M8 Hot Pot — Restaurant in Manchester

Having been to Sakura, we held very similar expectations to the food and service.

Regrettably, my boyfriend and I set a reservation for today at 7pm; we arrived slightly earlier than scheduled, though the server was lovely, sat us down and explained to us how it worked. Can’t fault the service provided.

We gave our order and after about 15 mins we received our soup bases, which emanated quite an off smell, though we turned a blind eye excited to fill our pots with all our vegetables and meats.

My boyfriend had ordered a beef spicy soup, which even though he asked for less spicy, was completely inedible, so we swapped base and paid extra as required without batting an eye and the server promptly helped us with a new pot.

We filled the pot to give it a second chance and yet the food tasted really off.

The frozen beef had grey corners, even though it was frozen.

Fish balls were slimy and smelled like they had gone off and unappetising, so they had to be doused in dipping sauce to send them down.

My boyfriend unfortunately couldn’t hack the taste and his tipping point were the beef dumplings that almost made him vomit over the table; he later ended up rushing to the bathroom gagging to avoid making a scene on the restaurant floor. I vomited as soon as I reached my house, as I couldn’t hold any of the food down. We ended up interrupting our dinner after being there for about 45 mins and asked for the bill.

Quite disappointed as we absolutely loved our dinner at Sakura, and we believed that they’d have the same standards as the restaurant below.

Can’t fault the service as the servers were doing their best; though if you’re considering to attend the restaurant, I’d recommend going to Sakura for lovely Chinese food all-you-can eat, or any other hot pot place in the Manchester area.

Quite a shame as we were looking forward to spending our Valentine’s day here and after the abysmal cheque we paid we both...

Was looking forward to our visit here, so we will start off with the positives. The food was decent enough and felt like a real Asian hotpot with the selection of food and sauces and everyone dose get there own base which is good although the hotpots were a bit too oily for my liking.

Now for the negatives... To start with the service wasn't great, they have the cat robot servers bringing out the food which was cool but to actually get additional food was a pain trying to get a real server to order from, on top of that the food kept coming out wrong. All small things which I could accept the real issue here was having builders in while in service! I have never experienced the lack of care for the customers in all my life. We went as a family and had a baby which the builders made cry multiple times because there drilling into the wall was extremely loud and my daughter wouldn't eat because she was scared and didn't want to move her hands away from her ears.

If we hadn't travelled far away we would of just upped and left it was honestly disgraceful that they would do that when they were open for service to paying customers.

Finally the price works out with the automatically added service charge and 1 non alcoholic drink about £40pp, if they cared about the customer experience at all then it would still be expensive but ok as a once off but as it was what a rip off. Do...

Hotpot is a traditional Chinese dish so happy to discover that this place now has halal options as previously it didn't have which I found strange especially due to their location. It's situated above the Sakura restaurant upstairs. Upon arrival staff explained how it works. There's a fixed price for each person which is £30. You can choose by ticking on paper what meat and other food you want and some items helpfully have a photograph of the individual foods eg Chinese veg etc. They had halal chicken, beef and lamb. The meat is very thinly sliced so that it cooks quickly. There are a few sushi dishes which are included with the fixed fee. Once you choose your food and the soup Base they bring your own hotpot with mini burner for you to cook your own food. I went for a mushroom soup Base. They do top up your soup if needed. Overall a great meal. If you run out of food you can always order more. We went during the week so it wasn't too busy. They also have extra dishes such as dumplings which are not included in the fixed...