Guoin Hot Pot, Traditional hot pot restaurant in Shuiyuan Village, Taiwan.
Guoin is a hot pot restaurant in Shuiyuan Village, Taiwan, where guests choose fresh ingredients from refrigerated display cases and cook them in boiling broths right at their table. The selection covers meats, seafood, vegetables, and side items, all arranged in clearly labeled sections.
The hot pot cooking method has roots in China's Zhou dynasty, when bronze pots were heated over charcoal at the table. Over the centuries, the practice spread across East Asia and developed into regional styles with different broths and ingredients.
In Taiwan, sharing a hot pot meal is a common way to spend time with family or friends, especially on cooler evenings or during celebrations. At this restaurant, each person picks their own ingredients and cooks them directly at the table, making the meal feel more like a shared activity than a formal dinner.
A meal at Guoin takes longer than at a standard restaurant because cooking at the table happens at your own pace. Coming in a group makes the experience work well, since the format is designed for people sharing a pot together.
Guoin offers a wider range of broths than most hot pot places, going beyond the usual spicy and clear options to include herbal and milk-based versions. Each broth changes the flavor of the same ingredient noticeably, so two people cooking the same piece of meat in different pots will end up with a very different result.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 60,000 contributors worldwide.
