Hu Shang Seafood Hot Pot & BBQ Buffet — Restaurant in Brisbane City

So today we decided to visit Seafood Hotpot Buffet at Sunnybank and I'm really pleased that we did. It was great!!

Upon arriving for our reservation (I don't think you'd need one but we didn't want to miss out) we were seated in a great table close to the food but not on top of it. The server asked if we'd had hotpot before (we had) so she just gave us the soup sheet to pick what we'd like.

The soup prices are clearly marked and there is a decent variety. I chose mushroom chicken broth and my husband had the spicy butter. Both was packed with flavour and tasty on their own as a soup.

The restaurant is very clearly laid out, from the sashimi and drink fountains to the back to the right hand side which is precooked meats and rice, meatball soups to the hotpot ingredients.

Okay so I'll start with the sashimi, made fresh and looked delicious. The drinks, nothing fancy - a frozen strawberry, frozen coke, two juices and a variety f coffees. You can use the small kid sized glasses under the drink dispenser but around the corner under the soup are larger mugs you can use. I think a soda fountain or a bigger variety of drinks on offer would be great but we were happy with the small selection.

We tried the precooked food first, now this is unfortunately not labelled so you really just have to guess. On offer was a pork a peanut dish served cold...delicious! A prawn salad, fried rice and a duck dish. We didn't try the meatball soups but they all looked fresh and delectable.

We then chose our meats for our hotpot. The selection is set up so you can an individual tray of meat rather than piling your plate high. At first we just took a couple each then noticed everyone else taking 5 to 10 at a time so we just copied haha. The meat selection isn't vast but we don't expect that at hotpot. There was a beef dish, a beef tenderloin and pork.

Next we grabbed our sauces. There was a huge variety to choose from, all carefully labelled in English and Chinese. Also green onion, chopped garlic and other condiments to compliment your choice of sauce.

Cooking the hotpot was easy as expected. The ceramic dish cover makes sure you don't get hot and isn't overly warm to touch with your hand. The controls to increase or decrease the heat is conveniently located under the table also.

The seafood selection on offer is huge and varied. Some of the items we'd not heard of before but thankfully there were English labels and cooking times for each item which was extremely helpful to us.

The dessert options were cute, little strawberry, chocolate and green tea cakes plus a scroll I wasn't sure of and a variety of fresh fruit

The tables were cleaned quickly an empty dishes removed with efficiency.

Everything was extremely clean, tidy and professional. The staff didn't speak to you unless you asked for something which is the norm and the hotpots were topped up at a regular interval.

Make sure you go in with an open mind. If you aren't used to hotpot ask questions! Don't expect to be taken in hand and shown how to do everything. Hotpot is a very personal experience and everyone cooks/eats/makes sauces differently.

I would definitely recommend...

To be very honest, Id give this place no star rating at all if I could. My friends and I really felt like hotpot today and as the cube was closed for lunch, we decided to head on over to this place to check it out. Worst decision ever by far. First of all, when we entered we stood by the door for a few minutes before someone noticed us. A woman in her 30s walked up to us and spoke to us in Chinese, assuming that we were chinese. Ok....I get it. Its Sunnybank and many of your cusomers are Chinese. But we were not and when we told the waitress we did not speak chinese, she continued to speak to us in Chinese, said "no english" but then said yes to when I asked her can we have buffet for 3 people and which one was which since their concept was unusual. She said some other words in Chinese and went to get someone else whos English was worse. This other person she got was a younger male who came up to us. Again, we said we would like the buffet for 3, he nodded then said something that took me 4/5 goes to understand that what he said was "its now close".

The website and other 3rd party websites stated that they close at 2:30pm for lunch. We got there at 1:50pm and wasted 10minutes by talking to staff who assumed we were chinese. Fair enough if they wanted to decline customers but they should train their staff and upate websites saying they "close at 2". Yes, hotpot takes time to eat but the cube hotpot usually accepts customers even 30mins before closing. So atleast flip your door sign to "close" or change your times on these sites as that would be false advertising. Secondly, how could you only employ chinese staff who speak no English even if its Sunnybank? Not everyone speaks Chinese and we felt looked down upon simply because we were asian but not Chinese. You are in a country that speaks English as its main language, how are you supposed to cater to non-chinese customers. It made us feel as if we were turned away because they could not communicate with us which was rather rude as no effort was put in to ensure we felt comfortable or understood at the restaurant. Very disappointed and will never be going back. They have lost potentially loyal customers. I do not reccommend this place unless you speak chinese as the chinese customers in there were treated with what seemed like brilliant...

Was a very expensive night out. For myself, a 9 yr old, 10 year old and 11yr old (all non members) set me back $240 in total.

How though? when all the prices shown differ, I thought I was going to be paying around $37+soup charges for 4. Not even.

At that price I will never return here again. I think the mix up came when my nieces family couldn't all fit on their table and 2 adults joined mine.

The front of house got confused because they have a one bill policy per table. Still my niece paid for the two that sat with me and they tried charging me again saying my original bill was $334. Good try!

We did not waste any food and ate every plate we took back to our main table. We didn't go over our time slot either in fact it took about 15min for any waitress to attend to us after sitting, they left us with our tablets and did not return to us. Yes it was a busy dinner service but that time was ours.

So my niece and I approached the front desk clerk with our tablets to begin our meals. After doing this we finally received our soups and begun.

We returned from being out tonight, after attending the dinner service at 7pm. I haven't got off the toilet since and I hardly ever get a gammy gut...it's not pretty.

The only positives were, it had a great food selection, my children loved it, and I saw family, but other then that the misunderstandings in the prices were not well explained? If I ended up paying for a family member or two fine but then who did my niece pay for? We were both there at front desk trying to sort who she already paid for with a reciept in hand. I just had to pick up the remainder but there were too many indiscrepencies over chargers that didn't add up. I definitely was not paying for $334 for 4 ppl. So I paid for what ever they said and walked away.

Now I'm paying for it with gut cramping and toilet seat warming...it's not...