Came here on a Sunday to enjoy hot pot without the hassle of chopping and cleaning at home. Typically, my reviews focus on the food, disregarding whether service is good or bad. Today, I realized that excellent service immensely enhanced the dining experience. Hence, for the first time, I'll comment on the service before discussing the food quality.

Upon arriving, a host greeted us at the door and lead us to the elevator (yes, this is a multi floor establishment). After exiting the elevator, we were brought to our table with an iPad to order food. Since hot pot could be a messy meal, we were given aprons and a box of tissue at the beginning. During the meal, servers will get your attention before pouring water (no more surprise water refill when having a conversation), servers will come offer help when needed (struggling getting shrimp paste into the hot broth), servers will collect empty dishes to avoid overcrowding the table.

During the meal, a table nearby got a full crew singing and waving signs to celebrate someone's birthday. Later, another table has a crew singing songs and waving signs for good wishes after ending a relationship (hot pot after break up is a good coping mechanism btw). Being a fun person that I am, I ordered a dessert (shown in picture) to have a waiter bring to that table, wishing them well. Between the joyful environment and comforting, well-rounded service, I now understand why good service is sought after when eating out.

As for food, there are many broth you can choose from. I recommend the mushroom soup and mala spicy soup base. While the soup is boiling, I ordered thin sliced beef, pork meat balls, fish, soy products, among many other typical hot pot food. The details of what is good to eat in a hot pot would be another few paragraphs long, so I will just focus on the selected excellent (must-try according to me) items.

Sliced beef: not like anything you can find from groceries store. If you know what to ask for at a butcher shop, then you might be able to get close to what I had here. The beef cooks in 15 seconds and is juicy and tender. The fat between the meat is not greasy, but oozes with flavour.

Mushroom broth+bamboo fungus; I have no idea how many shiitake mushrooms were added to make such a flavorful broth. This broth is best enjoyed with some porous and crunchy bamboo fungus.

Table side noodle: a trained chef pulls noodle and dances at table side. Then the noodle gets added into the broth, absorbing all the flavour from boiling other food. Finally, you can eat it with the sauce that you make from a self serve station full of condiments. How can you say no?

For 5 people, we spent $250 for 2 hours of exceptional service and delicacy that can't be easily replicated at home. I cannot recommend this enough. Can't wait to be back.