Hot Pot Time Restaurant — Restaurant in Pahang

We came on a weekday evening (non holiday season). There were only 3 tables with people. The staff gave us the table right in front of the opened front door.

We got the set for 2 with soup base of pork broth. Total damage is close to 100 ringgit with no drink, no sauce. Set for 2 is 59 ringgit while the broth is 30 ringgit, plus 10% service charge.

The pork broth is very delicious and creamy. The set for 2 is quite filling, because it contains a lot of balls, various kinds of frozen/package meatballs and seafood balls. Since the set item in the menu has no list of ingredients in English, we didn't really know what's given in the set. We had eaten much more sodium than planned. All the balls were very salty. I thought the set would have many local vegetables, but it only had cabbage, lettuce, corn. I love the corn, it was very sweet. The rest is tofu, 4 pcs of prawn which were quite fresh, enoki mushroom, crabstick, 6 slices of pork, a small serving of self made mince meat, tofu skin roll, some dumpling, 1 instant noodle.

Looking back, I would rather order ala carte with more vegetables and pay the 5 ringgit for sauce as it comes with unlimited serving of cherry tomatoes, cucumber and lettuce.

Service was lacklustre. The staff said little to no words. Can't speak English perhaps. He came to put the pot of broth there and said nothing and left. We continued chatting while waiting for the soup to heat up and after a while, the soup doesn't look like it's boiling. I didn't even know whether the stove is on or not or how to turn it on because the hidden buttons were in Chinese characters. When we asked the staff, he didn't know what to say and called the boss who looked like the owner. The boss just gave us a little bit of instruction and then we operated the stove on our own. Throughout our whole dining, the boss didn't say a word, even when I asked for direction to toilet, he didn't seem to want to speak to customer. I didn't see the owner serve the customer at all, even when customers are paying, which is strange to me.

We cooked and ate until the soup is almost finished while there are still a lot of ingredients remaining, no action from staff until I thought the soup is not refillable. I just kept quiet because really don't know how this restaurant works.. However after that the staff finally came over to refill our soup. The staff was very quick in clearing our empty plates.. which is good and bad because after that we didn't have anywhere to put rubbish like the corn cobs, prawn shells and tissue.

There's one incident where my tissue paper flew straight into the stove fire due to the sudden gust of wind as we were sitting in front of the entrance door. The tissue was burnt; the staff was quick to help put it off using his fire-resistant glove and helped to wipe the table.

Overall it was an ok place. Walking distance from the main bus terminal. It's very expensive, same price as Singapore below HDB price.

If you are reading this review up till now, I suggest you read all the reviews with 1-3 stars. These are more reasonable third party reviews which consider the food quality + service comparing to the price. I'm not saying the food is bad, but you can see from these reviews that with the prices charged, better service would be expected from...

Please dont come. We arrived for dinner with high expectations thanks to the raving reviews from Google and we're extremely dissapointed.

Let's start off with the queuing system. The tall young chap who was handling the guests said he "memorizes" the customers who came first. That is fine until customers who arrive later and stand at the front are offered a table first instead of those who have been waiting patiently. Only when another family made ample noise did they decide to write down a number (which didn't even make sense or explained who came first). We arrived at 8:00 and were seated by 8:45 (despite only having 2 families before us).

Next, came the time to be seated and the waiters took forever to clean the table. The energy and vibe you will get is unenthusiastic and bored workers. Wiping down a table which is already covered in disposable plastic took 15mins..??? Despite two people working on the table, they take their sweet time to chit chat and forget to refill new plates, cutleries and sauces.

We finally managed to sit down by 9pm and were dead starved. The food also took upto 30mins to arrive and finally managed to eat by 9:30.

Does the famous pork bone broth taste good? Yes. Was it EXPENSIVE? YES. These people charge sky high prices that rivals the higher end steamboats in KL and Genting. Absolutely mad pricing for the vegetables which are grown locally in Cameron as well (check out menu below). Also, have a look at the meat quality in my pictures and ask yourself if they were worth that pricing. I'll let you be the judge. The fish paste lacked buoyancy and was just subpar. The abalone was not fresh. The soup quality did not justify the price (specifically the Tom Yum soup which was average).

The overall experience feels like a scam. Expensive food. Terribly slow and bad service. And from the looks of the reviews, very defensive...

We came to Cameron Highlands as a family of 8 for 3D2N trip. Our first meal in Cameron Highlands was in Hot Pot Time. And it was a disaster. Shortly after dinner, my dad vomited 6 times that night and had diarrhea while my niece had very bad stomachache which resulted in severe diarrhea and vomiting the following days. As both were severely ill, we could not do anything we initially plan for this trip. Instead our visits are to pharmacies and clinics 😫Herewith the summary of effect following our hot pot dinner in Hot Pot Time. Pax 1: Severe diarrhea, vomiting, develop high fever on the 2nd day and had to be admitted to the hospital. His blood test results on his kidney eGFR were below 15. He is still in the hospital as I am typing this. Pax 2: Severe diarrhea, vomiting. Despite the anti vomit injection given in a clinic in Cameron Highlands, she still throws up everything she eats. She was also admitted to hospital and put on drips. Pax 3: Felt uncomfortable the 2nd day and vomited 3 times. Did prick test and discovered there is bacteria infection and had to be given antibiotics. Fever went up to 40 degrees. Was severely ill for the next 2 days Pax 4: Started feeling nausea and heavy headed the 3rd day. Vomited twice. Had severe headache and bodyache with mild fever. Pax 5: Started develop mild fever, fluish symptoms and diarrhea the 3rd day Pax 6: Started develop fever the 4th day All in all, 6 out of 8 in the family became ill after our meal in Hot Pot Time with pax 1 and 2 more severe than others. It has ruined our entire trip. We are not sure the cause of the food poisoning but we hope the restaurant will look into this and conduct a thorough hygiene check on the food preparations so, others will not go through what we did. We are all still in the process of recovering from this food poisoning...