K Lok Spicy Chicken Hot Pot

A new age of spicy chicken hot pots have arrived.
Gone are the days of the dirty and cramped ghetto chicken hotpot places. Since the opening of 66 Chicken Hotpot in Mongkok, more and more modern Spicy chicken Hotpot (SCHP) places have popped up around town. K Lok is situated in a street full of traditional hotpot places, but it is not one of them — K Lok has a flamboyant neon sign outside, and the interior is modern, spacious and clean. Catering to the younger generation, and particularly to girls who don’t like to get that «hotpot smell» on their jackets, they offer to keep your jacket in an enclosed wardrobe. Full points from me on environment and service.
Food is decent. Being new age, they are meticulous to the detail — there are three breeds of chicken for you to choose from, differentiated by organic to tenderness. We chose their signature chicken in one mild spicy pot and one in a medium spicy pot. Very tender, very flavorful. But medium proved a bit too spicy for us. We were glad when the chicken was finished and we could opt to add broth (pork bone or spicy) to dilute and transform it to a hotpot. Without going into detail, the hotpot ingredients were decent and fresh. Price was higher than usual SCHP, at HKD 370 each. But decent SCHP in a very comfortable environment, deserves four stars from me.

First and foremost, there was a poster downstairs for a winter melon congee chicken hotpot, and that is what made me want to try K Lok. Now, I know it sounds like a weird combo but I’ve had winter melon hotpot and chicken hotpot, and I’ve seen congee hotpot so I thought it would be interesting to try it all together. I gathered a couple of my foodie friends to go on a Sunday night (no wait) and was super stoked to try it. We put in our order for a coconut broth chicken hotpot and the highly anticipated winter melon congee chicken hotpot. About 5 minutes later, our nice waiter John comes over to deliver the bad news that they’re out of the winter melon congee chicken hotpot! We were very disappointed. The thing we went there to try was out of stock.
As a reluctant replacement, we ordered the numbing spice chicken hotpot. When the our first pot (coconut broth) came, it was very fragrant from the coconut. The pot is to come to a boil, then the chicken is put in and the stove is turned off. Someone from the waitstaff gives you a timer and the chicken is to soak in the broth for 10 minutes. After the 10 minutes, the broth and chicken is brought to a boil again and then the chicken will be ready to eat! During our 10 minute wait, our second pot (numbing spice) came and was pretty much immediately ready to eat so we started on that.
The numbing spice pot had a lot of herbs, spices and onions. Although a little bit salty, the chicken was very flavorful and meaty. We ordered the half a chicken portion and we didn’t feel cheated. We ordered this pot with little spice and everybody at the table was happy with that level.
When our coconut broth chicken was ready, we were ready to dig in and the chicken was surprisingly tender. None of us were particularly fond of the coconut flavor though. We think it’s because it’s not as savory as we expected. It’s not bad, just not a choice we would go with again.
Aside from the two chicken pots, we ordered a variety of ingredients to hotpot with. One of their specialties is a Chinese donut with a shrimp paste filling and crab roe on top, served with a sweet chili sauce. That was pretty good. We ordered two different kinds of beef — a marbled, hand cut beef and beef cubes. I’m not sure if the broths were just too over powering or if the hand cut beef was too thinly sliced, but it didn’t really have a beef flavor. The beef cubes had a good flavor though. Additionally, we had beef balls and mushroom and pork balls. Both were good. All of the veggies that we ordered were fresh.
All in all, everything was just ok and nothing was spectacular. When the bill came, it was much more than we expected — $ 1,570 for 5 people, $ 314/​person. Although the food was fine and the waitstaff were friendly and attentive, we were rather put off by them not having the winter melon congee chicken hotpot and the price. We didn’t feel like we should have paid $ 314/​person for food that was average.
If you’re wanting to try the winter melon congee chicken hotpot, our server John said it’s best to call ahead and reserve one. I’m not sure I’ll make it back there, but let me know if you guys try it!