East Valley
Claypot Kitchen
Opened: June 2023
Homey and authentic, Claypot Kitchen specializes in two things: the clay pot dishes of Guangdong (the Chinese province formerly known as Canton) and the cooking style of Hong Kong, a melting pot of influences from Britain, Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia. Despite the occasional dish of beef tripe, duck feet or pig ear, many selections will be comfortingly familiar to squeamish Americans – like ultra-crispy desert wings (yep, chicken wings) perfumed with ginger ($9.50); spicy dumplings, mildly anointed with chile oil ($5.50); and house lo mein, slippery noodles brimming with shrimp, chicken, beef, egg noodles, green onions and cabbage in a pleasantly soupy soy-based sauce ($14.50). Chinese sausage and preserved meat clay pot rice – savory-sweet sausage, crisp-edged pork belly and Chinese broccoli cooked in a sizzling clay pot until the rice turns brown and crispy – recalls Korea’s bibimbap ($16.50), while braised beef brisket radish clay pot ($16.50) is akin to a hearty beef stew, fatty with beef tendon. Rice serves as its accompaniment, although homemade fried bread sticks (akin to savory churros, $3.50) make excellent mops for the broth. Pork and preserved egg congee – essentially rice porridge enriched with bits of pork and jelly-like preserved egg – has a comfort-food factor all its own ($12.50).
Wild Card: Ten times better than any doughnut, deep-fried buns with condensed milk are listed as an appetizer but best saved for dessert ($4.50).
111 S. Dobson Rd., Mesa, 480-275-5352, claypotkitchenaz.com
