You can't swing a cat without hitting a hot pot place in Richmond so to stand out, you have to be very good. This place is quite good, but I've had more memorable hotpot experiences in Richmond. This came highly, highly recommended and I can see why.

It's modern, clean, fast, and high quality and very fresh ingredients. Not sure you can ask for anything more from a hotpot spot. For me, it was only okay because of the reliance on ipads for all the ordering. I know a lot of people like never speaking to serving staff, but I do find it helpful at a new place to get a sense of what I'm ordering. Perhaps if we had ordered from a human being, we wouldn't have ended up with way more food that we could ever possibly finish.

Prices in Vancouver are high, so when I see a hot pot side of beef for $18 I just assume it's good beef, but probably not that much. Wrong! We got SO MUCH for our money here. And normally that is great, and I would be ecstatic except we ordered a lot and felt so wasteful not being able to finish.

Some other hotpot places I've been to charge less for less, because the thing is: you can always order more. You can't order less once you've been served. Like, I can't see 12 prawns and say, "Oh, I only want 6 of those. Please give me half my money back, take back the rest of the shrimp, and serve them to someone else." No, they get thrown out. It's wasteful, both of food and my money.

So, just be prepared, unlike us. The servings are huge for 1 or 2 people, but probably too small for adult men, or groups of 4+.

The other problem about this is that when I have hot pot, I like to have a bit of everything. Not just a plate of beef. So, with sides this large, unless you're with a bigger party or you have an incredible appetite, there just isn't room for a little of everything. It's not possible. And considering most tables we're couples, not families or big friend groups, it's too bad they don't have a "half" option for all their sides.

However for a group of 4 or more, I definitely think this place would be perfect.

The chilli sauce at the self-serve station is not hot at all. Like, at all. Nothing at the station is, which originally I was annoyed about, until I tasted the mala spicy side of the broth we chose and almost died 😅. And we had ordered that less spicy than normal. I can't even imagine what regular heat level is.

The robot thing is cute, but under-utilized or unnecessary, not sure which. When a human comes around with the robot and serves you anyway, I just am not sure I see the point in the robot giving you instructions on what to do. That said, I did appreciate the chance to talk to a human being, and our server was incredibly nice!

One problem was there is NO leg room! I am not exactly tall and I could not fit in the booth. Very uncomfortable.

Overall, it's a very good place, but lacked just something that would have made it really good to me.

But had I known about the survelliance cameras spying on every table and sending data back to China... eh. Maybe we wouldn't have chosen this place at all. They lose a star for that.