Best Thai Hot Pot in Linkou: Blue Elephant Garden at Mitsui Outlet

Blue Elephant Thai Hot Pot (All-You-Can-Eat) is quite an interesting experience. I’d recommend it to friends who are comfortable with Thai flavors and seasonings. The soup bases here are very different from the typical hot pot broths you usually find, and there’s a wide variety to choose from—green curry, Thai tom yum–style sour and spicy, lemongrass citrus, and Thai tomato broth. If you really can’t handle Thai flavors, there’s also a kombu broth, but I think it’s worth trying the lemongrass or Thai tomato options. They’re not spicy at all, and the flavors are quite pleasant.

There are also many types of noodles to choose from.

I didn’t try the rice vermicelli soup, since I wasn’t sure what it would taste like—and with limited stomach space, I’d rather save room for other things.

They also offer DIY after-meal desserts, which I skipped as well.

The selection of vegetables and hot pot items is fairly extensive, and refills are replenished quickly.

This was the only rice dish I took: a small portion of basil pork with rice. The pan-fried dumplings were just average, but the basil pork was decent. Just a small taste—nothing more.

The service is very fast. As soon as they see an empty meat plate, staff will come over to clear it and ask what you’d like to order next. The meat arrives quickly, with none of that dragging-your-feet feeling as if they’re worried you’ll eat too much. In fact, it almost feels like they’re worried you’re not eating enough. After being asked so often, I started to wonder if I was eating too little and just wasn’t very good at all-you-can-eat dining. Other tables looked seriously impressive.

Before you start cooking, you can sip the soup base—it tastes quite good. Once cooking begins, though, it’s better to drink less. The flavor doesn’t get watered down or overly salty even after boiling for a long time, which is a big plus. You can still clearly taste the character of the broth without it being overwhelmed. Honestly, you don’t even need dipping sauces; it really comes down to personal preference.