Hot Spot Asian Fondue - Fairfax, Virginia

Who doesn't love fondue?   Hot Spot in Fairfax is an Asian-style Fondue restaurant located in a strip mall in the eastern part of Fairfax off route 29.

Hot Spot is trying to do what few restaurants have done outside the beltway.  Create a trendy asian atmosphere with cook-it-yourself style fondue cooking.  Overall, they succeed in this mission.  When you walk in, almost as soon as you notice the dense, humid smell of the cooking broths, you also notice that they spend considerable money in their decor.  The restaurant is definitely modern and not dingy like some asian holes in the walls.

Mmm, butter beer.  With a little rum, of course.

The first thing to try is the butter beer.  This is probably hit or miss for most people as it is very sweet.  Very much like a whipped-cream topped cream soda with a kick (if you opt for the optional shot of rum in it).  They do serve drinks though, so point scored.  They explain to you that you essentially choose one broth flavor per pair of people and then check off an unlimited number of items off the dipping menu.  The dipping menu contained everything from your standard meats and seafoods to mini dumplings, exotic vegetables, as well as tripe, tongue and other more obscure parts of dead animal.  Feel like being adventurous?

What they tell you is that they will automatically bring out a big plate of veggies for you to try at the start of the meal.  What they don't tell you is that many of the more exotic and sometimes more expensive items are not on the initial menu sheet they give you.  They strategically have a second menu that has more stuff on it to choose from.  I think they expect people to go buck-wild with the initial menu and fill up before they get to the second, more expensive menu.  Brilliant thinking, however, my readers will not be fooled!  Order light on the first menu and when you know what you like, go ballistic on the second menu :)

12 different types of protein for dipping!

There is a sauce station where you can select from a large variety of condiments and create your own dipping sauce.  This is much more useful for people that like to breath fire with each bite they take or if you get a bland broth that doesn't add flavor to the food.

Yes, that is a whole octopus

Some of our favorites:  We all agreed that the bigger dumplings (chicken?) were better than the super small ones.  The tongue was not my favorite.  All the other meats were really good.  We ordered the Spicy Broth and the Shabu Shabu.  The Shabu was extremely mild yet good.  The Spicy was REALLY spicy.  I read people's reviews saying it wasn't that spicy and I think these people are playing a practical joke on you.  There is actually a VERY spicy option but if you really need to go that route, you have an absolutely shitty palette and you might as well eat cardboad with sriracha at home instead of going out.  They have a lot of asian vegetables that are not only cool and interesting but taste really good if you don't overcook them.  The shrimp were a favorite and tasted pretty fresh!  And remember.... it's unlimited meat!

We were too stuffed for dessert or to even look at a dessert menu, so I apologize for that.  All in all though, it was a fun meal and we got our money's worth.  The all-you-can-eat option is around 22 dollars.  If you don't go crazy on butter beer, it's a reasonably priced dinner.

P.S.  Make 100% sure every piece of clothing you take into the restaurant is washable because you will leave stinking like fondue broth!  Leave your jackets in the car and wash your hair immediately afterwards.

Rating - 3.5 out of 5 stars