Clerkenwell Hot Pot Night Picker: After-Work Team Pots

This Clerkenwell hot pot night picker is for the person who got volunteered to organise the team dinner. Clerkenwell is full of design studios, agencies and small offices, and when Friday comes someone has to find a place that suits twelve different appetites. Hot pot is a smart answer. Everyone cooks their own food, so the vegan, the chilli lover and the colleague who eats only plain chicken can all sit at the same table and be happy. The trick is choosing the right pot format before you choose the room, and planning the evening so it flows.

A normal restaurant dinner for a big team often goes wrong in small ways. Someone cannot eat half the menu, the shared plates arrive unevenly, and the quiet person at the end of the table never gets the good dish. Hot pot fixes most of that because the meal is built from the ground up by each diner. You choose a broth, you choose what goes in, and you cook it to your own taste.

It is also a natural icebreaker. Passing plates, explaining how long beef takes and laughing when someone loses a fish ball in the broth gives coworkers something to do besides talk about work. New starters in particular find it easier to join in. For a team that does not see each other much outside meetings, that shared task is often the best part of the evening.

Hot pot restaurants usually work in one of two ways. Some set one big pot in the middle of each table, often divided into two or four sections with different broths. Others give each diner a small individual pot on their own burner or induction plate. Both are good, but they suit different teams, and knowing which one you want narrows the search quickly.

Shared, divided pots feel more social and work well for teams that already get along. Solo pots are the safer choice when dietary needs are strict, because a vegan broth never touches meat and a nut allergy is easier to manage. They also suit teams where people arrive at different times, since each person can start when they sit down. When in doubt for a large group, solo pots remove most of the worry.

Send a short message to the team a few days ahead with three questions: any allergies, any foods you do not eat, and how much spice you enjoy. Keep it simple and private, so nobody feels put on the spot. The answers tell you whether you need a strong vegetarian broth, a halal-friendly option or a kitchen that is careful about shellfish and peanuts in the sauce bar.

When you contact the restaurant, share the numbers, not the names. Saying that two people are vegan, one avoids pork and one has a peanut allergy helps the staff plan broths and warn you about sauces. Most hot pot kitchens are used to these questions, because the format is so flexible. Their answer also tells you a lot about how relaxed the night will feel.

For a team, it helps to think of broths as a range from mild to bold. A clear chicken or pork bone broth is the gentle option and pleases cautious eaters. A mushroom or tomato broth is the friendly middle, rich in flavour and often vegetarian. Sichuan mala, full of chilli and numbing peppercorns, is the bold end, and it is the one your chilli fans will talk about the next day.

With shared pots, aim for one mild and one bold section on each table, and seat people by spice level when you can. With solo pots, let everyone pick for themselves, but encourage first-timers to try a tomato or mushroom broth. Somebody will always ask to taste the mala. Keep a spare spoon on the table so they can try a sip without committing to a whole bowl.

The fastest way to lose control of a big hot pot order is to let every person shout their favourite ingredients at the server. Instead, pick one person per table to order for the group, and start with a balanced base: two kinds of meat or fish, a tofu plate, mushrooms, leafy greens and a noodle. Then let people add one or two personal extras each.

Ordering in rounds also keeps the table tidy. Raw plates take up a lot of space, and hot pot tables can get crowded fast. Start modestly, see what disappears first, then order more of the favourites. This also keeps waste down, which matters when the bill is going to the team budget or being split evenly between colleagues.

Many hot pot places have a self-serve sauce station with sesame paste, soy sauce, garlic, chilli oil, coriander, spring onion and more. For a team night, this becomes a small game. Ask everyone to build their own sauce on the first trip, then compare. Sesame paste with garlic and coriander is a classic, and chilli oil with vinegar suits mala lovers.

Keep an eye on allergies here. Peanut sauces and sesame are common, so remind anyone with an allergy to ask staff which bowls are safe. Some teams like to name the best sauce of the night and give a small prize at the end. It sounds silly, but it is the kind of thing people still mention at the next team meeting.

Clerkenwell is easy to plan around because so much is within walking distance. Meet at Exmouth Market, where the short pedestrian street has a lively feel after work, and walk to dinner together so latecomers can catch up. If the office is near Farringdon station, the walk through the side streets of old warehouses and printing buildings takes only a few minutes.

After dinner, people can drift off in different directions without the night collapsing. Some will head to a pub on Exmouth Market or around Clerkenwell Green, others will walk to Farringdon or Angel for the trip home. A slow stroll past St John's Gate or through the quieter lanes near Clerkenwell Green is a pleasant way to let the meal settle before the commute.

Once you have found a room that worked for your team, the Karpo APP makes it easier to repeat or vary the plan. Search for hot pot near the office, compare solo pot and shared pot spots, and save a short list of places that handled your dietary needs well. The next time someone volunteers you to plan dinner, you will already have three good options ready.