Clay Pot NYC
| Cuisine | Chinese |
|---|---|
| Price | $$ (16-30) |
| Rating | 5/10 |
| Last Visit | May 30, 2019 |
| Location | New York: East Village |
General Notes
An interesting Chinese restaurant in East Village that specializes in Hong-Kong style clay pots. This restaurant has very positive reviews on Yelp, but in my opinion the food looks better than it tastes, and I was a bit disappointed by my experience here. I think that my taste preferences are just really not aligned towards Hong-Kong or southern Chinese food though, so take my opinions with a grain of salt. It's a cool concept and probably worth checking out, but I personally would not necessarily recommend this place.
Positives
> The proteins that I ordered were delicious. Particularly the Chinese sausage and pork belly, and to a lesser extent the eel.
> It's a relatively small menu with a few small plates and one thing they focus on. That's always a good sign.
Negatives
> In my opinion, to make the crispy rice at the bottom well, you need some form of oil. I've made something like this in the past, and I actually use the rendered fat from the Chinese sausage for this purpose. Otherwise (as was the case here), the rice at the bottom kind of just hardens and tastes mildly burnt instead of achieving a nice crispy texture.
> As a whole, the food is a bit bland. The protein is seasoned well and is super flavorful, but there isn't really any other component that counteracts the lack of seasoning in the rice or vegetables.
> The option to order the "Clay Pot Supreme" is somewhat deceptive. Sure, you do get all eight toppings but much less of each. It's probably in your best interest to focus on a few toppings you like. I would recommend the Chinese sausage, pork belly, and eel.
> The portion is relatively small, especially considering it's only open for dinner. I did not feel quite full after eating here.
> This is not really a negative, but for some reason they have extremely small water cups. And the waiter who came over to refill our water consistently over-filled our water cups to the brim. It was more amusing than an issue to be honest.
Dishes Tasted
- ★★☆☆ Clay Pot Rice: Pork Belly, Chinese Sausage, Eel -- This dish was decent but had some flaws. The flavor and texture of the proteins were quite good - I would highly recommend the pork belly and Chinese sausage, and to a lesser extent the eel. The egg was meh (I don't like hard boiled eggs) and the remaining vegetables were boring. As a whole the dish felt a bit bland. The rice was nice and fluffy but I didn't like the crispy rice at the bottom - it was dry and hard and tasted more burnt than the savory type of crispy.
