Name：刘一手火锅湾区店 Liuyishou Hotpot San Mateo
Add：98 E 3rd Ave, San Mateo, CA 94401
 www.liuyishouna.com

Reviews：

This is one of the best, if not the best, traditional Chinese hot pot places in the Bay Area. On the weekends in the evenings it can be tough to get a table because of the long line.
You order meats and veggies and a soup base. Get the spicy one it is the best. They bring it out and while you wait there is a sauce station and free appetizers. All traditional Chinese fare. Lots of garlic and sesame oil (yum!).
For three people you should be pretty full with a bill around $60. We love the beef, fish balls, and the veggie combo (veggies are super spicy with the broth be careful).
A great experience, good quality ingredients, and incredible aromas! Nice waitstaff. Sometimes if they are busy they may rush you a little to free up the table, but that's kind of standard in a high volume popular place like this. May be hard to park in the evenings in San Mateo, but often good parking on 4th street.
This is a win, especially if you are familiar with traditional Chinese food. If it's your first time, then ask for some guidance from the waitstaff. With an open mind, and a little comfort with handling and boiling the meats you will have an amazing time!

The meat quality is good. The menu has various options. The soup is wonderful especially for the spicy and pepper lover. The hotpot seasoning has lots of options as well. My friends and I visited twice and enjoyed both experiences.
I guess the reason to make this high quality hotpot with average 3 stars reviews is servers. During the busy time, the servers kind of have slow service speed. But if you give them some time, they will be very nice and friendly.
Also one more thing they are different to other Chinese restaurant is there is no forced tips if the party size is equal or bigger than six. I appreciate it. Though my friend and I usually give as least 18% tips for a big party. But sometimes the mandatory tips make people uncomfortable.
Highly recommend this hotpot if you are a spicy food lover!

This is my most favorite hotpot restaurant in Bay Area so far! Their soup base is soooo good! I really like the spicy one like it is so traditional authentic Chinese Sichuan spicy tastes, but attention! It is sooo spicy, I am not kidding. Try the medium first before you jump into the extremely spicy if you really like spicy.
Food: this is not AYCE, of coz. However, they have a lot of exclusive items that you can't find other hotpot place in Bay Area. Food is really fresh which worth to pay individual dishes. The red wine beef really star up. They pour the red wine in front of you which is so cool, and it won't mess up the taste of the beef cause it takes only 15mins to soak not like other restaurant soak it forever which tastes so wired when the red wine is too over. They also have many option for the sauce. They offer fruits and appetizers as well.
Service: I understand they are so busy, so they might lack of service sometimes. Prepared to wait in line about 30-45mins even a hour in the busy day. Server already did their best.
I really recommend to people who really want to try the authentic spicy hotpot. This is a right place to go.

You will fall in love with this amazing place if you love spicy hotpot! The line is getting longer and longer compared my 1st visit last year! I guess the longline already tell you how good the food is here. I usually come on the weekday for lunch and dinner to avoid the peak hours for dinner! The good thing is they take reservation for a party at 6ppl and above! RMB to look at the secret menu at the entrance, it will surprise you with all different kinds of special(interesting) items to try!!!

I am from chongqing, finally in the United States to eat the most authentic chongqing hotpot, good service. This is delicious. The variety of dishes makes me stop thinking about China that way.

By yelp 湾区