A note on the words: huoguo is the Chinese hot pot cooked at the table, often in a split pot with one mild broth and one chili broth. Yakuzen means food built around medicinal herbs. Yodare-dori is poached chicken under a chili-and-sesame sauce, literally “drool chicken.” Horumon is grilled or simmered offal, and hatsumoto is the aorta at the top of the heart. Yuba is the skin lifted off simmering soymilk, harusame are glass noodles, and annin tofu is a silky almond-jelly dessert. Shime is the closing dish of a meal or a drinking night. Meshi in this blog’s name simply means “meal.”
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Fire Hall 4000, Gotanda branch, on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hello, this is Hangover Meshi. I wanted something spicy! So off I went: “Fire Hall 4000“! There is one in Azabu-juban too, sure, but the Gotanda one has more of a flagship feel to it, doesn’t it. Gotanda is a bit of a trek, but an expedition it is! I had booked ahead and arrived right about on time. The moment you step inside, a lovely spice aroma comes drifting over! That said, it is not an overpowering smell, and there is not much greasiness to it, so it probably will not cling to your clothes.
A photo of Mr. Komoda on the front of the shop ^^
Yakuzen MAX course, nine dishes — 6,600 yen (about $43 as of this writing, August 2026)
Seafood and Kato pork collaboration course — 7,150 yen
Special “meat 29 meat” course — 8,800 yen
Kato pork indulgence course — 5,500 yen
Special deluxe course — 11,000 yen
Basic hot pot course — 4,400 yen
Basically you have to request one of the courses when you book, so this time I chose the Yakuzen MAX course.
Incidentally, you can add things on afterwards, and there are a la carte dishes as well, so — no need to worry? Probably!
A big pot is set up first ^^
The handle, or whatever you call it, being a nicely done dragon is a rather good touch, ha.
I came with people who love their heat this time, so it does not look like we will be using the white broth much!
The fresh vegetable platter that comes with the set. There are potatoes and leaves in there I have never seen before.
Potato, eggplant, tomato, red-heart daikon and enoki are the familiar ones.
The Yakuzen MAX course comes with lamb!
If you want lamb, maybe the Yakuzen MAX course is the one to pick!
And here is the rest of the meat platter.
Kato pork, I suppose? Thigh and shoulder, plus a three-kind platter of the day’s fresh pork horumon.
Liver and hatsumoto, perhaps? Beyond that I am not quite sure ^^
Once the ingredients are all here, all that is left is to throw them in!!!
But first!!!!!!!!
There is something the heat lovers need.
You order this separately, and throw it into the red broth!
In it goes!
Now we’re getting somewhere!
One sip of the broth and — mm. Delicious. Adding the extra heat gave it punch and made it better, I think. Even so, it is nowhere near too spicy, so you can eat it with confidence. There is a depth of spice to it, not just heat. The aroma of star anise and sansho pepper really works up the appetite! The lamb gets a quick shabu-shabu swish. Mm, delicious. Medicinal-herb aromas and the aroma of lamb go together brilliantly. The pork and the offal get cooked a bit more thoroughly, and they are lovely too. Honestly, I suspect anything you drop into this hot pot broth would come out delicious.
Feeling like an a la carte dish too, so: yodare-dori.
A nice sense of spice. Not all that hot! Something you can call delicious.
After that, the house special meatballs went into the pot.
Meatballs and the like have to be cooked right through. No rushing, take it slow.
You order by scanning a QR code on your phone. The limited-quantity a la carte dishes are marked “almost gone!” and so on.
I did not want the mapo tofu to run out, so I ordered it right away!
This mapo tofu is pretty hot! A level of heat that satisfies even a heat lover. Take a careless mouthful and you will cough, ha.
Once you get used to it, the savor behind the heat comes through clearly and you find yourself thinking, this is good.
This is the yuba and sheet-cut harusame set that comes with the course.
Shall we add a bit more? — so we ordered mushrooms.
Hot pot means mushrooms, surely. Come to think of it, they give off good stock too, so I should have ordered them from the start, ha.
Then sesame balls, and
the closing ramen! …We already had the harusame.
And finally, dessert. Annin tofu! So what were the sesame balls, then…
Stuffed! Thoroughly satisfied!
One thing I noticed at the very end: we had the broth topped up quite a few times (the staff circulate and pour it in without you having to ask), and looking closely, the burner had been on MAX the whole time. No wonder the broth kept vanishing, ha. There is a control beside the table, so I reflected that I should have adjusted it properly ^^ The Azabu-juban one had a refined, quiet sort of atmosphere, but this Gotanda branch feels like a place where you can be a bit lively, and that might have suited me better! Delicious! I want to go again!
Fire Hall 4000 (Sichuan / Gotanda Station, Osaki-hirokoji Station, Osaki Station)
Tabelog lunch rating ★★★☆☆ 3.7
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
