Plans to open a hot pot restaurant in Burnaby’s Amazing Brentwood shopping mall are murky as its parent company undergoes turmoil around the world.
One of China's most popular hot pot chains, Hai Di Lao, plans to shut down more than 300 stores by the end of the year, but it remains unclear whether its existing Richmond location will be affected – or the one plans in Brentwood. Signage has been up for months advertising a new Hai Di Lao to be located next to the mall’s skybridge that connects the new section of the mall with the old one and its Tables food court.
News about the company closing hundreds of its outlets went viral on Chinese social media Weibo (also known as the Chinese version of Twitter) with around 510 million reads overnight. The hotpot chain currently operates 1,597 locations worldwide.
The NOW has reached out to the Amazing Brentwood about if it has an update on the future of this restaurant. The Amazing Brentwood has had a flurry of good news announcements lately about restaurants, including word that the mall will get an Earls and a three-storey Tap & Barrel.
According to Chinese state-run media, the Hai Di Lao outlets that are to be closed have relatively low foot traffic and poor business performance.
Hai Di Lao's table turnover rate has dropped dramatically over the past two years. The average table turnover rate was 4.8 per day in 2020 but fell to only three per day earlier this year, causing a significant financial loss for the company.
Hai Di Lao began in 1994 in Sichuan Province, in China. Their first U.S. location opened in 2013 in Los Angeles. They also have locations in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan.
The name "haidilao" means "fortune," and is a term used in the game of mahjong in Sichuan.
Offering a selection of boiling soup bases, such as tomato, spicy butter, and the traditional oil, Haidilao is a classic hot pot set up: You pick your soup and cook your proteins and veg at your table.
One of the chain's signature moves is to go to great lengths to keep customers occupied while they wait for their table (as even with reservations, customers often are asked to wait). They offer things like board games, snacks, and manicures for waiting customers. People who dine alone get a giant teddy bear to accompany them for hot pot. And if it’s your birthday, you’ll be serenaded with birthday songs.
The company boasts that its hot pot is fresher than others and offers the kinds of ingredients that aren’t offered at other restaurants. Such as wagyu beef cubes, shrimp pate, peony shrimp and more.
As for the broths, there is a black truffle broth among the options, as well as tomato and oxtail.
- With additional reporting by Lindsay William-Ross, Vancouver is Awesome, and Nono Shen, Richmond News
