Season of plump autumn crabs！All-you-can-eat king crab hotpot feast for around a thousand yuan

Text and photos byAmon

It had been a while since I’d had premium ingredients like king crab, and autumn is the season when crabs are at their plumpest. So I decided to come and try it with some friends. The restaurant is located near the Xinxing Overpass. It’s about a 10–15-minute walk from Zhongshan MRT Station, so it’s better to take a bus or taxi to save time and energy. Otherwise, like Amon, you might end up walking to the restaurant nearly fainting. The restaurant is open from 5 p.m. until 1 a.m., only in the evening—no lunch service. Dining time is limited to two hours, and it’s best to make a phone reservation if you plan to come on a holiday.

There’s a giant king crab image at the entrance—it’s super recognizable and will make anyone’s stomach growl. Since there aren’t many seats inside, if you come late, you’ll have to wait in line.

The broth is made with kelp, and the longer it simmers, the sweeter and more savory it becomes. You can order unlimited refills of vegetables to cook in the soup and enhance the flavor.

Sauce is an important part of hotpot, and this place offers three options: soy sauce, lemon juice, and soy sauce with satay. Soy sauce is mainly for sushi and raw seafood, lemon juice pairs wonderfully with king crab, and satay is for dipping meats.

Before you start cooking meat, they serve two pieces of nigiri sushi. I thought the sushi at a hotpot place wouldn’t be great, but it surprised me—the rice and fish were well matched, especially the scallops, which were surprisingly sweet. It was such a nice surprise, but sadly, these can’t be ordered additionally. What a pity.

Wasabi oysters
This is also an appetizer, limited to one per person. The sweetness of the oyster is balanced perfectly with the wasabi sauce—delicious.

Hand rolls
Also limited to one per person, but these are a bit more ordinary. The seaweed gets soft quickly, so eat them fast.

Now for the items that you can order unlimited amounts of—like vegetable platters, tofu skin, and lettuce. Since the restaurant doesn’t have a menu, just tell the server the name of what you want instead of trying to find it on a paper form. But props to our server—they must have an amazing memory to keep track of all those special orders from different guests XD

Shrimp paste, squid paste
At the beginning, they bring out one round of everything you can order, including squid paste and shrimp paste. These have a nice bounce and firm texture—you can really taste the squid and shrimp. But everyone’s focus is on the king crab, so these only showed up once.

Assorted seafood platter
Includes monkfish, cod, clams, angel shrimp, squid, and fresh oysters. The presentation of this platter is really impressive—it’s a bit overwhelming deciding what to try first. And the best part? All of these can be ordered unlimited times. The thing most people worry about is whether they’ll delay serving or skip orders. Based on what I observed with other tables, the food came out quickly and no one complained about missing items, so the restaurant clearly isn’t afraid of customers eating a lot. Monkfish is rich in collagen and turns semi-transparent after boiling—best to scoop it out quickly. The cod is tender and delicate, and a few drops of lemon juice make it even fresher.

Forgot to mention earlier—one essential part of all-you-can-eat hotpot is the drinks. There’s a whole counter of beverages for you to help yourself to—water, tea, sodas—you can drink as much as you want.

Angus beef short ribs

Matsusaka pork

Sirloin beef
For meats, there are three types: beef short ribs, sirloin beef, and Matsusaka pork. No lamb or chicken, but I guess most people come here for the king crab, so the variety of meats probably isn’t a big deal XDD. Personally, I’d recommend the Matsusaka pork and Angus beef short ribs—they’re more tender and have a richer flavor.

Start by putting vegetables, squid paste, and shrimp paste into the pot to simmer the broth and make it sweeter.

Angel shrimp
Next, start cooking the seafood. The angel shrimp have a firm texture, plenty of meat, easy-to-peel shells, and a refreshing bite. Their freshness made me eat quite a few.

Squid
After cooking, it shrinks slightly but remains chewy and delicious. Don’t cook it too long or it’ll shrink too much and become dry and tough.

There are many ways to prepare king crab. The type used here is reportedly flash-frozen raw—meaning it’s frozen right after catching and then cooked at the restaurant, which makes it tastier. Store-bought ones are usually cooked then frozen, which affects the flavor. The clams seem to be medium-sized, and the restaurant doesn’t skimp—serving up a big plate. Just cook them briefly in the pot for plump, juicy clam meat.

As for king crab legs—honestly, it was my first time cooking them in hotpot, so I was a bit all over the place. The legs are so long they barely fit in the pot, and I had to keep pushing them down into the broth. They’re so unwieldy you almost need two hands to handle them.

The cooked crab legs must be cut open with special tools to eat. Once the shell is sliced, the plump, juicy crab meat inside is revealed—just take a big bite, it’s so delicious, amazing!

During the meal, the server will bring out sweet shrimp and raw scallops. These cannot be ordered again, only once per table. They’re quite sweet and can be eaten raw as is. If you’re not comfortable eating them raw, just put them in the pot to cook.

This is the part closer to the crab body—the crab meat here is slightly coarser. I personally prefer this part because the texture is better. The crab leg meat is tastier though.

Fish dumplings
These don’t seem machine-made. The texture is quite unique and the flavor is great—I really like them too.

Additional vegetables and mushrooms

Dessert after the meal
The dessert is black sugar tofu pudding. I think this dessert is also great, but it seems you can’t order extra. It’s served before the two-hour dining time is up. The bean flavor is rich, the texture is smooth, and paired with the sweet yet not overly sugary black sugar syrup—it’s delicious.

Overall
The quality of the seafood is quite good. For the price, it’s pretty worth it. Just coming here to eat the king crab, fresh oysters, and angel shrimp is already worth the cost. If you’re a meat lover, there’s also Angus beef and Matsusaka pork—really great. The above is just my personal opinion for reference.

Restaurant name: Pin Hotpot King Crab All-You-Can-Eat
Phone: 02-2541156
Address: No. 152, Section 1, Xinyi North Road, Zhongshan District, Taipei City
Price: $1180/person, service charge not included

"Ahmon Taiwan Travel~Food, travel, photography, outdoor shoots
Walking around with a camera~ casual snaps~ unexpected moods"