Haidilao Hotpot Box Hill — Restaurant in Melbourne

Hai Di Lao - Box Hill⁣ Hotpot⁣ Oh my god friends, it’s finally here. Hai Di Lao is finally in Melbourne. The hot pot kings, the empire worth billions of dollars have made their way to Australia and that really excites me. After having been to HDL in Shanghai I was eager to try the Melbourne outpost to see how it fairs and stacks up. The one big thing about Hai Di Lao overseas is that the service is impeccable. From the moment you arrive to the moment you leave the staff pay so much attention to detail to ensure you have the best time hot potting. I’m super happy to report that the Melbourne restaurants have absolutely nailed this experience. While due to covid a few things have been scaled back (I.e no free manicures while waiting...yes that’s a thing) the service honestly goes above and beyond. Need a hair tie? They’ve got you. Need a glasses wipe? Got you. Is it your birthday? Yep they will decorate your booth and sing happy birthday to you with flashing signs. The. Dream. Now to the food. Ordering is made simple through an iPad system which is visually pleasing. Tap the broth you want and the virtual hot pot fills up. The ordering system is in regular categories ie favourites proteins and veggies. A great range of ingredients here and it seemed like more were added throughout the night. One of the signature moments at HDL is the fact you can order a noodle dancer. That’s right, the noodle wizard will come to your table and pull your noodles while dancing around. ⁣ The broth is great, try the Sichuan broth of course but a big shout out to the tomato broth. Something I hadn’t tried in Shanghai but was super impressed by it. The staff were always ready to help with anything, our staff member Nathan used some samurai like behaviour to swipe our prawn paste into the boiling pot. ⁣ Special mention goes to the sauce stand which had free sides like bean curd salad and also watermelon to cool ya off!⁣ I can’t recommend Hai Di Lao enough. It’s. The. Best. Get. There. Now. ⁣ ⁣ 🥢🥢🥢🥢🥢⁣ Broth Flavour: 🍜🍜🍜🍜.5/5⁣ Soup ingredients: 🍜🍜🍜🍜🍜/5⁣ Noodle Quality: 🍜🍜🍜🍜🍜/5⁣ Overall: 🍜🍜🍜🍜.75...

i hate hotpot. never come here

the food is horrible. no flavour and it takes forever to cook. of course there’s the selection of self service seasoning you can choose from but i would much prefer chefs to make and season the food for me. i’ve been forced to eat hotpot numerous times this year, and i’ve gotten extremely bored and sick of their bitter soup bases and bland meat and vegetables. i’ve tried most drinks here, please never order the mocha green tea (or whatever it’s called), horrible flavour its bitter and made me feel queasy after the first sip. loved the mango ice cream drink but they unfortunately got rid of it. also the chocolate coconut drink is literally just milo in coconut milk

then the service, it’s average at most, i ordered a drink and the waiter managed to spill half its contents which is pretty disappointing. some waiter also broke a pile of plates they were carrying. also the robot cat thing that brings plates around is so annoying kept on bumping in to me. anyways, no hate to any of the waiters im sure they are all very nice people, haidilao being the worst restaurant in the world isn’t their fault.

atmosphere is horrible. i hear a happy birthday song being played every five minutes. it’s loud and annoying, please i just want to sit and eat peacefully. not only this they also play the worst selection of songs on the speakers, honestly at this point just turn it off.

please save your money and go to mac donald’s at this point. if your considering coming here, don’t, absolutely a waste of time and money. they use free snacks, vending machines, games and nail painting salons to attract visitors. by the way, the vending machine is completely rigged. it’s just a huge money...

I don't usually leave reviews but after this week's experience at Haidilao that showed a stark contrast from previous visits, I feel compelled to leave a review. Food wise, everything was fine. However, the service was rather appalling. For a place that prides itself in service, it was severely lacking.

Firstly, I had requested for a bowl to scoop out all the excess oil and foam, but I never got one. In all my previous visits, the wait staff would very kindly help to scoop this out without asking. This time round, I was fine to do it myself but I had to walk over to get my own bowl?

Secondly, I had made an appointment for the complimentary nail service and was initially impressed that the numbers were moving very quickly and it was my turn after about 40 minutes of waiting for two other diners ahead of me. I guess I know the reason why now... The manicurist had skipped the base coat and went straight into 2 coats of colours before finishing off with a top coat. In my previous 2 visits, it was always base coat 3 layers of colour top coat. It's only been 2 days since I got the gel manicure done and suffice to say, all nails have started chipping. One might say I shouldn't be complaining about free stuff but again, for a place that prides itself for its service, this a far cry from expectations. If anything at all, don't offer a service that you cannot deliver.

Finally, we were initially charged for the condiments bar even though we had not taken anything from the condiments bar at all. When we clarified with the wait staff whilst trying to make payment, she seemed rather disgruntled about it but still edited the final bill anyway. Her expression and reaction was...