These days, we always seek the healthier stuff. The usual hotpot like Szechuan mala hotpot or Cantonese heavy stock claypot are too heavy, and Teochew beef hotpot is quite boring. Yunnan mushroom and chicken hotpot becomes the new craze.
Rong Pot is a brand-new wild mushroom and free-range chicken hot-pot brand jointly created by Rong Chuan Cai in Shenzhen and Joy in Soup in Chengdu. Relying on Joy in Soup’s wild mushroom supply chain that has been in operation for more than 20 years and Rong Chuan Cai’s concept of carefully selecting ingredients and adhering to tradition, Rong Pot takes freshness as its pride.
Using a mushroom, chicken, and beef broth that is freshly simmered and strained by hand every day as the soup base, it carefully selects large chickens that have been raised free-range in the mountains for 280 days, and combines them with wild mushrooms from Sichuan to create a pot of clear, fresh, and mellow flavour. This respect for the natural flavour and the adherence to cooking techniques have made Rong Hotpot stand out in the highly competitive hotpot market segment.
Every table was given a small plate of fruits, usually something seasonal like the winter dates. Winter dates have a distinctive crunchiness that resembles the texture of apples, slightly drier and crisper texture than apples with a distinct taste and natural sweetness.
It always amazes me how far ahead fruit growing in China has advanced. Like these muscats which used to be exported from Japan and Korea are now grown in China, drastically lowering the price. I just paid $3 (Dec 2025) in a Singaporean supermarket for a punnet vs the Japanese ones that would cost $30. Difference? Yes, but negligible since the price difference is so great.
And there’s the must-have hotpot condiments that you can make your own dips and sauces. Nothing that’s particular to this restaurant, just a bunch of standard sauces that most likely come from a factory.
We ordered a set meal for two that came with all their specialty and added an a la carte platter of the more expensive mushrooms.
Appetiser – two types of mushrooms 山珍雙脆
The meal came with a complimentary appetiser that consisted of two types of mushrooms (shimeiji and termite mushrooms) deep fried to a crips and tossed in a Szechuan mala flavour dressing. Nice, but not too much.
Mushroom Platter 野菌拼盘
If you like mushrooms, you are in for a treat. The set meal came with an assortment of mushroom that consisted of maitake 舞茸, cordyceps militaris 虫草花, lion’s mane 猴头菇, black termite mushroom 黑鸡枞菌, trumpet mushroom 杏鲍菇 and shiitake 冬菇. Some of them are frozen, some are rehydrated, only a couple are cultivated.
Assortment of Famous Mushrooms (Matsutake, Morels, Porcino, Termite Mushrooms) 四大名菌拼盘（松茸菌、羊肚菌、牛肝菌、鸡枞菌）- a la carte
四大名菌拼盘（松茸菌、羊肚菌、牛肝菌、鸡枞菌）
The platter consisted of matsutake 松茸菌, morels 羊肚菌, porcino 牛肝菌, and termite mushrooms 雞樅菌. The termite mushrooms are the larger (more expensive and rare) version. The matsutake and morels used are not the wild foraged type and looked defrosted. The porcini turned out to be the best.
Wild mushrooms from Yunnan mountains are used for the soup base. The vegetarian friendly stock is boiled for 8 hours with more than a dozen wild fungi. Mushroom has a great umami but it’s not something everyone gets use to.
The mushrooms were thrown into the stock and left to boil for a while which imparted even more flavours into the soup. The mushrooms were cooked thoroughly (many cases of poisoning if you eat uncooked Yunnan mushrooms) and they had the texture of abalone but tastes of mushrooms.
It’s like drinking a hot bowl of Bovril without the salt. Lots of umami and very satisfying, and very light (no stress) on the body.
Signature 280-Day Free-Range Large Chicken 280天招牌大扇雞
Their signature is a large chicken known for its golden skin, firm texture, and rich flavour that has been free-range raised for 280 days. The chicken has been skilfully deboned and divided into four parts – breast, feet, thigh, drumstick. Each came with a small card explaining the part as well as the optimal time for blanching the meat in the boiling stock.
But you don’t have to worry about the timing. There’s a waiter assigned to every table. They have been trained to cook the chicken to their optimum flavour and texture.
Texture wise, the chicken was quite chewy (it’s an old chicken) and the skin was really crunchy. But the chicken has got great “chicken taste” that we once knew as children. These days with commercial farming, chicken rolls off a production line and flavours have not really developed in these birds.
While the chicken has great flavour and the stock helped in imparting more of it, it is ultimately blanched chicken in hot stock. If blanched chicken isn’t your thing, there’s always the condiments. My favourite was the simple soy sauce and chopped chilli padi (bird’s eye chilli).
Pork Meatballs 土猪鲜肉丸
If you are tired of the chicken and mushroom, there’s some pork meatballs. Nothing special, just minced pork, 50/50 lean and fats, mixed with chopped mushrooms and rolled into balls. I suggest that you put them in last to keep the soup clear and simple.
Pork Bun with Preserved Vegetables 梅菜干猪肉包
The set came with a couple of steamed buns as the main dish. I was quite disappointed by the quality of these buns.
If you have more folks, I would suggest you order their claypot rice for the main dish. I saw the next table ordered it and got plate envy.
The stock was very light, the food quality was high and the price was not too expensive. Only peeve was that the mushrooms were all dried one rehydrated because it was already off season. Not sure how long this concept will last as F&B in China is super competitive. These types of concepts do not last long as its labour intensive and seasonal.
Rong Hotpot 荣山锅野菌土鸡火锅
Unit L3-311, North Tower, Ping A Financial Centre, No. 5033 Yitian Road, Futian District, Shenzhen 深圳市福田區益田路5033號平安金融中心北塔L3層311
Tel : +86 (0755) 83813559 / 15302779185
Visited Oct 2025
PS: I am not paid to do these posts. And after going there in Oct, they launched a campaign to flood the social media with FB posts.
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