Big Way Hot Pot (Ackroyd) — Restaurant in Richmond

Ok so honestly I don’t get the hype with malatang. I mean, it can be a healthy and quick meal depending on the broth and ingredients chosen (maybe it’s that people like being able to make their hot pot their way as Big Way slogan is, makes sense I guess kinda like subways for Asians - personally not a fan of subways because their bread tastes off) but there are wayyy too many malatang stores in Richmond. Case in point, within this 1 km area there are no less than ten? specialty hot pot or malatang restaurants. Actually there’s another Big Way just a five minutes walk away. That location ALWAYS has a line up out the door literally every day and all the time. So I guess it makes sense for them to open another location in Richmond. This seems to be a newer location, right besides Y&G Malatang lol. The malatang hype doesn’t seem to be fading any time soon; I remember almost four years ago walking by BigWay in Burnaby and it was also packed with a line out the door. Personally it seems this location is brighter and more relaxed than overly packed.

Anyways, I ordered takeout on Fantuan at the Ackroyd location on March 2 around 12:30 am and I have to note that the customer service is excellent. Upon arrival, I was promptly greeted by a female staff and I mentioned a pick up order. She went to check and told me the kitchen was preparing it and then went about making other take out orders. Just a few minutes later a male staff walked by again and asked if I’ve been helped, and mentioned I was waiting for my pick up order. He went and checked and came out to tell me the kitchen finished preparing it and he’ll pack it right now. I got my order in about 10 minutes after ordering.

The food and quality was Ok, nothing spectacular. I had fish tofu 3 pc ($1.99), rib eye roll (4.19), crown daisy (1.99), vermiceilli (2.99), seafood mushroom 8 pc (2.49) with the collagen broth. Total cost $13.59 after 10% off pick up discount

The prices are pretty typical for malatang, literally all stores are the same prices it seems.

The seafood mushroom was disappointing; I wasn’t sure what seafood mushroom was so ordered it but it’s like the bigger enoki mushrooms that you can find for $1.99 for an entire packet (and personally don’t like the taste of it, tastes fruity). Everything else was pretty standard quality and quantity except the vermicelli for $2.99 in a comically small container.

The collagen bone broth tasted good but I can’t say it’s truly collagen broth as it didn’t gel-ify when I put the left over stock in the fridge. (Piping Hot collagen broth does as I tried recently on UberEats delivery. As did the Meat Up on No 3 did long ago till they cut corners in recent months and seem to stop using real bone broth and added sugar to their soup instead). When you put collagen in the fridge it should become jelly like. (Jelly is actually made of collagen originally) That’s typically how I evaluate if they use premade soup or truly boil a broth.

Overall honestly a 3/5 but bump it up a bit for 4/5. It seems the Big Way difference is truly about their dine in experience and picking the ingredients you want. Also their customer service staff seems stellar adding to the dine in experience. Sauces and ice cream appears free for dine in but (sauce) charged for take out.

Atmosphere is good and nicely lit and looks clean. Maybe may try dine in some time but personally for take out, there are better options for better broth and ingredients imho. Free ice cream seems a nice perk. (Disregard the spicy noodles in the background of the picture; that’s not from Big Way but the popcorn chicken and scallion noodles at Trues also on Fantuan. The portion in itself at Big Way especially with the small verceimilli container would suffice for a light meal. Also note, the meat and mushroom in the verceimilli was there as it seems they cook everything together and separate the verceimilli after)

Not bad but not great. I still don’t understand the hype with malatang. It’s nice from time to time but the amount of malatang and hot pot stores is...

My friends and I are big fans of Big Way and usually visit at least once, if not twice, a week. Unfortunately, our visit to this location was a huge disappointment.

1- Check in Process: We received a text to check in, but we were surprised because we were already parked up front and could see the crowd of people who had paid and were waiting with their numbers standing by the washrooms. Since we got the text, we went ahead and checked in. Afterward, we waited outside the door for another 20-25 minutes before we even got to start picking our food. This delay happened to other customers as well. Once inside, there were no gold bowls available for picking food because they weren’t being washed quickly enough.

2 - Food Area Messiness: The area where we pick our food was much messier compared to other Big Way locations. I can assure you that other locations, which are way busier, manage to keep the area much cleaner. Veggies had fallen onto other items, because veggies are always placed on top.

3 - Long Wait After Paying: After paying, we waited another 15-20 minutes (or maybe even longer) before being seated. It’s extremely frustrating when you’re called in before the restaurant is even ready. At all the other locations we go to, we’re either told where to sit at the very beginning or right after paying.

4 - Sauce Bar Issues: The sauce bar was also in poor condition. Sauces were mixed together, and cilantro and garlic had spilled into other containers. I decided not to get any sauce after seeing that.

Overall, with so many other BigWay locations to choose from, we won’t be coming back to this one. We made the effort to visit this location instead of the other Richmond one because we hadn’t been here before, but it was not worth it. This location could really benefit from some additional training.

Lastly, when the staff member with the iPad came to clean our table and asked how everything was, we were all silent because we were clearly unhappy. Instead of acknowledging our concerns or engaging with us, she just walked away as if she didn’t care. If you're going to ask, at least show that you care about...

We arrived around 10:50 PM, hungry after work, to celebrate our friend’s birthday. Since it was a weekday and the restaurant wasn’t busy, we expected our food to be served quickly.

There were five of us, and while lining up at the cashier, we experienced delays. It took nearly 10 minutes just to get through the line, so by the time we finished ordering, it was already past 11 PM. The cashier almost charged my friend for her drink, even though it was supposed to be free due to a happy hour promotion. We had to remind them, and then wait a few more minutes for the manager to void the charge.

Once we were seated, our orders took another 10–15 minutes to arrive, despite being simple preparations like adding soup or making a dry mix. When the food finally came, we noticed that my order and my friend’s had been switched—mine was prepared as a dry mix, while my friend’s had the collagen broth. This mix-up didn’t make sense because each bowl had a receipt attached to indicate whether it was supposed to be a dry mix or soup base, making it nearly impossible to swap them. Additionally, I hadn’t even ordered right after my friend, so there was no logical reason for our bowls to be switched in the first place.

We pointed out the mistake, and the staff apologized, saying they would fix it in the kitchen. However, we were skeptical about how they would correct it since our toppings were already mixed with the wrong base. The staff assured us they had extra toppings in the kitchen and would simply replace them, but we couldn’t help but wonder if they had just washed and reused the ingredients, which was off-putting.

After another five-minute wait, my corrected order arrived, but the soup was neither hot nor even warm. Frustrated, I sent it back and asked them to reheat it. The whole night felt chaotic, with staff repeatedly dropping things and seeming completely disorganized.

In the end, they offered us store credit for the inconvenience, but the service left much to be desired. The staff seemed overwhelmed and uncoordinated, making the entire experience disappointing. We won’t be returning to...