Haidilao Hot Pot 海底捞, Surabaya

Goshhhhh I felt so thrilled that finally Haidilao opened their door in Surabaya! I'm a huge fan of this hotpot restaurant though I have only been to their outlet once in Singapore (I did not pay that much attention to its brand back then). Firstly built in 1994, Haidilao now has over 300 stores in 100 cities all over the world, making it the top hotpot empire in the world. Even the ongoing pandemic does not seem to have harmed the business as it still draws crowds, especially in their opening week.

The ambiance at HDL is elegant and warm, befitting a premium restaurant for family dining. The seating resemble booths to maintain privacy, while the fittings look luxurious in shades of red, white and gold. The staff will escort you to your table, sanitize it, make an offer to keep your belongings and give you a plastic zip pack for your mask. How is this not a 5-star service? 

The waiting area

I'm not a veteran of the hotpot dining scene, but it ain't a secret that HDL is notable for their top-notch service and 'pre-dining entertainment', and has long been the gold standard for everything hotpot. They offer snacks, welcome drink, ice cream and board games for patrons to enjoy while waiting to be seated. In SG they even give free manicure services using premium nail care products (according to the Surabaya staff, they actually offered manicure service to but was being put off due to Covid situation). FYI, in SG the queue can stretch up to 1-2 hours or more (just like my case in HDL SG), but here I immediately got a table. Of course it is not Haidilao without technology. Ordering is done through iPad, and there is a robot that sends food when it is full house and they are in short of staff. So hi-tech!

Orange juice as welcome drink

At Haidilao, they have different soup bases for customers to choose from. You can order up to 4 different kinds in one pot, awesome no? Of course more kinds of soup means higher the price, but worry not coz we've got the hack here. Keep scrolling peeps!

Chinese Tea - IDR28,000

The tea is refillable here.

Sauce Bar - IDR38,000

Hotpot meal ain't complete without sauce. For IDR38,000, you can get unlimited access to the sauce bar which allows you to customize your own dipping sauce.

*Infamous HDL hack: you can actually get the water-based soup for free and make it flavored by pouring the sauce from the sauce bar into the water. This way, you can save the cost of one soup base.

Mushroom Soup - IDR38,000

The soup was light and it had an earthy sweet herbal flavor. It basically went well with any veg or meat.

Tom Yum Soup - IDR42,000

I only tried a little of the tom yum soup since I could not bear with the spiciness haha. It tasted delicious though. I also did not feel thirsty after the meal, which suggested that no MSG was added to the soup base(s).

Premium Shortplate Beef - IDR78,000

Ordered this as the protein, and it had the most bang for our buck. The meat slices were really good, very tender and juicy. 

Fish Meatball - IDR40,000

The texture was bouncy with a light chew. It also did not taste like frozen food like most cases at cheap hotpot/suki restaurants.

Fish Cheese Tofu - IDR35,000

The fish cheese tofu contained melted cheese inside, which burst out when bitten. Super love!

The watermelon and orange slices were served at the start of the meal, but you can also request for it at the end. They also had fruit soup (or what we call 'es buah'), which tasted so-so but there was nothing to complain about as well.

Generally, it was not only the best hotpot meal I had ever eaten but also the best restaurant service I had ever experienced. Rest assured it is gonna be worth every penny spent. In fact, HDL’s service is the best component about dining here, even better than the food and ambiance itself which can be easily replicated. The amiable, engaging, and attentive service will definitely keep me coming back. I love how the staffs genuinely tried to make diners feel welcomed with the personalised attention they displayed, along with good product knowledge, efficiency, and proactiveness in meeting our needs. The hospitable manager-in-charge was a Malaysian and she put her best effort to communicate with guests in Bahasa. Some other staffs were also proficient in Mandarin to accommodate Chinese guests. Well, it was truly a 5-star experience, needless to say!

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Tunjungan Plaza 5, 3rd Floor Unit 01

Jl. Embong Malang 32-36

Surabaya, Indonesia 60261

+6231-99246836

IG: haidilao_indonesia

Opening hours: 10am - 10pm