Just tried this place on a whim with some legit fellow eaters… wowsa! There were 5 of us who shared the soup for 4 people and we couldn’t finish it. How often does that happen?? The place is pretty small and iirc, mostly booths, which worked fine since this is a communal meal. As you can see on the menu, if you go with a few people, your best bet is to order a combo, which is what we chose. Our add-ons were pork meatballs, enoki mushrooms, A-choy (a leafy green), and…for the life of me I can’t remember the last choice. For the ‘small’ sides (NOT small), we had the Spicy Sour Noodles, Cucumber Salad, Crispy Fried Pork Belly, and the House Made Fried Milk Custard. We also added an order of Century Egg w Fried Jalapeno because a few people wanted to try those (I was the abstention).
When the waitress brought the GINORMOUS bowl to the table we all gasped. It was definitely more than 1’ across, much bigger than any huge serving piece I own. It was full of a beautiful fish broth with pieces of Tilapia filet (you can upgrade to sea bass as per a sign on the table) and all of the goodies we had added. We had asked for the spice level to be in the middle of the Signature Spicy Sour Flavor (classic or numbing) and that was the right move - tons of flavor but we could still taste and enjoy everything. The Spicy Sour Noodles had a pile of chopped Thai Bird Chilis (I think that’s what they were) on top and my friend who does fine with crazy spice was sweating and wiping his brow almost instantly, so I stayed away from those! The pork belly was (of course) delicious and the cucumber salad was a great cooling foil after the spice/heat of the other dishes. The fried custard sticks (which truly looked like mozzarella sticks) were sweet and cooling as well.
One directional note: their location page says this is in Iselin, but it’s definitely EDISON. It’s on Rt 1 in the strip mall next to Kam Man Foods.
The restaurant is next to a Shanghai Dumpling place (I may have taken some dumplings and minced pork noodle soup home) and there’s also Sweet Dynasty ice cream at the other end of the strip, but it was packed with 30+ teens so I couldn’t even get in to see the flavors. Next time! And of course we hit Kam Man for various items, including the aisle of snacks, which had Lays and Doritos in crazy interesting flavors. Thankfully I only bought 1 small bag of the flavor I chose, because DAMN they were good!
Anyone else been? I’ll definitely get back there again - we went in a bit unsure of whether or not we’d enjoy it, but the answer was a resounding YES!
You know I’ve been thinking about this place, comparing it to the Hot Space Grill fish place we were originally supposed to go to. I think Hot Space actually has the better fish! Not saying this wasn’t delectable, but just saying it’s a blessing to have so many great options. Thanks for the awesome writeup! The sides here really made the experience so much fun, and the company of course!
Forgot to add that the pricing on the menu online did NOT match what we were given… the combo for 4 was $113 and with the one additional side dish and a generous tip, it was $31 each. Oh, and it’s BYO, too.
I agree with everything that @CurlzNJ and @joonjoon wrote above except that the Hot Space Grill fish place is better - and that may only be that I’ve never been to the Hot Space Grill fish place. We did think briefly about stopping in as after lunch we decided to stop in at HMart and the restaurant is in the same plaza. Next time were in Edison we’ll likely stop in to compare.
The fourth add-in was bean curd sticks. The tofu that was in the broth was listed on the bill as a fifth add-in with no charge. Also included were four bowls of rice and three and half remained after we finished eating. I’m sure there was easily at least 2 more meals leftover.
It sure did! I mean to be fair there’s not much to it, it’s just an aluminum dish
Today’s lunch! I added some onions, velveted chicken, Thai basil courtesy of @MsBean and after the fact, some chopped lettuce. There’s enough for probably 3 more meals.
For the ‘small’ sides (NOT small), we had the Spicy Sour Noodles, Cucumber Salad, Crispy Fried Pork Belly, and the House Made Fried Milk Custard. We also added an order of Century Egg w Fried Jalapeno because a few people wanted to try those (I was the abstention).
