Hai Di lao HOT POT

“Hot pot” dining is very popular in China. A server brings a simmering metal pot of stock to the center of the table where it is placed over a heat source. While the hot pot is sim-mering, the server places the desired ingredi-ents into the pot where they are cooked and served. For a long time, most Chinese con-sider hot pot restaurants to be a place where they could get a cheap meal. But low prices meant low-quality ingredients, shaky service, and a relatively uninviting ambience. All this changed in the 1990s when a small, private hot pot restaurant with only four tables opened in Sichuan province with a totally new idea about hot pot cuisine. Haidilao has since grown into one of China’s top hot pot restau-rants, noted for elevating the hot pot dining experience; it is almost possible to describe it as “haute pot.”
Almost everything about Haidilao stands out from other hot pot chains. Although there is usually a wait for a table, the wait is orderly thanks to a video display of the wait list. While waiting, customers get free drinks and snacks and have access to computers with free Internet. Waiting customers can even get a free manicure and shoe shine! Once seated, everything needed to enjoy hot pot is close at hand: hot towels, aprons, hair bands for those with untied long hair, cleaning cloths for customers wearing glasses, even little plastic bags to wrap and protect cell phones that are placed next to the pot on the table. Hot pot ingredients are fresh and of high quality; the restaurants are clean. Serv-ers offer to feed small children and even play with them in a separate recreational area. Customers finish the dinner with free and delicious desserts. Haidilao has also become the first restaurant that provides hot pot takeout. The takeout package includes a trash can, trash bags, and even the pot of stock, induction oven, and power strip that are needed for cooking at the table!
Yong Zhang, the president of Haidilao, takes pride in the customer service