Chef Sha 火炎閣

Had high hopes from the high reviews and love dry pot. We came in and it was empty in the front of the restaurant, but was fairly crowded in the back. Inside is pretty clean and quite spacious. It seemed like most people were eating hot pot, but we were set on trying their dry pot. They handed us an ipad to order and it was a bit difficult to navigate since some buttons were duplicates/didn't even do anything. We ordered one lamb rib dry pot and stir fried baby bok choy and mushrooms.

The food came out pretty quick. The baby bok choy came out looking really appealing with a generous portion. However, the dry pot seemed really small. It definitely seemed like one person could finish the plate. We quickly finished the dry pot, which was pretty spicy. We didn't finish the bok choy since it was a bit bland. It was not as tasty as it looked.

We were pretty disappointed here. We really were looking forward to a new place where we could get good dry pot. However, it was a small portion and not enough to share. The other dish was also lacking and didn't taste that great. Service here is okay;; since ordering is through an ipad, it can be difficult to get someone for water or something (definitely necessary with the spicy food). It seems like this place is more for hot pot, but I don't think I will be coming back soon.

I have not had the hot pot but the cold chili oil noodles were great (nice springy noodles) and the mapo tofu was satisfactory. They do advertise a lunch special on their door but don’t actually offer it, which means I spent twice as much on lunch as I was intending to. At least there are leftovers!

This is the only halal hot pot I know about in the area, and it's amazing. Their broths are super flavorful and they have a lot of meat and veggie options. I haven't tried their other dishes, so I can't comment on those.

I wish they would bring back the peanut sauce dipping sauce, but the other dipping sauces are great too!

This is my new favorite restaurant. It's extremely authentic so make sure you enjoy authentic Chongqing or Sichuan food before setting your expectations. There is a lot of details in the food they provide. For example the spicy chicken appetizer is deboned (they didn't simply choose to use chicken breast which would be bland and lazy). The lamb kebab is very juicy and fatty (this is a good thing for lamb kebab). They only use fresh (non frozen) frogs for the dry pot. Anyways, I'm glad there is a finally a good quality authentic Chinese restaurant. The service is decent too. I'm reluctant to write my review because I hate for it to be popular and then I have to wait in line for it.