Shu Xiang Hotpot — Restaurant in Kuala Lumpur

I decided to visit this restaurant after seeing their ads on Xiao Hong Shu and TikTok. While the location is excellent and the ambiance is beautifully designed, I was disappointed with both the service and food quality, especially considering the prices. For a place that claims to offer authentic ChongQing Niu You Mala, the soup was lacking in depth and flavor—it felt more like a mix of spices than a rich broth. The clear pork bone soup was overly cloudy, likely due to an excess of ingredients, which diminished its quality.

Portion sizes were quite large, and I would have appreciated the option for smaller portions to allow for more variety in my order. On the service side, it seems the staff lacks proper training and understanding of hotpot culture, which puts them at a disadvantage compared to other hotpot restaurants. The sauce station was also a letdown, offering a basic selection similar to what you'd find at Hai Di Lao, when it could have been more creative.

Overall, I believe the restaurant needs to better define its positioning. If they’re targeting a premium clientele who might bring business partners or host work events, they need to elevate the entire dining experience. It was also somewhat off-putting to see a few stakeholders or owners standing by the counter, not in uniform, and not asking for feedback, especially considering they’re a new establishment. While the interior design is impressive, they should consider investing in a consultant to improve the...

First off, the valet is RM8 flat rate. I thought that in most places, if you dine in at the restaurant, the valet service would be complimentary for customers. However, this isn’t the case here.

Regarding the soup broth and food, there’s nothing particularly fancy, and it’s quite expensive. The portions are somewhat small for the price. Their handmade beef ball is a disaster.

The only impressive aspect of this restaurant is its interior design. It truly makes me feel like I’m dining in China, with its authentic Chinese decor. This deserves some credit.

The major downside of this restaurant is the service. I’ve never been somewhere where the service charge feels completely unjustified. Most of the servers do not understand basic English or Malay, making communication very difficult. They also lack attention to detail. For the price I’m paying, they couldn’t even notice when my cup was empty to refill it. The staff needs more training to serve customers properly at this level of restaurant. They are merely doing their jobs without any extra effort to attend to customers.

It’s not too bad for me but I will not return for a...

We regularly go to hotpot restaurants back home in Australia. Some differences are apparent. First, the soups were good; the spicy soup had lots of chilli and szechuan pepper. The service was nice, very polite and helpful. The main difference was in the ingredients - meat especially. The vegetables were fine, as expected. The meat offerings were slanted towards traditional Chinese (duck tongue, pig intestine, etc); fine, but the simple ones like oxtail and chicken were mostly bone. So much bone that half the time you would struggle to find any meat on what you were putting in the broth, especially the oxtail. So generally a fun place but the quality of meat ingredients can...