99 Favor Taste is one of the main go-to spots for hot pot in Sunset Park and one of the more famous ones in NYC overall – with four locations in the Lower East Side, Flushing, Staten Island, and Brooklyn. Its appeal doesn’t lie just in its offering of unlimited vats of bubbling broths, but also because diners can combine all-you-can-eat hot pot and Korean barbecue. Original pig bone broth is the most popular, but opt for the kimchi broth with rice cakes to try something different. 99 Favor Taste checks off all the standard elements of hot pot: an abundance of sauces, meats and vegetables that can be dipped into a duo or trio of broths. Head here for a free hot pot meal on your birthday or within three days of it.

Hometown Hot Pot and 99 Favor Taste are the big-name destinations for all-you-can-eat hot pot that can be combined with unlimited barbecue. But at Hometown, Malaysian influences come through in the curry and tom yum broths and its assortment of stuffed specials like okra, tofu, and lotus root. There’s an extensive variety of meats, veggies, and a sauce bar on each of the two floors. Bring your ID for a complimentary birthday meal.  

This globetrotting hot pot chain has come a long way since opening up shop in Chengdu, the capital city of China’s Szechuan province, and touching down in Manhattan’s Chinatown in 2019. It’s easy to rack up a bill with the a la carte pricing for an extensive array of fixings here, but fans stand by its signature red pot, a spicy broth made of herbs, chile peppers, and peppercorns that have been fried in beef tallow and served with butter, as tradition calls for here. It’s a welcome oasis for those with a formidable spice tolerance. Make a reservation, scan a QR code to order, and bring your ID for a free birthday hot pot.

Shabu Shabu Mayumon stands out for its upscale, Japanese–style hot pot omakase complete with premium A5-grade Miyazaki and Washugyu wagyu steak. The philosophy here is to maximize umami. The dashi broth and karajiru dipping sauce are made with seaweed imported from Hakodate, Hokkaido, for its high glutamate (i.e. umami) concentration. According to its website, the inosinate acid in the beef has “an amazing synergy” with glutamate, which compounds the umami “exponentially.” Make a reservation for a luxurious experience at the eight-seat counter.

In 2020, Taiwanese favorite 886 debuted a hot pot version of the classic Taiwanese beef noodle soup. Chef and co-owner Eric Sze considers it “semi-winter-proof.” The $50 order serves two people and includes the requisite ingredients like the braised beef shank and mung bean glass noodles plus add-ons such as dry-aged prime ribeye for $16 and wet-aged Brazilian-style ribeye for $10.

Since 1985, this St. Marks Place gem has specialized in traditional Japanese hot pot. There’s nabe, where the assorted meats and vegetables are thrown into the hot pot all at once unlike shabu shabu (thinly-sliced meats are essentially parboiled with a quick swish in the broth) and sukiyaki (all ingredients are stewed longer in a sweet and savory broth). Kimura serves heaping portions of all three types with fixed ingredients and there are options for add-ins like wagyu beef slices. The $23 collagen nabe (pig trotters, chicken, leek, tofu, dry garlic) and $21 kurobuta pork belly nabe (Japanese Kurobuta pork belly, cabbage, soy sprouts, chili, chive, burdock) are hits. Ramune soda and Japanese whisky cocktails round out the menu. There’s an outdoor heated booth at the back of the restaurant. Reserve a table ahead to avoid hours-long lines.

Shabu-Tatsu specializes in Japanese shabu shabu and sukiyaki, and the detail-oriented staff will make sure diners do right by each. For shabu shabu, thinly-sliced meats – grade A5 wagyu beef and prime rib eye beef – and vegetables are briefly stirred in boiling water then dipped in ponzu or sesame sauce. In the sukiyaki course, all the ingredients are slowly simmered together in a sweet sauce then dipped in a raw egg. Meals are finished off with complimentary red bean and green tea ice cream.

One of the few remaining restaurants from when a Korean community thrived in Woodside is home to Sik Gaek’s Empire Spicy Seafood hot pot — a mountain of snow crab, blue crab, abalone, clams, mussels, shrimp, squid, and baby octopus capped with a fire engine-red lobster as the centerpiece. Udon noodles, enoki mushrooms, and watercress fight for space in the spicy broth. The $99 hot pot is ideal for sharing among friends in a room with casual tavern vibes and Korean hiphop. The outdoor set-up is styled with wooden slatted partitions wrapping around each table, and Korean menu items are painted onto wooden slats and blocks that hang from the makeshift wall.

Despite a company shuffle – a closing of the Flushing location and an opening in Bensonhurst while the Sunset Park location stayed standing – the retro-style Lao Jie Hot Pot is still serving up all-you-can-eat hot pot for $27. A duo of bone broth and spicy broth is the move here, although individual pots are also an option. A huge selection of add-ins include fried tofu rolls, pork belly, roe-stuffed fish balls, and chrysanthemum leaves. Bring ID on your birthday for a free meal. Call for reservations.

The Flushing location of this restaurant is hidden inside the popular New World Mall, and it sports tiered lanterns and greenery running through the zen-like interior. The “spicy bear” broth – a Sichuan pepper-based broth bobbing with an edible bear sculpture made out of butter – and the tomato broth are popular. The shrimp paste and shrimp dumplings have also garnered rave reviews here. The pandemic put an end to the all-you-can-eat option, but diners can opt for a membership, where a gift card essentially works as a debit card with each order reduced by one dollar. Xiang also has a Borough Park, Brooklyn, outpost (and new locations coming soon to Los Angeles and Houston).

This local favorite specializes in Chong Qing-style hot pot with Sichuan peppers and fatty beef tallow, but all the broths in general have fans who slurp them down like soups. If a broth is too spicy, the attentive staff shares recommendations on dipping sauce combos and brown sugar jellies to calm the burn. Make a reservation to avoid the two-hour wait time, especially on weekends.

If any hot pot restaurant goes the extra mile in service, that would be Haidilao. The globe-trotting Chinese chain – 500 outposts in 13 countries – provides its guests with aprons, small ziplock bags for masks, disposable toothbrushes with toothpaste in a squeaky clean bathroom, and an order of pulled noodles comes with a dance performance. Bells and whistles aside, guests swear by the six flavored broths – up to four can be ordered in a pot – and there’s an abundance of fixings like premium wagyu meats and fresh shellfish and complimentary sides like spicy beef tripe, green beans, seaweed knots, and ice cream. Lines can get long, so make a reservation or sit tight in the waiting room area with board games, free snacks, and drinks.

This hot pot chain grew from a small street in Chongqing to 1,200 outposts across the world,  including a Flushing restaurant that serves all-you-can-eat hot pot for $30 per person. Drinks, desserts, and an extensive sauce bar are included, but any of the 11 broths – including the powerfully spicy original Sichuan broth and a milder coconut chicken broth – will cost extra.