Hotpot News

Conveyor belt hot pot restaurant from California steamrolls into Plano

Hot pot steaming at the table.

Seapot

An Asian restaurant from the West Coast featuring two highly desirable items — hot pot and conveyer belt service — is coming to Texas. Seapot, known for being the leading conveyor-belt style hot pot restaurant in Northern California, is opening its first Texas location in Plano at 1900 N. Central Expwy., near Park Boulevard.

This is the space most recently occupied by Corky's Gaming Bistro, which closed on October 31, although it's probably better known as the former home of Furr's Cafeteria. According to a spokesperson, Seapot will open in the fall.

Hot pot is the fun communal experience in which a shared pot of simmering hot broth is brought to the table, with raw ingredients that you and your tablemates cook in the broth, then dip in sauces once it's cooked.

It's customizable, IE you can pick the ingredients you want, whether that's thinly sliced filet mignon, noodles, vegetables, dumplings, and other items you order a la carte.

Conveyor belt service — in which the food is placed on a rotating conveyor belt or moat that winds its way through a restaurant, allowing you to pluck it as it passes your table — has been around since the '50s to ferry sushi. But with the pandemic increasing the demand for no-contact service options such as robots, conveyor belts are trending up. There are at least two other conveyor belt hot pot places in DFW, including Kun Rolling Pot and Rolls By Chubby Cattle.

Seapot was early to the conveyor belt hot pot game: They opened their first location in San Mateo in 2017, followed by a second location in Sunnyvale. In addition to Plano, they're opening a third Bay Area outlet in Daly City, and are actively expanding across the U.S. A franchise group that includes two ex-Californians is bringing the concept to Dallas-Fort Worth. "All of our partners are local," the spokesperson says.

Seapot features personal pots and an endless moving line of ingredients including veggies, meat, and seafood, which trundle around on the conveyor belt so diners can preview the selection before making a decision.

They offer six soup bases including spicy, miso, healthy herb, Thai vegetarian, tomato, and curry. Meat choices include chicken breast, pork belly, lamb, Angus beef, rib eye, and Angus prime. Seafood includes lobster, crab, clam, crab, and prawn.

They don't list the noodles or vegetables, because it's a crazy crazy meat-centric world we live in. But to discourage waste, they limit how much meat you can order, and charge a fee if you don’t finish.

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Escargot News

New all-day French bistro in downtown Rockwall is all from scratch

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Belle View Bistro Rockwall

An all-day French bistro has made its debut in Rockwall: Called Belle Vie Bistro, it’s a new mom-and-pop in the charming historic downtown district, at 112 E. Rusk St., the former home of The Fatted Calf restaurant, where it opened its doors on November 12.

Belle Vie is from Luis and Iliana Marquez, a hard-working couple who also own Los Marquez, a popular taco--themed food-truck-turned-restaurant in Rockwall they first debuted in 2019. In May, the couple took over the former Fat Chicken space to open a brick and mortar location of Los Marquez, where they serve well-made Mexican food like tacos, burritos, and quesadillas, but also burgers & fries. They open for breakfast with breakfast tacos, and run a daily lunch special, often creative, always popular, such as birria ramen with choice of beef or lamb for $11.

But the couple had a bigger vision of creating a place where chef Luis could stretch and showcase his skills.

"Luis has a lot of culinary experience, and it’s something that he’s been putting aside,” Iliana says. “We were just waiting on the perfect time to bring this to life.”

"This is something exciting and new for us, it’s something that we always wanted to make,” Luis says.

Like Los Marquez, Belle Vie is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, serving classics like French onion soup, moules frites, escargot, and duck confit. There are also comforting and American dishes like spinach-artichoke dip, crab cakes, and fish & chips.

Lunch features Cobb salad, a French dip, and chicken & Brie panini, while an extended breakfast -- which runs from 7 am to 4 pm — includes pancakes, waffles, eggs benedict, beignets French toast, and crepes, plus pastries and breads made from scratch.

Mural on the wall at Belle Vie Bistro RockwallFacebook

The bakery counter is a delight, with eclairs, croissants, scones, fruit tarts, and cake slices in flavors like carrot cake and white chocolate raspberry. There's also a serious coffee program with espresso drinks such as lattes.

"We pride ourselves on making everything from scratch," the duo says. "Our bread—whether for sandwiches, paninis, hamburgers or anything listed on our menu is made fresh just for us by our incredibly talented pastry chef and baker. The same care goes into our pastries and desserts ensuring every bite is special and crafted with love."

The dining room is warm and cozy with dark wood chairs and plush booths and a full-wall mural depicting a street in Paris. They also have a full bar, with cocktails and beer on tap. Prices are reasonable, ranging from $9 for a Belgian waffle during breakfast to $45 for prime ribeye at dinner.

For now, they're not taking reservations — it's first come, first serve.

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