Yo!
As always, I hope your day has been peachy and much appreciation for reading! Today I'll be reviewing a place in Irvine called Boiling Point. Mel has been raving about this place so of course, I had to come and give it a try.
Boiling Point is a mid to high price range Taiwanese style hot soup restaurant. The ambiance is a bit hipster with black walls and very dim lighting. There was an abundance of staff which was great. They did serve water out of styrofoam cups which I found a bit weird but I guess as long as you get iced water and they did do a great job of making sure it was filled to the brim (for me, this is always a deciding factor as to how much I tip them). The menu is very simple, 10 preset hot soup items made it easy to order. It was a simple as ordering, "Number 9," which was the Japanese Hot Miso Style Soup. After you order you get a choice of a side of rice or vermicelli (thin rice noodles), I ordered the vermicelli. Everything is pretty standard, but something that wasn't standard was the metal stands that they bring the soups out on. These metal stands hold the soup you order and had chipping gel that they place on fire in the bottom of the stand that held a steel wok-style soup pot on top. Then they place it table-side keeping your soup boiling hot for a good 25 to 30 minutes. As you eat the soup you're left with more vegetables and meat then broth so the servers will come around and refill your broth anytime you ask. Service was prompt and we were well attended to so from that aspect this restaurant is great.
Now on to the food! I'll start with my soup...I ordered the Japanese Miso Style Soup with mild spiciness (you can choose how spicy you want). The broth wasn't the best I've ever had but it was still pretty good. In the soup they had maitake & enoki mushrooms and that alone sold me on the dish. The mushrooms added a great light umami flavor to the broth. Under the hot soup there were tofu cubes, fried tofu skin slices as well as thinly sliced pieces of pork. They did add way too much cabbage for my liking as I ended up with about a quarter of a cabbage left over at the end of my meal. There was even half of a shell crab and a single Little Neck clam added to the soup which were great but so small in portion to actually enjoy so I'll call those a garnish. All in all, I would rate the dish a 6 1/2 out of 10, maybe a flat 6 because of the price. This dish was considered a premium item costing me $16.99 for the whole meal. For a fair price (food cost wise), I would charge $12.99, which just happens to be their lunch price. The biggest flaws I saw were the lack of the seafood additions and a lack of the fermented miso flavor that I love in my broths.
Now on to Mel's dish who ordered their House Special Soup. Although the dish had great flavor, there was a prominent smell from the tripe and intestine that they used to make the broth. Now Mel has no sense of smell so I can't fault her for not catching this aroma, but my son's meal was the rice with a little bit of her broth. This boy, who is now two and a half, proceeded to review the dish himself calling it "Stinky!" haha! Mel still said she would eat this everyday if she could, especially since you're able to add more broth to whatever you can't finish of your hot pot and take it to-go, which in itself is a full meal to eat later (she says it's like a two-for-one deal). In addition to the soups there were an array of different sauces on the table. There were two types of chili pastes and one sweet sesame concoction that actually complimented the soups very well. What you would do is scoop the soup out of the hot pot into a smaller bowl where you can add your rice noodles or in Mel's case ramen noodles (which is an additional price), then if you wanted you could finish your bowl with the side sauces. When you go to try this place do not try the soup straight out of the hot pot as you will severely burn yourself like a certain idiot I know who shall remain nameless...I would personally only go there for lunch as I feel the value is rather fair compared to dinner. I've mentioned in earlier posts that when I review a dish or a restaurant I take food costs into account as well as service and quality. It's really hard for me not to take the food costs into account being in the industry and knowing how much all of this costs. Would I come here again? Sure! But next time I'll go for lunch. Give it a try and let me know what you think. Happy eating!
Boiling Point in Irvine
Japanese Miso Style Soup (closer hot pot) and the House Special Soup
Side Dish of Vermicelli (to add to your soup when it arrives)
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