The chef and owner of this restaurant used to have a small restaurant in Alexandria that I would visit often, but moved to this new location earlier in the year. The chef being from Chongqing, the specialty dishes are of course Sichuan. Although the restaurant maintains the name that the previous owners chose, I would say that the hot pot is so-so–If you eat here you have to order the dishes, not the hot pot.
My favorite appetizer is the beef tripe and joint in chili oil (Fu Qi Fei Pian, 夫妻肺片). In terms of main course dishes, my two favorites are pork blood in chili sauce (Mao Xue Wang,重庆毛血旺)–this is a Chongqing dish which includes pork blood, tripe and intestines in a thick spicy Sichuan broth. And paper wrapped whole fish (重庆烤鱼)–this is a whole grilled fish in a spicy broth with potatoes, peanuts, vegetables and tofu.
This place serves some of the most authentic Chongqing food in the D.C. metro area, a must for lovers of spicy food! Overall, I would give Uncle Liu’s Hot Pot a tasty/authenticity score of 8.6/10.
Washington D.C. Asian Food 