The next day, on to the makan place she selected which was Haidilao hotpot. Come to think of it now, very 'adult' choices of first tiramisu and then a hotpot. The younger JE would have picked, oh, a cartoon cake and fast food.
Our first time at Haidilao, which isn't the type of place you just walk in as and when you like. First I sourced out the online queue. You can't book until the queue has opened. I didn't want it too early (you only have 30mins before you table is given up) or too late (our family isn't good at waiting) so I got into line just before we left the house. It was early and we got a table while still on the way there. No worries, we arrived before the 30mins were up. The famed manicure services are no longer available - I can't imagine being in queue long enough for that to happen anyway!
We walked straight in and had a friendly waitress who explained how things work. So there's a flat charge of RM8 per person for free-flow sauces and appetisers. Our waitress didn't charge for the kids. The sauce bar had many ingredients which was great as JE LOVES messing around with sauces. And having the apron to wear was fun as well.
Mix this mix that
Soups aren't free. It's about RM15 per quarter-pot and almost 4 times that for a full pot. We chose tomato, 3-treasure and szechuan (this turned out to be mala and very spicy). We inadvertently stumbled upon a good combo as the 'water' option (the fourth quarter-pot for us) is free. For future visits, to be frugal 2 soups and 2 waters would be sufficient.
Let's test out the taste
Sometimes request hubby to take photos or I wouldn't ever be in
Everything tasted good! Appetisers were mala peanuts and king mushroom slices which were yummy. We barely touched the szechuan soup but it was actually flavourful and fragrant so I imagine it would have a fan base. Over-ordered as I didn't factor in the free-flow appetisers and ice-cream.
If it's your birthday, they will come and sing you a cheerful song and deliver a piece of cake.
Free cake
Overall loved the 'fun' factor - the sauces, the noodle performance (if you order noodles, you can request it with or without the dance!) Grabbed some junk food packs and ice-cream (it was the stick type selling for RM2) before we left. A solid thumbs up!
Oh for future reference, it cost us over R50 a head. Hubby and the kids are very small eaters though so this needs to be scaled up for normal eaters.
