Ok, don’t sue me, but I’ve never had hot pot before! How crazy?? I’ve only heard of it like some far-away delicious myth  known through legends of the ole. But who am I kidding? It’s an outrageously popular cuisine (with Chinese origins) and I’ve just been too lame to venture out of my comfort zone to try it out. 

But, lo and behold, my lame days are long gone. I decided to expand my palette and try Haidilao Hot Pot at the Century City mall with my vegan, gluten-free friend Sara and my vegan (obvs) sister. The entire restaurant is not 100% vegan, but they do have a ton of vegan options. 

And, for those of you that are still like “wtf is hot pot?” – Hot Pot is almost like Korean bbq meets fondue where you essentially cook your food (noodles, veggies, tofu, etc) in a hot, aromatic, bubbling broth in front of you. 

So anyway, first and foremost, the staff at Haidilao is SO incredibly nice and attentive, including the little robot that brings you your dishes. I wanted to adopt it haha. Also, at one point we discovered a piece of shrimp in our broth and our waitress, without question, replaced all four broths and replenished any lost dip-in items (I’ll explain in a bit) that were lost to the “shrimp-contaminated” broth. 

Secondly, the food is baller. They have four broths that can be made vegan including the mushroom, miso (specifically asked to be made without any fish ingredients, they can modify. Also, it’s the only gluten-free vegan broth), tom yum (sans shrimp, ours accidentally came with it and was quickly replaced), and tomato. We got two misos, one tom yum, and one mushroom. They were all super delicious. 

For add-ins to cook, we got the veggie sampler, udon noodles (not gf), vermicelli noodles (yes gf), frozen tofu, tofu skin, and tteokbokki. It was all SO delicious. Our  favorites were both noodles, the frozen tofu (it’s so juicy and soaks up the broth so well), the tteokbokki, and the boy choy. I would 100% get those again if I returned and maybe try some new things as well! 

However, Haidilao’s STAND OUTS were the drinks and their SAUCE BAR. Yes, you heard that right. A DIY FRICKEN SAUCE BAR. I will dream about this forever. 

For drinks, we got passion fruit iced tea and lychee iced tea and both were 10/10. So sweet and refreshing and would 100% get again. 

The sauce bar has everything from hoisin, soy sauce, sweet and sour sauce, sesame butter, peanut butter, salt, pepper, green onions, minced garlic, sesame seeds – everything. Not to mention a whole fruit bar with the sweetest and freshest fruit. I made a little sauce concoction with sesame butter, soy sauce, hoisin, pepper, and sweet and sour sauce. It was EPIC. We all ordered white rice and ate the rice with our DIY sauces. MAJOR SLAY. You can also dip your cooked items into the sauce. The udon with the sauce was particularly epic. 

However, warning, I will admit I put oyster sauce into my sauce thinking it was “eel sauce” which is normally vegan. But nope! Oyster sauce is indeed oyster sauce and made with oysters, so I’m a moron. BUT it was only a teeny bit and the intention that counts! 

Anyway, if you want to have a fun little experience with your friends, I definitely recommend. Don’t miss out on those iced tea and that epic sauce bar, boo.