CHOCHO Hot Pot — Restaurant in Burnaby

Overall awful experience. I have been a frequent Dolar Shop customer at their Richmond location from 2019 and their Station Square location as well. I was always satisfied with each Dolar Shop experience, so I was excited about the new location opening on Kingsway.

We had the email promotion for 50% off the entire bill, and reserved a table a day prior, for 6 people at 9pm on a Thursday, as the host said there would be no space until 9pm.

I phoned at 5pm opening to see if we can make the reservation for 7 people instead. He said “Yes we can change to 7! would you like to have a 6-8 person private table instead? The minimum charge is $500” I declined and said a regular table would be fine. He acknowledged, I hung up.

I arrive with my group at 8:55pm and the host said: “if you don’t get the private table, two of you will have to share a pot, the table only seats 6.” This came as a surprise. The options given to me over the phone convinced me that it would be possible to seat 7. We had gotten tables for 10 at Station Square before. Despite their ability to seat a 7 person table at the VERY empty private table, they insisted that if we sit at the private table then the minimum charge will apply. We decided to sit at the regular table still but was curious how they wanted to treat us.

Of the group of 7, I arrived with 3 people first. When we sat down, a server came up with the sauce and started asking what we wanted. He asks what sauces the other 4 people want. Why ask me now? He should’ve came back later when he sees the people sit down.

The ingredients started arriving. Here’s where things get worse: ALL of the food we ordered arrived simultaneously. It got to the point where cooked appetizers were being put on top of raw ingredients. I noticed the table for 2 directly beside us was empty, and asked the servers that we can put some of the ingredients there instead because this is really crowded. They said no and kept stacking. So not only was our food hovering on top, we knew for a fact that more food (our favourite pancakes) had yet to arrive. The servers were scrambling at our table while we are trying to eat to fit all the food. I’ve had to secure the dangling plates that the servers almost spilled because of how cramped it is. I watched the server drop the plate of cooked food directly onto our raw meat plates, and then stacked it back on top. Then they touched our other plates of cooked items! Please see attached photo of the stacked food items. This was only when 70% of the food arrived. Stacking got worse after. No space to eat comfortably.

Asked them if we can sit at the round table because CLEARLY this table is too small! Server said no, if you can’t get $500 after discount then you can’t sit there. ($1000 of hotpot for 6-7 people?) When we ask, “is that table reserved?“ he replied Yes. Ok then I guess.

The two pancakes arrived, I started feeling like we were being force fed. Server made us take several ingredients off the plates and cook them so that THEY can put more plates on. I was being rushed and couldn’t enjoy cooking piece by piece. Our pancakes were shoved into one plate. They touched raw plate and cooked food plate constantly to try and fit everything on the table. The staff at this location forced everything into one table vertically. The servers were clumsy, to the point where they were splashing the liquid from raw ingredients onto the table. Our cooked appetizers are in the vicinity of this splashing.

They could have separated our food by using a cart OR using the empty table beside us and yet they chose to give us a cramped, cross-contaminated plate display.

Suggestions to lessen the crowding on our table were ignored.

I’ve been to other Dolar Shops many times so I knew what to expect of the service. This location VASTLY underperformed in terms of communication, service, and food handling. This was an awful experience. Train your employees better. Hope leaving a private table empty the whole night in hopes of a minimum charge being met was worth having all your loyal...

We arrived at opening (11am) with a group of 6 plus a baby. We didn't know that each table only has 4 burners so we'd need to be split up between 2 tables across the aisle. If we knew this was the case, we probably would have chosen a different place.

There was no wait and we were asked for our reservation name, we said we didn't have any, and they were still able to seat us. However, we were told they'd need the 2 tables for a 1pm reservation. As we ate there were lots of empty tables even at 12:40 when we left. So that was slightly confusing. The time they give you for AYCE is 2 hours anyway so maybe this is what they meant but worded it differently.

The server quickly went over drink promos, offered us still or sparkling water, how to use the tablet, and answered a few questions. They let us try the tomato soup broth (very good but not a strong flavour) before choosing one and offered us utensils for our 1.5 year old. You do have the option of getting a split broth/2 types in 1, which my husband did try. I noticed it kept his broth lower than mine and I wish I had tried that. It's hard not to "lose" food in the pot once you put it in because of how much broth is insane. I wish the bowl was wider so you could see down into it more or they put less broth.

The booster seat they gave us for our son was very, very confusing with many straps and I don't think we fully figured it out. The burner controls are right at the booster seat of a child's height, but thankfully he didn't know to press the button.

I'd highly recommend taping over the controls when a child is sitting in the seat and not eating hotpot (as my 1.5 year old was not)

Halfway through dining they let us know where the napkins were - in a pull out drawer at the table along with wet cloths. This would have been helpful to know ahead of time. When I mixed my broth with sauce I didn't care for they helped me quickly change it over which was great.

The burners are quite far from you when sitting at the booth and I found myself putting food on a mini plate to eat because it was hard for me to lean over the table to reach it (I'm 5'5"). The cover of the hotpot bowl that secures it in place does resemble a dog bowl, as a person in our party pointed out. Even after turning the heat down to P2 or P3 (P5 being the max), I still burned my mouth after changing the setting and waiting a few minutes. The burners are very hot and employees tell you they're putting it on max (P5) when they start it. Every time I left my table to go to the bar to get more items my hotpot bowl would begin to bubble from the heat. I'd recommend starting out low and raising it as needed rather than starting at the highest setting.

The dimsum was okay, not very flavourful, and the sesame balls (even an hour after opening) tasted dry and overcooked on the outside. The meats were of great quality and my husband loved them. The iced milk tea was good but very filling and I don't recommend getting more than one with your meal.

They have udon, ramen, and another type of noodles, but I'd also liked to have seen rice cakes and other varieties of carbs for the hotpot.

They have a candy bar and icecream machine. The icecream and cones (dated the day of on the box they're in) were incredible and like premium vanilla ice creams I've had. I would highly recommend it.

Overall, we paid $52 each for AYCE, $2.99 each for AYCD, and complimentary parking was free for 2 hours. The washrooms felt very elaborate and had fresh cut oranges in the shape of flowers in the sink along with sanitary products and flossers nearby. The building felt very fancy for a not-so-fancy food, IMO.

Was the atmosphere neat? Yes.

Is this great for groups over 4 people? No, unless you want to not be able to talk.

Has this converted me from Boiling Point hotpot? No, I think it's just not for me and that's okay.

If you're looking for an "experience," id say give this a try but if you're looking for a casual hotpot restaurant for a group larger than 4 people, I'd find...

I took my senior dad (about $40 senior rate) for lunch around 1:15 on a Tuesday and it was pretty quiet, which I like. I had previously been to the Richmond ChoCho twice for dinner and it was packed. I made a reservation just in case. I thought everything was great. All the food was freshly stocked up even though it was a quiet day for them. Still and sparkling water was included (I like that they left a bottle of each at the table for each of us) and they have a $2.99 all you can drink soft drink special now (but I was happy with the sparkling water as I wanted to save room for food. However, I do enjoy plum juice and will probably try theirs next time since it goes so well with hotpot. There's lots of selection. I really like how everything is included in the price - we had almost all of the meats and I usually don't get chicken but just wanted to try something I hadn't had before and it cooks up super tender and tastes good. I even tried the vegan platter which was fine. This time, I did not see any premium items that required an extra charge, and that's great. My strategy is to get a few warm dim sum items to eat while waiting for the pots to boil but that is actually really fast since they are individual pots. I like that you can have up to two different broths in your personal pot (tomato and tom yum for me). You can order a few deep fried things so that it comes out fresh (but we didn't this time, but I appreciate that). The only things that I would change would be: to add daikon (lo bak). It's such a cheap item so I wouldn't eat too much, but I love it in hot pot and can't figure out why they don't have it. I wouldn't want anything to go away though - love the winter melon and taro. Maybe in place of carrot if they don't have enough room. Maybe add some sort of cake to the dessert table like cut up swiss mango roll, mixed fruit sponge cake, or maybe tapioca pudding. Something small dessert that is solid. I love their station to make a bowl with beans, all sorts of jellies, mochi, balls, etc. Mochi was really good. I also love the candy station (they have nice quality candy), and that you can get a soft serve waffle cone from the server. There's also egg tart, sesame ball, etc. from the dim sum side but I forgot about that at the end of the meal - missed the little sesame ball this time. And I probably could have had one of those little buns with sweetened condensed milk. But the cake is just a thought. There's fruit at the sauce station too - orange wedges, pineapple slices. 2 hours limit was fine with my Dad, but I have felt like I wanted a lot more time with friends. 2.5 would be ideal. Maybe that could be an option for people reserving. Free parking under the building for 2 hours (scanner inside lobby of restaurant) worked. I think it's great that they have late night specials too. This is a great place to hot pot any time you want, even if you don't have a large group of people. Some other places need a lot of people to be able to order a variety of items because they come in such large portions. Because of the buffet style for most items, it's easy to get the variety and even the platters of meat are served in reasonable portions and you can get as many as you want. If you're new to Chinese hot pot, this is a great place to get an introduction. Personal pots are so much easier...