Paradise Hotpot 品樂锅 at Westgate — Restaurant in Jurong East

Generally the food and price is ok. We got premium set and there is enough variety for the price. However there were quite a few problems that made our experience quite terrible.

Long queue, about more than an hour’s wait. But this is to be expected and they did tell us beforehand.

Not enough tables, so have to share table. We came as couple and they asked us if we were ok to share with another couple on a 6 seater table. They did ask us, and we were fine but it’s not ideal. The negative part was that their ordering system did not accommodate for 2 sets of diners, so the food we ordered got mixed up all the time because we were essentially sharing the same table number. Only the staff who brought us to this table knew about the arrangement, as the rest of the staff were clueless when serving us the food- so our orders were all combined and we couldn’t tell who ordered what. This ended up in us getting more food than we ordered because they mixed it up and served us a combined order of both couples. Our bill was also combined until someone had to tell them we were not dining together.

Generally the meat is ok, but we noticed the last few orders of beef were pretty fatty cuts. Nothing really negative to say about the rest of the meat- if my experience wasn’t so bad, I would have probably given a 4 star for the meat alone.

Ice cream machine not working- they have vanilla and chocolate flavour but for the entire time we were there, it was not frozen so it was just this runny milk. Or don’t have at all.

The worst of all- rules say 80 minutes to dine, and we were there for pretty long (around 2 hours, same as the couple who shared table with us). Typically, most buffets will let us know about last orders 15-20mins before the end time, and we will pack up and leave on time. Over here, they don’t remind you until they want to chase you out- but then the manager lady also scolded us about food wastage and said she wanted to charge us $30 for it. $30 for a plate of super fatty beef, some veg, mushrooms and quail egg. So it’s like, they don’t remind you at all, and then when they want you to leave, they start saying you waste food but don’t give you the time to eat.

When we were explaining to her that no one told us about the time, she badmouthed us in front of her other colleague saying that we stay for 2 hours and expect someone to remind us. Then after that, she continued scolding us in Chinese really loudly and insulting us by saying that families, children, old people all understand the rules but why you don’t understand? Mind you, we were also not the most fluent in mandarin so we were struggling to explain ourselves, but this was entirely a one-sided argument, as all we were saying was that they should have given us a gentle reminder before the time was up, and to allow us to finish the food in 10 mins and we will leave.

After a looong and loud one sided scolding… we managed to convince her not to charge us the $30. But it really left a bad taste in our mouths as we have never been treated like this in any other buffet restaurant before. And we probably won’t...

One of more affordable hotpot buffet restaurants:

especially with their Weekday (excl PH) Lunch Early Bird (first order before 11:45am, 80min dining limit, 60min ordering limit) Buffet going for $19.90++ for adults (Standard = Pork + Chicken + Fish paste) or $25.90++ (Premium = plus Beef + Prawns).

Students & Senior Citizen (60 & above) $3 discount

Child 50% discount (12 & below)

Entering process:

There are 3 queues at the shop entrance. 2 are for entering, 1 is for paying: Entering (walk-ins) - Along the mall aisle towards the left, against the glass railing Entering (reservations made) - On the right Paying - On the extreme left, towards the lift lobby Don't queue in the wrong queue!

Ordering process once seated:

Each table is given a QR code. Everyone at the table can scan the QR code to separately browse the web menu and order their individual soup base + ingredients.

But when the soup bases and ingredients are delivered to the table, the waitresses don't/can't differentiate btw individuals at the table, i.e. there will just be stacks of raw food plates placed there.

The raw ingredients shown in the web menu (meats, pastes, salted egg fishball, ramen) are not the same as those at the buffet counters (cheaper ones like normal fishballs, meatballs, veg, instant noodles, ham).

The buffet counters also contain: ~ Cooked food. Highlights are the Har Cheong Gai, dimsum, Fried Beancurd Skin, braised eggs, Yangzhou Fried Rice, Fried Bee Tai Mak) ~ Soups (Mock shark fin) ~ Dessert soups ~ Fruits ~ Fruit cordial dispensers and Soft-serve Ice Cream dispenser (Vanilla, Chocolate, and Choc-Vanilla)

Tip: Order your soup base and ingredients, and then walk to the buffet counters to get more ingredients while the waitress delivers your earlier order to your table.

The heating element for your soup base is induction-based and built into the table itself. It's not straightforward to operate it:

If the 3 Lo-Med-Hi lights are flashing, it means the cooker is on standby. You need to press the On/Off button on the RIGHT.

Once the 3 lights are somewhat permanently on, press the FIREPOWER button the LEFT to switch btw Low, Medium and High.

Sometimes, pressing the buttons don't work. This could be due to a wet surface (e.g. spilled soup). Just wipe the button dry.

Note that they charge wastage at $10 per 100g. The waitress will remind you of this (in Mandarin) after they bring you to the table.

= Parking - cheaper to park at Westgate compared to JEM next door, especially on Fri-Sun, PHs. Before 6pm daily: $1.60 for first hour $0.55 for every subsequent 15 minutes

6pm to 1159pm...

We visited Paradise Hotpot with high expectations, especially after seeing the good reviews on TikTok, but unfortunately, the experience was disappointing due to poor service and average food.

When we first arrived at 8:30 PM, we asked if it was too late to dine, and the staff assured us it was fine since they closed at 10 PM. A staff member, Jia Xuan, led us to our table but made us awkwardly wait at the side while she cleared it. This could have been avoided by ensuring the table was ready before showing us to it.

We ordered four soup bases: tomato, chicken, pork bone broth, and spicy. The tomato and spicy soup bases were good, but the chicken and pork bone broths were bland and tasteless. The cooked food and meats were average (the pork was better than the beef) though I particularly enjoyed the cheese sausage, glutinous rice, and noodles.

What truly soured the experience was the service. Despite being told we had sufficient time to eat, at around 9:15–9:30 PM, the staff began rushing us. The staff Jia Xuan returned to ask if she could clear the sauce and condiments, and when we said we still needed them, she walked off looking unhappy. Moments later, another staff member, Zhao Ran, also asked to clear the sauces, and I specifically told her to wait as we were still using them. However, to my surprise, when I walked over to the sauce station shortly after, I saw Zhao Ran clearing everything right in front of me. I proceeded to take what was left, but she didn’t apologize or offer to put back the condiments for me to use. Instead, she continued loading everything onto her cart, ignoring my earlier request and my presence. This left me both confused and frustrated—what was the point of asking if they were going to ignore our response?

To make matters worse, the staff cleared the dessert station without asking, even though desserts should logically be the last items to be removed. My mum went to get dessert only to find it all gone. The staff’s impatient and dismissive attitude made us feel unwelcome.

The manager, however, handled the situation well. She listened to our feedback, asked what we needed, and personally ensured we received the desserts that had been cleared. The grass jelly and beancurd she brought out were good, but this didn’t fully make up for the earlier frustrations.

Overall, the poor service ruined the experience. Had I known the service would be like this, I would have preferred they told us it was too late to dine when we arrived at 8:30 PM. Paradise Hotpot was highly anticipated, but I left disappointed and do not...