Ace Hot Pot review: April Ooi visits old Dragon Hot Pot in East Victoria Park for malatang, hot and sour soup

Dragon Hot Pot in Vic Park was the first single-serve malatang joint to come to Perth. They were a trailblazer with their Yochi-style weigh and pay system and since their opening, many malatang restaurants have popped up — creating pretty steep competition. Even still, I was shocked when I saw that Dragon Hot Pot had closed down. I later found out that it had simply rebranded to Ace Hot Pot at the same address, and I was keen to check out the difference. The range of ingredients was spectacular. For a place that relies heavily on the DIY aspect of their bowls, this was a massive plus. My brother, being vegetarian, generally loves to get the tofu and bean-curd strips, but we also noticed a unique faux char siew option that we haven’t seen at any other hotpot restaurants before. They had plenty of big-ticket ingredients to choose from including fresh squid and scallops as well as marinated meats and marbled beef. They all looked relatively fresh, and even late in the afternoon the ingredients were being kept well stocked. It costs $4.28 per 100g of ingredients, and when we went to the counter to tally it up we were at about 680g ($29.10) per bowl. It’s safe to say we definitely went overboard, but it’s hard not to with all the choice. We picked our broths, opting for Sichuan hot and sour soup and the classic malatang. You can pick the spice level too, and we found extra hot to be bearable but still satisfying for our heat-chasing palates. I found that the malatang broth was a little too oily and lacked the meaty deeper stock flavours that I crave. The Sichuan was a little better with plenty of numbing peppers and a strong sour kick. The temperature of the bowls was just right, and it may sound like a funny thing to pick up on but I’ve been served ironically cold hotpot before, which was quite traumatic. Ace Hot Pot has a decent selection of sides too. I think their boneless fried chicken ($9.80) is such great value. It was four big pieces of crispy juicy chicken, served with your standard (but admittedly foolproof) sweet chilli sauce. The salted egg custard taro balls ($6.80) and sticky rice with brown sugar balls ($6.80) were fried treats of gooey, sweet perfection. Ace Hot Pot is a malatang veteran hidden under a shiny coat of fresh paint. While it doesn’t beat out my favourite, David’s Master Pot, in terms of flavour, it definitely shines in terms of value and variety. And I’ll always give props to the team for paving the way for malatang here in Perth. Ace Hot Pot 877 Albany Highway, East Victoria Park OPEN Monday-Thursday 11am-2pm, 5pm-8.30pm; Friday-Sunday 11am-2pm, 5pm-9pm CONTACT 6249 1928 BOOKINGS No THE VERDICT A generous and well-stocked malatang restaurant with an excellent choice of sides and ingredients. 14/20