Haidilao Hot Pot

Very special dining experience here. We have multiple hot pot places in Bay Area. But from Haidilao, you will feel difference. Their service is super good if you pay attention to these details on the services you got. If you order the noddle, you will enjoy the show of making noddle when dancing in front of you! Their buffet bar is special good deal given the $1.99 price. You will get not just all kinds of sauces, but also fruits such as grapes, tomatoes, seaweed and peanuts. The meat options are not as many as other places although you get more options on fishes and seafood. They have no draft beer and you can get only bottle beer. At the end, they will ask you if you want to ice cream which is included in the price of buffet bar.

04/20 Friendly staff. Great food. Unfortunately there's no noodle dancing person as for today. Today was my friend's first time here, I really wanted her to see them. 04/22 went back again with my family this time. Hoping to see the noodle dancing person, unfortunately, I was again informed that the guy is not here today as well. I really wanted my family to see the noodle dancing person since it's not something they have experienced. I wished they would have told me that the person would be away for a week or so... Overall, service was nice as always. Random notice, personally, I think the chair was too low for me. Last time I seated at a booth and didn't notice it, maybe because the cushion elevated it.

This is an average Haidilao experience compared to other places in North America. The primary reason being that it was quite crowded and the tables are not well isolated from each other so I feel like we are dining in a cafeteria lol. Then I ordered a squid sashimi which never came and I think that they charged me for that dish as well. Will probably never come again. The hot pot is average and not really worthy the price I think.

Joined the wait-list and immediately got a table on a Thursday night. The service at Hai Di Lao is impeccable. I love the little accessories and chair covers they provide which make the whole experience feel special. The food itself is a little pricy and isn't AYCE so you have to limit the number of dishes you try (better for not overeating though!). The amount of food that comes with each order is perfect for 3-4 people. More than that and you'll definitely have to order at least two of each dish to get a taste. The quality of the food is also very good. The sauce station is an extra $2 on top of the meal which is fair for endless sauce options, side dishes (love the peanuts for munching), and an end-of-the-meal soft serve ice cream cone.

Really fun experience, tasty food, attentive staff. A comedian once said- i dont understand this “cooking your own food at restaurants ” trend, he was like “ how much more do i have to pay so that they’ll let me wash the dishes too?!!” But it’s really fun to add the slices of beef into the bone broth that has been prepared for over a dozen hours prior to arrival, and immerse the pre cut and washed vegetables into the broth and take them out exactly when they are at the perfect point to consume… I enjoyed it so much, ill let the pictures explain the rest.