Peak Point

The hotpot was decent to me, it had a good amount of food inside (although I wish there was more slices of meat compared to fishballs and imitation crab meat). I ordered the house spicy beef with level 3. If you like spicy, this isn’t that spicy at all, but it had a decent flavorful broth. It comes with a small bowl of rice and a (very) sweet black or green iced tea.
The only thing is that I wish there was more ventilation in this space. Given that everyone is using a hot pot and its burning. there should be more windows opened or a better system so that we aren’t inhaling all of it.

I really wanted to like this place. Got excited that you can get a personal hot pot style, its a great concept. However, I ended up not enjoying it as much as I would have liked.
Tip: unless you’re super hungry, there’s no need to order appetizers. We added the garlic chicken wings but I ended up not having the appetite after the amount of food given in the hotpot, nor did I like the taste (it just tasted like soy sauce but the crunch was there). Providing a great amount of food, that is one plus. But, a large amount of poor quality food counters this plus. And that’s another thing…
I really felt the quality of the food they’re giving you is poor. I would rather pay more to receive less food and better quality. I’m pretty sure after I left this place, I started feeling a trend of poor dieting in my body — I felt sluggish and groggy, this is because its a fast food joint, not a food-​cooked-​fresh restaurant which I misunderstood. I think I experienced an allergic reaction from the soup itself but that’s personal (I ordered the spicy lamb hot pot). Judging from the crowd, its definitely a college eats place — usually I’m all for those but not if the food makes me feel horrible afterwards and I end up spending more than what fast food is expected to priced as… BTW its definitely fast food because its listed as that under my charge card i.e. this business is publicly listed as a fast food establishment. Do yourself a favor, spend your fast food dollars on at least a tastier food option. But that’s just my opinion.
Also, note that they come out with a kerosene lit pot that burns away after a while. However, the kerosene was SO smelly that it ruined my experience eating over my pot. I still remember the smells till now. Not very appetizing.
Again, great concept with generous portions. Customer service is good and attentive. I really wanted to favor this place but unfortunately it missed the mark for me for the actual food. Not coming back, sorry.

Did hotpot reach its PEAK?
I ordered the House Beef Pot. The serving size fits for one person. The soup was flavorful and everything in the soup tasted good enough. The meat was a bit thick for hotpot, which made it harder to cook, chew, and eat.
The cooks also lost our order two times, so we had to wait for a while. I was fine though because I knew the place was busy. Our waitress was also extremely apologetic and sweet and gave us 20% off our order.
Besides those things, I like that the restaurant offers different kinds of drinks (milk tea, flavored teas, yogurt drinks) and desserts (shaved ice, toast). There are also rice plates and noodle soups.
It’s an okay restaurant that seems to have a lot to offer. I wouldn’t mind coming back and trying their other menu items.

This place grows on you! I went there last night, I thought it was pretty good since this is a grand new opening place.
I highly recommend the spicy beef hotpot, there are lots of staff in the hotpot compare with the boiling point, they got more food more vegetable and even cheaper price than boiling point. Because I live near Fremont, I always go the boiling point, sometime the meat is not fresh though… My friend ordered the kimchi beef pot, it reminded her of a Korean type of tofu soup and was very flavorful.
Also it comes with a rice and a free drink. Boba milk tea was good, boba was made just right, not too hard or too sweet. They also offer ice cream, you can choose different flavors.
Nice place, good services, I will be craving this place!

Shitty boba place.
I figured I’d get boba from here, since I didn’t want to walk too far from my apartment. NOPE BAD IDEA. The service at this place sucks, my gf and I waited around 10 minutes before the staff even bothered to take our order. They then took forever actually making the boba.
The milk tea itself isn’t anything to speak of, either. The cup is packed 60% with ice, they literally can not fill up the cup any more and sell it as a cup of boba rather than a cup of ice with a little bit on the side. QQ. The actual boba balls are the nice chewy type tho.

Mini hot pot, bowl of rice, and iced tea is not a bad deal for around $ 13.
Food:
My only issue is the meat in the hot pot is really thick, dry, and hard to chew. I couldn’t chew it at all and threw out most of it. Flavor is meh and it’s pretty oily if you get the spicy hot pot.
Service:
We waited a long time to order after being seated (approx. 30 minutes). One of my friends didn’t get her drink until about 45 minutes in, and we had to ask repeatedly to get our drink. We also waited forever to get our checks, and we had to ask multiple times as well.
Verdict:
This place is fine as long as you set your expectations low. The hot pot quality isn’t great, and there is no depth of flavor. I crave hot pot a lot so I will come back for an ok experience.
This is the only economical hot pot place near campus.

this place is awesome! I love this place better than «Boiling Point». I live in Fremont, even though this fantastic «peak point» is about half hour drive from my home I would still go there for my dinners. It is in my favorite list #1 right now!
About the food here: first of all, you can enjoy great hot point there. one special stuff for their hot pot is that you can personalize your own hot pot– topping and soup. and the price is very fair.
beside the food: the service here is very nice. Elaine is very kind and she did very geat job.
you also can enjoy good dessert and drinks there.
it is a nice place for stop by.

I came with a large group for my friend’s birthday dinner because we wanted to try this new place. Plus, it’s winter right now so everyone feels better after some hot soup! Making a reservation (had to reserve in-​person because phone number didn’t connect) was a really good idea, because the place gets pretty busy at night.
When I visited, the only meal they serve is the hot pot, despite all the dry rice/​noodle dishes listed on the menu. So I ordered a house hot pot with pork with a mild spicy, which came with a free drink. I ordered the iced citron tea, which came a little too diluted, but I still really liked it! My hot pot wasn’t spicy at all (not sure if they forgot to add spice) and I was a little disappointed that the pork was bland/​chewy and at least 50% fat. The food tasted too much like individual components instead of being cooked/​blended with a main flavor — meaning that I could’ve just bought the ingredients and boiled it at home instead of paying a total of ~$ 15.
The staff was very kind to us — they even gave us a free small snow for my friend’s birthday! But I think the servers are incredibly busy and multitasking (maybe since they can only carry one hot pot dish at a time). It was hard to get their attention throughout the entire dinner and it took a very long time for them to come back with what we asked for (like extra napkins, spoons, etc.).

Was pleasantly surprised by this place!
FOOD: They serve personal hotpot and there are 4 or 5 choices for soup base. I’ve tried the spicy broth with lamb (spice level 2) and the kimchi broth with beef (spice level 2). I definitely prefer the spicy one — It was very rich in flavor and perfect balance of spice. The kimchi one was a bit too salty for me. They give a good balance of vegetables and meat which is great so I’m not left with too much of one or the other. Also it comes with free tea! I would reccommend the green tea. Tried the citron tea too but it tasted like emergen-​c.
SERVICE Line is super long sometimes so the wait can be forever. Service is a bit slow when this happens so I’d come during a less popular time.

As far as I know, Peak Point is pretty much the ONLY personal-​sized hot pot place in Berkeley. Which is to say, my opinion probably doesn’t matter, because they literally have NO COMPETITION.
But I’ll go ahead and share my thoughts anyway!
I’ve been to my fair share of hotpot places and Peak Point does not stand out in ANY way. There’s not many «flavors» of hotpots to choose from, portions are pretty small, and service is unfriendly & on the slower side.
All of these factors would be tolerable if the hotpot was yummy enough! ALAS, NOPE. I ordered the «House Spicy Beef» hotpot and found that the beef was dry and chewy. There was no component to the spiciness of the soup other than pure SALT. The fact that the soup gets more concentrated with time really didn’t help.
Lastly – and this is a big one – they only serve you dipping sauces upon request. I asked for a side of shacha sauce and was given a portion that was slightly larger than the size of a fishball. It was almost laughable, given that sauces at other hotpot places are self-​serve. I felt awkward enough after the second time I asked for a refill…
Overall, I wouldn’t come to Peak Point again unless I had an INSATIABLE hotpot craving, and even then, I’d do it reluctantly. The silver lining is that it is a more economical option for hotpot compared to the shabu places in Berkeley.

I really wish I liked the food more. It’s good for chilly nights in Berkeley when you’re craving hot pot, but it’s not the best.
FOOD
I got the spicy vegetable hot pot, level 2. I would’ve normally gotten beef or lamb, but I ended up being glad I didn’t. My friend got the spicy lamb hot pot, and there were a total of about 5 small, thin slices of lamb in the entire pot. Not even worth the extra $ 1.
The hot pot was lacking in its fillings in general, though they make it look otherwise before you start eating. The menu said it includes cabbage, mushroom, corn, tofu, fishball, noodle, crab stick, and more… but for both mine and my friend’s, it was mostly cabbage.
I also wish that they had dipping sauces like many other hot pot restaurants do, but then again, there wasn’t much food in the hot pot that I had to dip anyways.
SERVICE
The server was friendly, and she was accommodating to my request for the complimentary iced tea with hot pot to be unsweetened (it is normally sweetened). She also warned me about the spiciness when I originally was going to order level 4, which ended up being very helpful because level 2 was perfect for me. Plus, she checked on us pretty often.
The service was 4 stars, but sadly the food is 3

Don’t come expecting Boiling Point, but it’s a quick fix for hot pot cravings. Ordered veggie tomato pot, super simple, there wasn’t even any imitation crab or fish balls?!?
Broth was good, but it honestly wasn’t worth the price.

FINALLY, hot pot in Berkeley! Unfortunately, my experience here was completely different from my boyfriend’s.
I got the house spicy pork hot pot, and the broth was actually very good! I got level 3 because my server said it was pretty spicy, but I think next time I’ll try level 4 – 5. It had a lot of toppings, like fish balls, cabbage, corn, vermicelli, crab sticks, and of course, meat. The meat was sliced pretty thick though, so it was kind of difficult to eat. But overall I really liked my meal and was satisfied!
My boyfriend, on the other hand, had a completely different experience. He got the kimchi beef hot pot, and he thought his food was extremely salty. He got level 1, but it was spicier than mine, and was literally a salt bomb. He also didn’t get as many toppings as I did, and even though we had the same variety, the quantity was much less.
I think my experience deserved 5 stars, but my boyfriend didn’t enjoy his meal at all. I had to drop a couple stars so my review would more accurately depict our joint experience here.

Terrible experience from start to finish. 2 stars is generous.
I first stopped by around 11:30am on Saturday for lunch and the restaurant was still CLOSED. Not only that, but their FOOD SUPPLIER was WAITING OUTSIDE in the cold with boxes of produce, trying to call them on his cell phone. It’s one thing to stand up your customers, but another to flake on a business vendor. Not cool and highly unprofessional. We were starving and ended up going somewhere else for lunch. The restaurant was finally open and serving customers when we returned around 12:30pm.
Deciding to give them another shot, went for dinner around 7:15pm and put our name down on the list. The waitstaff said we should be seated in about 15 minutes… even though the back half of the restaurant was essentially EMPTY. We stepped out for about 10 minutes and when we returned, everyone was already seated, and we actually had to wait another 30 minutes before another table opened up.
Starving, we ordered a house beef mini pot and a tomato pork mini pot. Both came out relatively shortly with all the ingredients already cooking inside. The hot pot came out on a tray that was slip-​proof and high quality; definitely appreciated for a potentially drippy mess. The mini hot pots also looked legit and the ambiance had a hip, new vibe. I was quite excited for the food, but unfortunately the cuts of beef were practically INEDIBLE — GRISTLY, THICK, and TOUGH. Not the thinly sliced hot pot beef that I have come to expect and crave. The pork was only marginally better. I think I’d be forced to order vegetarian if I ever return.
We decided to try the mango shaved ice for dessert since this might be the last time we would be back, and though it came out in thin sheets, there was a saccharinely sweet mango syrup poured all over the top with some mango chunks. I was hoping for condensed milk and freshly cut mango instead of the overly sweet mango syrup.
This is the type of place where you have to wave someone down to get the check, even when you’re one of the last few tables remaining. When the bill came out to be a whopping $ 7.62, we knew something was wrong. They had only charged for the dessert and not the mini hot pots. We decided to be honest citizens and reported this mistake to the waitress. She dared to disagree with us at first, but when we insisted that the bill was wrong, she went back in to check. Turns out that someone had hit «paid» in the system even though there was no record of the payment. Wow, if someone is able to mark a bill as paid without actual payment, then something is egregiously wrong with their system, and I’m genuinely worried for this business’s accounting procedures.
The only redeeming factor was that I only had to walk two minutes to get here, so not too much time was lost in commuting.

I don’t really understand why some people are rating this place 1 – 2 stars. Not only did my bf and I get some really tasty hot pot (kimchi beef and spicy beef) but we were also treated with very great service. We came for dinner this busy Tuesday night and though the wait was a tad long it was so worth it. This is one of the very few hot pot places within the Berkeley vicinity and conveniently located a couple blocks from campus on telegraph. Not only that but this is probably the only place near Berkeley where you can get decent and tasty hot pot for around $ 10 – 12. In a college town where it literally seems like all the restaurants are trying to overcharge you, this place is a pretty lucky find.
Now to the food, the portions were fitting for one person maybe even 2 if your not that hungry and it came with rice and your choice of free tea. Our experience was one to be very positive as our servers were consistently polite and always apologizing to us about the long wait (though this was not a big issue at all!) Also, at the end of the night they even gave us a very generous portion of shaved ice as an apology for the wait. This is beyond great customer service and I would definitely be back again to try their other hot pots/​dishes ! Thank you for a great experience and welcome to the Berkeley food fam! I really hope your business thrives in our community

Wow I was so looking forward to a Taiwanese hotpot in the area, but I was really disappointed. The place definitely looks new when you walk in, with it’s minimal décor and stark white walls.
Walking in, we were greeted and seated pretty quickly. The tables are squished pretty close together, that the pushed-​in chair next to me had literally 1 inch of space to the chair at the next table. Good thing I only used it as a coat rack. We were asked to order promptly. Unfortunately, when the bf asked for some add-​on quail eggs, they said that they had ran out. Then I asked about the combo rice dishes, and our waitress also said that they don’t have much of those because their «focus» is on hot-​pot. What!!! How can a newly opened establishment choose to be out of so many things, especially when the place isn’t packed?!
We both had ordered the spicy hot pots, which came out kind of slowly. I had just one fire sign of spiciness level, which had a good amount of spice, and I definitely would not classify it as being mild. The flavor was extra salty. The flavor was exactly like some canned hot sauce my family has at home, not very exciting and lacking in depth. The saltiness was almost unbearable. Also, my beef was of such low quality that I had a hard time chewing on it. According to the bf, his pork was similar. All of the ingredients in the pot were also very low quality and not fresh. I was also disappointed that there weren’t any dipping sauces.
The rice bowl was miniature. The free tea was too sweet. Seems like everything I had was on extreme ends of the spectrums. Good thing I didn’t get to waste more money on extra items.

Came here for dinner and it seems like the place just opened a few weeks ago! It has replaced a few other restaurants in the last year so I hope this place stays put for a while, as it is the only hot pot place in Berkeley that I can think of that’s close to campus and unique from other Chinese restaurants around the area.
My boyfriend and I came here for dinner and ordered their individual hot pots, although they also serve boba, desserts and other combination plates. Unfortunately, my boyfriend wanted the Beef Spicy Pot and they ran out of beef, so he had to settle for pork and added an additional side of meat. An additional serving of meat costs $ 4, which was a bit pricey. I got the Seafood Spicy Pot which had shrimp, imitation crab, and fish balls — not much seafood so I don’t recommend this one if you really want seafood. Portions are pretty large and I think the spiciness and temperature makes it difficult to eat all of it in one sitting.
If you’ve been to Boiling Point, this place also has a combo deal for about $ 11 – 12: personal hot pot + green/​black tea or honey citron tea + bowl of rice. However, they only have two flavors — the house flavor and spicy flavor (on a spice level between 1 and 6). Their spicy flavor is spicier than normal, as I think it is the Szechuan spice, so beware!
The service was great and the servers were extremely kind & attentive and really wanted to ask us of our opinions on how to best cater to their customers. The restaurant also seems to be cleaner and has a more welcoming vibe than the restaurants in this location before it.
If you like hot pot, I would highly recommend trying this place, as it is the only hot pot place in Berkeley at the moment! It’s definitely not as tasty as Boiling Point nor does it have as much variety when it comes to hot pot, but it is an excellent substitute if you are craving something hot on a cold chilly day.

From the 4+ years that I’ve been in the East Bay, this location always seems to be changing. I didn’t even get a chance to try the last restaurant (Pepper King?). But I was drawn in by Peak Point’s new décor (seems clean/​modern).
I ordered for to go, which took about 15 mins. The staff was very friendly, gave me a to go menu and said to just call in next time.
The menu has a lot to choose from — drinks/​teas, snack foods, soups, hot pot, rice plates, etc. I tried the yogurt mango drink (yum). I got the seafood ramen which was just a bit bland but otherwise great. My friend got the beef stew which he enjoyed.
Overall, was impressed with this place and will likely try it again. The hot pot seemed popular when I last went, so I’m putting that on my list to try!

Just came back from this place. I really wanted to like it and was so excited when this place opened. Being Taiwanese, I was excited to see them serving Taiwanese cuisine, Bay Area needs some good Taiwanese food!
We ordered a spicy lamb hot pot, regular pork hot pot and an order of garlic chicken wings. Each order of hot pot comes with a bowl of rice and a free tea. The tea was nothing special, pretty much a spoon full of citron tea with hot water and there’s no refill on the tea, not even more hot water. When our food came, I noticed that the rice wasn’t even hot or warm it was stone cold and hard like yesterday’s rice. The spicy lamb hot pot was full of sichuan peppercorns and had a thick layer of sichuan pepper oil making the whole pot stinky. I couldn’t even take a bite without 5 or 6 sichuan peppercorns in my food. The regular pork hot pot was flavorless and really oily. I’m really surprised that they don’t list the hot pot ingredients on the menu. Hope people don’t have allergies.
The staff here must really have nothing to do. They were just sitting at tables on their phones and hardly checked up on us. When one of them finally walked over, I mentioned the rice tasted day old. She insisted that it was fresh. I told her that the rice wasn’t even warm and it definitely didn’t taste fresh. It had the consistency of day old rice. She went over and talked to other staffs that worked here and they all disappeared into the kitchen. She comes back later and said she’ll give us a 30% discount. When we finally settled the bill, I saw they only gave us a 10% discount. Whatever, this place wasn’t even worth my time.
Honestly ⁷⁄₁₁ hot dog would have been better than this place.

Peak Point Teahouse takes over the Pepper King spot. ambience upgraded. menu offers Taiwanese options, many dessert options.
menu: snow ice, shaved ice, flavor tea, milk tea, honey toasts, hot fruit and flower tea, apps, noodles/​soups, hot pot, combo meals.
eats: crispy popcorn chicken (4.95)
–10ish flavorful (five spice?/salt), tender pieces
–fresh tasting, not chewy nor dry.
–definitely better than quickly’s and the like.
crumbs:
–made to order,
–friendly, courteous service.