Restaurant: Wagyu House by The X Pot
Location: 18558 Gale Ave Suite 122-128, Rowland Heights, CA 91748. (866) 610-0609
Date: October 20, 2022
Cuisine: Chinese Hot Pot
Rating: A bit of style over substance, but solid
This was actually just a “Lunch Quest” where we set out to the far SGV to check out this “fancy hot pot” I’d seen online. Turned out it was mobbed! Chinese food in the SGV is never crowded for weekday lunch!
We had to wait about 50 minutes. The wait was weird because the place is huge and was only about 25% full, although tons of people were waiting.
Build out is pretty extensive. Sure, the build quality is “sloppy” and it won’t hold up, but it looks pretty cool right now.
Private rooms.
Sauce Bar. The sauce bar is excellent. Not quite as good as Shancheng Lameizi but very good. There weren’t very many snacks though (like cucumbers etc).
My usual pair of sauces. I tried not to make them very spicy today.
The menu.
And the special “expensive” package menu.
House Special Wagyu Pot (right) and Coconut Chicken Pot (left). Neither of these imparted to obvious a flavor onto the stuff — or at least not enough to survive dipping int he sauces.
Instead of the coconut chicken I really wanted the golden one, which is a specialty of theirs — but alas it was “out.”
House Crispy Pork. Quite yummy, like pork clam strips.
Wagyu Tartare. You mix it up and eat. Pretty good, but the sauce flavor was a little odd.
Braised Lotus Root. I really enjoyed these as I like the texture of lotus roots.
Grilled Wagyu Bone Marrow. Most of the group thought this was the best dish. Just seemed like greasy beef nibblets to me.
Fish Tofu. The usual slight fishiness which I kind of like.
Assorted “meat” balls (beef, pork, and shrimp). The meatballs were good here.
House Special Pork Balls.
House Signature Ham (spam). I love “luncheon meat” at hot pots. This one tasted good, but it became a bit soft in the pot.
Kurabuta Pork Jowl. These were quite good.
Mini Pork Sausage. Not the usual “brand” of sausage and not quite as flavorful.
Each A5 has it’s own presentation. The rib cap (we didn’t order it because Yarom was fighting the A5) comes in a bull!
Japanese Miyazaki A5 Wagyu Silver Side. This was very good but it’s hard to know that one can tell it’s A5 after it’s been boiled and soaked in sauce. I’m a little skeptical if it’s really A5. It might be some more domestic wagyu. Hard to know for sure.
Wagyu Short Rib. Meat was good.
Wagyu Top Blade.
Squid Rolls. Interesting texture.
Imitation Crab Sticks. These almost disolved in the broth, which gave them a slightly offputting mushy texture.
Assorted Vegetables. The cabbage rocked.
Bamboo Shoot. Fiber!
Robo waiters.
This is so SGV.
Overall, Wagyu X was interesting. It was pretty good hot pot, and the decor is great, but we had the annoying wait and a problem with the broth choices/availability. If we got that sorted and were there at dinner and ordered crazy stuff I think it might be a lot of fun.
Fundamentally, if like me, you make your sauce pretty zesty/spicy, then there isn’t that much taste difference between this and any of the other higher end “regular” hot pot chains. Wagyu X is prettier, however, and they do have more wagyu. They also have a lot of expensive live seafood, which I do think would be good with milder broths like the mysteriously unavailable golden broth. After this meal, but before the long delayed write up, I’ve had a couple of delicate seafood hot pots with fabulous non-spicy broths and they were really good. As much as I love a good Chengdu style spicy ox fat broth, it pretty much nukes out seafood subtlety.
This place apparently has the same owners as Niku X — which we shall come to in time on All Things.
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For more LA Chinese dining reviews click here.
After we went over to a friend’s restaurant to say high.
Got some free Chinese buttered buns which had carbs I didn’t want. They tasted good however.
