🍲 Little Welfare Spicy Hot Pot, Little Bitan Branch
🏠 5th Floor, No. 157 Zhongyang Road, Xindian District, New Taipei City
🕦 11:30–16:00, 17:00–21:30 | $898 Premium Wagyu Beef Set

🧾 Before entering, you need to choose your price range at the counter to receive a different colored clip for seating. Meats and some seafood are ordered with the clips and placed in a special box, after which the staff will cut it fresh and serve it to your table. Other items like shrimp, clams, and hot pot ingredients are self-service.

🍲 I chose a spicy soup base with kombu. The spicy soup has enough aroma but isn't so spicy that you start sweating; the meat is easy to dip and doesn’t overshadow the flavor. The kombu soup is just a plain broth, a bit boring but serves as a nice buffer.

🥩 This price level offers several types of Wagyu beef compared to the basic set. This time I had the Wagyu with extreme marbling and marbled beef, with good fat distribution and a tender texture. I noticed they also had lamb, which surprisingly wasn’t gamey, and I quite liked it. However, there’s an even more premium set available, and I saw a nearby table with those cuts; it seemed nice but nothing special 🤔. For myself, this price range is already quite sufficient.

🦐 The seafood self-service area is restocked quickly, and items like shrimp, clams, and small squid all looked quite fresh.

🍱 The self-service bar has many varieties including sushi, fried items, hot dishes, cold dishes, a vegetable area, desserts, beverages, and ice cream (Häagen-Dazs + 24 Rich). The sweet potato dessert is something I remembered from my last visit, so I had to get it again; it’s crispy outside and soft inside, very enjoyable when served hot! The sushi area didn’t perform as well this time, so I wouldn’t recommend it.

🧸 The overall space is not crowded, and the layout is smooth; everything that should be there is in place.

You need to choose the price level at the counter before being seated. Different price levels come with different clips. Once you drop the clip into the box, the meat will be served to your table. Most seafood is self-serve, but a few premium items need to have the clip placed in the box to be served to your table.

🔹 Premium Wagyu (Broth: Kombu/Mala) $898

• For the broth, I chose a dual option of mala hot pot and kombu broth. The mala broth has a strong aroma but isn't overly salty, and it's not the type that makes you sweat after just a few bites; it's the kind you can slowly dip and drink. The kombu broth is pretty ordinary, without any special surprises.
• The $898 set includes two more types of beef, which I find quite cost-effective. This time, I mainly focused on M8-9 Wagyu and marbled beef. I prefer meat with fat, and it wasn't until later that I noticed lamb, which doesn't have any strange gamey taste.
  Most of the seafood is self-serve; you can take what you want, like shrimp, clams, etc. However, there are a few premium items that must be ordered with the clip (the same as the meat), and I didn't specifically eat seafood this time, so I didn't research much into it, but everything looked quite fresh.

🔸 Buffet
(Hot pot vegetable platter, sushi, fried items, drinks, ice cream)

• The hot pot vegetable platter is self-serve and has a very complete variety, from basic cabbage and enoki mushrooms to more unique ingredients like baby corn and lotus root slices. The sushi area is replenished quite often, but I think they put out too much, and the texture wasn't that great. The fried items include fried shrimp and fried glutinous rice balls. A special mention is the caramelized sweet potatoes!

🧸 Remember to research the price levels of the meats you want to eat first so you don't choose the wrong set.