Shuang Shuang is a hot pot restaurant with a difference; it’s a DIY hot pot restaurant. The set up, which could be quite confusing/overwhelming is actually rather simple – you choose your broth, choose your dipping sauces and then help yourself to items from the Yo Sushi-style conveyor belt to cook in the broth.

It’s all rather exciting as the options are endless. And you’re tooled up with utensils galore; there’s tongs, a net sieve, chopsticks, spoons, bibs, bowls. The broth arrives in jugs and is poured into a pot where you control the temperature.

We started with the pig’s ears in xinjang spice (£3) and little scallop and prawn fritters (£3) which are ordered from the menu. Duck and Waffle made me fall in love with pig’s ears and I’ve yet to find better…well maybe not now.

We chose the rare breed black chicken broth (£7) which was as light and delicate as you’d expect from a broth yet there was plenty of flavour. The ‘lamb tonic’ sounded good but was a little tangy for me.

Off the belt, we went for mushrooms (£2.30), thin strips of beef (£1.80), chicken balls (£1) (which weren’t the animal’s actual balls FYI) and scallop (£4.30); all of which were great. For the braver diner liver, kidney and tripe were all going round. Even spam too. Glass vermicelli (£1) soaked up the broth perfectly.

I liked the whole DIY aspect of Shuang Shuang. It would be easy to stay there for an entire evening constantly dunking bits and bobs or just popping in for a quick hot pot. It’s nice to sit in a London restaurant which is just a bit different.

4/5

We dined as guests of the restaurant.