No, not fondue, Chinese hot pot.

I was alerted to the existence of Lèpot (or is it Lè Pot?) about a month ago in the comments on my writeup of Kung Fu Hot Pot. I actually ate lunch there just a few days after that but it’s taken me a long time to get to writing it up given my ongoing backlog issue. Anyway, here is that writeup now. I ate lunch there by myself on a Saturday in mid-July en route to Surdyk’s to check out their summer sale (I restricted myself to just one bottle of mezcal, because I am restrained like that). Getting to and away from Lèpot was a bit of a trial on account of road construction on surface streets and ensuing traffic snarls but the meal itself was simple enough to sort out. Here’s how it went.

The restaurant is located in Dinkytown in relatively close proximity to the University of Minnesota campus and its normal clientele is doubtless dominated by university students. Even on this midsummer’s day a good number of those who passed through while I was eating seemed like they must be university students, though there were also a few families. The location is actually home to two establishments. There’s Lèpot itself and there’s also something called Kung Fu Tea which slings boba etc.. I, however, was there for hot pot.

The setup here is a little different from that at Kung Fu Hot Pot. Well, it’s less different when you’re dining alone but it would be more so if in a group. That because in that latter scenario each person would have a burner in front of them and an individual pot with soup base of choice to place on it. So if there are two or four of you, you could each get a completely different soup base and selections of things to add to it. You may remember that at Kung Fu Hot Pot each table only has the one induction burner on it. The other major difference here is that there is a “Pick Your Own” option in which you select a soup base and then pick your additions on an a la carte basis from a menu separated by price tiers. My understanding is that this used to be pretty much the only way to do hot pot here but earlier this year they added an All You Can Eat option and now that seems to be the dominant mode of dining. And that makes sense because once you look at the pricing on the two menus, the “Pick Your Own” doesn’t make a whole lot of sense unless you’re only interested in adding very few things to your soup.

This AYCE option also differs from Kung Fu Hot Pot’s in a couple of important ways. For one thing there’s price. At weekday lunch you can get AYCE hot pot for $24.99 though you will have to give up on a number of items available at dinner only. The price for dinner is $34.99 (which is close to what Kung Fu Hot Pot charges all the time). Be warned that on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, the dinner price applies all day. So if you go for lunch on one of those days make sure to pay attention to the premium selections because you’re going to pay the up-charge for the access to them. Children eat a bit cheaper but childhood is measured by height. I’m not sure if they actually ever haul anyone over to the big ruler in the middle of the dining room to see if they’re over the line but it could theoretically happen.

The other important difference is that while at Kung Fu Hot Pot you can go over to the refrigerators/freezers and select exact quantities of everything you want on your own, at Lèpot you have to order them from a server and set amounts will come out. So you can’t just get a little bit of a few things and much more of others. You can, however, customize your dipping sauces following recipes at the dipping sauce station.

Anyway, I sat down, ordered a spicy soup base (I forget how spicy I asked for it to be) and a bunch of things to put into it to start. You can see what those were and what I got to follow them via the captions in the slideshow below. Controlling the burner is both easy and not easy. Easy in that there is a handy set of controls on the side of the tables which turns the heat up or down; not easy in that the controls are not very precise and I was forever turning them up and down. But if you want precise control don’t come to eat at a hot pot restaurant like this one.

For a look at the restaurant, the menus and what I ate, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down for more thoughts on the experience and on what I made of the value. And, of course, to see what’s coming next.

With tax and tip I paid close to $45 for my meal (at the weekend “dinner all day” price). On the one hand, this is the price of weekday lunch at Kung Fu Hot Pot whose dinners and weekend prices are a bit higher still. On the other hand, I did not prefer this experience. This is mostly because of the issue I noted above with not being able to select precise amounts of the things you’re interested in. Do you want just a few tblspns of enoki mushrooms to add to your pot? Bad luck, you’re going to get a whole plate’s worth. Do you want to just get a tiny bit of fish tofu first to see if you like it? Bad luck, you’re going to get a lot more.

The other thing I am not a fan of may actually be a selling point for other diners: hot pot is more fun when eaten in a group and in my opinion is more fun when a group cooks and eats in/from a large communal pot. Lèpot’s arrangement of individual pots does give people more choice—and for vegetarians or others with dietary restrictions this is certainly a boon—but also limits that communal experience. That’s my view anyway—you may differ; I permit it.

Alright, having now eaten two hot pot meals in the Twin Cities in the last year, I feel we really should go back to Little Szechuan and see what’s going on with their hot pot. Maybe next month. My next restaurant write-up will actually also be of a Chinese meal but not one eaten in the Twin Cities. It’ll be of a dim sum lunch in San Francisco and will go up on Thursday or Friday.