Remember the local Chinese restaurant that served sweet & sour chicken and chow mein? Thankfully, Australian’s have expanded their palates and embraced all authentic variation of Chinese cuisine. Gone are the days when Chinese restaurants would tailor their food to western tastes, and now in Sydney, there are enough Chinese residents to create and share their own authentic food, notably Sichuan Hot Pot.

Da Long Yi is an authentic Sichuan hot pot experience.

Established in 2013 in China, Da Long Yi has expanded to over 210 franchised stores in China, USA, UK, New Zealand and two venues situated at 909/343 Little Collins Street, Melbourne and 1 Dixon Street, Sydney.

Da Long Yi offers steaming, swirling and spicy hot pots, with a variety of various sauces, soups and ingredients to select from. All Da Long Yi soups are made from scratch with authentic, tingling and numbing Sichuan peppercorns, onions, garlic and lime leaves when called for.

Starting off with a choice of eight base soups (Mushroom, Spicy Sichuan, Picked Vegetable, Matsutake, Ox Tail Tomato, Chestnut Chicken or Cordyceps Flower and Pumpkin Soup), Da Long Yi hot pots are for the intrepid diner. Pile your plates high with ingredients and fossick for freshly cooked morsels with your chopsticks. Ensure that that you have a dipping sauce that you individually blend from sesame oil, large amounts of chopped garlic and salt, then scald your food in the broth.

Sichuan hot pots traditionally feature offal and with no exception Da Long Yi offer such traditional and exotic flavours.

Look for fresh beef aorta, pork brain or boneless duck feet. More conventional options are available to try as well, such as pork/beef/lamb slices.

Acknowledging the trend and growing demand for plant-based eating, Da Long Yi has now introduced vegetable-based broths such as Picked Vegetable, Mushroom, Cordyceps Flower and Pumpkin Soup. The vegetarian adventure can continue with the addition of soybean roll, fried tofu, sponge gourd, noodles, white radish, squared bamboo shoot, special wild herbs, Chinese Yam, enoki mushrooms or sliced lotus root. Proving that the exotic ingredients extend beyond meat.

Sides of steamed rice, traditional Sichuan fried bun and crispy spring onion cake can be ordered to snack on. Each of the many options pair perfectly with your choice of beer or soft drinks for beverage options of choice.

The attraction of hot pot is the shared and convivial experience – and the famously spicy Sichuan broth seething with chilis!

Originating in Sichuan, Southwest China, hot pot was originally a poor man’s broth, invented on the banks of the Yangtze river by labourers who would buy cheap offcuts of beef and boil them up in a potful of fat and chillies. Hot Pots in China date back hundreds of years from the Song Dynasty and grew to become a feature of Imperial cooking.

These days, the popularity of spicy and scolding hot pots is rising exponentially, being delicious, cost effective, convenient and convivial. Owned by the EFC Group Australia, whose other ventures include JiYu and Gotcha Fresh Tea, the group, led by Roger Fu, together with Orlando Sanpo, seek to bring diversified food cuisines and cultures to the Australian market, with Da Long Yi a highly successful brand to this innovative hospitality group.

Opening times: Mon – Sun 11.30am – 3pm 5.30pm – 12pm

Da Long Yi IG: @dalongyi.aus E: info@dalongyihotpot.com.au FB: facebook.com/dalongyiaustralia/ W: dalongyihotpot.com.au/