Fondue Chongqing

Hotpot in French is known as “Fondue Chinoise”. Well, if you are tired of French “Fondue”, if you find it too cheesy, or if you just want a more “Asian style” fondue, Paris is home to several great “Fondue chinoise”, hotpots. In this article, we introduce the concept of Chinese hotpots and reveal our favorite address in Paris.

All you need to know about Chinese hotpot

 You might not be familiar with Chinese hotpot, here are what you should know about it. First, hotpot has a long history of over 2,000 years in China. It used to be favored only in winter, but recently hotpot has been appearing on tables all year round. There are several types of Hotpot, from one Chinese region to another, but Sichuan hotpot is the most famous Chinese hotpot. This southwestern Chinese province is famous for it’s delicious and spicy hotpots.

Besides the delicious flavor, Chinese love hotpot as it is a great way to socialize. People gather around the pot, chatting, eating, drinking, and having fun. Everyone participates in cooking while enjoying the food at the same time.

When eating a hotpot, a skillet of broth is placed in the center of a table and heated via induction or flame. Surround the steaming pot are ingredients ranging from raw meat to vegetables, and these displayed plates and dishes almost fill in the full space of the table.

Fondue Chongqing, delicious hotpot in an elegant Chinese atmosphere

Chongqing is the main city of Sichuan province, and this restaurant is entirely led by a team from Sichuan, the homeland of Hotpot! So be sure to eat an authentic hotpot! Welcome to our favorite hotpot restaurant in Paris.

Located in a safe and quiet area of Paris, near Gare de Lyon, Chongqing restaurants is a two floors restaurant with many spacious tables for small to large groups of people. For Karaoke lovers, Karaoke private dining rooms can be booked for a group of people: it is the best way to reconnect with friends around a funny hotpot – KTV evening.

The restaurant is decorated with traditional paintings and old photos and has a chic Chinese ambiance. Whereas most of the Parisian hotpots are more like "canteen style", Fondue Chongqing offers a Premium experience of this very traditional Chinese dish. About the food, we will give you more details in the next section about "how to eat your hotpot", but we just mention now that the restaurant only serves high-quality and fresh dishes.

Location: 145 Av. Daumesnil, 75012 Paris

Transportation: Montgallet Metro Station (line 8), Dugommier Metro Station (line 6), Gare de Lyon (Metro lines 1, 14, RER A)

Opening hours: Every day, 12 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. 

How to eat your Hotpot?

 Experiencing a true Sichuan hotpot like Fondue Chongqing can be a surprising experience if you are not used too. We prepare a small guide to help you enjoy your hotpot, with the main steps you should know.

1

Choose your broth

For your broth, you can choose either one big pot or two half pots. This option is usually the best so that you can have different tastes and experiences. It is better to order one spicy, and one non-spicy, so that people who don’t tolerate spices can still enjoy their hotpot.

In Fondue Chongqing, you can choose between several broths: plain, tomatoes, spicy, mushrooms... For spicy broths, you can select the degree of spiciness: if you are not familiar with spicy, it’s better to choose the lowest level of spices!

2

order your dishes

Ordering dishes in a hotpot might not be that easy since there are a lot of choices. Most of the dishes can be ordered in a small size or a big size. It depends on how many people eat the hotpot, and which dish they prefer. Usually, an average of two dishes per person is a good balance (keep in mind that everything will be shared so each person can try a large variety of dishes during a hotpot dinner).

Meat is a very important part of the hotpot: it can be beef, lamb, pork, or chicken. Thinly sliced beef is one of the most popular hotpot choices since it cooks within one minute. You can find unique meats in fondue Chongqing like premium Kobe Beef, or more surprising ones such as beef brain or pork aorta. There are also plenty of options for seafood such as fish balls, prawns, cuttlefishes...

Hotpot Is a dish that suits vegans since you have many vegetables or tofu options such as Mushrooms, radishes, cabbage, potato, taro root, bean sprouts, Yam, Silken tofu.… You can also pick a few types of noodles. 

3

Prepare your sauce

The food once cooked has usually to be put with dipping sauces. In Fondue Chongqing, as in many other hotpots, every customer can make his own sauce by mixing different ingredients such as sesame sauce, chili oil, soy sauce, garlic sauce, vinegar, pepper sauce, green onions, etc. You can choose what you like to fit your own taste.

4

Enjoy your hotpot

 When the broth is boiling, you can dip ingredients in until cooked. You can pick them up with your chopsticks or with a dedicated ladle. Make sure foods are cooked through before you eat. For example, the meatballs and fish balls need to float, and the raw meats need to fully change their color. Usually, people start with hard dishes like meat or fish balls, which take longer time to cook, and then add vegetables. Noodles are usually stirred at last (the noodles will soak up the broth that's been flavored by all of the food you've cooked in it).

5

Refill your hotpot

 When too much of the broth evaporated because of the boiling, you can ask for a refill of broth in your hotpot. You can also order more dishes so at the beginning no need to order too much if you are not sure about how much you can eat! You can also make more sauce if needed.

Drinks to try during hotpot

We hope that this article helped you to know more about Hotpot Culture in general and that you will have the chance to try Fondue Chongqing in Paris. One last tip: don't forget to try their delicious homemade drinks, they have a large range of tea drinks, cold and hot, that are worth trying! We particularly enjoyed the honey and aloe tea, as well as the jujube cold tea. They can also be useful to help you survive too spicy food! And for beer lovers, you can also try authentic Chinese beers as well.

Author and photos: O'bon Paris Team