On your mark, set, feast! Asian hot pot restaurants ‘race’ to open in Boise, Meridian
If you’re a fan of Asian hot pot dining, get fired up.
Two new restaurants plan to bring the interactive, cook-it-yourself experience to Boise and Meridian.
The competing businesses aren’t in a race to open, exactly. But it might feel that way to eager, hungry Idahoans.
Actually, like a tortoise race. (Hot pot? How about turtle soup?)
Neither restaurant is close to opening. But considering the dearth of Asian hot pot options in the Treasure Valley, they should be worth the wait.
‘Unique’ experience
Offering hot pot and Korean barbecue, KPot has signed a lease in the recently shuttered Sizzler building at 3380 N. Eagle Road in Meridian.
KPot hopes to make its debut in spring 2024, according to a representative of real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield. (Messages to KPot were not returned.) Outfitting a former Sizzler restaurant with built-in cooking gear at tables will require remodeling.
The KPot chain — which stylizes its name as “KPOT” — operates dozens of locations, primarily in the East, according to its website.
“KPOT is a unique, hands-on, all-you-can-eat dining experience that merges traditional Asian hot pot with Korean BBQ flavors,” the website says, “but modernized with a full bar and a nightlife-like atmosphere.”
Sounds like a party — even if Korean barbecue isn’t new to the Treasure Valley. Magnificent Garden, 980 N. Milwaukee St. in Boise, has offered the grill-at-your-table experience since 2019.
A full-on Asian hot pot mecca, though? That’s exciting news in Idaho.
Hot pot is similar to Korean barbecue. But rather than grilling, it involves a pot of boiling broth and an array of meats, veggies, noodles and other ingredients. You plop them into the bubbling goodness at your table and treat the resulting creation like soup. Or you scoop cooked delicacies from your pot and dip them in various tasty sauces.
Boise Hot Pot
The long-awaited Ombu Hot Pot still is on the way at Idaho Asian Plaza in Boise.
But a three-restaurant project at the site has shifted to two, according to Glenn Walker, principal architect at ADP Architects.
Peking Tokyo Asian Bistro & Sushi Bar debuted weeks ago at 3027 N. Cole Road. But despite an Ombu Korean BBQ sign at 3023 N. Cole Road, that previously planned restaurant will not open.
Instead, the space will be Ombu Hot Pot.
A realistic launch date might be summer 2024, he added.
Ombu Hot Pot has the same Utah-based owners as Peking Tokyo Asian Bistro.
This story was originally published October 16, 2023 at 4:00 AM.