My hot pot spread at Seasons.
I’m not one to have hot pot that often. For some reason, it’s just never at the top of my list when it comes to food. Yet, I’d been craving it for a while. Whenever I had the chance, I’d snap up Groupon deals. Unfortunately, before I had the opportunity to use it, the first one I bought for Chili Hot Pot fell through as it was cancelled by the business. So, when I saw that Seasons Hot Pot was offering a deal, I couldn’t pass it up.
Seasons Hot Pot is located at 109 Street and 23 Avenue just to the east of Century Park transit station. We dropped in on a Saturday afternoon for a family lunch. I had phoned the day before to make a reservation, but I had a feeling they didn’t actually make a note of it because the woman I spoke with forgot to even ask for my name. I had to offer it to her myself. My parents arrived ahead of us and let them know I had booked a table. It seems that my suspicions were correct because my mom said they were caught off guard. Still, it wasn’t crazy busy at 1:00 pm (the place filled up as we dined), and they got a spot right away.
Aside from the forgotten reservation, the service was pretty decent. While we were making our choices, both of the servers came by to see if we had any questions. They were more than willing to explain anything. Plus, when I inquired about the sweet potato noodles to make sure I was ordering what I thought I was, the one staff member even went to the kitchen to grab a strand to show me. I appreciated that.
At Seasons Hot Pot, their menu has two options: combos or create your own. Prices for the combos vary ($16 to $26) depending on the amount and type of meat selected. However, the cost includes the soup, which happens to be free during lunch hours, an assorted platter, and a bowl of noodles. The create your own menu stipulates a minimum spend of $15.95 with individual items ranging from $2 to $5 each.
My parents both decided to go with the Beef & Lamb combos, one with the plain chicken broth and the other going with the satay broth. My fiancé and I, on the other hand, chose to personalize our meals. He took on the heat with the spicy broth. I hoped to jazz things up with the curry soup. The two of us each ordered three plates of meat and three additional sides as well as some noodles.
Some of the sauces and condiments available.
First off, I will quickly say that the all of the soups, except for the spicy broth, were pretty bland. There was a hint of flavour to them, but nothing that was really able to saturate any of the ingredients. I think that’s why they offer so many different sauces and condiments. We also had to wave someone down to have extra soup added to our pots when they got low, and I also question whether or not it was actually soup that they poured in or if it was just plain water.
In any case, the important part was that I had a boiling pot of liquid to cook my food in, and there was a ton of food! If we’re talking about value for the money, I’d definitely recommend that visitors create their own hot pot meal. The combos were alright because there was a good mix of stuff, but for the price, there really wasn’t that much meat. The beef and lamb combos that my mom and dad ate had a total of about a dozen slices of meat per plate. Whereas I ordered the sliced beef, sliced lamb and sirloin beef. All in, I was looking at around double the portion of meat for approximately the same cost. In fact, after consuming my tofu puffs, pork dumplings, enoki mushrooms and my sweet potato noodles, I had to start sharing some of my lamb and beef with everyone else.
I think every kind of sauce or condiment one would want is here.
Since we had never been to Seasons Hot Pot before, I count this visit as a learning experience. If we go back, I know to: stay away from the marinated chicken (it’s tender, but in a too smooth way), avoid broccoli when having spicy broth because all of the tiny chili peppers get stuck in the florets, choose sirloin beef over sliced beef, mix sauces — satay, peanut and sesame — for amazing combinations, and order only what I truly like so nothing is wasted.
Was this the best hot pot I’ve had in Edmonton? No. It’s not. Some may also argue that they don’t have an all-you-can-eat menu like other hot pot places. Yet, how much can one really consume anyway? For about $20 per person, including tax and tip, all four of us left with full bellies. Neither my fiancé nor I ate dinner that evening. We didn’t have room for it. Therefore, for an affordable and more than passable lunchtime meal, check out Seasons Hot Pot. For those who live in the far southwest side of the city, it’s probably the closest restaurant of its kind to you, too.
Fa(shion).Fi(lm).Fo(od).tography 