Pop Pot (San Mateo)

Regional Dining Discussions SF Bay Area, NorCal, Tahoe
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The owner of the two Chef Zhao Sichuan restaurants just opened a seafood restaurant, Pop Pot. In addition to a few Sichuan-style whole fish preparations, diners have the option of choosing one of several live fish and having it prepared in any of the following styles: Sichuan style, Kung bao style, Fried with onion and ginger, butter and black pepper, or steamed in ginger and scallion. Unlike their Hong Kong style competition such as San Mateo’s Champagne Restaurant, the fish are not on display in the dining room, and are presumably swimming away in the kitchen.

@sck pointed out in another thread that Chef Zhao runs this business, and this escaped me on a visit a few weeks back https://www.hungryonion.org/t/chef-zhao-mountain-view-bay-area/3561?u=hyperbowler.
The non-seafood items I tried are pricier than at other Sichuan restaurants, and the presentation is more refined as well.

Here are the seafood oriented menu pics:

Pop Pot
2116 S. El Camino Real, San Mateo, CA 94403

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Lol. Is that a Sichuan style cioppino in a 3 ft paella pan? Did other tables order it?

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Diners were eating more moderately sized dishes :-). There’s a pic on y*lp from the same photo shoot. Anyone have $600 burning a hole in their pocket?

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Oh I am sure there are people who have money to spend. Now whether they will spend on this dish here or at e.g. Koi on things like $100/lb live leopard coral trout, is the question…

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That stew’s got nothing on this spread when it comes to impressing high rollers in need of Chinese seafood. Check out the fourth pic of this post:

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