Chois Hotpot & Lounge 中国的味道火锅

Please note that I would like to differentiate between the food and the service: food great, service our main waiter great - but overall poor and chaotic.

In the restaurant you get an atmosphere that is quite authentic and comparable with Sichuan hotpot restaurants in China. Sure there is Miso and Curry soup, but let's call it creative freedom :) we had the Sichuan soup and it was great.

The ingredients are fresh and plenty, the meat is tasty and so are the veggie options, e.g. the tofu plate.

So in terms of food I'd recommend visiting Chois.

Now the service is more tricky: We went as a party of ten with several Mandarin speakers. Our first and main waiter was great. Friendly and attentive, he explained everything to us and made sure we get cold drinks quick on a hot summer day. Unfortunately, there was a misunderstanding with the hot pot soups, as we had three different mixes for the table. These things happen and it should not have been a problem at all. Unfortunately, at this point a Mandarin speaking waitress, who behaved as if she was the owner (I don't know if she is), stormed out of the kitchen to our table and aggressively steamrolled our whole experience. The only reason why we didn't get up and leave at this point was the attentiveness of our main waiter. We were hoping for a relaxed and fun family dinner and she did ruin this experience for us to a large degree which was very disappointing. If you read some of the other reviews you'll see that several people have similar experiences regarding the service.

It really is a pity as the food is nice and some of the staff are working really hard.

Two additional notes: Order everything you would like to eat in the beginning. Unlike the hot pot restaurants in China for more ingredients to arrive takes a long time. So your dinner gets basically interrupted for 15-20 minutes before you can continue eating. Get a place on the terrace. Due to all the gas stoves for the hot pots the inside is unbearably hot in the summer. I've also deducted point on atmosphere because they have cramped the maximum of tables inside the room, which is a pity because in general it's a beautiful place.