Datang Hot Pot — Restaurant in Richmond

Datang Hot Pot was still in its soft opening phase as our party of 4 came for an early dinner. Moderate line up upon arrival at 430pm but not a long wait after adding our name to the electronic wait list just inside the front door.

When it was our turn, we helped ourselves to one of the large bowls and metal tongs to pick out our assortment of ingredients. The soft opening promo of a free drink or “Chinese burger” if your hot pot is over $15 was still on so we all chose the burger to go with our hot pots plus an order of their lychee osmanthus oolong tea for me. After selecting our ingredients we paid at the counter - ranging from $15, $16, $21, and $35 - and then found our seats. Seating area is quite spacious - this is the site of the old Felicos Restaurant back in the day - and it didn’t take long for the food to arrive.

With the self serve condiments/sauce bar and self serve ice cream for dessert, it all made for a tasty, satisfying and filling meal. Even the take out containers were self serve at the same station as the ice cream (flavour rotates daily - pineapple today!) and sauces.

Service was fast and friendly albeit perhaps a tad understaffed as the staff seemed constantly on the go from bringing out the orders to refilling the stations to bussing tables.

Parking can be tight as the lot is not the biggest and there is no street parking.

This being a soft opening where presumably some of the details are still being ironed out, some observations: assuming that once the grand opening is ready that the restaurant will be fully staffed and trained, one has to feel admiration for the current staff and their positivity and hustle especially in light of sometimes not the most understanding of customers. not sure about the self serve ice cream part; although admirable, the potential for abuse is there, as well as impatient customers not letting the refilled ice cream set/freeze long enough in the machine before helping themselves. also not sure about the self serve take out containers part; while there I witnessed a young couple filling their container with sauces/condiments to take home - excessively more than what any possible left over portion of their meal could conceivably require!

These observations are in no way a negative on the establishment or their staff...

If 0 stars was an option, I would be giving it. One of the most, if not the most horrible service I have ever experienced. One of my friends is allergic to spice, and opted for the chicken soup base (no spicy was also written on the receipt). But when the food came, the "non-spicy" chicken soup base was spicy. Asked a waitress, all we got was "hold on" for the next 15 minutes. No one came to explain or help. Flagged down the same waitress again to ask, but she went to help another table that asked after us. It was quiet for another 5 minutes, didn't even come back to us until I got up myself to walk to the front and ask what was going on. The same waitress was not even following up and told me to hold on again. I asked to speak with the manager, and she denied and said she "didn't know anyone would be allergic to spicy foods" and that "there was no chili so she didnt know black/white pepper was considered spicy." I had specifically told the first waitress from the start that my friend was allergic and could not even eat the original soup base, but at the end, the manager brought out a plain soup base and told us to wash the food in it.... at this point I was completely upset and disappointed. It was an allergy, not a "just too spicy" concern. After almost waiting 30 minutes for an answer, they allowed my friend to grab a new pot. The problem did not stop here, we had been waiting so long only to have to wait for another almost 30 minutes for the food to be brought out, after basically other tables around us got theirs first when they just came in.

Not just the service, the sauce bar was a complete mess. So many empty bottles and sauce pots and none of the employees attended to refill. We had to ask them several times to even just bring out a new soysauce bottle and sauce trays.

I have never been so disappointed with a restraunt's service and attitude. The one waitress was unprofessional to the max, the manager did not even show face until 30 minutes later of quiet, and until I personally went to ask to...

I never knew about this place until today. I have to admit, I didn't quite know what I was getting into. But from the moment I got in there, I couldn't get the smile off my face!! 😁😁😁

As I walked in and was hit by a cavalcade of delicious smells, no matter how I tried, I couldn't get that stupid happy grin off my face.

"Look at that! Look over there!" I yelled as I walked past the other people eating. There were all sorts of ingredients to add to your pot. I mixed one of every single ingredient available all together and when I tasted it, that smile that had been stuck on my face got even BIGGER!!

SO MUCH SO that I started getting complaints from the other customers. The staff was extremely gracious and kind but you could tell they were uncomfortable. One elderly British woman came over and asked me to stop smiling.

With an even more massive smile on my face I said "I know, I know! I can't get it off my face! The food is too good, what the gosh do you think I should do?". She just frowned and walked away muttering. I hate that. When people mutter. But it still wasn't enough to get this hecking smile off my face!

Finally, the other customers got tired of trying to bully the staff into listening to all their complaints about my incessant smiling and they started throwing noodles at me. And I don't know if you've ever been hit in the face with a hot noodle but it's very embarrassing.

This finally got the huge smile off my face, but then oops. No it didn't, a noodle was just covering my mouth. That silly old smile of mine!

Anyway, the staff was great, the food was great. 10 out of 10 would recommend.

Thanks for a great...