LAC MEI CHE HOTPOT BUFFET AND DRINKS 辣妹子火锅 自助餐

I have been noticing how lately hot pot/shabu-shabu has been one of the most rapidly growth (savory) food trend in Indonesia, more and more hot pot and shabu-shabu specialist restaurants are opening or existing restaurants start adding in the option into their menu line-up which is good for me because I am such a fan. A couple of weeks ago I paid a visit to this freshly opened restaurant in Jalan Samanhudi Pasar Baru called Lac Mei Che! It's very easy to find as it's located precisely beside Classic Hotel. This is the sister restaurant to its previous and existing venture Lac Mei Che Restaurant, which of course owned and managed by the same owner.

The restaurant's considered pretty spacious and could accommodate roughly around 100 people, nothing ultra fancy about the design, but it's fitting the Chinese hot pot concept well, and most importantly, neat! The crowd was really not bad for a weekday night and from what I saw, most came as families.

They apply the 'all you can eat' system here so yes customers can freely take whatever they want to indulge. The range of the food's pretty common with the other hot pot all you can eat, customers can continously refill the meat, along with condiments like meatballs, vegetables, cooked side dishes and more! Everything for you to indulge in 1,5 hours for IDR 165k NETT, and good news for my Muslim readers here, they serve NO PORK and another plus point of theirs: THEY OPEN UNTIL LATE to fix that midnight craving of yours.

As for the serving and personal dining experience, customers are more than welcome to choose a sharing pot or a personal pot with 6 options of soup: Szechuan Spicy, Lac Mei Che Special Spicy Soup, Original Herb Soup, Chicken Plain Soup, Chicken Clear Soup and Thai Tom Yum Soup.

Aside from the fresh meat and veges here they also have around 25 condiments that you can mix to your liking to make the dining experience even more personal and better.

I happen to come just in time when they recently launched their SHAOKAO BBQ menus and I'll be talking about them here as well.

There are five protein aka meat options here: Lamb, Premium Lamb, Lamb Shoulder, Premium Beef, Beef Striploin and Chicken Fillet. I had the Premium Beef and Beef Striploin since I am not into lambs and to be completely frank I am diggin the meat slices here, just happy that the slices are not too thin yet not too thick and most importantly when I cooked it for a minute it's still very meaty and beefy which should be the main concern of many hot pot restaurants in town, and somehow I am pretty pissed when the fat is way more than the beef hence after a few visits I stop going there.

Instead of going personal, I shared the Yinyang soup with my brother, good thing then so that we can try and mix everything that we like. I think this was half Lac Mei Che Schezuan Soup and Original Herb Soup and I recommend this combo for balance: the salty, savory and spicy goodness from the spicy soup and the more neutral flavor from the herb soup to wash out the spiciness. FYI for their spicy soup you can choose between level 1-3, the latter being the spiciest.

Zero complaint towards the soup, I like bold, salty, rich soup so I have no problem with theirs, some might find this a tad too salty and don't expect the 'cleaner' version like Eight Treasures'.

LAC MEI CHE BBQ SHAOKAO

They now serve various Shaokao and grilled light bites if you fancy something that's grilled while still being good and even better, it's ALL YOU CAN EAT! Expect to see various meat and vegetable skewers dressed in their homemade BBQ seasoning, overall I found them pretty decent and most importantly, not dry. The seasoning was given pretty generously hence that salty-savory hint on each bite.

Gotta love Lac Mei Che for various reasons and I am pretty lucky that I live very close to their restaurant so whenever I am craving for shabu-shabu with quality, this will be my pick. Is it one of the best in town? Quite possibly yes.