New Modern Korean Hot Pot at Sulyi in Sanlitun's Topwin Center

After weeks of walking on the street (and trying not to be blown away) this winter, there’s only one thing left in my mind – hot pot. Opposite to the constantly occupied Taiwanese hot pot Coucou, Sulyi has a modern and chic décor with grey tiles and a shining (but not tacky) lightbox “Sulyi” on the walls.

The menu is relatively simple, focusing on pots. Prices are not too cheap, ranging RMB 128-168 for small, and RMB 168-268 for large. We arrived at lunch time on a weekend, and there was only one couple dining there in the vacant place. After we ordered, the waitress brought four small cold appetizers for us, the traditional kimchi, soy beans, preserved vegetables, and some mayonnaised macaroni.

We opted for rib pot (RMB 168), which took half an hour to prepare, until they brought a gas stove, and put a pot on it with already-cooked rib chops, raw onions, Chinese cabbage, dates, and carrots, covered with cheese. Each bite seemed quite dry, until the waitress switched on the gas, and cooked for another 10 minutes, the whole pot became juicy. We liked the vegetables, especially the onions which soaked up the sauce and flavor of the rib. It contained a lot of ribs, but the added dates and peanuts gave the pot too much sweetness in the end, making you feel like you were drinking a sweet soup. We also tried the kimchi pancake (RMB 42), which was quite simple and spicy but without too much heat.

They offer a bunch of cocktails, soju (relatively cheap, RMB 35-88 a bottle), and homemade Makguli (Korean rice wine), as well as Korean beers like Max Larger and Kloud Pilsener. The pomelo flavored Homemade Makguli with 4 percent ABV was a little too sweet to our liking. They also offer dinner sets at RMB 228-318 for tofu quesadillas, kimchi pancakes, soup, cheese pot, and a dessert. 

Maybe we prefer the traditional budae-jjigae (Army stew), which is spicy, meaty, and full of kimchi. But Sulyi has a huge space to place around (almost as twice big as Coucou), and a nice terrace, so just imagine how delightful it will be to have a drink in the breeze there this summer.

Sulyi
Daily 11.30am-9pm. 3-1, 3/F Topwin Center, 1 South Sanlitun Lu, Chaoyang District (5624 1034
朝阳区南三里屯一号通盈中心3楼 3-1

Email: tracywang@thebeijinger.com
Twitter: @flyingfigure
Instagram: @flyingfigure

Photos: Tracy Wang