Haidilao Hot Pot Fremont City — Restaurant in Fremont

5/17/2023

My family now love this place, they refused to visit Shabuya again. Now my family enjoys more here and they don’t want to try anywhere else. We came here for anniversary but they don’t have anything special for that LOL. The same two delicious broth spicy and tomato. My son loves the pot belly and they delivered wrong plates but they fixed it right away. All meats seem to look the same when we’re hungry I guess LOL. My daughter wanted the New Year apron even in April. Yes the bill is getting bigger but we still love to come.

It was my daughter’s birthday, she wanted to try some new hotpot restaurants although our Shabuya is still our favorite. So, this hotpot is in Fremont, a la cart, just like the one we ate in NY. The restaurant is quite nice and clean. Everyone gets an apron for cooking. There are condiments bar which you have to pay $2.99 each person to use it. We didn’t really care for any of the thing in the bar so we didn’t order. You order your favorite soup base, it can be 2 different ones on the same pot. My daughter wanted a regular and a spicy one. The broths are quite tasty, you can use them as soup with just steamed rice. Each of the meat plate is between $11-$17 depending on the types of meats you want. The meats are also good quality. Veggies are also a la cart, range between $5-$10. If we compare shabuya all you can eat at $30/person, you can really eat here for the same price or a little more. Every table got a tablet to order food and a robot will bring them to you, quite fast and efficient. My daughter had a little cake with candle and a song to celebrate her birthday which was nice. Everyone loved the foods. This is in a big shopping center so there are plenty of parking spaces. Sometimes we want to pay a price and gets everything, but a la cart is not bad although my wife noticed that there’s no seafood like Shabuya, I’m sure they have but my kids aren’t crazy about seafood so they never bother to look in the menu. I just sit and eat whatever they ordered and enjoy all. We will definitely come back here again whenever we want something different, I’m sure my daughter will find something new next time...

My family really enjoys coming here and Haidilao is known for their excellent service. I will attribute a few key factors that really lead me to believe why our service was not up to what we usually expect.

It was a holiday and I think our server was overwhelmed serving the outdoor patio area on their own.

We had a few kids at the party (4 kids). Usually after we order the kids meals would come out relatively quickly after ordering. It was a good 15-20 minutes after all the food came out before the kids were served. Not every kid in our party was served either. (Two were served)

We didn't have napkins, plates, and utensils for everyone to start eating either. When we asked our server about bowls, they only gave our party two bowls. So the remaining two adults in the party had to empty the serving dishes the food came in to eat out of. Utensils we had to go in and ask for them. We did not receive napkins at all during our dining experience.

Normally the iPad stays at the table on the side.

We were sharing our iPad with the outdoor tables. Asking for the tablet to order food was not the issue, we didn't mind asking. The challenge was waiting for the server to be around to ask for the unit to order more. Our server was away. If I remember correctly in the past when we had the iPad at the table the staff would check in more frequently to make sure we didn't have outstanding orders and used that time to see if we needed anything.

Servers were limited and/or our server was overwhelmed.

I don't know how experienced our server was but they seemed very overwhelmed. Their time was spread very thinly across the tables. It felt troublesome to ask for more soup broth when our soup had less than 1/4 of the broth remaining.

We were celebrating a birthday and didn't get acknowledgement after telling the server. We did see another birthday celebration happen in our area, but by the end of the evening we accepted what we perceived were the challenges of the day and let it go.

We'll come back again like we enjoy doing as a family. Wanted to share some feedback on...

Made a reservation for my daughters 12th birthday based on amazing reviews. Arrived and immediately upon being sat we realized this place is very loud and very busy. People are sat very close- the guy next to us coughing so close it was uncomfortable. We told the guy we never been there and he proceeded to go over a menu on an ipad and i could barely understand or keep up! We started with two bases, one spicy base that asked if we wanted less spicy and less numb lol and we said yes less both! The broth was so spicy my daughters friend got blisters on her lip! Not only was it too spicy but it had a weird after taste. And we hadnt even gotten to the meat yet. We were seved veggies & ramen first and thats how we were able to taste the broths. Once the meat came we tried the beef and it was just too terribly spicy, literally unbearable! As this was happening, we saw three tables around us enjoying their birthday celebrations and my daughter didnt get anything. We had to ask for our drinks that never came, napkins, and extra utensils. Once our shrimp, squid and other items came we knew it was too spicy to even keep trying. At this point we heated a portion of beef, one shrimp, two cabbage leaves and two bok choys. My daughter and her friends had to go to restroom twice they felt so sick from the spice. Once we brought to manager attention, he was still not wanting to charge us for just what we ate. We were not trying to get free food, rather, pay for what we actually touched and get comped for the food we never touched and the undesirable experience for my daughters birthday. The guy said "okay i can charge you $75" which was still crazy for untouched food and drinks, my husband handed him some cash and the guy walked off with no attempt to ask or give change and nothing else. Really terrible service and memory for my...