Review Special Pot - Auckland

Despite its small size, this Chinese restaurant provides a delightful homemade vibe with its high-quality food offerings. It stands out for being both affordable and clean. During my visit, I ordered beef with vegetables and some dumplings. The dumplings, although on the smaller side, were quite delicious. The beef dish, while decent, didn't particularly stand out. What truly enhanced the experience was the friendly and welcoming atmosphere, with a Chinese couple running the shop. Look like a family business.

Their Mala tang with soup and without soup have so much flavour. Even the non spicy versions! It has so much more depth than just tasting like spicy chillies, which i find at some other places. They also make the BEST dumplings - nice thin wrapper (not too doughy) and delicious filling. Love this place!

Ingredients are weighted and price comes out straightaway. All ingredients have the same price so I suggest choosing ingredients that will be more bang for your buck. Flavor comes out good and satisfy my craving for Mala. Staff are friendly too. Damage: $4.50ish per 100g. The picture is for 1 pax, around $19 dollars. Herbal drink is $2.50.

Definitely not some fancy restaurant Typical family style chinese. Frankly speaking a bit hesitate to try but returns an amazing experience! What a great cooking skill and nicely done hot chili source making this awesome food! Don't judge a book by its cover. This is it!

Well priced and tasty dry pot restaurant. The place looks more hygienic than other places, looks like a family run business and are very friendly. Great for takeaway too as a late night snack after gym. Service: 5/5 Presentation: 4/5 Environment: 4/5 Food Quality: 5/5 Food Quantity: 5/5 Price per person: $15-$25

Nice little place with good service. Food was more than reasonable with most dishes around the $12 range. They have a good selection of dumpling flavours as well. Extra were ordered to take away.

Best dry hot pot that I’ve ever had in AKL. Food was very fresh and medium spicy level was just great for me. It’s so tasty and the owners were super friendly and accommodating.

I‘ve been coming here a lot for the past few years, it’s one of my favourite eateries. I always want to try the other dishes but the dry mala pot is just that good that I have to order it every time… Their dumplings are also handmade and very tasty! Their prices in general are very good ($3.30 for 100g for the pick your own mala), I usually get around $30-40 worth if I’m sharing with another person. The family that run the place are also really friendly!

Special pot is a special place. It is run by a special mom and pop couple who are very nice and speak little English. The special dish is a mala pot where u choose the ingredients from the fridge and they fry it up in a special sauce which is very delicious. There's minimal seats in the special pot so not good for big groups. Lots of vegetables to choose from along with various meats. All germs are killed in the heat of the wok. Overall zero ambience but the food is bussin and very reasonable.

The mala pot is the best I've had in akl, really recommend it!

Their soup had a very flavorsome broth. I got non spicy and my partner got medium spicy. Delicious!

Best dry hot pot i have ever had in NZ! Lovely family restaurant and lovely owner. Friendly pricing as well. Will definitely be back.

Best prawns I’ve ever had in NZ! So fresh and meaty. Malatang price cheaper than others but as good. Will definitely go back!

Excellent price point for the quality of hot pot you’re getting. They let you choose and customise what you want in your dish, this is fantastic if you’re a picky eater like myself. I definitely see myself making more visits here :)

Best dry hot pot that I’ve ever had in AKL. Food was very fresh and medium spicy level was just great for me. It’s so tasty and the owners were super friendly and accommodating.

This place is my absolute favourite!!!! Mala pot is my go to. You can choose your own ingredients and then choose the spice level, I get both very spicy and not spicy at all it just depends on how I’m feeling. The dumplings are also really yummy! Staff there are very friendly too

A taste bomp!!! This hole-in-the-wall eatery serves one of the best Mala Pots and Mala Tang in town, which will surely tease your tongue and stimulate your appetite (If you are fond of heavy taste or Mala spicy taste).

If you're looking for a budget, delicious food joint to go where being fancy is not a priority, in Eden Terrace, Special Pot would top the list by a margin. It's super delicious and ultra cheap. The portions are huge and in an area surrounded by fancy as places, this restaurant stands high and unchallenged as a good food-good price restaurant.

You have the option to choose mild medium or hot spiciness. You can also opt to not have Sichuan Pepper (花椒) in your hot pot, which normally numbs your tongue and lip. Nice selection of meat and veges to add into your hot pot too. Very reasonably priced too.

Just moved into the area and love my Asian cuisine and was a little peckish so I got a quick take away of Pork Prawn and Chive dumplings. Ohhhh my!! So nice and you can tell they were home made! Great flavour mix a so yumm. Can’t wait to try the rest of the menu.

my go to place when i feel like tasty spicy food. the mixture of their spices is perfect which makes it spicy yet still full of flavour. price is very reasonable and the families who own the business are super friendly.<br/>

The best spicy dry pot in Auckland, in my opinion! Located on upper symonds street, almost hidden away is the most flavourful little restaurant called spicy pot. <br/><br/>My friend and I came after a gym session (don’t judge me) as the weather is getting cold and we were craving something warm. The kind lady was super friendly and makes you feel like you’ve know her all your life. <br/><br/>They have a good selection of ingredients you can choose from and only $3/100g! I chose medium spice which was perfect, and the portions are so good for the price.

4.5/5 Taste<br/>3.5/5 Display <br/>4.5/5 Quantity <br/>4/5 Customer Service<br/><br/>Malatang for Everyone!!<br/><br/>I was recommended this place by Chinese friends but as I’ve never been to restaurants like this I was a little scared to go inside the restaurant. <br/>I was outside for at least 15 minutes until some white girl walked in and started picking her fillings.<br/><br/>You pick your own fillings, give it to the owners, weigh it, choose your base, pay and wait. <br/><br/>Simple as that.<br/><br/>Best to go with all the meats and noodles and leave the veges for the vegans.<br/>

Love the dry pot here, spicy and tasty, full of flavour which really good for midnight starve time. My husband always go buy take away after gym, so we can eat this at home when kids sleep！

Well priced and tasty dry pot restaurant. <br/><br/>The place looks more hygienic than other places, looks like a family run business and are very friendly. <br/><br/>Great for takeaway too as a late night snack after gym. <br/><br/>Service: 5/5<br/>Presentation: 4/5<br/>Environment: 4/5<br/>Food Quality: 5/5<br/>Food Quantity: 5/5<br/>Price per person: $15-$25

Great flavour! One of a few in Auckland offers really good pot! No base fee for everything - great value as chef cooks every single serve separately!

It’s only our first time here and I already love it! We tried the dry mala pot. They have a great selection of ingredients and the flavor is A+ just the perfect blend of spices and hot level. <br/><br/>We also ordered the Kung po chicken and that was very delicious as well. <br/><br/>Great prices and amazing service. Felt like eating at home with my family, except I’m not sure if my mom can cook as well haha shhh <br/><br/>Definitely recommend this place!

Love it. Normally after I eat this kind of food(hot pot) my stomach doesn't agree with it, but this one is fine and taste is good.<br/>The price is reasonable and only thing I wish is they get better rice.

Been meaning to try this place for a while and finally got the chance recently!<br/><br/>There was a decent selection of ingredients in the chiller. We got the mala pot (dry), and personally I loved it with bean curd and tripe. It didn’t look the most appetising but the presentation of the dumplings was really cute! The mala tasted pretty authentic and it smelled mouth watering even while they were cooking it. It was really delicious and has that satisfying numbing feeling. You can choose your spice level so don’t be worried if you can’t handle spicy food that well. I recommend getting it hot though.<br/><br/>The staff were really friendly and attentive, I think it's run by an elderly couple? They have decent English so it's not difficult to communicate. It wasn’t busy when we visited so it came very fast, definitely under 10 minutes. <br/><br/>Their price is $3 per 100g, and for the bowl below it cost $20. We also got some pork / chives / prawn dumplings which were $8 for 15. Overall $28 for 2 people and we were super full! I’m definitely keen to visit again, and probably will try their mala tang next time.<br/>- An update to this review, I've been back here 5 times since and I've had a great experience every time. I do have to say I didn't like the mala tang (soup) as much as the mala pot. It was a little salty and had too much chicken flavour in my opinion. I have stuck to the mala pot and dumplings mainly and it's always a good time. This place has become one of my go-to places recently.

Be careful, it's addictive!<br/>I literally come here every week for their Malatang/Malapot, and it's much cheaper than the hot pot place under IMAX in the city.

Mala Pot is bomb! Been going there nearly three times a week to satisfy my craving for spicy food! It’s customisable so you could choose whatever you like from the chiller.<br/><br/>Friendly staffs, good food and reasonably priced! Where else should I go? :) <br/><br/>Tip: you could ask for non-spicy if you can’t take the spiciness.

I found the special pot of this restaurant in Pakuranga Saturday night market. My friends and I like it very much. The taste of special pot is soooo... authentic. Yesterday, I took some friends to try it and they both like it too.

Just ate lunch here and were really impressed! <br/><br/>The staff were smiley, welcoming and helpful. and they gave us some good recommendations on what was good. The produce was all really fresh and the meats and tofu were all really clean and well presented. We had the mala tang (spicy soup) which was good, a mix of mala spice and a nutty sesame sauce. <br/><br/>Maybe the best part is the price! It's done by weight ($3 per 100g). We spent about $25 for two people and were both really full by the end. This was much cheaper than other ma la places (a place on Dominion road set us back almost double for the same amount of food). <br/><br/>The restaurant is fairly small and is simple, but really clean and tidy. <br/><br/>We lived in China for a couple of years and loved eating malatang while there, this reminded us so much of being there. We'll definitely return to try the Mala pot soon!

Glad we decided to try this out! Lots of ingredient choices and great flavour, and a really nice friendly guy running it- he offered his suggestions and was very helpful. Will be back again with my friends, Thank you!

I love the flavour ! Definitely will recommend to my friends! Meat and vegs are fresh. the spicy pot isn't like the one I ate in Dominion Rd. This one is much much better.

Very good food, lots of different chilies used for the dry spicy pot and the two owners are really friendly also. The selection of food to choose from is quite abundant and fresh :)

It was so nice cheap price great taste I really like the MALA POT it’s tasty you can pick up your own see how they cook it for you and it’s really biz restaurant