I really wanted to try a new hot pot place and was craving seafood. When I go to an all you could eat hot pot place, I expect that there would be good quality meats, seafood, good selection of veggies and they must have a large variety of dipping sauces. I found this place by chance, the reviews were kind of effy but I was willing to try it. It was difficult to find this place, it's actually outside of the mall. This cute little restaurant is located in the T&T Mall Plaza. It's outside and right beside another Hot pot place called Sichen Hot Pot. This place was a little bit different because their food was served on the conveyor belt. I love the idea of that. We got seated right away, I got the Yak butter hot pot, the spiciest broth 8.99. My hubby got the light spicy broth 6.99. My broth was SO DELICIOUS, it wasn't too spicy, everything was still flavourful and enjoyable. Bubba enjoyed his broth too, it was just enough spices for him. We were seated at the bar because there were larger groups coming in to fill up the booth sections. We ordered a plate of lamb, beef and pork. Demolished it. Portions were so generous. I loved this place, I love grabbing whatever I wanted - emptied the contents into my pot and stacking up the green containers. My favourite things that I munched on was the enoki mushrooms, clams, mussels, watercrest, yam noodles, beef, pork, lamb and the quail eggs. SOOO darn goood with my dipping sauce. Will definitely be back this week haha. Happy eating fellow yelpers! read more

Came late night on a friday after my friend and i got our nails done in the plaza upstairs. We got the herbal soup soup base AND OMG it was delicious! The ingredients come out out on a SLOW and SUPER SPACED OUT conveyor belt. Tbh i was extremely tempted to reach out to the other side to get a dish rather than wait for it to come around. We got seated in a booth, that had like 4-6 mini stove spots, so they seem to be able to accommodate lots of people! The meat comes out on a plate that you order on your own and the choy varieties were limited. Typical to hotpot places, the sauces making station is on the side and has lots of variety! Something i appreciated was the availability of cilantro and minced garlic. We also noticed some single seats for people who come alone. So nbd if you want some hotpot but dont want to do the work at home! TLDR; cute, basic! If in the area, why not? read more

I like the gimmick of this restaurant. But the food is pretty average. I went for a lunch and the place is pretty much empty. Tried it . Cool . Not sure if I would go back again. read more

Coming here was purely for the sake of experiencing this wonderful concept of conveyor belt hotpot, such a Markham thing to have. So I will rate this whole idea a 5/5, but when it actually comes to the food that I am getting here, it really is no better than cooking hotpot in your own home with the same exact ingredients. I do think that whole pricing structure is kind of confusing and misleading. There is a price on the menu of $27.99 and you would think that it includes everything and that price for an AYCE meal is very decent, but then when you actually order, you realize that you actually have to pay an additional amount of money for the soup base and when the bill came, it was a little more than $40, so definitely be prepared for that. I felt that for the quality of food that I got, this may have no been quite worth but the concept of the whole thing definitely makes up for it. There is basically everything that you could be looking for here on the conveyor belt and they do not cheap out on the amount of beef, lamb, and pork that they give you once you ask for a plate of it. There were a couple of items that I've never seen before and tried and was not a big fan of. I remember this one item that looked like a fancy fish ball, but was fried and tasted stale and weird when soggy. But anyways, not a big deal. There was also a very good selection of sauces that you could make yourself with the sauce bar available at the back of the restaurant. They also had raw eggs available for you to crack into your soup which I appreciated very much. Lastly, for seating and decor, the place is very small and I would imagine it filling up a lot on a busy day. I went on a Saturday night and majority of the tables are full at all times, so I would recommend making a reservation before going to avoid disappointment or a long wait time. Although my party of three did have a reservation, we still ended up having to sit at the bar like seating which made it very difficult to talk to each other. So if you can the booths, it would be most ideal. The place felt very clean with a white and green theme going on. Food: 3/5 Service: 3.5/5 Decor: 4/5 Concept: 5/5 Overall: 4/5 Would recommend to visit and experience, but probably won't come back for a while. read more

We liked the convenience of the conveyor belt. We were a bit worried at first because we sat at the very end of the belt, but the food was still fresh and you can always request food from the waiters if you don't see it. The base cost is about $27 per person, plus soup base is an additional $5-10. The soup bases are very flavourful. The beef quality was really good. There's only beef and lamb, which you order from the waiters. The conveyer serves everything else, there's a bit less variety than some other places. Conveyor includes: napa, watercress, lettuce, cilantro, taro, seaweed, lotus root, daikon, potatoes and another root veggie. There's emoji, and 2 other types of mushroom as well. Meats also include luncheon meat, chicken, pigs blood, tripe, pig skin, beef tendon and other inards. There's fishballs, tofu, tofu balls, fish tofu cubes. There's yam noodles, vermicelli and ramen. May have missed some other items, but that's what we remember. Overall it's pretty good for a convenient meal, service was great (cleared dishes, explained dishes and soup bases, filled drinks quickly). It is a bit pricier than some other places though. read more

I don't know why it took me so long to write this review but here it is! New conveyor belt hot pot concept has arrived in Markham right in the middle of Langham Square. The plaza across from the Peach Tree on Kennedy. The place isn't big but the tables are big enough for groups of 6 but be sure to reserve. The servers are attentive but there's not really a need since it is a conveyor belt. The food is automatically rolling to you lol. But your experience will differ depending on where you sit on the conveyor belt line and who else is in the restaurant. Luckily my group got to sit right at the beginning of the belt so we got first pick of the food. Everything was fresh and there was a good variety for sure. The only thing that is not on the belt is the beef and lamb. It is individual soup pots though if you are into that. I feel no ways about individual versus groups. Like all hot pot places nowadays prices have gone up but compared to other places I enjoyed the experience and cleanliness more. Dessert could be improved there wasn't much except fruit and fried buns and with condensed milk. read more

Side By Side Hotpot - Do-It-Yourself Food Near Me - Markham, Ontario

Another restaurant only pretty much based on the gimmick that they offer the conveyor style hot pot. Since you're practically grabbing stuff off the conveyor belt there's not really much service needed. The quality of the meat was honestly kind of rough with no fat. While waiting for things on the conveyor belt if the table in front of you or you're practically sitting in the last seat your options are more mineralized . At that point I think I got kind of bored waiting to get food I wanted so I just ordered off the server instead. It's nice to get your own pot yet the soup bases were also mediocre . When it came down to grabbing your own sauces it would be nice if there were lids on top, while proceeding to scoop some sauces I could see a bunch of flies just flying out which is super unhygienic and unappetizing. In conclusion, will I come back? Probably not since it's below average but thumbs up on the conveyor belt idea side by side!! read more

This is more of a 3.5 rating. Let me begin by advising why this is not a 5 star rating: I did not find restaurant as English-friendly as it should have been...from the front of the restaurant...little to no English, I was only able to pinpoint this place based on another Yelpers' "outside" photo. Then there was the communication with the server...we were fine with pointing at what we wanted to order odd the menu however the server should at least be able to communicate simple words etc...she wasn't even able to advise me to say they did not have Diet Coke, nor was she able to advise what type of meat were available..."Beef?" was all she could say. This could have been remedied if the menu or signs would clearly explain how things worked...the conveyor belt was obvious, but there was no mention that meat would be. Tonight out separately etc. Maybe a revamp of the menu to provide steps would be helpful. There are only 6 (booth-style) tables with 6 counter seats, therefore be prepared to either wait or return at another time. Now for the positives. Bright, clean and lots of self serve-friendly aspects such as the conveyor belt, sauce & garnish station along with bowls, napkins, spoons and broth. On the conveyor belt, there were 20+ different items for the hot pot: tofu, tripe, quail egg, fish paste, chicken, 3-5 types of leafy veggie, fish filet, bean curd skin, fish tofu, marinated beef tenderloin, wood ear, seaweed, shrimp, mussels, clams, 3-4 types of noodles etc Flavour of broth (pork-seafood) was great, a good variety of sauce and condiment, easy to operate heat source, despite the communication challenge (server spoke mandarin), this was a delicious lunch and would recommend it. Just be prepared to either wait for a desirable seating or return at another time etc due to the limited seating. P.S: restaurant is located outside in the "upper" area on the north side of the plaza complex (T&T). read more

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Food was good and glad it still tasted fresh, despite being out on a conveyor belt, however, was disappointed we paid close to $80 for all you can eat hot pot, for two, for a weekend lunch. Looks great for pictures and a fun concept but, nothing special. read more

The idea here is that you are seated beside a conveyor belt and you grab the items you want for your hotpot. The only problem is that they're a little inconsistent with what they put on. I saw shrimp and muscles almost the entire night while I saw tofu and mushrooms very infrequently. Honestly, there isn't much selection of food items. They're very limited with their veggies specifically (no broccoli, spinach or corn). Both the lamb and chicken were very mediocre and my girlfriend noticed that their quail eggs are the canned kind, which were rubbery. They have a sauce corner with bowls, spoons and toppings with a good selection, which the wait staff are really good at making sure nothing's too low on. One thing that makes up for it is the service. The wait staff check up on you pretty frequently for soup and water refills and can bring you meat items (which are order-only) plus any items you wish to have that haven't showed up on the belt for a while. Everything is super clean, including the sauce corner. Easily the strength of this place. The price is $24.99 per adult on Mon-Thurs and $3 more on any other day. Soup bases are costed separately at $5.99 or up per person. So I ended up paying roughly $85 after tax and tip, which is a bit much for not being terrible impressed. Honestly, at the end of the day, the food quality and selection doesn't really entice me to return. read more

The concept is fun and different from other hotpot places! Its cozy and clean! (Make sure to reserve just in case as the place is small.) Service was excellent. Servers were very attentive with removing empty plates, refilling soup etc. My chopsticks fell into the pot twice and both times different servers promptly brought over new chopsticks! Food wise, there is a good selection of dishes on the conveyor but a lack of meats. They give you a plate of lamb and beef. The conveyor belt does not seem to offer other meat options. They had most of the standard hotpot foods and more. Everything was fresh and good quality. Overall, it was a very unique experience. Definitely should try! read more

A cute sit down place for hot pot. Pretty expensive; our bills came out to about $40 a person (it was about $30 for the base AYCE price plus another $7-10 for the broth). Each person gets their own pot for cooking. What you're really paying for is the novelty of the conveyor belt, from which you can grab different ingredient to eat. A plate of both thinly sliced beef and lamb were given to us. The issue with this place was the service. When we arrived with our group of 3 there was a table available which the server sat us. One of the other staff told her that we couldn't sit there and we were stuck waiting for a bar-like spot (not the greatest place to be since you're at the end of the conveyor belt line). Once we were seated, the party whose table we originally sat at arrived and were served first. It took about 10-15 min for anyone to acknowledge us. When we were finally able to be served, our server couldn't speak English (only Mandarin) and told us she would find us another server. After 2 more servers came by we finally had someone who spoke English/Cantonese. Overall the hot pot was pretty solid. The conveyor belt is fun. Watch out for service if your can only speak English. Would probably try this place once more, but you can definitely get better hot pot for a cheaper price. read more

Been wanting to come to this place and finally did. We were promptly seated however the place is not that busy. Decor is good place looks nice and clean this is a few restaurants here in the GTA you can dine with a conveyor belt. Food selection is minimal sliced beef and lamb is brought out for you at per request. Meat quality is good, food on the conveyor belt is ok nothing spectacular. They also have good selection of sauces but fruits looks like been sitting for a long time, no ice cream included. Price is too steep not worth it, you pay for the decor not for the food. If you are willing ro pay for the price and dont want to wait in line for a table this would might be a better option. read more

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Make sure whoever sits closest to the conveyor belt is attentive to grab what your table wants! The reason for 3 is because it was overall below expectations and would probably not be back. Would give a 2.5 if that existed. Leaning towards a 2 to be honest. It lacks a lot of variety, and just really misses the mark for the price they charge. Price: like a review said below, after picking a soup and the base price, comes to about 40/45 per person. This is mongolian style hot pot so each person gets their own stove and pot. Meat: you only get beef and lamb. You can grab some other things like calms, mussels, spam, and fishballs off the conveyor belt, but NO chicken, salmon, or random stuff like tripe. This was the main disappointment Vegetables: this was also a little disappointing as there wasn't too much variety here as well. Some romaine lettuce, watercress, but again, very low variety Sauce: standard... What you can expect from any hot pot place Dessert: ok this really disappointed the group. The fried buns (which are normally warm at other places) were cold..have you ever eaten a cold fried bun before? It's a greasy rock.. there was also fruit which looked like it was sitting there for a while.. As I said, overall it was an OK meal but will most definitely not be back read more

TLDR - DO NOT GO! Terrible food! Worst hotpot I have ever had, the soup base tastes like it has gone bad and there is not a lot of choices of food for a hotpot restaurant. Even worse customer services! I was asked to wait for a table and they would call me when the table became available - waited for almost 2 hours, not a single phone call. Then I went and checked, there were multiple empty tables and they just forgot to call. I wish there is a "no star" option because it is not worth any star at all. read more

Went today and it was my 3rd time here. First time was fine but today was horrible. Came at 9 and had to wait 30 min for a table which is fine but when we got seating was when they stopped putting out new food on the conveyer belt. We were left with what others didn't take and when we specifically asked for certain items they would either ignore our request and then when we asked again they would just say sorry sold out. Service was so bad as well. The place is small and there was just 3 other tables but the guy was not attentive and would go on his phone. The staff had dinner while we were there which I understand but they would see us calling them and choose to ignore us. I'm an understanding person just ask for a minute and it would be fine. And for those who think I am being picky they were a hot pot place that apparently were sold out on their beef and fish balls, mussels, fish and tripe. They only had veggies and noodles on the conveyer belt 30 minutes in of our meal. The bill was 40 a person before tip and tbh I did not want to tip but as a server myself I feel guilty when I don't. So I tipped 8 dollars on a 80 dollar bill. HOWEVER, they had the audacity to ask my friend who was not full at all cause there was no selection of food to tip even more. He was stopped by staff after I paid and was ask hey you didn't tip. Tip is not a requirement and it is illegal to ask for it but he was adamant even going to tell my friend to charge his card again. That is unacceptable behaviour esp when he is like my boss is at the back. If you do not want to get in trouble for not getting tipped then don't give such bad service!!!! I threw 2 dollars on the table and left. Wish I could give 0 stars bc it was such a bad dinner filled with bad service and mediocre food. AVOID THIS PLACE read more

Food was ok. Not a lot of seafood selections. Staff was friendly and readily available to refill soup pots with water and take away empty plates. Small place, not suitable for large groups. read more

This place is located in a Chinese plaza with a T&T grocery, restaurants and businesses, so as you can imagine finding parking spaces can be a little difficult depending on time of day. I arrived on Saturday around 5:30 pm, got lucky with parking, and to my pleasant surprise there was no wait at the restaurant for a table. It's set up like kaiten sushi (ie. conveyor belt sushi) where small dishes are placed on a moving track from the kitchen and moves around the restaurant so that you are able to choose and pick your own food directly from your seated table. As a hot pot place, the small dish selections include vegetables, noodles, seafood and meat options. The restaurant is not very big, there are 6 x4 tables and about 8 counter seats. It is AYCE hot pot, and the menu indicates a 2 hour time limit to eat. Weeknight and weekend pricing varies and they have adult, senior and children prices. The soup base price is added as an additional cost based on the type of soup you choose ($6 +). Once you've ordered your soup, there is a condiment station against the back wall to make your own sauce to dip your cooked food in. The back wall also had a small selection of a couple plates of fruit and fried buns with condensed milk that you can help yourself to. I imagine that the "dessert" selection varies each day. I chose the Fish Soup Base which was a white soup with goji, ginger, onion and red dates. I liked this soup to cook my food in because it was light in flavour. If you prefer bolder flavours you may want to try one of the other soups such as the spicy ones. Each person chooses their own soup since you get individual pots to cook in. Frozen sliced meat is also ordered at the time you order the soup and includes sliced pork, beef and/or lamb choices. Once the soup arrives you can start picking small dishes off the conveyor belt to your hearts content :) Being able to grab your dishes and eat at your own pace is also nice. I personally prefer that the plates are small in portion because it allows you to try more variety of food. If you want more of an item you can just grab seconds, forths, fifths. The options the night I went were pretty decent and included a variety of mushrooms, fish balls, beef balls, mussels, clams, shrimp paste, marinated beef, chicken, napa cabbage, Chinese lettuce, watercress, burdock root, taro, potatoe, corn, various noodles among others (some more adventurous items included pigs blood, tripe, duck web, beef tongue +some other things I wasn't able to identify). I don't go to AYCE places too often. While the price may be slightly higher, I personally don't mind it since I appreciate that it's a smaller place (means higher costs for the restaurant overhead since they buy in smaller quantities). The place is clean, food quality is decent, service is good (they constantly came to pick up emptied platters). I think this is a good place for groups of 1 to no more than 4 and is suitable for different types of diets (ie vegetarian, pescatarian, gluten free). I only hope that this place continues to do well and stays open since they are small, with limited number of seats and turn over it may be hard to maintain variety of options, the freshness of food and other overhead. read more

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This was a below average hotpot place. The variety of dishes were minimal, and the dishes on the conveyer belt did not taste fresh. Service is extremely biased towards native speakers. read more

If there was an option for zero stars I would honestly do that. This place is way too over priced we ended up paying around $50 per person! We also ended up going back to the restaurant, realizing that they have scammed us, we were originally supposed to pay around $40 per person but they decided to charge us ten dollars more. The receipt wasn't even translated, it was all in Chinese and they thought we were dumb enough not to say anything. Well, we did and all they gave us is 10% off our next visit which is never going to happen. The waiter didn't know English so we had to use our hands to act out what we wanted. Overall, the restaurant was clean and the food was good but they scammed us so be careful when you visit this restaurant! read more

Located in the same plaza that contains the T&T, it can be a little hard to find since the English name of the restaurant is quite small. Look for the ZenQ and it's two doors down from it. $25.99 per person on weekdays and $28.99 for weekends plus $6-8 for soup base. I would say prices are slightly higher than some other places I've been to but it's not too bad plus the concept is neat! Beef, pork and lamb are brought to the table upon request and everything else is self serve! There's a sauce bar containing all sorts of different sauces. Dessert consists of oranges, deep fried steam bun with condensed milk, and one other fruit of some sort (I don't know because I wasn't particularly interested in dessert). Everything else comes via conveyor belt and you grab what you like. Good variety of items (clams, fish, shrimp, squid tentacles, pigs blood, veggies, vermicelli, yam noodles, ramen, tripe, taro, potato, mushrooms, just to name a few) sand they were constantly putting more food on the conveyor belt. I noticed they didn't have luncheon meat or dumplings. Everything was pretty fresh except for a couple of dishes that have definitely been circling for a while. It didn't bother me and it's to be expected. They were very quick to take dishes away and refill your pot with more broth. I liked how everyone gets their own individual pot. Restaurant is pretty small so not good for large groups. read more

Great experience! Very clean and no greasy smell. Authentic tasty with fresh food! Strong recommend!

We went there before it was officially opened. It was a rotating hot pot bar and the food was fresh. We went there again last evening and things have been even better. They did not have chicken initially but after I gave my feedback, they now do. There are quite a selection of soup bases. I chose the mushroom and my husband chose the tomato. They're both delicious. The only down side it that it's a small place and it's hard to get seats on weekends. read more

Came here because of the cool lookconveyor belt and great reviews. I've never been at a ayce hot pot place with so little selection of food...A lot of missing items on the belt that we had to ask for. But there is no menu so you don't really know what's available. read more

Absolutely horrible service. Been here twice and both times multiple booths and seats available and they always say it's booked and not available to seat. The most recent was ridiculous. They sat us down then 5 minutes later told us they don't have enough seats and needed us to give up a seat, after sitting us down. We decided to leave and I will never come back. read more

I usually never write reviews. But have to do it for Side by side hotpot. Had dinner with a group of friends to celebrate my birthday. It's all of our first time going to side by side. The food, taste and quality and variety, was way better than I expected. It deserves more than 3.5 stars. The servers were so friendly and attentive. Very impressed with everything. Especially recommend it for a group of ppl and for first time Hotpot eaters. Since it's individual small hotpot and conveyor bell style, so you are always in control of what you eat. And the small portioned food made it also so easy to try all varieties and less wasted food. Not only the hotpot was good, but also had fresh fruits, deep fried spring rolls and (best of all) deep fried bun with condensed milk :-) read more

Service: I thought the waitress was polite and promptly with our requests. Food: lack of variety (red sausage slices are my fav but they don't even have that). I sat at the "end" of the belt; so a lot of better stuff (enoki mushrooms) are taken. Environment: it's average ... saw a few fruit flies. Their fruits are covered with Saran Wrap. Large tables can fit only 6 people (unless additional member is willing to share a pot). Overall: first time going to a rotating belt hot pot so it's a new environment but I'll stick to the traditional style hotpot with more variety. read more

Definitely one of my favourite hotpot places in the GTA. They have AMAZING soup bases, great service, and a really homey vibe. First of all, you have to try their all butter spicy soup base, it's so aromatic and flavourful. The balance between numbing (peppercorn) and spicy is on point, and smells like...China. Their mushroom soup is soooo good as well. Make sure you drink some of it before cooking The concept of the conveyor belt is really cool. You get a visual of the food, and can pick and choose what you want to eat without having to flag down a server. Pro tip: for the chopsticks, make sure you twist the wooden part to secure it. No one wants floating chopsticks in their hotpot read more

The food was good and the service was excellent. I think the cost is a little on the higher side since the soup was all extra.

I think one star is the best I can gave them because cause the creativity nothing was good. They don't have much variety of food it's just the same thing over and over again. Place is super small. The service was very bad. They blamed YELP for the reservation error and told me either I just sit there or leave. When we sat down they asked us to move over again. Normally I will be fine and will be glad to help them out, but because that lady was too rude so I was very annoyed. And honestly, I just wanna be comfortable for my dinner, give me a break. Also, a little tip...watch where you're sitting because if Ure sitting near the door then you probably won't be able to get the food you cause the customers infront of you gets to get them first and that's what happened to me. I NEVER GET TO HAVE MY ENOKI MUSHROOM. Moreover, yeah they have very hygienic cool chopsticks, but like other customers said they always fall apart. And it kept falling into the pot, that was very annoying. It was a bad hotpot experience. 100% won't recommend it to my foodies, friends and family. read more

Side By Side Hotpot - The chopsticks issue where a lot of costumers complained. Yup it happened to us too. VERY annoying. - Do-It-Yourself Food Near Me - Markham, Ontario

Decide to try this place simply because of the converter belt gimmick. The price is high when you add the cost of the broth, but that's the same everywhere nowadays. We had a party of 7. Had to split up into two tables. They have table for up to 6 only. The idea of getting the food from the belt is nice, but I was sitting farther away from the belt. I couldn't see what food is on the green container. I can only rely on my friend from taking down all the food, which is annoying. I think it's best if you are a party of 2 or 3 and seat on the bar style table. It would be nice if they can put the food on a plate instead like the conveyer belt sushi. I tried the bone broth which is flavourful. The meat you have to order on the side, which is decent quality. The problem is the side dishes. The are not much varieties. We keep getting the same food on the belt all the time. And all the good ones were all taken before it gets to us. There was a time you only see king mushroom keep circling around, nothing else. They don't even have dumplings or meat balls. What kind of hot pot place is this. This is totally not worth it. read more

I loved it, the selection was great. My only complaint was that they ran out of clams half way through the meal.

This place is pretty and the concept is wonderful however it's small so you have to wait a long time even though you made reservations. Also there isn't many options for food and it's way tooo expensive for a hot pot place. Paid over $100 for 2 people. read more

too pricey not worth it. , the items they put on the conveyor is very limited. the whole 2 hrs we had only 1 serving of shrimp which is 4 pcs only and time only 1 serving of clams for 8pcs, 1 serving of sausage and 1 serving of luncheon meat then one serving of corn showed up after were done. not even a serving of dessert was served. definitely not coming back .. better think twice. were the first and only customers hoping will get more options but too bad .. never happened. read more

They had a wide variety of toppings, however, some of my favourite hot pot toppings weren't there. It's a bit expensive for a ayce hotpot for me, but the quality of the meat is great! I'd go again as it is close by, but not worth travelling far for. read more

Pretty great place. Broth selection is good and flavourful. Meat is slices nice and thin. Good selection of seafood fish tofu vegetables etc...missing some things like hot pot dumpling and only 1 cut of beef read more