Gourmet Tribe Hot Pot & Market is located at 7500 Woodbine Ave., at John St, in Markham, the municipality north of Toronto’s east end. Gourmet Tribe has much more ($60+) expensive options including sushi/sashimi, but we didn’t need any more than the $25.99 lunch special hot pot, with broth included including sukiyaki, which is fantastic given that some places charge $10 or more for it. The mini-booth tables for two have two separate hot pots rather than just one so each of us get our own and can have different broths, again an improvement over other places that charge even more for a “split pot” of two broths than if they were the same. The soy sauce was excellent on its own, just the right strength and savour, and not salty, so I hardly needed anything else. There is also tea provided at table, and it is fragrant loose jasmine which is excellent unlike other hot pots where it’s bagged and/or dilute. Gourmet Tribe is a serve-yourself buffet-style rather than ordering from the wait staff, which is unique among all of them we’ve been to, and far preferable as one gets to pick the desired amount of everything rather than being overloaded or underwhelmed.
Mishy impressed me by knowing that oyster sauce and black bean sauce together were an excellent combination, plus I added a little garlic which made everything delicious. There were some large ear-like (chanterelle?) mushrooms that were delicious out of the pot. Watch out as I think the crab surimi is wrapped with plastic that isn't very visible. Mishy liked this place more than any other hotpot we’ve been to in a while, as could pick all the shaved beef she wanted. It was fresh and very good. I also enjoyed the meatballs and breaded fish. Sausage was excellent and I ended up having seconds and even thirds. Broccoli and noodles all came out excellent, but the noodles are very hard to pick up, so thankfully long forks are provided where the plates are... they seem to have thought of everything here.
There is even dessert, of one ice cream cup of Chapman's vanilla strawberry or chocolate, as well as sliced peaches. Chapman’s isn’t my favourite by far (too textureless to the point of seeming synthetic, and not much flavour) but it’s still better than nothing. $25.99 is an excellent price, especially with all of the little details of improvements on the whole hotpot process, and we had a very enjoyable lunch.
Rating: 9 / 10 + 1.5 value adjustment = 10 / 10
