Nobuyuki S.

This is definitely not a Chinese hot pot restaurant. The head cook and bottle washer (I'm not kidding!) didn't even know what a hot pot was, even though they've owned the place for years. I'm surprised that they didn't change the name. She told me that someone else had stopped recently thinking that it was a Chinese place. Seeing the pumpkin pie under Desserts on the sign as I entered was a clue. I thought "oh, what the heck!", and she said that she'd bring a menu to me in just a moment. There was only one person seated in the restaurant but it was possibly too early for many people. After a short delay, she arrived with the menu and asked what I wanted to drink. I ordered a sweet tea. Perusing the menu, I thought I'd try the meatloaf sandwich. That sounded like something typically Indiana. She was out of meatloaf. (As I learnt later, the walk-in cooler had been repaired but she had thrown out possibly spoiled food and was waiting for the cooler to become cooler.) I ordered the fish tail sandwich. Rather than just have a little rectangle mostly hidden by the bun, this was long enough to be seen quite well on each end. I bit off one end before taking the photo, so sorry about that. I also ordered seasoned fries. It took a little while, and a couple entered, so the woman in charge of it all had to multi-task. I wonder what happens if she's really busy. The food was good, although the seasoned fries could have used more seasoning. They seemed to have a layer of breading with mild paprika, when they should have had a mix of mild and spicy paprika. The food was prepared as well as you could expect, and it was obvious that she cared. She and her husband took time to talk, which was quite pleasant. They weren't intrusive but they seemed genuinely interested. She was definitely interested in what a hot pot was. Being between Quizno's and Mancino's, someone might miss the place, especially with the McDonald's drive-thru line into 30th Street. Shouldn't it wind in front of Kroger's instead? Geez. Of course, people could just avoid McDonald's and go to The Hot Pot Restaurant. Update 2013.09.24: I was in Connersville photographing cross country and stopped ahead of time. Tried the meat loaf sandwich and a taco. I wish the meat loaf had as much meat as it had loaf. It seemed a bit spongy. The taco was okay but it really didn't compel me, either.