How can you visit Chongqing without having hot pot? Since I only had one chance to enjoy it, I chose a Black Pearl One Diamond restaurant: Yanshe Hot Pot Cuisine, the high-end hot pot brand under Dezhuang. There is only one location for this brand, situated on Nanbin Road along the Yangtze River, directly facing Chaotianmen, where the Jialing and Yangtze Rivers converge. Chaotianmen used to be a massive construction site, but things are different now that Raffles City has been completed, becoming a new landmark. The view here is actually much better than looking across from inside Raffles City; you can also see cruise ships on the river and Hongya Cave in the distance.
The restaurant isn’t very large, but each table is spacious and well-spaced, offering decent privacy, and there are enough staff members. The entire restaurant operates on a reservation-only basis and serves set menus exclusively. This particular set menu is 498 yuan per person, featuring an abundant variety of dishes served course by course, Western-style. Each portion is not too large, and the full meal takes about two hours to complete.
I booked a window seat in advance. The indoor lighting is quite dim, with spotlights focused on the tables. The first items served were fruit, nuts, and a small appetizer.
The hot pot setup features individual pots for each person. They are slightly larger than the typical small personal pots, making them medium-sized, and they come as split pots (Yuanyang style): one side is Morel Mushroom and Ham Broth, and the other is Spicy Broth. For the spicy side, you can choose different heat levels based on Dezhuang’s customized ‘Li’s Spice Scale.’ However, even the ‘mild’ option is rated at 45 degrees, which turned out to be significantly spicier than what I usually consider mild. It comes standard with a sesame oil dipping sauce and seafood soy sauce.
The first dishes served were Premium Crispy Tripe and Goose Intestines, which are meant to be cooked in the spicy broth. Although the quality was excellent, the strong flavors somewhat affected my palate for the seafood courses that followed.
The Seafood Platter includes baby lobster, fresh shrimp, fresh abalone, cuttlefish rolls, and tiger grouper. Everything was very fresh and satisfying.
The freshly fried crispy pork strips contain Sichuan peppercorns and taste quite good, though they weren’t very crunchy, suggesting they might not have been fried immediately before serving.
As for the Australian M7 Beef Short Ribs and M7 Tri-Tip, the meat quality was impeccable—as expected at such a high grade—rich in fat and melting in the mouth. However, a three-person portion was mistakenly served instead of ours. After a long wait, it was taken away and replaced with the correct two-person portion shown below. For a restaurant at this price point, such an error and the way it was handled were rather peculiar, causing the service score to drop slightly in my estimation.
Iberian Black Pork Neck
Garlic Scallops with Numbing Green Lettuce was a strangely placed dish in the middle of the meal. The texture was crisp, but it was drenched in so much numbing peppercorn oil that I couldn’t taste anything other than the intense numbing sensation. By the end, my lips were trembling from the numbness.
The Traditional Meat Platter includes homemade luncheon meat, shrimp balls, beef balls, yellow throat (aorta), and duck gizzards. Items on this platter can be refilled unlimitedly.
They also didn’t forget the common hot pot staples: tofu skin rolls and tofu with duck blood.
Vegetable Platter; items in this platter can also be refilled.
The Yunnan Wild Mushroom Platter features Lion’s Mane mushrooms, Termite mushrooms, and Shimeji mushrooms. The Termite mushroom was perhaps the most magical, tasting remarkably like chicken. However, this platter was initially missed and was only served after we asked about it.
Finally, we reached the staple food and dessert stage. The staples were Osmanthus & Black Sesame Tangyuan (glutinous rice balls) and Seafood Porridge. The portions were small, but both tasted excellent.
Dessert was Red Bean Soup with Dried Tangerine Peel.
Throughout the meal, the servers introduced each dish as it was served and were very attentive with water refills and plate changes. Just outside the window is a huge terrace. If you want to take photos, the staff are happy to help and even provide a fill light, which was a very thoughtful touch.
Overall, this restaurant stands as a model of high-end Chongqing hot pot. Aside from lacking a bit of traditional street-side hustle and bustle, everything else was highly satisfactory. The ingredient quality and ambiance were flawless, though there is still some room for improvement in service.
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