Dongtan hotpot restaurant with underground parking: Lao Chongqing

If you're craving spicy mala broth and a hotpot where you can drop in all kinds of ingredients, let me introduce Lao Chongqing Hotpot (라오충칭훠궈), a great Dongtan restaurant.

I usually like hotpot, so I went in with high hopes. From the clean, upscale atmosphere to the sauces you can make to your own taste and the satisfying broth, I really enjoyed the whole meal.

Where is Lao Chongqing Hotpot in Dongtan, and where do you park?

Lao Chongqing Hotpot is at 172 Dongtanbanseok-ro, Dongtan-gu, Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi, and you can park in the restaurant's underground garage. It's a good pick whenever you want hotpot in Dongtan. I came by car, and being able to park in the underground garage was really convenient.

Lao Chongqing Hotpot atmosphere: upscale and clean inside

Inside, the restaurant is neatly kept and has an upscale feel overall. The dining area is clearly well looked after, so the meal started on a good note.

Since hotpot means setting lots of ingredients on the table and boiling them right there, I pay attention to atmosphere and cleanliness, and I was happy on both counts. It also looked like a comfortable place to relax over a meal with friends, family or a partner.

Lao Chongqing Hotpot sauce bar price: ₩3,000 per person

The sauce bar at Lao Chongqing Hotpot costs ₩3,000 per person, and you can mix lots of different sauces to build your own hotpot dipping sauce. The sauce bar was one of my favorite parts of the restaurant.

The sauce you pair with hotpot changes the taste, right? If you like nutty flavors, add nutty ingredients; if you like spicy or savory, umami-rich sauces, you can combine them however you like.

Chongqing mala vs mushroom broth: how do the two broths taste?

At Lao Chongqing Hotpot you can pick two broths, and after some deliberation we went with Chongqing mala (numbing-spicy) broth and mushroom broth.

Chongqing mala broth: fiery, spicy mala flavor

The Chongqing mala broth was great for enjoying that fiery, spicy hotpot taste. The more ingredients we boiled in it, the more their flavor went into the broth, and the tastier it got. If you like that signature mala flavor, you'll be happy with this broth.

Mushroom broth: a mild one to alternate with

The mushroom broth, on the other hand, had a charm all its own, different from the Chongqing mala. Alongside the fiery broth, you get a mild, clean flavor, so alternating between the two broths was fun.

Since you can enjoy two very different broths at once, it'd also work well if your group has different tastes. Personally I liked both, and I felt we'd chosen the broths well.

What we ordered at Lao Chongqing Hotpot: from pork neck to corn noodles and dried tofu

What we ordered at Lao Chongqing Hotpot was pork neck, mixed vegetables, enoki mushrooms, corn noodles and dried tofu (geonduboo). The charm of hotpot is that you drop in what you like and cook it as long as you want.

The pork neck, lightly cooked in the broth, went really well with the flavor of the soup. I dunked the meat in the fiery Chongqing mala broth sometimes, and in the mushroom broth when I wanted it mild.

The mixed vegetables were great alongside the meat, and the enoki mushrooms blended nicely with the broth. Putting in lots of different ingredients made the textures richer and added to the fun of hotpot.

The corn noodles in particular were delicious, soaking up the broth, and the dried tofu is also an ingredient that suits hotpot well. Every ingredient had its own texture and taste, so we got to enjoy a good variety.

Verdict: is Lao Chongqing Hotpot in Dongtan worth going back to?

I was happy with Lao Chongqing Hotpot overall, from the atmosphere to the sauce bar, the broths and the wide choice of ingredients. I especially liked being able to enjoy both the fiery Chongqing mala and the mild mushroom broth, and making my own sauce was fun too.

Above all, the hotpot itself was really delicious, so I finished the meal feeling great :) If you're craving good hotpot in Dongtan, or looking for a restaurant where you can drop in all sorts of ingredients and eat the way you like, Lao Chongqing Hotpot is worth a visit.