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| - Personally, I think this place has gotten some pretty unfair bad reviews. So, let me get the bad out of the way first. Yes, it is verrryyy expensive for hot pot. I came here on a Saturday night, and had their famous spicy soup base. The bill came to around $55 after tax and tips. So just be prepared to dish out that much money for hot pot if you plan on trying this place. A lot of people also complain that the soup is too oily. I agree that the soup does get very oily, but unfortunately that's just the nature of spicy hotpot. The traditional Sichuan spicy soup base is made with chili oil, and then as you continue adding all kinds of meat to the pot throughout the night, it'll just continue to get more oily. If you want to avoid the oil, make sure you keep the pot boiling, so that the oil will spread to the side, and dip the meat you want to eat in the middle.
Now, onto the good stuff. The restaurant definitely spend a lot of money on renovations, as the inside of the restaurant is beautiful (from the menu to the teapots to the overall decor). I found the service here to be very good. I came with a party of 16, and the moment we sat there, 3 waiters came up to our table to help put the "pillow case" over our jackets, and then asked if we had any questions and offered English menu where needed. Throughout the night, the waiters were constantly walking around to ensure our cups were never empty, adding soup to the pots, and handing out napkins when they saw that we needed more. I found that all the waiters were very friendly and helpful, which is the exact opposite of most other hotpot restaurants where service is pretty much non-existent.
The variety of food offered here was also much better than other hotpot places. They had a lot more unique items on top of the normal items that other restaurants offer. There was also a variety of seafood choices included in the ayce price like scallop, mussels, squid, shrimp. There was also an appetizer bar that offered many different choices of cold dishes. I personally didn't try any of these items, but some of my friends did and some of the dishes were pretty yummy. They also have a dessert bar that offered fruits and a few pastries. The watermelon after all the spiciness was very refreshing. As others have mentioned, all the food items is set up in the middle of the room, and you go up to get your own food. I personally liked this better, as I can take whatever I want and the exact portions I wanted. Also, there wasn't the issue of waiters "missing" our orders, which happens quite often in the traditional ayce hotpot places.
Overall, I found XiangZi to be definitely better than other hotpot restaurants. Whether or not it's worth the extra $20/person...I'm not sure. I wouldn't mind coming back again, but definitely only for special occasions.
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