Da Long Yi: Hot pot and Barbies in meat dresses!

Chilli and controversy – the two main ingredients stirring the big hot pot at Da Long Yi. The two-storey restaurant on Elizabeth street presents the ultimate Sichuan Hot Pot experience that’ll have you sweating, laughing and rubbing your big full belly at the end.

Hailing from Cheng-Du, China, Szechuan Spicy Hot Pot started in 2013 bringing classic, deep-spiced soup bases and exotic ingredients. Da Long Yi has launched over 210 franchises in China, US, New Zealand and Australia – it’s safe to say the world has truly fallen in love with Chengdu’s flavour.

Welcoming the new year of the rat, Da Long Yi hosted an elegant dinner banquet starting with crispy pork, spicy beef jerky and chicken with chilli sauce. Then for the main even, the glorious hot pot. There are two soup bases: the Sichuan spicy – claimed to be medium spicy level but it’s actually more like supernova extreme spicy level – and the classic fish soup – full of collagen and great for your skin.

Platters upon platters of goodies are served to plonk into the soups, including meatballs, seafood balls, tofu slices and vegetables. But the star of the show is always the Wagyu beef slices fashioned on a Lady Gaga-esque Barbie doll. Controversial? Yes. Hilarious? Absolutely! (It’s all over Instagram already!). At this point in our banquet, we were drenched in sweat (there’s SO much chilli oil) and our faces hurt from cacking ourselves.

The desserts are simple but classic: fried glutinous cake with brown sugar. It’s super chewy, sweet and warm, essentially everything you want in a dessert to soothe the spicy attack on your tastebuds.

As featured on Onya Magazine.