A newly open hot-pot restaurant in San Francisco's Chinatown, Hotpot Champ, is offering a bunch of Instagram- and TikTok-worthy presentations, including a spinning mini-Ferris wheel of raw meat.
Softly open since late February but just recently ramping up, this multi-level restaurant takes over the former Capputea Restaurant at 801 Kearny Street, next to Portsmouth Square.
The Ferris wheel item is a large lamb and beef combo for a group ($50), but you can also order individual meats, and the place has a set of gold-glazed serving dishes in the shape of various animals that are also pretty photo-worthy. (The sliced pork belly comes in the pig seen below.)
"Finally, we have something cool in SF," says local food influencer Yen Kim Phan, a.k.a. @foodiswhyimbroke. "Highly recommend."
For $2.50 per person, you can also partake in the unlimited sauce, condiment, and garnish bar, which includes a variety of vegetables, salads, spices, and other items you might want to dress up your broth bowls.
For broth options there's a "classic spicy" Sichuan option with beef oil, as well as chicken-, tomato-, mushroom-, and pumpkin-based soup bases.
Hotpot Champ also utilizes roving robots to help out servers, delivering trays of food to tables — but from the video below, it looks like the robot needs a bit more training.
Hotpot Champ is open weekdays for lunch from 11:30 to 2 p.m., and for dinner from 4:3o p.m. to 10:30 p.m., and 11:30 p.m. on Friday. The restaurant is open all day from 11:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
Hotpot Champ - 801 Kearny Street - 415-400-4528 - Reserve tables here