Chengdu Lao Zao Hotpot

Good hot pot， bad service！Not recommended for groups

It is not that bad. I wonder why the rate on Unilocal is such low. It is nothing special though. We have picked up a perfect time so that there is almost nobody.

Super authentic Sichuan hot pot, which is extremely hard to find in the US. Spicy enough. Love it!

I came here to try for the first time, there was not so many people dining but the waitress kept us waiting for almost 10 mins to sit us down. It took us similar time length to order. I don’t know why they only have 2 waitresses on a busy Saturday. The service was very bad because we have to wave to get attention to waitresses to serve us. I was pretty pissed about their poor service. The food was just okay, definitely not worth of their price. I would not recommend my friends to go here because I don’t think any of them would enjoy dine-​in experience here. Hope they can improve their service and everything.

Food is so so but expensive. My friend and I both had diarrhea after dining here. Must be sth wrong with their food!

I genuinely call myself the titanium stomach. what this means is that I can eat spicy food. I go to hot pot places and order the hottest level and add more spicy sauce on the side. I trained my taste buds because I have a love for Cheng du cuisine. One of my best friend is from si chuan, and she tells me that they eat spicy noodles for breakfast! I am getting off topic haha. What I am trying to say is that this place, IS SPICY! For the taste and experience, definitely 5 stars. Service was great too! However, the seating arrangement is somehow too intimate and uncomfortable. My guy friend and I went to eat and we sat next to each other, and literally have no space to put my purse or jacket. It was also awkward for me to reach over to my buddy to grab food. But other than that, i have been craving this place again! The spiciness is no joke! I love it! 真的很好吃!

A little bit expensive. Four of us spent $ 200 here. But the taste is good and authentic.

This place’s service is bad. We ordered around 17 dished, they came in separate orders. Our second order was missing 2 dishes out of 9 dishes. When we questioned the waiter about it, he gave us the doubting attitude, thinking we lie about it. It was ridiculous. They should learn how to respect the customers. We paid for food and service but what we received was disrespectful attitude by their own mistake!!! Awful service. And the food just average, nothing special. Will not come back again.

I called in to ask about their closing time. The lady on the phone told me they close at 12pm but they don’t take in customers after 10:30pm. Seriously?! Then why don’t you just post your official closing time at 10:30? This is ridiculous. I’m not sure if it’s the store earn so much profit already that they don’t welcome customers anymore. Or the workers just want to get off work as early as possible and pushing customers out of the door. But yes, this place closes at 10:30. DO NOT GO AFTER 10:30. I will also report to Unilocal to let them know this place close at 10:30. Thanks.

Very authentic Sichuan hot pot. Very spicy, flavorful, and delicious. They have an good sauce selection. A good alternative to 海底捞。

I give two stars because the price is unreasonable high. They serve very few crab sticks and veggie for one order. I came here three times with my friends, the quality of meat was great than little sheep, but the price is much higher. Today was my fourth time came, me and my friend ordered one beef and one fried pork, and other dishes which costed us about 80bucks. However, for that price they should have provide enough amount food.

I will say the pot is full of MSG. We ordered pork intestines which they didn’t clean it well it has a weird taste @@. And we ordered Louis root which they dye it so the color looked pretty. But when you cook it… Also has a weird taste. We feel like the food is unsafe. I wonder how they past the FDA??? This is a restaurant full of question mark???

First authentic Chengdu style hot pot in LA area. If you like spicy food, you’ll love it here. I have not been to any hot pot place that can out do their spicy flavor. Even with the mild spicy level here, its way too much for average person to handle. But you can always opt for non-​spicy broth, if you’re not into super spicy food. Food is freshly prepared and taste great. Price is a little on the high side compares to other hot pot places around the area. But it’s still a small price to pay for authentic Chengdu style hot pot.
Ventilation and service is a big problem here. My eyes and nose are watery after I was seated for few minutes, it’s like being pepper spray in the eyes. Service is a chaos during busy hours, service is very slow and most servers are not well trained. Wait can be quite long during busy hours. I believe it’s mostly due to the place just newly opened. I’m pretty sure those problems will be improved down the road.
Can’t wait to come back for more!!!

Horrible service!!! We made a reservation early for a party of 6, and when we got there the manager (Chinese lady in her late 30’s) sat us in a four people table, two of us had to squeeze on the sides. When I told her that we had made a reservation for 6, she responded that it’s really busy now that all other tables are taken, and then she started arguing with me with an arrogant and horrible attitude!!! How can you argue with customers??? After we finished ALL OF US had diarrhea later that night! Dirty and nasty food never going back again!!!
老板娘也不知道女经理态度特别差！！还跟顾客吵架！！ 东西不干净吃完都拉肚子了！！永远不回顾！！千万不要去这家吃！！

spicy broth tasted pretty good, however better ventilation might be needed. The strong smell gets to your outfit real quick. Over-​all food quality is acceptable until you see the bill. Super small portions with questionable freshness for certain items. Might pay a visit in the future without kids. But kids are tough anywhere…
If you are looking for a spicy outing & don’t care about ruining your outfit. This might be an alternative.

This restaurant is dirty and sooo expensive! I highly recommend you not to come in this restaurant!

I came here on the first day of their soft opening with a group of 8.
Parking: Not a problem. I usually park underground.
Location: The restaurant is located on the first floor inside the Hilton plaza on valley blvd.
Wait: This is based on my experience. It was a looonnnnnggggg wait! Seriously, about one and half hours of wait was not nice, especially when we had a reservation. The servers were very rude when we were tried to ask about wait status. They kept saying that the tables were under cleaning and it would only take 10 min for us to be seated. But no! we waited for more than half an hour after that. I understand that they were inexperienced on the first day of opening and yes there would definitely be unexpected incidents happening, but our group was not happy with how they handled our case. 4 of us decided to leave after 1 hour of wait. That was how bad it was…
Food: Hot pot! One thing I have to point out first is that what they call mild spicy is considered as super spicy to our LA tongues XD. We ordered a pot with mild spicy and only one girl was brave enough to keep it going with the soup base… LOL… We ordered another pot with non spicy soup base and it was good in taste. It might be too salty for some of you, but it was full of flavor. Quality of ingredients is average compare to similar local hot pot restaurants. The menu is long which means you have a lot of choices to choose from.:) Also, the plum juice was a highlight. It gets along with the hotpot so well.
Ambiance: The vent did not work for our table! We were suffering from the spiciness and coughed throughout the whole dining time… Servers were so busy going around. Noisy. It was just a chaos.
Price: $$-$$$. The price range can be broad depends on what you order. Plates are in average sizes which don’t really hold a lot… lol.
Again, this was from my experience on the first day of their soft opening day. There was a lot to be improved and the staff were aware of that.

STRONGLY NOT RECOMMENDED!!!
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We went there when they were soft opening. We didn’t wait for a long time for seating but during the dinner it took time to ask them for help. We ordered a mild spicy pot lot and waited for a super long time and at the end they gave us a medium spicy. After the dinner all my friends including me had diarrhea. I don’t think it’s our problem. We also go to other hot pot restaurants but never happened.

My boyfriend took me here on a surprise dinner because he knows how much I love hotpot! We came on a Tuesday night and it was packed. Since we only had two people, we got seated right away because there are seats that are only suitable for two people. Larger parties had to wait longer. The bad thing about this place is that when you enter, the place REEKS of mala spicy. It was so strong that the insides of my nose kept itching. The smell ran in my nose and through my throat, so my throat got really scratchy and irritated. I kept coughing, trying to get the itch out of my throat and I kept rubbing my nose like crazy.
From reading these previous reviews, customers say their service isn’t good, they’re rude, and everything is disorganized. Well, I had a different experience; the servers here were very attentive and nice. The only kind of bad thing is that they don’t know much English. It seemed like things were running smoothly even though they were super busy. It didn’t look like things were too hectic.
We got their half and half soup: half spicy and half original. Even though we got mild spicy, their spicy soup is KILLER SPICYYYY! It was honestly the spiciest soup I’ve ever tasted. My mouth was numb, my nose was so runny and I was sweating balls. Wow, we definitely couldn’t eat anything from that pot, but it tasted so good and I kept eating from that pot anyways; it was addicting. Both soups were also VERY salty. I really wanted to pour a bunch of hot water in there to balance it out. This is part of the reason why I gave this place 4 stars.
For their a la carte dishes, I like how you can order small portion or large portion. We ordered 9 things, all of them small portioned, and the bill was still around $ 43 for the both of us. So yeah this place is pretty pricey mainly because they charge each person a soup fee. Their small portion is also very small; for the frozen tofu, they only give you 4 pieces lol. The portion was enough for me and my bf because we both don’t eat that much, but if you come with a big party or eat a lot, stick with the large portion. I don’t like how their enoki has a bunch of small pieces either, that was super annoying. My boyfriend got their beef and he said the meat quality was just okay. For $ 7, they give you a lot so no complaints there!
They also have a sauce bar on the side. They have green onion, garlic, cilantro, sesame oil, satay sauce, sesame sauce, soy sauce and chili oil. They also have aprons for you to wear too so you don’t get your clothes dirty.

I came here on their first day soft opening. It was super packed !!! The restaurant is a popular Chengdu hot pot franchise chain. This is their first location outside U.S. This used to be a korean seafood bbq knockoff that only been open last year.
It located in the Hilton Plaza (the plaza next to Hilton Hotel). The parking is fine, since there’s underground parking. Our group came after 7pm and supposed to be reservation. Yet we still has to wait almost 80 minutes to get seated.
The most standout thing is their super spicy hot pot. The pot are in square shape and bigger than usual. It was quite hot that day, they didn’t turn on the AC high enough to cool down the temperature.
They were understaffed and poor management on handle the the amount of customer were coming in. The offer many familiar hot pot items. But also some exotic one like frog legs etc. They didn’t had some item such as house-​made meatball. The meat quality were good and is on par with like of little sheep., Their veggie is mediocre especially the mushroom. If you love crazy spicy food, than this is why they know for. We got 2 pot. One non spicy and one less spicy. The less spicy is spicier than any pot I ever had. This is probably what local chengdu really eat like.
I would go back, hope they are much better organized next time and provided more efficient service and turn on the AC. They really need to offer even less spicier version of broth. Majority people can’t handle that spicy. Our group love chengdu taste and had problem dealing with the low level spicy in this place.