100 LB Seafood Hot Pot Buffet in Monterey Park

A place that many of you probably don't know about is the 100 LB Seafood Hot Pot Buffet near the corner of Garvey and Garfield in Monterey Park. It's easy to miss this restaurant as it's on the second floor of the building housing the Hong Kong Supermarket, and overlooks the market. Furthermore, they haven't bothered to take down the signs from the previous restaurant, called M.E. Restaurant, nor have they taken down the old restaurant's hours of operations, which no longer apply. There's nothing particularly unique about the ingredients that are available, with the typical seafood, meat, and other items available. What does make this restaurant noteworthy is their broth, which is the best I've had at a hotpot restaurant. Actually you can choose from three different broths--spicy tofu, non spicy, and I believe pickled. I had the non spicy broth, and I found it to be absolutely tasty.

[condiment]

It should be noted as the former site of the greatest restaurant ever to hit Monterey Park, the long-departed and dearly missed Deli World Cafe.

[Andrew Gore]

Isn't that run-down shopping mall across the street also the former site of a large Chinese vegetarian restaurant called the Fragrant Vegetable? I was thinking about the place today. I used to reccomend it to vegan friends. The chefs were quite adept at making convincing "meat" dishes out of veggies. Is that place gone, or has it moved?

[Azra Oh]

Dear Andrew, I see a post from you dated 11-22-06 about the Fragrant Vegetable. That's sometime back, but I see you've posted as recently as 3-09-07, so I guess you're still active. I used to go the the Fragrant Vegetable when it was in West LA on Wilshire. Then I heard "some" of the people moved to Monterey Park. I never made it there (out of the way) but it seems like you did. Anyway, "some" other of the people from Fragrant Vegetable opened a place in Granada Hills called "Vegetable Delight" and I thought I'd tell you about that in case you didn't know. Don't know if that is geographically undesirable for you, but I've been there. The menu is not exactly the same as FV, but close and good. The decor is not the designer style as was WLA, but then, I don't know the style incorporated in MP either. Good luck!

[hatster31]

I went here a week or so ago. It was pretty bad. It's cheap alright, but I was afraid to eat anything that was not boiling hot because it didn't seem to be a clean place. On top of that, there was barely anyone there on a Saturday night. The variety was bad, and the beef was bad. I saw a sign for all you can eat hot pot across the street at a Japanese restaurant, and we should have went there instead.

[daluji]

That Japanese joint across the street (near ABC Cafe right?) isn't any better.

OK, so I'll ask the question on everone's mind: do they really give you 100 lbs. of seafood?

RFGS

Well, it is a buffet... Weekday lunch is roughly $8, and $12 and change at dinner and weekends.

Can you describe what items might be found in their buffet?

Fish fillets, thin sliced pork and beef, various types of fish balls, salmon fillets, imitation crab, vegetables, bean curd sheets, mussels, shrimp, squid were some of the items on the lunch buffet. I'm sure there are more expensive ingredients at dinner and weekends.

Is this like Little Sheep in style of broth? Or something completely different?

This is a very plain looking broth, no particularly strong influences, just more flavorful that I'm used to getting for a hot pot.