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Where Y’Eat: When Chinese Hot Pot Gets ‘Crazy’ In Metairie

A spread of options for the hot pot at Crazy Hot Pot in Metairie.
Ian McNulty
A spread of options for the hot pot at Crazy Hot Pot in Metairie.

Only at Crazy Hot Pot could the robot waiters have felt like sort of a distraction from the main act. After all, there was this sprawling array of food waiting, buffet style, with everything from fatty beef and fresh shrimp to fish balls and clutches of ramen noodles for us to pick out and cook at our table in our own hot pots. But first the robot waiter was at the table with a spread of appetizers from the kitchen and a glimpse of our robot-dominated future – then it was off to the buffet!

These are good times around New Orleans for people who love Chinese food, especially those with a craving for the more traditional niches of this vast and compelling realm of cuisine. There are more dim sum destinations now, and specials boards teeming with deep dives into regional dishes.

Hot pot is another piece of the flavor puzzle, and Crazy Hot Pot is packaging it all with the easy access exuberance of a buffet in a restaurant as colorful as a cartoon come to life.

While robots do indeed scoot along delivering appetizers, it is verifiably human waiters who really run the show, walking you through the hot pot process.

Hot pot is basically a bubbling pot of broth that you use to quickly cook an array of ingredients yourself at the table. It becomes a choose-your-own adventure meal, the broth a wishing well of flavor as you dunk and dip different pieces, and the list of options goes on and on here.

The format is loose but it does come with the rules, like a time limit and a charge for taking more than you can eat. That seems sensible.

This restaurant also provides bridges for newbies to test the waters. For instance, one of the broths is dubbed Cajun and tastes strongly of crab boil.

But mainly, this is a place to connect with the flavors of a different tradition. It’s a fun place to feast, at least until the inevitable day when those robots rise up against us and through the future of humanity into question. But until then hot pot on.

Ian covers food culture and dining in New Orleans through his weekly commentary series Where Y’Eat.