Soup Zen Hot Pot — Restaurant in Montreal

Soup Zen: The Ultimate Malatang Experience in Montreal

If you’re a fan of malatang or just looking for a customizable, satisfying, and budget-friendly meal, Soup Zen is an absolute must-visit. Nestled in Montreal, this spot offers a unique and interactive dining experience where you have complete control over what goes into your hot pot. From start to finish, everything about this place makes it stand out—from the wide ingredient selection to the flavorful broth, the fantastic sauce bar, and the excellent service.

Ultimate Freedom in Choosing Your Ingredients

One of the best things about Soup Zen is the freedom to build your own hot pot. Unlike traditional hot pot restaurants where you order preset portions of meat, vegetables, and noodles, Soup Zen lets you pick exactly what you want—no more, no less. Whether you’re craving a protein-heavy meal, a veggie-loaded bowl, or just a light snack, the choice is yours. You grab a bowl and walk along their well-stocked ingredient bar, selecting from an array of fresh meats, seafood, tofu, leafy greens, mushrooms, noodles, and more.

The pricing system is incredibly fair and competitive, with a flat rate of $4 per 100 grams. This means you’re never forced to order too much or too little—you simply pay for what you take. It’s a great deal, especially compared to other hot pot spots that charge per plate or have all-you-can-eat options that might be too much for one sitting.

Delicious Signature Broth

Of course, a great malatang experience isn’t just about the ingredients—it’s about the broth that brings everything together. Soup Zen truly excels in this department. Their signature broth is rich, aromatic, and full of depth, perfectly balancing spiciness, umami, and warmth. Whether you like your malatang fiery hot or just mildly spicy, the staff ensures your bowl is customized to your spice preference.

The broth does an amazing job of absorbing the flavors of the ingredients while maintaining its own strong, satisfying taste. By the time you reach the bottom of the bowl, you’ll find yourself sipping every last drop.

The Ultimate Sauce Bar

One of the highlights of Soup Zen is their incredible sauce bar, which is stocked with every essential Asian condiment and seasoning you could ever need. Whether you want a classic soy sauce and garlic mix, a nutty sesame paste-based sauce, or a fiery chili oil blend, you can customize your dipping sauce to perfection. The variety of choices ensures that no two bowls of malatang are ever the same, making each visit a unique experience.

Bright, Clean, and Welcoming Environment

Soup Zen isn’t just about great food—it also provides an amazing atmosphere. The restaurant is bright, modern, and immaculately clean, with a layout that makes it easy to navigate the ingredient and sauce bars. Despite the steady stream of customers, the space never feels cramped or chaotic, making it an enjoyable place to sit down and savor your meal.

The staff here is fantastic—friendly, eager to help, and always ensuring that your dining experience is nothing short of perfect. Whether you need help choosing ingredients, adjusting spice levels, or figuring out sauce combinations, they are ready to assist with a smile.

Final Thoughts: A Must-Try for Malatang Lovers

If you’re looking for a customizable, high-quality, and affordable hot pot experience, Soup Zen is hands down one of the best places to go. The ability to choose exactly what you want to eat and how much you want, combined with their signature broth, incredible sauce bar, and top-tier service, makes this spot a true gem.

Whether you’re a seasoned malatang lover or someone trying it for the first time, Soup Zen ensures a perfect meal, every single time. Highly...

An unforgettable dining experience at Soup Zen Hot Pot!

If you’re looking for a place that combines flavor, freshness, and friendliness — look no further. From start to finish, our experience was truly exceptional.

The moment we walked in, we were greeted with warm smiles and a full explanation of how the hot pot experience works — perfect for first-timers. The staff are incredibly friendly, helpful, and genuinely passionate about their service. They made us feel right at home.

What really sets Soup Zen Hot Pot apart is the incredible freshness and quality of the ingredients. Everything is set up buffet-style, so you get to personally select every item that goes into your hot pot. From the wide variety of fresh-cut vegetables, mushrooms, leafy greens, corn, and tofu to high-quality, halal-certified meats (beef, chicken, lamb, and seafood), every ingredient looked clean, colorful, and freshly prepared.

The noodles section had several options including udon, rice noodles, and ramen. You can pick your individual broth flavor — from spicy Sichuan to soothing mushroom or collagen broths — and then build your own hot pot experience step by step.

We especially loved the self-serve sauce bar — it’s a dream come true for sauce lovers! You can mix and match from a large selection of condiments including sesame sauce, chili oil, fresh garlic, soy sauce, green onions, cilantro, and more. Everything was well stocked, clean, and labeled clearly.

The interior design is clean, cozy, and modern with warm lighting and neatly arranged tables. Despite the buffet concept, the space feels open, well-ventilated, and organized. It’s clear they take hygiene and cleanliness seriously — everything was spotless, from the food stations to the dining area to the restrooms.

As a bonus, they offer complimentary detox water (infused with lemon and herbs) that you can refill freely, and at the end of your meal, they treat you to free soft-serve ice cream — a sweet and refreshing touch to finish off a hearty meal.

In short: ✅ Super fresh ingredients ✅ 100% Halal ✅ Build-your-own pot concept ✅ Friendly and helpful staff ✅ Free sauces, detox water & ice cream ✅ Exceptionally clean and welcoming environment

Soup Zen Hot Pot is now one of our favorite dining spots. Whether you’re going with friends, family, or just want to treat yourself to something delicious and healthy — this is the place to go. We’ll definitely...

Would not recommend for vegetarians or vegans or halal.

First of all each customer gets their own tong to pick up the items they want for their bowl. This makes cross contamination quite likely. Some ingredients had their own tong already in the box, but not many. I would recommend reshuffling and separating the vegetarian and non-vegetarian items so less cross contamination or have a tong already in each box of ingredients and color coded for fish, meat, veg etc..

After they explained how it works and suggested to weigh your food as you go on the scale to check the price (it is $3.99 / 100g), we started to pick our ingredients. This was not suggested to all customers. There should be a separate scale to check the weight that isn't at the payment counter with a sign telling you to check how much you'd pay based on the weight.

When I weighed my bowl to check it was around 655g ($26) but when I went to pay it showed 1.350kg on the scale and they would have charged $54 if my friend didn't intervene and they checked the scale and fixed it with no apology.

I chose the vegan mushroom broth and green onion garnish and the food was fine, until I found a piece of beef in it. I didn't put any beef in my dish and as a vegetarian that is concerning. We told the manager who offered a refund and let me repick some food to keep eating. I got the other vegan broth (tomato) as I thought maybe the mushroom broth was contaminated. My other vegetarian friend soon after found a piece of mussel shell in her vegan mushroom broth and we brought it to the manager's attention. My friend received a refund as well. This was clearly an issue in the kitchen with the vegan broth.

Overall disappointed in lack of regard for food safety and cross-contamination. Better planning and training might help improve this issue.

Positives: the free ice cream with each meal was good....