw ingredients are dipped into a central, simmering broth. It’s a colourful spot with blue neon signage and bamboo baskets in the window, a modern-industrial fit out and laneway tables.