Hahahotpot D'Arena — Restaurant in Singapore

Saturday 4th June 2022

Weekend issues .. where to have dinner? Hehehe ... wanted something different so did a bit of scrolling and chance upon this place.

We were required to make a reservation online so did all that. Reservations was at 645pm. Fortunately, I had a straight bus that literally stopped in front of the venue so it was convenient for me. Arrived on time and was seated rather quickly by a young male staff. He was pleasantly nice and polite so that was a great start. We were however seated outside so to have hotpot in the open was challenging but we are saved by the fan lah.

We were guided on how to place pur orders etc and so we did. Placed our orders online. This is where things went a bit messy. A female staff, a young lady came to send us our ordered items in drips and drabs though. I guess kitchen was overwhelmed. This female staff was top notched, great attitude and customer service. There was a mix up and she was apologetic but at the same time did not make any excuse. She just wanted to sort the issue out for us and that's a fantastic trait to have. The issues with using electronic and digital crm is that there will always be glitches.

After multiple to and fros, all was settled and we tucked in. The soup base was nice and the proportions of meat was well worth it. Pictures speak for itself. We seem to have ordered more so the young male chap, provided us with a side table, that's another awesome move.

We really enjoyed our meal and finished almost everything we ordered. When it's time to finally make our payment, the male guy counter checked our orders and that is so appreciated.

My take on this is that, when the food is above average, the Ambience is so so BUT the staff is fantastic, any little glitches will seem inconsequential. My hats to the 2 young, reliable and definitely professional wait staff. They really are the stars of Hahahotpot. Keep them, train them, pay them well and you will see them shine.

My only tiny feedback is that, whoever is running the kitchen or head chef or the most senior MUST always come out and observe or meet your customers. I'm sure you are aware that there were issues so immediate service recovery is imperative.

Other then that, the 5 STARS are for the 2 young very promising servers!

Definately will recommend 👌

Staff : 10 / 5 (just because of the 2 servers) Food : 4 /...

Went there and was recommended 2 pax set for $50. The same guy asked to choose 2 soup. A while later he sent some sauce which he claims as restaurant special. When the food came in, the beef was smelly and flour items had some weird smell as well. Bill came in and I was shocked to see whatever I didn’t ask for was actually charged till it’s $90++.. The 2 soups they asked to choose was a separate $24 charge. The special sauce was charged as well. Funny how they sell set without a soup, so I’m supposed to sun dry it to eat if I’m not willing to pay extra for soup? I didn’t ask for 2 soup, u did. I didn’t ask for special sauce or anything else. Shady business module so i will never set my foot here again. Better go seoul garden and spend $60 for 2 person dinner buffet where there’s more choices and not shady as u guys. Must be proud to have empty restaurant eh.

Update:

Dear Ha ha ha hotpot,

Call it whatever you want but this so called malicious is how my experience was. I don’t need to check any facts about other restaurants or sugarcoat my opinion to state my experience. So please stop pretending to be sorry while trying so hard to justify it. I state my experience as it is, whether you want to improve or rot, frankly your own choice. Where I want to dine is purely my own choice so keep your mouth to yourself instead of suggesting where I should or shouldn’t dine. All your claims of checking with diners on the same day, which was only me and another table are hilarious indeed. What a joke mate,...

Love it! Went for dinner there earlier this evening, the staffs were very helpful and friendly and attentive. The soup bases were quite authentic, the mala was very flavourful even tho we chose the mild level. The collagen soup base was light and rich. They had quite a wide variety of ingredients as well. The Indonesia scallops were quite fresh, it still retained its sweetness even tho we cooked it in the mala base. They even had fish roe fishballs which were QQ and their hand made chicken balls were so packed full. Those were just a few highlights that we really enjoyed and I’ll definitely be back again. The only thing minus one star is that it’s in Joo Koon, and it’s not very accessible via public transport. Hopefully with more support they’ll be able to expand to central area.

Edit on 31/07/23 : came back again yesterday to end the day of celebrating my birthday and it was great. Sadly there weren’t much handmade items as compared to the first visit but, we tried the tomato soup base and I was pleasantly surprised. It was sooo good and had so much flavour despite it being so light. Also tried the Hokkaido scallops which were super QQ. We over ordered as usual but we definitely left with satisfied tummies. Will be back...