A Two-Level Hot-Pot Palace Arrives in Carlton

First Look: A Two-Level Hot-Pot Palace Arrives in Carlton

In the old Dracula’s theatre restaurant, and under the watchful eye of a 1.5-tonne steel dragon, Australia’s hot pot melbourne | hot pot carnegie first Panda Hot Pot – a chain with more than 400 restaurants worldwide – is serving fiery DIY soup with a choice of 80 ingredients.

Yi Li, the owner hot pot | panda hot pot of new Carlton restaurant Panda Hot Pot, spent $10 million buying the property – formerly theatre restaurant Dracula’s – and $6 million on a mammoth renovation.

“Hot pot originates in Chengdu, and that is also the hometown of the Panda, so we are combining the two things,” Li says of the name. “The panda is cute, but he can still fight [and] do Kung Fu.

"chinese restaurant melbourne | carlton chinese restaurant

These days, best hot pot melbourne | chinese hot pot there’s not a drop of Dracula’s faux blood in sight, and its indoor rollercoaster is nowhere to be seen. Instead, step inside Panda Hot Pot from Victoria Street through big wooden doors into a world channelling Ang Lee’s 2000 action film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

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“[We want to] transport diners from modern Australia to an ancient China aesthetic,” Li says. “Hot pot 蜀大侠成都火锅 is not just about the taste; it’s about seeing, hearing, tasting. The combined experience.”

A grand staircase sweeps up through the centre of the restaurant – which is decked out in red and gold with lots of wood throughout – to a second level. Both levels are watched over by a nearly 16-metre-long, 1.5-tonne steel dragon that was brought over from Chengdu, and hangs suspended from the ceiling.

Li tells me that in Chinese culture dragons symbolise prosperity and authority, and are often reserved chengdu hot pot for the Emperor. Here, a warrior rides on its back. Continuing that combat theme, there are martial arts weapons on the walls, and the private dining rooms upstairs have images of ancient heroes – Li describes them as Chinese versions of Superman and Batman – on the walls. For respite from the machismo, you can dine in a slightly away-from-the-action indoor pagoda flanked by fairy light clouds and bonsai.

This is the first Panda Hot Pot for Australia. It was established in Chengdu City in 2015, and has since expanded to more than 400 outlets in China, Japan, Malaysia and the US. The chain’s signature flavour is a spicy 12-hour broth cooked with Sichuan peppercorns and chilli ordered in from Chengdu, but there are three mild broths, too: tomato, mushroom and pork bone.

To order, choose your soup base and spice level, then decide which of the 80 ingredients on offer – proteins include Sichuan spicy beef, ox tongue, pork rib, pork sausage, duck intestine, tofu and shrimp, and vegetables cover off enoki and shiitake mushrooms, bamboo slices, seaweed, Chinese cabbage and fresh lotus root – you’ll DIY cook in the broth. When they're cooked, dip each piece in your choice of sauce – the team recommends a combination of sesame oil and garlic – and if you need something to keep you going while your soup is cooking, order some fried sticky rice cakes, or fried rice with egg.

To drink, there's plum juice, coconut milk and oolong tea. Beers include Asahi on tap and bottled Tsingtao, and there are four Penfolds wines by the bottle as well as peach- and lychee-driven cocktails.

Channelling the building’s old life as a theatre restaurant, Panda Hot Pot will offer nightly shows ranging from guzheng (a Chinese stringed instrument) performances, and Bian Lian, also known as face-changing, where performers wear brightly coloured masks which they swap out multiple times while dancing to dramatic Chinese music.

Panda Hot Pot

100 Victoria Street, Carlton

03 9888 9899

Hours:

Daily 11.30pm–3pm, 5pm–midnight

pandahotpot.com.au

This article first appeared on Broadsheet on December 12, 2019. Menu items may have changed since publication.

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They say you have to be crazy to go into hospitality. For some operators, crazy is their stock in trade. It was true of Tikki and John Newman, theatre restaurant royalty who founded Dracula's, where for 37 years you could get dinner and a ghoulish show that began with a ride on a ghost train.

It was a tragic day when the nail was put in its coffins, albeit a boon for the eccentric souls (and one enthusiastic gun collector) who bought all the creepy loot. So Melbourne was chuffed to hear that its replacement, a Sichuan hot pot chain promising traditional Chinese performances including "panda shows", would keep the dream alive.

The half-half spicy broth and pork broth.Simon Schluter

The Panda Hot Pot conglomerate is a big deal, comprising 400 outlets worldwide. The site on Victoria Street, neatly positioned between the uni and proposed station, was bought for $10.4 million. Even more has been spent fitting out the double-decker restaurant of 228 seats.

LCD panels turn the ceiling to sky, beneath which floats a 1.5 tonne steel dragon. There are carved stone pavers underfoot, gold panels everywhere.

Such a huge investment spoke of high confidence. How could they go wrong?

As planned, Panda opened to sizeable queues in December. Hot pot was emerging as the next big thing, and with its shows, which are a free bonus, its offering is unique.

Then January hit, and like Chinese restaurants everywhere, business has been hammered by fear surrounding the COVID-x virus, and travel bans. More than 100,000 Chinese students, who drive Carlton's dining economy (and were certainly Panda's target market), are stuck overseas.

I wanted to cover Panda now to give it a needed push. I'm glad I did, but with full disclosure, because this disaster isn't without its effects. I visit for their supper session, 9pm, and there's no show. It's late, but I'd believed there would be acts at each sitting. Friends tell me on their visit, menu items are out of stock.