Xi Hotpot & Chinese Cuisine 大渝喜筵火锅电烤串 — Restaurant in Duluth

I recently visited with a party of four and unfortunately, it was a disappointing experience from start to finish. The service was somewhat disappointing, with none of the staff being fluent in English. They didn't bother to ask if it was our first time, leaving us clueless about the setup and where to find the sauces. The hygiene was also questionable, with one of our water cups clearly used and not cleared out.

The price was an extortion for what we received. A small side of vegetables (kimchi cabbage) for $4 felt like a rip-off, and 2 plates of beef priced at $17 each were mostly fat. Despite our complaint and request for a replacement, we were told that was all they had, without even an apology.

To add to this, the service was horrendous, with different servers approaching us each time, leaving us confused about who was actually serving our table. When we asked about the returned dishes not being removed from the bill, the response was dismissive and lacked any apology or accountability.

Shared my experience with coworkers revealed that I wasn't alone in my dissatisfaction, particularly concerning the crazy overpriced menu. Overall, this place failed miserably in providing a satisfactory dining experience, and we won't be returning or recommending it to anyone. Such a pretty and aesthetic restaurant paired with unmatched quality. Their food quality might be good, but for the amount of selections, and lack of trained staffs. Kinda feel bad tbh. I mean who goes to work with cargo pants, and...

So happy I finally got to try this place out! I managed to snag one of the vip slots to get the initial 20% discount. Aside from that, I actually really enjoyed my experience here.

The quality of the food here is great. If you want pure value for money by comparing it to the ayce hot pot spots in the area it's hard to match that but I still found it to be a pretty solid deal given I can't eat a lot anyway. The split amongst my friends did amount to what one spends at any of the ayce spots with tip included, so do with that what you will.

The meat variety is OK, along with the veggies, but what they do have is very good. I wasn't disappointed, to say the least. Now, the soup bases were amazing. I absolutely adored the spicy beef tallow. The mushroom soup was good, too, and just enough flavor, but I couldn't stop indulging in the spicy soup. One of the best I've ever had.

This is more of your family style hotpot so just a heads up. Overall, the service was great, being able to order off the tablet is nice, and they make sure your soup base stays full throughout the experience. For others who bank on value for their hotpot outing, this may be a tough sell, but if you want quality, this one is hard to beat. I definitely don't mind trying this again. But just keep in mind if you want a huge variety of stuff and just overall just a lot of stuff.

Give it a try, I think you'll...

I have been to this restaurant twice, both times were great. The first time I ordered the spicy broth, and the mushroom broth. The mushroom broth was good, it comes with some enoki and shiitake mushrooms. The spicy broth was too much mala numbing spice for me even though i can handle very spicy food, it was too numbing. The second time I went there, i ordered the chicken golden broth, it was the best for me. You can add some sauce if it’s too bland. I love the shrimp paste there, my wife likes the meat balls with egg yolk inside.

The sauce choices were basic but it’s all what I needed, nothing fancy like Hai di lao in NYC. The waiter/waitresses can speak English, the menu is in English as well. They were friendly, helpful, and attentive to us the whole time. Excellent service. I hope they will add fish balls, and watercress on the menu as they are my favorite items for hotpot. They will give you Ice creams at the end, but there was a tray of fresh melon you can get where you get the sauce for the dessert as well.

The restaurant is kids friendly, they have cute kids tray for the kids. Overall, i was pleased with the experience, item prices are on the high side so expect to pay around $35-45 per person depending on what you order. The menu items are good quality and fresh. Some items can be too little/small for the price...