59 Yuan Shrimp Paste Hot Pot Buffet: Will It Be the Next 'Beef Ribs'?

Recently, when returning to his hometown, Neicanjun found that a second-tier small city in Hebei had opened several 'shrimp paste hot pot buffets'.

Compared to ordinary hot pot buffets, this place can be called a 'shrimp paste museum': from original shrimp paste to roe shrimp paste, mushroom shrimp paste, squid shrimp paste, and even dragon fruit shrimp paste, with over a dozen varieties.

Besides shrimp paste, the store also offers chicken paste, beef paste, fish paste and other 'paste derivatives', all uniformly stored in bamboo tube-shaped containers, arranged in rows in the cold cabinet.

In addition to shrimp paste, the store also has traditional hot pot items such as beef, lamb, vegetables and mushrooms. Common desserts, drinks, and ice jelly found in hot pot buffets are also available. Some stores even add pizzas and other staples.

Most consumers go for the 'freedom of shrimp paste'.

In fact, in the past year, a number of chain shrimp paste hot pot buffet brands have emerged in Hebei alone, and some have successfully expanded to other provinces. For example, Cijie Freshly-made Shrimp Paste Hot Pot Buffet in Shijiazhuang was founded last year and has now opened 66 stores, reaching Shandong, Jilin, Jiangsu and other places. Another brand founded around the same time, Chengkebei Shrimp Paste Hot Pot Buffet, has opened nearly 40 stores in four provinces: Hebei, Shanxi, Heilongjiang, and Jilin.

Jianglaolao Shrimp Paste Seafood Hot Pot Buffet, which opened its first store in Zhejiang, now has stores across 12 provinces, with 20 new stores opened this year alone. Another brand, Laoxiaoxian Shrimp Paste Seafood Hot Pot Buffet, founded in 2018, has accelerated its store expansion since last year, opening 40 new stores since 2025.

The category has become so popular that it has even spread to South Korea. Some netizens posted that South Korea now also has shrimp paste hot pot buffets, with the 'bamboo tube + shrimp paste' setup identical to that in China.

Why Shrimp Paste?

There are many reasons for the rise of shrimp paste hot pot buffets. On one hand, shrimp paste has increasingly wide applications in the catering industry and is already a classic staple in the hot pot category.

Data shows that in 2025, sales of the shrimp paste category increased by 56.9% year-on-year, with sales volume up 60.6%, the fastest growth among all frozen food subcategories. In five provinces — Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, Hunan, and Guizhou — shrimp paste even successfully overtook beef balls to become the top hot pot meatball category.

On the other hand, shrimp paste naturally carries a premium connotation, meeting consumers' expectations of 'getting their money's worth'. For example, at Haidilao, a serving of its signature large-grain shrimp paste (about 140g) costs 74 yuan; in supermarkets, a pack of Anjing shrimp paste can cost 16.5 yuan per 150g. For a buffet restaurant, eating a few servings of shrimp paste can offset the 59 yuan ticket price, and eating other items creates a 'break-even' experience.

Most importantly, the upstream supply chain for shrimp paste is becoming increasingly strong, with rising production technology and volumes. For example, Daixiaji, focusing on the single category of shrimp paste and spearheading the drafting of industry standards for shrimp paste, achieved monthly sales exceeding 100 million and annual sales over 1 billion yuan.

For the catering industry, especially the hot pot segment, a strong upstream supply chain is the lifeline for brands to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and ensure quality. The rise of these shrimp paste supply chains has also brought opportunities for shrimp paste hot pot buffets.

Will Shrimp Paste Hot Pot Buffet Become the Next 'Beef Ribs'?

According to Chenzhi Big Data, over the past year, the number of shrimp paste buffet stores has grown rapidly from fewer than 10 to over 500, mainly in lower-tier markets.

Creating differentiation through a large single-item buffet model and quickly opening stores in a short time inevitably reminds people of the 'beef ribs buffet' phenomenon. Beef ribs buffets rose quickly in the second half of 2024 and then saw large-scale closures in early 2025, with some businesses losing over 2 million yuan in just three months.

However, unlike beef ribs which failed due to beef cost fluctuations, shrimp paste costs are relatively controllable, and the development of the upstream supply chain has also reinforced the foundation of this category.

But ingredient cost is only the 'last straw' that hit beef ribs. Another reason for the decline of beef ribs is that many stores simply rode the popularity of 'beef ribs' without converting the category heat into brand repurchase, ultimately exiting the homogeneous market.

For emerging shrimp paste hot pot buffet brands, tests such as brand differentiation, product innovation, and store operation management still exist. Whether they can achieve scale in the long term remains to be seen.