Boiling Point

Haven’t been here for a while, so it was time to hit it up again.
This place is chock full of college kids. My buddy and I felt super old eating here. The interior looks pretty much the same as before as well.
Their hot pot seems to have improved compared to the last time I was here (5 years ago). Looks like there’s more food in the pots now. The spice levels on the menu are tailored to North American standards (ie weak sauce). I had my pot «very spicy» (3 chili peppers) and didn’t even blink.
Extra meat can be had for a few bucks more. Just be sure to cook any raw meat before the gel flame under the pot runs out.

Long wait during the dinner time, food was just so so… nothing special, 2 star for both the food and the service.

Individual hot pot isn’t bad, but nothing special either. Not much better than what you can get elsewhere. Portion sizes were alright. Will get you full.
However, service is what drops the rating harshly. After ordering, I asked the server for water. Never came. When the hot pots came, my mom asked for tea. Never came. When I was halfway done, I flagged down another server. I asked for water and tea. She said there’s no tea, only water. In addition, the hot pot was put down very haphazardly. I was afraid the soup would spill out. Oh, and the servers forgot the rice.
In summary, the food here is nothing special, but the service is some of the worst I’ve had, and I already don’t expect much from Chinese establishments.

Hot pot is very very yummy here. It’s portioned for each individual to consume, and I really like that. I think their hot pots come in packages or something; I asked them if they can take out the glass noodles but they said they’re unable to do that. Oh well. I actually didn’t mind the glass noodles, as they were very soft and flavorful. It had decent amount of goodies, and the soup was very tasty too. Dipping sauces played a huge role in it too…*drool*
I do agree with other reviewers who point out this place’s lack of attention to the customers. It was really hard to flag down someone for a new spoon (because it was dirty in the first place), or for some water. It wasn’t soooo horrendous that I’ll never come back, but it does make me pause from going there again unless I know I won’t mind the service (or lack of).

Good food but probably a better idea to have it during cooler months!
I called ahead to see if I could reserve but they let me know that they didn’t take reservations on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, and that they hadn’t been too busy recently so I should have no problem getting a table. We ended up going at 8 pm instead of 6 so this worked out for us anyway. Only had to wait about 3 min for them to set the table, the restaurant stayed full for the duration of the meal.
Lunch appears to be a better deal than dinner as it is $ 1 cheaper and also includes a drink. I tried my friend’s cold winter melon tea ($ 3) and it was very good, a perfect accompaniment to the spicy hot pot. I also tried the cold Hokkaido milk tea ($ 4.50) which was so creamy and delicious.
I got the beef hot pot, two friends got the lamb hot pot, one got the seafood hot pot, and one got the house special. Each hot pot comes with a bowl of rice. We all enjoyed our dishes and had no complaints. Some of us found that mild spicy was still quite spicy.
They used to have a sauce station but now it’s at each table, which is better I think. The sauces were fun to try but not necessary as the broth already flavoured the ingredients enough.
Service here is kind of average. The food comes quick, but if you need a waiter for anything extra, they are a bit hard to flag down. It took awhile for them to get us the bill, but I don’t expect amazing service for a place like this anyway.
Overall a good experience! I will probably be back when it gets colder. The flame under the pot can really get you sweating!

My cousin from Los Angeles came to visit last summer and whilst showing her around, spotted this location. She claimed that it was popular in her area and was a daily hotspot for her and her friends — I was sold. Initially, the restaurant smelled mildly rancid, and appeared to be poorly maintained. Regardless, I decided to give it a shot. We ordered one dish and split it; the ingredients were nothing too spectacular, if at all. I would have easily overlooked this restaurant had this not been introduced to me. I felt that it was mediocre, and simply not my department of food. Ironically, she was the one new to the area.

waited for over 30 minutes for a table for 6，they kept giving new customers in first and never tried to create a table for 6 (since they don’t have 6 seat tables). Left with disappointment and an empty tummy:(

Something about this place, maybe because your food never gets cold or the hot chilli oil is extremely spicy but I can’t get enough of it. I always go for the lamb hot pot in flaming spicy. It comes with tons of pickled cabbage and a bowl of rice on the side. Drinks here are also tasty.
Convienant location with a lot of parking.
Missing one star for the service. It can improve… A lot! But overall great place and concept.

I love the idea of your own hot pot instead of sharing! This place is good for hot pot in Richmond. You get to have your own hot pot. Bubble tea Is really good too!

After hearing much about boiling point in southern california, I was excited to try it since I was in Richmond for the holidays and there happened to be one near where I was staying.
We were seated promptly as we just beat the lunch rush, but after being seated service was very apparently nonexistent. There were two males working and they were both pretty incompetent when it comes to customer service, constantly asking us to hold on, and just being completely inattentive throughout our meal.
One server (I assume the busboy?) was particularly incompetent, forgetting to bring our rice with our hotpots, and after we asked for the rice, he quickly went to fill some bowls with rice and literally drop them off at our table — with enough force that the bowls were rocking back and forth. This server basically had no courtesy whatsoever and was either having a really bad day or just needed to be fired.
Anyway, the food itself was alright. I have definitely had better quality ingredients at other hot pot places but for the price point, it was acceptable. The meats were obviously frozen as all our pots had meat in a single clump meaning they probably ripped off a piece of the frozen meat slices and put it in the pot to cook. Overall, I left warm, full, and satisfied with my food, but there was definitely a LOT left to be desired in terms of service.
If you want cheap hotpot and don’t plan to come during rush hours, this place is decent. But if poor service irks you then definitely go somewhere else as it will not be worth the wait.

I don’t have high expectations for service when it comes to Chinese restaurants, but this service was by far the worst. I think the employees are high school students and just lack attentiveness or something, not that they purposely are trying to be rude.
We had the Japanese hot pot, beef hot pot, and kimchi hot pot. All of them were fine. The broths all tasted pretty good and came with lots of veggies. Noodles and meat were a little bit more lacking. I’m not a big fan of the concept though. All of the ingredients are already put into the pot and comes out lukewarm. Then, they light the fire underneath to get everything boiling, which means waiting for the food to get hot. Soon, some of the ingredients end up overcooking, since they have been sitting in broth for so long. I’d rather be able to control what I put in and when. Plus, my hot pot started boiling and sputtering, making it hard for me to continue eating. I had to wave down the waiter three times to get him to come over and put the flame out for me.
Cute concept, lackluster execution.

It’s either a hit or a miss for me sometimes. I say that because every time I go, I try a different soup of hot pot. Some days I love it and some days I don’t. For the most part, if I go and order my favorites then it’s delicious! My favorite is the curry!!! Whenever I get that, I am always satisfy. I normally share this with another friend because I can never finish one on my own. The staffs are nice and the service is quite good for an Asian restaurant. You will get full service and attention when you come on week days and when it’s not busy. When you come on weekends, it can be awful ! Because they have 3 – 4 people working, getting their attention can be hard because all of them
multitask and do whatever roles they can on the spot. They don’t really have a specific position for each worker. It’s one worker for all roles. That’s what I think!!! This place is perfect for cold and rainy days! They also have bubble tea so it’s perfect !!! You can get the best of both world! I also like that they give food stamps so you can collect them! I think once you’ve achieve a certain #, you’ll receive soup or bubble tea for free! This location is in the corner of an unpopular plaza. I only spotted it because I was on the skytrain months ago and looked down one time then saw it. Since then, I decided to try it because I’ve heard amazing reviews about Boiling Point in LA! I wanted to try the one in Cali but never got to because the wait was 2 hours along! I’m glad that we have one here and the wait is not bad. According to my boyfriend, Boiling point here is better than the one in Irvine, California! So There you go !! Go try it!

BEWARE: the spicy hotpot is SPICY. My Korean friend ordered that and she couldn’t even finish it…
I was really excited to try this after heading so much about it, but it wasn’t really able to fulfill my expectations. Yes, there is a lot in the pot, and there are quite a few options, but the taste and quality was mediocre for me. It’s something I wouldn’t mind having again but also wouldn’t care to go if it’s out of my way.
This place didn’t really smell like stinky tofu when we were there, but there was a heavy smell of hotpot flavours though. By the time you leave the place you will smell like hotpot as well :(
The place is clean, simple, and modern, but isn’t enough on my books to deserve 4 stars. They also used small styrofoam cups to serve us water… Which wasn’t very environmentally friendly or aesthetically pleasing… Can’t you use regular cups instead?

Found a ugly huge freaking bug in my soup after I ate the entire thing. I was spooning the soup up and all of a sudden a BIG BLACK BUG floated up to the top. Feeling disgusted, I told the waiter and he did not even offer to take the item off the bill. He merely gave us a 10% discount discount coupon for NEXT visit and two teas on the house. I then told him I won’t eat there again and have no use for the coupon. None of us wanted the drinks either. Again, after learning that we did not want the drinks, he did nothing about it. We didn’t take the drinks. It is mind blowing how he thinks it is acceptable to charge full price for a dish that has a bug in it! I am reporting this place to the health authorities!
A couple days after this review BP Canadian corporate office contacted me thru Unilocal for an apology and complimentary visit. I was very surprised and happy about their warm apology. This also gave me the opportunity to tell them about the bad service I had at my last visit. I asked to visit their Burnaby location instead since it was closer to my home. At our arrival we were warmly greeted and seated. I showed the email detailing the complimentary offer for TWO people to the manager and to my surprise he offered to waive the entire bill even though we had four people at our table. During the whole visit we were treated very well, service was quick and the staff attentative. The food came steamy hot and tasted great.
We ask received a personal apology from the regional manager and a buy 1 get 1 free coupon for next visit. When I was leaving, the manager offered a gift containing four of their house sauces to take home. Thank you for making the effort. Our guests were also very impressed and said they would visit again.

Boiling point, you’re hot in nobody’s book. Maybe lukewarm at best.
Boiling Point is the one of the biggest paradoxes I’ve encountered in my years of eating. On one hand, I HATE paying to cook my own food. On the other, they serve you hot pot food that defeats the purpose of hot pot. And on the THIRD hand (yes, I know…), it’s pre-​boiled food…
As the Unilocal rating system states for a 3-​star review, it’s «A-​OK». The place is clean, service is prompt, and food isn’t half bad. It’s just that I can’t justify coming here unless my girlfriend randomly suggests it.
3 Stars ***

If you’re in the mood for hotpot, however don’t really want to go for All You Can Eat, you can come check this place out. The portions are made out for each individual with other add-​ons if you choose. I would say this would be my go-​to place for Taiwanese hotpot, it’s convenient and quite flavourful.
My go to dishes here would be the Curry Hotpot and the Japanese Miso hot pot.
They have 3 types of hotpot which come in «bigger and better» sizes which I do admit are bigger in size, but not really worth the price in my opinion. I usually get their «boiling point» house noodles, which is really just yee mein, on the side to such up the flavour of the broth which i feel due to the sauce of the curry is really good.
The service here can be slow at times even though they have many people on staff. I think it’s because if you come during dinner or lunch rush and due to the large amount of orders they can only get items out in a finite amount of time.
Their bubble tea’s actually not bad either, especially the Hokkaido milk tea. Would definitely recommend you give that a try.
They recently opened up a location in Burnaby on Kingsway past Metrotown. Haven’t given it a try, but will be visiting it soon. Hopefully (because this company is a franchise) it’ll have the same standard of service and food as the Richmond location!

Came here for lunch with some friends that suggested it.
Had an individual spicy beef hot pot. Pretty spicy and A-​OK
Good deal for $ 10 since it comes with a drink.

I had been eating in this restaurant for almost 2 years now,
from good to bad then to good again.
The hot pot is too unique and delicious to let it go of it.
If you love hot pot with different favours and fill up your appetites, of course with great price, this is the place to be.
If you are looking for a good service and a cheap price, you will be disappointed, because the waiters and waitresses there are also cook and drink maker and cashier.
They are busy with all the tasks around them.
After few complaints from using urbanspoon, the service had been improved a lot.
That is why it is worth 4 stars here.
Keep up the good work

From my last review Feb 2011, I didn’t return to Boiling Point over 2 years. It’s time to write another update review.
Basically, not much change on menu even the quality of food. I found they have few new items on the menu and price increased.
My hubby ordered curry fish balls hot pot in medium spicy was ok. Curry based broth was so light and only has 5 fish balls and other mixed vegetables with rice.
My beef hot pot in mild spicy wasn’t spicy at all and beef so chewy. The super thin tofu with small chuck of corn with some vegetables made the pot look better.

The service is kind of slow but they do try.
I absolutely love the mini hot pots. they are so delicious!
I’ve been here three times in the past week and half.