Founded in 2015, Secret Food is a newly opened restaurant from an old store. The owner of Secret Food said that the business of the previous restaurants was very good, but in the case of increasingly competitive markets, the importance of creating a brand is self-evident. The word "secret" has both a secret and unique meaning, and is the same as "seeking", which is ingenious in today's "tide" industry.
The founder team said that after some thought, they finally chose Chaoshan beef hot pot. In fact, 2015 is a year of rapid popularity of Chaoshan beef hot pot, and it is difficult to avoid the suspicion of following the trend. The founder once went to Shantou to taste all the beef types of the two big-name restaurants of Bahe Caspian Haiji and Wuji, and communicated and learned from local chefs and diners, and finally summed up the management of secret food.
The secret food is made of local cattle from Yunnan-Guichuan, and two batches of beef arrive fresh from the Linping slaughterhouse every day, at 9 am and 4 pm, respectively, and the time is controlled in about 2 hours. The official business hours are until 2 p.m., but the day ends when the beef is sold out. If you have a need for "original flavor" and don't want to encounter the embarrassing situation of your favorite beef part being sold out, it is recommended to eat directly at the lunch and dinner market.
The secret food divides beef into 11 parts: tender meat, fat beef, beef tongue, beef tendon, hanging dragon, breast oil, toe meat, spoon kernel, spoon handle, pork belly tendon, and snowflake. Among them, fresh beef tongue and beef tendon are relatively rare in the traditional Chaoshan beef hot pot, and are generally not eaten as shabu shabu, but their chewiness is enough and it is still worth trying. Although the secret meat cutter has rich experience and the thickness of the meat slices is uniform, there is often a large area of beef sticking, which affects the shabu-shabu experience. There is only the name of the meat on the plate, and the length of the shabu-shabu is not indicated, which is not very friendly to new diners.
There are five types of pot bases to choose from, starting with the signature Chaoshan beef bone soup pot. Beef bone clear soup red oil mandarin duck pot, iron maple bucket nourishing health pot, clear soup tomato sour soup mandarin duck pot, special Chongqing old hot pot and other 4 kinds of pot bottoms also meet the needs of many other diners. After the consommé is served, the waiter will not remind diners to drink the consommé first, and there is usually a pot of soup next to the table, and diners need to add it by themselves.
There are two ways to order food in the restaurant: paper menu and QR code scanning, and the names of the dishes are slightly different. Diners are recommended to enjoy the Neck Kernel Snowflake (the best snowflake pork), which is a dense layer of fat and oily beef, and after 8 seconds of shabu-shabu, the combination of fat and lean meat is irresistible, very tender, and basically does not disappoint. Due to the scarcity of meat, it is quite a sought-after existence. If you want to test the freshness of the beef, then don't miss the mellow beef breast oil, which is bright and oily with a faint yellow sheen. The chest oil is crisp and smooth, and the fat but not greasy taste is the best curtain call for a Chaoshan beef hot pot. Nowadays, some beef hot pot restaurants directly replace it with white and hard frozen breast oil, which is frustrating.
The vegetables of Secret Food are picked and transported from the designated cooperative vegetable and fruit farms every day, and are certified by the relevant agricultural departments to ensure freshness and guarantee. There aren't many types of ingredients, and diners with special needs may be a little disappointed.
The lakeside store has the best environment, but its service is not complimentary. The environment of Baolong store and Xintiandi store is slightly worse, but the service is better. If you want to entertain friends, we recommend going to the lakeside store.
