Dining Out: Hot Pot at Dahu Hot Pot

I was randomly craving hot pot today so on a whim, I asked my co-worker, Carmen — a hot pot aficionado — to see if she wanted to go for dinner after work today. She immediately agreed and after doing some research, we decided to try Dahu Hot Pot, which consistently makes Top 10 lists and has rave reviews. Upon entering, we were met with a clean, bright, elegant, open space, all wood trim and sleek marble with fancy tufted banquet seating. One of the classiest looking hot pot places I've been to, that's for sure.

Two-flavour soup base pot
We decided to share a two-flavour soup base pot with the special vegetable oil spicy soup and the corn and pork rib soup. Once that was settled, we went to the sauce station to make our dipping sauces (my go-to: soy sauce, sesame sauce, a dollop of minced garlic, a dash of chili oil, and a sprinkling of sesame seeds) and get some small cold appetizers (the garlicky marinated cucumbers are my favourite — they're the perfect palate cleanser and extra refreshing during a heat wave).

Sliced pork belly and beef
Sliced beef belly and New Zealand lamb

Then, the onslaught of food. The variety here is incredible, and it's all-you-can-eat. We took that quite literally. We ordered sliced beef, sliced New Zealand lamb, sliced pork belly, sliced beef belly, potato noodles, rice cakes, luncheon ham, fish tofu cakes, quail eggs, Chinese sausages, Hong Kong sausages, shrimp, mussels, handmade fish roe shrimp paste, handmade cuttlefish paste, fish balls, lobster balls, tofu pockets with shrimp and fish roe, enoki mushrooms, king oyster mushrooms, fresh tofu, fried gluten puffs, watercress, cabbage, lettuce, daikon, winter melon, lotus root, sliced potato, udon noodles, and chive dumplings. We ate enough for 4 people. Carmen had to unbutton her jeans. I was just glad I was wearing jeggings.

An insane amount of food
Even more food
Boiling hot pot!

Service was truly excellent. Chinese restaurants are not known for service, but it was impeccable here. Attentive but not cloying, super friendly and polite, gave great recommendations based on what we were already ordering, asked how our food was and gave us advice on the best ways to eat it, consistently refilled the broth in our pot, and almost immediately cleared our table of empty dishes. There are dozens of hot pot restaurants in the Richmond Hill/Markham area now, but this one actually deserves its high ratings and rave reviews. It's about $55 after tax and tip, so it's not a cheap meal, but it's very reasonable for hot pot and entirely worth the price.

Dahu Hot Pot 大虎火鍋

Times Square Richmond Hill

550 Highway 7, Unit 280

Richmond Hill, ON L4B 3Z4

(905) 709-8880