There's no shortage of of hot pot restaurants on Soi Langsuan (Mercury Ville alone has two places that are usually packed with office workers gulping as much food as possible during all-you-can-eat hours).
Randy Noprapa and Chalee Kader, the chefs behind Fillets and 100 Mahaseth, are adding to the number with Mrs. Wu, a modern eatery that takes the humble hot pot to another level.
Set on the third floor of The Portico food and booze complex, Mrs. Wu’s façade is a distinctive showcase of neon-lit hotpots—a stark contrast to the elegantly subdued frontages of the other restaurants within the building. According to the manager, the restaurant is supposed to evoke the experience of dining in a Chinatown eatery somewhere in the American West Coast. The imaginary Mrs. Wu is its proprietor, a thirdgeneration Chinese-American who grew up in a family of food (and whiskey) connoisseurs. The restaurant, however, is light years away from your traditional Chinatown joint. The whole space veers away from tradition, featuring predominantly dark tones only broken by a mural depicting cheongsam-clad ladies languidly lounging about with their smart gadgets. A rounded bar in the middle of the sprawling space churns out premium single malts and Tsingtao beer.
Meals are priced higher than your typical hot pot restaurant, justified by the the inclusion of top-quality beef such as melt-in-your-mouth Japanese Sendai A4 sirloin (B950) and Hokkaido A5 ribeye (B850). Local beef Himawari-gyu (B520) from a Nakhon Ratchasima-raised breed that’s fed on a mix of sunflower seed, corn and sake kasu is a cheaper, but no less desirable, option. Non-beef eaters can indulge in assorted pork cuts (B280) or uber-fresh seafood such as Canadian lobster (from B1,800), pomfret (B460) or Ishinomaki-caught oysters (B220). Meats and proteins are accompanied by an array of dipping sauces (the shrimp paste and Taiwanese shacha are our favorites) or tangy pickled egg yolk (B30).
Mrs. Wu takes the broth it serves seriously as much as the meats, offering selections with exotic flavors like a murky red wine-based nabe broth, a peppery Cantonese pork-bone broth and a mildly spicy turmeric chicken broth (B800 for three choices). Desserts are sourced from local ice cream house Guss Damn Good and pie purveyor Holy Moly.
Address:3rd floor, The Portico Building, 31 Soi Langsuan, 0 2052 2214. BTS Chidlom. Open 11:00-23:00