Haidilao the Supermarket Edition

If you're craving for hotpot on a budget, this is the solution

If you're hankering for hot pot, but don't have the requisite pot and a heating element, not to worry! Haidilao, the famous global hotpot chain has the answer.

Spotted at T&T Supermarket, which specialises in Asian food, Haidilao sells a giant plastic bowl with ingredients, soup base, and sauces -- and it self-heats too! For C$25.97.

Watched an Instagram video of a woman who bought one of these hotpot kits, opened it up and there is a plastic "pot" divided into two sections. One is tomato flavoured soup with plant-based luncheon meat, the other mala soup base.

She emptied all the packets, including ingredients, noodles and soup bases according to the two flavours and added water. Then she added water and the self-heating packs, which very quickly started to generate steam!

The hot pot got so hot that the fire alarm in her apartment kept going off and she had to take it outside.

It's a huge portion for even two people! 

Wonder how it tastes... but if you're desperate, it would probably suffice in a pinch?

Wanna Open a Haidilao Franchise?

All the food you can eat and be entertained at Haidilao!

Is Metro Vancouver open to having more hotpot restaurants, specifically from the hotpot chain Haidilao?

Haidilao International Holding Ltd has two locations in Metro Vancouver, one in Vancouver in the Kitsilano neighbourhood, and in Richmond. But if you're an entrepreneur, perhaps you'd be interested in opening an Haidilao franchise?

Since the Beijing-based company opened in 1994, the hotpot restaurant chain has over 1,400 locations around the world. Last month its revenues were expected to reach US$5.75 billion and US$611 million in net profits in 2023.

The noodle dance is a Haidilao highlight

It announced earlier this week it is open to franchising.

While it could be tempting to open a franchise of Haidilao, with its staff attentive to customers' needs, even willing to dance for them, perform face-changing "magic" and fling noodle dough around for added value, do we need another Haidilao?

William Tse, association director of the BC Asian Restaurant Cafe Owners Association believes the hotpot market in Metro Vancouver is saturated, as many hotpot restaurants aren't doing well. As a result, he believes there is limited room for growth.

"There are already many hotpot restaurants competing with each other in Richmond, Burnaby and Vancouver. If you open locations in cities where there is a smaller Chinese Canadian population, there may not be enough demand," Tse said.

"And the higher rents have increased the costs of running a restaurant. Investors will need to take that into consideration as well."

Who knows? Maybe we need Haidilao domination in Metro Vancouver! It would definitely raise the quality level of hotpot restaurants!

Review: Fun Hot Pot Experience at Haidilao

Getting the "noodle dance" performance

When I was in Beijing around 2007, a local friend took me to Haidilao for hot pot. The most memorable part was the "noodle dance", where a guy in a tracksuit and cap doing a quasi ribbon dance with a stretched out piece of dough, making circles with it in the air and even snapping it at us. What a spectacle!

Many years later I went to Haidilao again for my birthday and they gave me a paper crown to wear and had a blindingly bright LED sigh that said "Happy Birthday" in Chinese, Korean and English. 

Enough food to eat? The perils of over-ordering

This year I tried the Haidilao in Vancouver and was also treated to a Happy Birthday sign on the wall and even a lit up sign with a handle. They sang Happy Birthday in Mandarin and English, and presented me with a platter that had "Happy Birthday" written on it with a candle, and six small ice cream containers stacked up like a pyramid.

Oh yes we had the noodle dance again! This time with a vegetable-flavoured dough that was green!

The service here (for Canadian standards) is very attentive and friendly and the staff speak mostly Mandarin and English for non-Chinese speaking customers. If you are a member of Haidilao you get lots of freebies, like toys for the kids and we scored some Miffy hats!

The only problem with hot pot is always over-ordering the amount of food to eat. But before you even order there's a salad bar where you can get snacks like sliced oranges and apples, cherry tomatoes, congee and even shrimp chips!

At the same bar area there is an array of condiments to make your individual sauce with soy sauce, sesame paste, chilli oil, sesame oil, coriander, and vinegar, chopped chillis, minced garlic and spring onions.

Pork bone and mushroom soup bases

Then ordering on a tablet one gets carried away ordering as you scroll down and forget what you've already picked out...

And then the food arrives via a feline-shaped robot and you're overwhelmed by the amount of dishes on the table!

Luckily Haidilao let us pack up the cooked and raw food -- we cooked the meat and put them in plastic containers and another for the soup base. 

We were so full afterwards we didn't need to eat dinner! But we did try the soup and it was oh so good.

Until next year!

Haidilao

3204 West Broadway

Vancouver, BC

604 336 2588