Ever since Little Sheep closed down (and closed down a part of my heart and stomach with them), I’ve been lacking some good hot pot. You couldn’t beat Little Sheep, they had great broths, good meats and it was ALL YOU CAN EAT. Well I had the delight of being treated for dinner at Honolulu Hotpot Hale and oh boy, it is not all you can eat and it is not cheap. So thank you to my cousin for treating me (lol) though I think she wanted to eat it as much if not more than me. I forgot to take full pictures because when I start eating, I just forget. I realized I didn’t even take pictures of their broth but, eh…that’s just soup. No worries. By the way, they are located in the Pacific Guardian Tower on Kapiolani. Parking is on your own.

White Rice | $2.99 / scoop

What you see is what you get. I will say, it’s a pretty big bowl of rice. If you have a rice lover, this will not be enough for them.

Handmade Noodles | $5.99

The noodles were alright, to me, nothing special. They do advise that only cook the noodles when the broth is boiling high. If not, the soup will get all “tick” and such. Good advice.

V1 | $12.99
enoki mushroom, king oyster mushroom, black fungu, brown shimeji

I love mushrooms so it was good. Small kine pricey yeah? But I guess everything is pricey nowadays.

V3 | $12.99
dried beancurd strips, dried tofu ties, fried tofu

I was super looking forward to this one because I love tofu. The dried tofu ties aren’t great. The texture is interesting, not soft but not hard? I don’t know how to explain it. The fried tofu doesn’t get soft and soak up the broth as much as I would have liked with tofu puffs.

S1 | $19.99
kauai shrimp, fish fillet, abalone, squid

It was good. $20 good? I don’t know. You don’t really get to choose what comes in these sets so while I could do without the abalone, I had to get it to get my shrimp and fish. The abalone was good though! It was funny that this dish came out last, I had to ask because it seemed like it was forgotten. He was very nice and said they were still preparing it. I mean, it comes to us raw but okay, I digress.

New Zealand Farmed Lamb (pictured) | $21.99 (half yard)
Prime Beef Short Rib | $25.99 (half yard)

Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the short rib meat. If you go up and look at the noodles picture, you can see both half yards of meat on the table. I’m not a big critic of meat, especially when it’s sliced this thin and thrown into the broth and then dipped in sauce. I actually preferred the lamb meat myself. I usually enjoy the slight gaminess of meat, but their lamb was not at all gamey!

Each person orders their own broth and you get your own gas burner. Each soup is $7.99 and comes with the choice of one dipping sauce.

Soups: Hale Spicy Soup, Authentic Tomato Soup, Hale Medium Spicy Soup, Chinese Sauekrat Soup, Original Beef Soup

Dipping Sauces: Sweet Sesame, Lime Vinegar, Mild Sesame Sauce or Honolulu Skewer House Seasonings (powder)

For the sauce, I don’t know if there is a charge if you want to try different sauces. I was able to get a refill of my chosen sauce free of charge so I guess you could ask? All in all, it was a good hot pot and was delicious. Do I think it was worth the price? Yes and no. I still long for Little Sheep to make a triumphant return but also know that if I tried to make my own hot pot at home, it would probably cost way more. I’ll let you folks judge for yourselves.