LA Transplant Delivers Higher-End Hot Pot to Kearny Mesa

Has San Diego reached peak hot pot? There’s been a wave of new Taiwanese hot pot spots opening around town, from Tasty Pot and QT Pot to Red Cate Hot Pot and Boiling Passion. The latest to reach our shores is Uniboil, a well-established hot pot eatery with two locations in Los Angeles, two in Hong Kong, and one headed to the Bay Area. The restaurant tells Eater that they plan to open at least one more outpost in the San Diego area.

Its Kearny Mesa outpost is just days-old, and replaces Beauty Hunan in the Clairemont Mesa Boulevard complex that also houses Menya Ultra Ramen and Camellia Road Tea Bar. The spacious restaurant, open starting at 11 a.m., offers personal-sized hot pots of flavored broth that bubble and cook various meats, seafood and vegetables.

Uniboil’s signature soup based is made with numbing Szechuan peppercorns, but it also offers a tomato-based soup, Thai-style tom yum soup and a mild chicken broth. There are pre-set hot pot combinations, or you can customize your own from a long list of ingredients; the eatery sets itself apart by offering better quality meat options, from Kurobuta pork to certified Angus beef. All hot pots come with a side of rice or vermicelli noodles.