Any all you can eat dining experience HATES to see me and my big bro coming. Big bro is from Taiwan, and is more protein oriented than any other human being I've ever met, and his physique is proof. He's JACKED. He's like an Asian Johnny Bravo. I'll always recommend restaurants and he'll text back with "ehhh I'm just not seeing a lot of protein on the menu." When I recommended Dolar Shop, a Chinese hot pot restaurant in the East Village, I got the "I'm down" text. Those are tough to get from big bro. We walked in ready to go HAM, as it's all you can eat past 9:30pm for $46. We always get our money's worth out of an all you can eat restaurant. Hot Pot is cool because you pick your broth, mix your sauces from the sauce bar, and get full plates of raw meat and cook them right in the flavorful, boiling hot broth. This is only my 2nd time having hotpot, and it's such a unique dining experience. I've found the best way to learn about a culture when you can't hop on a plane is to try the food. Our feast consisted of the following: Flat Iron Beef (3x), Beef Boneless Short Rib, Chuck Eye Roll, New Zealand Lamb Flap, Beef Short Plate, Rib Eye, A Choy, Sweet Corn, and the Fish Roe Balls. Our favorite was the flat iron beef, as we got three orders of it. After our meal, we were as full as Ben Simmons after he got a max contract, but there is always room for soft serve ice cream. If there are two things in life I am an expert on, they are soft serve ice cream and rotisserie chicken. This soft serve was ELITE. I was feeling myself and tried to do the DQ Blizzard test on it, and failed miserably. My ice cream fell straight into the hotpot. I almost tried to cook some meat in my new ice cream flavored broth, but took the cowards way out. I'll be better next time, all I can do is try to improve everyday. IG @jnov_ Tiktok @jnov__

First time at a hot pot that wasn't all you can eat but honestly, this place was amazing. It was on the pricer side but good quality ingredients and they did have unlimited noodles (my fave was udon), dessert and apps for you to choose from. It ended up being more than enough food by itself. I really enjoyed the wagyu and the lamb. The staff was attentive and helpful, everything was fresh and the broth was so flavorful. I would recommend waiting for the $46 AYCE starting at 9:30pm. I also recommend you make reservations for this place. It was packed when we got there at 7pm. You can avoid the 3% credit card fee if you bring cash or use debit.

This place was a BLAST!!! The vibe inside was so nice and the tables were great. They accommodate larger groups which was perfect!! They had a bunch of "sets" which you could get that was pretty perfect. Comes with an app, a platter of your meat of choice, various veggies, noodles, and UNLIMITED SOFT SERVE!!! The hot pot was great, I loved that everyone gets their own personal small pot! As opposed to other places where the table has one large pot and you have to have a designated cooker and you lose track of whats going in lol. Here everyone got to choose their own items and their own broth flavors. I got the smooth pork broth which was very well flavored and creamy, as well as the spicy broth which had a nice amount of heat to it. Starting with the app, I chose the cucumber salad and it was pretty tasty! Sweet, salty, refreshing, fun to eat. For the meat I chose the flat iron beef, idk why this one was calling to me but it was really good. It cooked so quick like about 10-15 seconds in the broth. I chose the deluxe veggie platter for my sides and I'm so glad I did because it came with PUMPKIN and POTATOES!!! I put the potatoes in right at the start so that theyd cook about halfway into my meal. The pumpkin was amazinggggg so genius to have that in hot pot. The rest of the veggies were standard but really nice to have. For the noodles I chose the hand pulled noodles and they were really nice too. Very very long so I recommend ripping them in half before you put them in to cook because fishing them out was so difficult, but well worth it because they soak up the broth really well. They also had a sauce bar to make your own sauces. They premade us one that was pretty good but i'm all about that sesame and garlic sauce so I went and made that and it was so good. The sauce bar also had a bunch of other goodies like candies and little panda marshmallows which was perfect for... THE UNLIMITED SOFT SERVE!!! And it was my FAVORITE kind of soft serve like the one that is a bit watery and icey but still vanilla and delish. Wowww i could eat gallons of that. What a GREAT place I had so much fun here!!! I love it I love it I love it I love it I love it I love it I looooove ittttt

Always the best hotpot spot. The best quality and also the presentation is always so nice. Love the complimentary soft serve at the end.

A 3.8 experience for me. Pros: - Great location, diagonal from the movie theater on 11th street and 3rd Ave in EV, easy access to the green line trains and Union Square - desserts! There is vanilla ice cream but the sauces station also has additional dessert options and snacks! - good portions of food sizes that came in a decorative holder, which helps with food waste. I - aprons, although we weren't given it as the first customers that entered the restaurant this evening. I like the thoughtfulness of this for customers - customer service was very nice - clean bathroom, which I appreciate Cons: - very small pot and the soup base is very oily I scooped out a whole little bowl of the oil - the sliced meat were quiet fatty - there were no utensils other than the ones available on the table I had to ask for an additional spoon for dessert. It wasn't readily available on the sauce and dessert bar $40-$45/person. Two people plus taxes and tips you can expected to pay about $125.

Very unique hot pot experience. Fun with a group or even on your own! Each person at your table has their own broth station and a basket with a combo of choice. I've only been to ones where you share the pot. But here, you choose a broth flavor and have the soup pot on a personal electric stove. Also! You choose your order on an iPad, which was super confusing especially because of restaurant week. There were options that added to the cart that weren't an actual order just descriptions. Luckily there was a girl who came around to help people get their order in. I went with the mushroom broth, the only non-pork option they have aside from veggie. I wish there was chicken or beef one but alas. For the combo I got flat iron beef combo I think. So many choices I don't remember what I ended up going with. Since it was restaurant week, it came with - cucumber or tomato salad - tower of meat and veggie baskets - side of rice - soft serve Looks like too much food but in the end I wasn't too full. I wish there was more meat in the combo. I loved the extensive sauce and dessert stations. You go and make your bowl yourself. Lots of fruits too which was perfect after the hot pot. Overall really fun! A little overwhelming if it's your first time but after the first, you'll know what you like.

Dolar shop is a great spot in the east village with consistently good meat, soup bases, and side offerings. I'd say the place is a bit pricey but in New York I think it's par for the course. Staff is pretty quick and I enjoy ordering via the iPad. Will absolutely be coming back!

Reviewing the lunch/afternoon set menu (offered 11am-5pm) that Dolar Shop offers. Tldr: it's worth. I visited with a friend on a Saturday noon reservation. We each got a lunch set, and picked different cuts of beef. For broths, I split mine half creamy pork broth and half spicy broth with mild spice level. I was a huge fan of both, though the mild was pretty spicy and I ended up using the pork broth more. Portions were enough for my friend and I (both having skipped breakfast) to be completed satiated. All the ingredients were good quality and I enjoyed the variety. Service was prompt, water was always filled, and food arrived quickly. For context, the set comes with a cut of meat you choose and a tray of hotpot items, like lettuce, enoki mushrooms, imitation crab, shrimp balls, bean curd skin, spam, chicken, and so on. You can order unlimited servings of rice or noodles, which we took advantage of a couple times. At a buffet, in addition to concocting dipping sauces you can get unlimited helpings of kimchi, seaweed salad, AND dessert - think taro balls, ice jelly, red bean, popping boba, diced dragon fruit and mango, marshmallows, orange slices, gummy bears, etc. Don't forget there's free vanilla ice cream, which the waiter offered to us at the very end, long after we'd stuffed ourselves. The ambience of this restaurant feels more polished and tidy than that of other hotpot spots where AYCE is the only draw. You'll see that reflected in perhaps the slightly higher prices here, but the quality is there and the lunch set is a good deal IMO. In total (tax + tip) I forked out $39, which is not bad for this experience; there is no shortage of bougie brunches in the city that will rack up a much higher bill. No doubt I'll be back here again.

This is an elevated hot pot experience where you can order a la carte during the day and AYCE at night from 9:30PM to midnight. My group of 4 visited on a Saturday evening and it was pretty packed - that being said we unfortunately sat where there was no air conditioning or vent so it got super hot. Other than that it was pretty easy to order your broth with the server and then everything else via iPad. Unlike other hotpot places, each broth is $10. There is a buffet table with appetizers and your options to make a sauce all in one corner. We ordered sparingly each time to gauge how full we got since ordering a la carte tends to add up. The ingredients are presented very nicely, and came on a tower. They also have sets where you get a little bit of everything! And free ice cream at the end doesn't hurt. Overall a nice experience but it was super hot with no aircon - we were all sweating and only realized other spots in the restaurant had great aircon once we got up to leave.