Authentic Hot Pot & Hand-Pulled Noodles, Redcliffe: ‘The only all-you-can-eat worth going to’ – restaurant review

Authentic Hot Pot & Hand-Pulled Noodles – what a name! As they are striving to do exactly what it says on the tin, they could also be called “one of the most bewildering restaurant experiences you’ll have in Bristol”, “the best noodles you’ll eat all year” or “perhaps the only all-you-can-eat worth going to”.

Authentic Hot Pot & Hand-Pulled Noodles (AHPAHPN) looks like a repurposed conference room. There’s no soft lighting or smooth soundtracks here, but the crowds of people gathered round steaming bowls of broth are atmosphere enough.

Usually my reviews are more a critique and less a how-to guide, but from the chaos that enveloped us the moment we stepped through the door I felt I ought to offer some sort of instructions to those that follow in our footsteps.

We were shown to our table by a boy who looked like he’d come straight from school. I genuinely think he was still wearing his uniform underneath his puffer jacket. He was sweet, completely clueless and clearly a member of the family, I hope he’s being paid.

The QR code on the table is fine if you want to order starters, from which you can choose from anything as long as you’re prepared to eat it in spicy sauce, and hand-pulled noodle dishes but there was no sign of the hot pot.

It turns out trying to order the titular dish at Authentic Hot Pot and Hand-Pulled Noodles is about as straightforward as navigating Bristol’s cycle lanes or booking a doctor’s appointment. Despite having successfully ordered one I still can’t tell you how it’s done; we went up to the counter where the noodles were being made about three times before we were assured they’d bring one over.

There was even two types of tripe!

Another teenager was dispatched from the kitchen to introduce us to the “sauce” station and the fridge full of ingredients. On the way back to our table we eyed up another tables’ platters of raw meats enviously, resulting in a fourth trip back to the counter to ask if we could have those too.

Once it arrived, the hotpot sat on a heated plate in the middle of the table which brought it to a rolling bubble. We filled a metal tray with ingredients from the fridge, school canteen style.

Our starter of pork belly – in, you guessed it, spicy sauce – arrived around the same time as the hot pot. It was room temperature, fatty and delicious but entirely unnecessary; dwarfed by the size of the hot pot and tray of various vegetables, tofu and meat we’d helped ourselves to.

The nondescript spicy sauce was warming and garlicky.

It’s funny reviewing a restaurant where you cook your own food. I can tell you about the quality of the ingredients (the prawns were huge but the lobster balls definitely didn’t contain any lobster) and I can tell you about the tastiness of the broth (good. Better when you add the garlic, coriander and spring onions provided) but ultimately if the beef is overcooked and the mushrooms turn to mush in your mouth – that’s on you.

The vast range of ingredients covered everything from tripe to tofu, and the broth was a suitably warming but not unfriendly level of spiciness with vague umami undertones.

A particularly ambitious tray.

The rolls of beef and pork we ordered were translucent; they were so thinly sliced. They cooked in the steaming sauce in seconds rendering them tender and juicy. Dangerously moreish, and slight enough to convince yourself repeatedly that you could manage just one more.

Of the two I thought the pork in the background was more flavourful, though the beef was very tender after the briefest of dips.

The hand-pulled noodles were brought over from the counter where they were being made in the chef’s hands and dropped straight into our hot pot. Absolutely no concern whatsoever for presentation or serving protocol – I loved it. It doesn’t get fresher than that.

There were a fair few things competing for our attention but it was the noodles that won.

Basket ladles were provided for fishing purposes.

Every now and then, you try something that elevates your understanding of what a foodstuff can be. Something that changes your perception of an ingredient or a dish. A rather basic example, but take broccoli for instance. I grew up on boiled broccoli (not exclusively, but it was a popular accompaniment to meals). I thought it was okay, neither here nor there.

But then when I roasted it for the first time – wow. It’s like a completely different vegetable. Now I love it. I eat it all the time. When I tried these hand-pulled noodles – my first time trying them this fresh – I could feel the neurons connecting upstairs. This is what noodles can be. Playfully elastic, chewy, delightfully non-uniform in composition. Completely imperfectly perfect.

Some don’t like restaurants where you cook it yourself. It’s a valid argument, if you go to a steak restaurant and have to cook your own steak, what are you paying for? Yet with a hot pot, especially an all-you-can-eat one, it feels like you get your money’s worth.

I am highly unlikely to make a hot pot at home, and even less likely to have the enormous array of things to cook in it that AHPAHPN has. And yes, some things take a few minutes to cook, and many more things get lost to the spicy red vortex only to be rediscovered when they’ve almost reached saturation and are long past optimum osmosis. But it’s sociable. It’s fun. It allows for conversation, commentary, competition – “get your chopsticks off my meatball!”

Usually in our reviews we include prices next to everything for you to make your own judgement on value, but I can’t do that here as I have no idea how much anything costs. I can tell you that we paid £80 for everything, which possibly included unlimited soft drinks.

It’s not cheap, but then again it’s entirely possible that if you didn’t add the beef and pork as we did, and the starter, it would be quite good value for two, especially if you go hungry.

AHPAHPN isn’t going to be for everyone, but I sincerely hope you give it a try.

Authentic Hot Pot & Hand-Pulled Noodles, Thomas Lane, Redcliffe, BS1 6JG
www.authentichotpotnoodles.co.uk

All photos: Meg Houghton-Gilmour

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