I hope I can rate them negative stars! Worst service in BC! I have never seen any waiter have such bad attitude as them! The waiter push us to leave and we still haven’t finish our lunch. We decide give them less tips but he come and said we usually should be 10%. Don’t go to Qin Ma!
Jackie T.
Place rating: 2 Richmond, Canada
Food: Decent food, very moderate in terms of all you can eat hotpot. They ran out of some food, despite being here at opening. One hotpot soup base was not written in English, and the selection was not very broad. Icecream was crystallised and small. Service: Upon arrival, 8 minutes after opening, we were not greeted nor were the lights even on. The waitress eventually approached us, speaking in Chinese. I informed her that two out of my three people party did NOT understand Chinese, and after this acknowledgement, she continued to speak in Chinese. After ordering, food that was not available was neither brought nor were we notified until questioned. Whenever we tried to wave down a waiter or waitress, we were neither acknowledged nor approached. I had to go to them, as they did not check up on us at any point in the meal. When giving them my second order sheet, the male waiter with glasses and long, gelled up hair snatched it out of my hand and quickly confirmed whether it was the second order, and continued tapping away at the computer. At no point did he even make eye contact with me. Lack of English in the service caused some minor problems with understanding mistakes and requests for items, such as when they gave us luncheon meat when we did not order it. Rude wait staff who do not acknowledge you at all, even when you speak to them or ask questions. Ice cream did not even come with spoons, which we had to walk to them for and ask. Beyond subpar. Will NOT come again. Cleanliness: Upon sitting down, I found that the window ledge was filthy with dust, glass, food spills, and even a dead wasp. Under each hotpot station, there are metal furnaces that are coated in food/liquid spills and dirt. Floor was adequately swept, but sauces were all in the open, susceptible to fruit flies and insects. Décor: Very odd atmosphere. Cold, echoey, large area with no music. Scattered snowflake decorations among Chinese new year posters were very confusing. What could make it more confusing? Lebron James on the back wall of a Chinese hot pot restaurant, with many other skewed basketball player posters.
Chrys L.
Place rating: 1 Vancouver, Canada
This is one restaurant where servers stop you on your way out and ASK for more tip. We bought a Social Shopper coupon for their hot pot dinner for 2, and this isn’t our first visit. The other few visits were decent. We paid our taxes(which most places don’t bother charging) which was $ 2 and left $ 3 from my $ 5 bill on the table. Now, I usually pay with a $ 10, and they get a whopping $ 8(20%!) tip the last SEVERAL visits. One of the other servers remembered us and popped by our table to say hi. I figured, well, shoot, I don’t have anything smaller than $ 100, did they really want to break it for an extra $ 1 when I’ve given them more already? Mind you, it’s a self-cooking hot pot dine-in experience. I’ve left less tips on restaurants with bad food or bad service and nobody’s ever asked for more. Secondly, it’s not like I left nothing. Our server dropped a chopstick on me, and the food we received wasn’t exactly to order either, so it is beyond me why they are asking for full tip on a not so full dinner. Food is mediocre. Went for the value but with that kind of service, they’re not getting another penny from me. Regretting giving them the extra tips other days, which is unfortunate to say. If the service is enough to make me not want to come back, they’re really undeserving of the 1 star minimum on this review.
Chang C.
Place rating: 1 Richmond, Canada
I hope I can give them 0 star Worst service Worst foods Can’t be worst I dont know y they open this restaurant, untraining waiters Most of people wait for 1 hour or more Plz guys, if u like the hot pot, go somewhere else! Have good day
Edward L.
Place rating: 4 Vancouver, Canada
Not sure why people are hating on this place. I found this to be one of the more pleasant hot pot experiences in town. Parking is available in the lot beside the building, as well as on the street in front. The inside is quite large, and was fairly empty the day my friends and I showed up. There was a steady trickle of customers throughout the evening, but the place never felt crowded. The food selection was good, and the ingredients were fresh. My friends and I completely ruined ourselves. So beautiful. The sauce station is decent but only has about 6 ingredients, compared to the 10 – 20 for the competition. But they have all the basics such as soy sauce, satay sauce, and peanut sauce. The one thing that set the place apart was the Sichuan peppercorn soup base. This one had a much thicker layer of oil than the competition. This meant that the soup base lasted much longer, and tastes that much better. With that said, a few more trips to the washroom the next day is the other half of the bargain. Staff were very friendly. They were even nice and courtesy as they were kicking us out after the place closed. Hopefully this place survives, as the previous few incarnations didn’t. Recommended.
Star L.
Place rating: 1 Richmond, Canada
NOTWORTHTHETRIP. SERVICE: All 5 of the girls working had very limited English(basically catering only to Mandarin speakers, not even Cantonese), couldn’t answer any questions about the menu and when the various meat we ordered arrived at the table, they couldn’t tell Us which meat was which. FOOD: poor menu selection even with the Deluxe $ 27 menu, and if you ordered the $ 20 menu the beef is basically all fat. Menu items in chinese don’t match english descriptions and they don’t bother explaining that to you until your table is full of things you didn’t expect INTERIOR: atmosphere wasn’t bad, but zero leg room for anyone over 5 feet tall b/c they have massive blocks under the table(powering the Hotpot itself) so it was vrry difficult to scootch in and out of the booth seats without banging your knee a few times For being a «new» restaurant boasting itself as the top Hotpot franchise in China, they are definitely not worth the money, and even if they were, we’ll never go back for that kind of incompetent service. No wonder it was pretty much empty when we went at prime dinner time, only 4 tables in the whole restaurant. I’d much rather eat at Little Mongolian Sheep, Top Gun or Chubby Lamb, at least they have an extensive menu for about the same price and the service is way more accommodating to English and Cantonese speakers.
Wendy Y.
Place rating: 2 Richmond, Canada
When it comes to hot pot, you know you’re a true female Asian when you… 1. purposely dress down and … a) toss your smelly outfit in the laundry machine immediately after you get home b) take a hot shower, wash your hair at least twice 2. don’t bother putting on make up because you know the pretty shades of color would only smudge and make you look like Eric Draven from The Crow 3. don’t care about garlic breaths because you would never make the mistake of going on a first date at a hot pot joint 4. eat with a contorted pained face 5. take pictures of the food in pristine conditions before the dishes stack up like a crime scene That’s how I re-connected with my girlfriend — over hot pot, Sichuan style. We had a split pot of spicy soup base and herbal non-spicy soup base. We ordered a variety of meats(pork, lamb, and beef), oyster mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, corn, quail eggs, tofu puffs, tofu blocks, greens, daikon slices, black wood ear, and fried pork skin. In addition, she ordered us some cumin lamb on sticks and fried chicken wings on sticks. The cumin lamb bits were salty. Other than that the meats were tender enough without the need to spit out the un-chew-ables. The fried chicken wings didn’t feel greasy considering they were deep fried. The seasoning was spot on. The observations worth of noting were that the hot pot meats were sliced thinly and they were tender, all three types; the spicy soup-base was shamefully salty. I couldn’t appreciate the herbal soup base because my mouth was long overwhelmed or traumatized by the saltiness. Having said that the level of spiciness was sultry. The caustic burn was further perpetuated by the Sichuan peppercorns when I accidentally bit them throughout my meal. I wiped my tears and drippy nose trying not to look like a sick orphan. With the use of Groupon, we got two glasses of complementary sour plum juice. We paid for extra minced garlic, sesame oil, and chopped green onions because hot pot would be meaningless without such simple ingredients and condiments which this restaurant has a station just for white sesame paste, chili oil, vinegar(or soy sauce). I think the food deserves a 3 stars and the service 4 stars. The service was quickly, polite, and friendly. I gave it a 2 stars because of the rear burning experience the next day plus upset stomach which my girl friend had as well. I have had spicy hot pot before but not with the aftermath of this time.
Sophia Z.
Place rating: 3 Vancouver, Canada
I was very excited when I heard this place was due to open in Richmond because this is one of the famous chains in Sichuan. With my luck I found a economic groupon on a Chinese groupon site for $ 20/person all you can eat. This place is quite spacious but fills up nicely as time ticks to dinner hour, and the aroma of fragrant chillies and hot oil permeates the air(on that note please do dress casually because you will smell like a walking hot pot after). The menu selection is within expectation as it covers appetizers, various cuts and types of meat, seafood, veggie, noodle, and desserts. There is a section of BBQ/grill items as well as a «premium group» that includes larger shrimp and premier cuts etc. The sauce station(included in the cost） is a bit limited, as there’s only satay sauce, hot chilli sauce, soy sauce, peanut sauce, black vinegar and salt available. If you want cilantro, green onions, garlic, sesame oil etc you’d have to tick them off at the menu for $ 1 each. The BBQ lamb skewers were good, as they were juicy and the meat tastes fresh, seasoned quite well except I think they’ve been marinated too long that they are on the salty side. The chicken wings were GOOD! Juicy inside and delicious crispy skin lightly seasoned with chilli powder. Yum! Now the hot pot is very fragrant, simmered with an array of spices like green pepper corn, dried chillies, garlic, spicy oil etc. But it’s definitely too salty, very salty actually. However I do give it a thumbs up for authenticity because it’s pretty close to the Sichuan local hot pot flavour. I must say all the dishes came well played which is very thoughtful of the restaurant and the meat is quite fresh. The mportions are on the daintier side and is encourage you to order generously. The staff are quite attentive and polite and I appreciate that. Overall I think it’s a good authentic experience but what deters me from coming back would be the heat use of salt. Cheerio!
