Urban Hot Pot - Make-Your-Own Hot Pot at the Galvan at Twinbrook Apartment Complex on Rockville Pike near Twinbrook Metro - NOW OPEN!

[DonRocks]

On 12/8/2017 at 6:41 PM, Simon said:

I ate here tonight [Akira Ramen & Izakaya] based on Tim Carman's enthusiastic review and was very disappointed (Carman, you've misled for me for the last time...).  

The Akira Ramen (tonkatsu broth, with a couple thin slices of chasu, veggies, fish cake, and half an egg) was deeply mediocre.  The broth, thin and bland, had little discernible pork flavor and mainly served as a carrier for the bitter char of the chasu.  The curly noodles were little to write home about (or wax poetic about in the Post).  Overall, a nothing bowl of ramen.

I ordered the grilled yellowtail collar as an appetizer, was told it'd take 15 to 20 minutes, so asked for it to come out before the ramen.  After about 25 minutes, the ramen came out first, and the yellowtail a few minutes later.  The fish was moist and nicely grilled, but it won't bring me back on its own.

Sitting at the bar, you could see bowls of ramen being plated sluggishly by an inexperienced kitchen staff -- nothing like the well-oiled machine at Daikaya.

Urban Hot Pot, which has a Facebook Page but no website yet, soft-opened last night in Twinbrook, right next door to Akira Ramen & Izakaya. It's a make-your-own hot pot restaurant, and appears to be family-friendly.

Jul 24, 2007 - "Small Bites: Ramen and Hot Pot Coming to Rockville This Fall" by Joe Zimmerman on bethesdamagazine.com

[sheldman]

I ate at Urban Hot Pot last night. I am not here to tell you that it is the quintessence of the world's best hot pot. I am not your go-to expert on that. But damn what a good experience on a jolly brain-dead evening with someone you like.  $25 all-you-can-eat, in sleek modernistic clean bright space. Get a booth around the conveyor belt.  Order your broth of choice and get it going on your little glass stovetop.  Conveyor belt brings this and that.  Use the attached iPad to order other stuff too.  Go to the sauce and condiment bar to get things on top (sesame dressing, peanut dressing, cilantro, peppers, etc etc etc.).  Stuff yourself silly on meats (incl. stomach and intestines if you are into that), seafoods, tofu, vegetables, in your hot pot.  Spice up your broth how you like it.  Eat too many noodles.  Things that you order on the iPad come within minutes.  Eat and eat and eat and eat.  Pro tip: order more napkins through the iPad too.  Again you may say that I am a rube but what fun and quite good.