Rolling Pot

Usually we go to our regular spot for hot pot, but this time we are trying to mix it up. Despite it being a holiday, this place had no line, although the restaurant was 80% full. It’s nice that everyone gets their individual hot pot. The sauce station is a nice touch. No need to order from a waiter and wait for sauces to arrive. Food was good. Meat was nicely cut, veggies were fresh. The dessert area leaves more to be desired. Overall it’s a pretty good place. I’d come back. It also trends about $ 5pp less than surrounding hot pot places.

Went last night for the late night special with a group of 5. We arrived at about 10pm, when the late night price is listed as 9−12am on their website (also confirmed by the waitress at the door).
The food is decent, but not amazing and there is a wide selection.
When we checked out, they charged us full price for our meals. We mentioned the late night special while paying and they refused to acknowledge it. Food is definitely not worth the full price they charge.

The beef was all fat. The sauces were overly salty, and TONS OF MSG!
First plate of beef looked ok, but the second was just a plate of fat, and the color of the ‘meat’ looked strange. Low quality meat. Tofu was sour as well. I like the concept of bringing the meats to your table, it is more hygenic I get it, but the quality of meat brought to us was just abysmal.
I think that they add tons of MGS in the broth, because I had drank 5 glasses of liquids at their restaurant and went home with dry mouth along with everyone else in our group. At night I had drank another 2 glasses of water, and in the morning still dry mouth. I think that they add salt to their sauces and MSG to their broth to make people drink more and eat less (BRILLIANT).
Service there is good and bad. The lady server was very nice and did a great job. The young guy server was rude and condescending. You have to speak English to get great service from that guy. We waited 20 minutes for a plate of lamb, and when we asked when it would come he said «Wait your turn». Uhh, I have ordered 20 minutes ago, what turn? The people at the table next to us caucasians spoke english, and everything with them was «yes sir», and «right away» and they got their meats 2 minutes from the time they ordered. Other Chinese people at the table next to us said the same thing about the service.
There was a large group next to us that had to have 20+ people, and they were complaining that they only brought 10 shrimps for 20 people. haha Everybody got ½ a shrimp to eat.
Never again will I go here! Owner very shrewd business people.
BTW, if you go here on Friday night don’t worry no lineups!

I like the concept of personalized pots, because I’m the type of person that usually over orders just so that I can taste everything they have to offer. Good selection of broth to choose from. I’ve gone back here quite a few times, although It is not my favorite place to go. Slow service, but their sauce, side, and drink table helps a lot because you can get some of the things for yourself.

I highly recommend getting the split pot of spicy/​non-​spicy broth. Cooking the beef or lamb in the spicy broth is so flavorful. But unless you can handle the spiciness, do not cook dumplings, wontons or noodles that will soak up more of the spice.

This place used to be a lot better now they are trying so hard with sales to get people back in the place but maybe it’s gone to far that people stop going it seems less busy now weird.

I hardly go out to hot pot so this is only my 2 – 3 time but I was impressed with Rolling pot as everyone got their individual pot and you could choose your own personal soap base. The quality of food was fine, the beef was a little too thin but it was good. There is a sauce station for you to play around in, some are weird that I wouldn’t think of putting in. Service was quick as well but like most AYCE places they keep forgetting some of our orders and I had to order 3 – 4 times before a some portion came. Pricing was decent for what you got but not much seafood in the price except for like shrimps.

Good place to go if you want some spider in your meal and having the waiter laugh at you when you report there is a dead spider in your food without any refund offered:
Oh, by the way, they don’t take credit/​debit.

Hotpot was good but not my favorite.

Went here with group of 5 for dinner. Had our own burners and utensils.
The extra sauces and marinates were good selection. They had a few selections of drinks, 2 litre bottle of coca cola, and ice tea as well as chinese tea. as well as a little dessert selection, chinese sweet fried dough and shrimp chips.
We got the med spicy tom yom which was a good soup base tasty on its own. service was prompt, and the selection of food was good. Chinese greens were yummy, and my favourites were the dumplings, spinach noodles, and beef balls were delish!
A dining experience was definitely worth trying if you haven’t before!

Thought there’s tons of vegetables in hot pot, so it’s safe to bring a vegetarian friend. The staff there recommended non-​spicy soup base to my friend. When we ask them why the soup is creamy white, they told us it’s pork bone soup base. Apparently they have no idea what vegetarian is.
I’m not a big fan of their soup base. 5 of us ordered 5 different soup base and they all taste the same. It’s fairly standard, definitely not a place I’d crave to go back.

— there is a reason why the windows are so frakkin steamed up. INDIVIDUAL hot pots! (15.99 a head)
— no more sharing with your family and friends. ever. at rolling pot, you can go to town with your own broth, and never worry that your sister just stole that rogue shrimp that you forgot was in there.
— service was pretty average for your chinese run joint, but the food was decent (beef tendon, sausage, and endless plates of thinly sliced lamb and beef).
— the make-​your-​own-​sauce bar was pretty sweet. just go easy on the garlic… hehe.
— if you need, there are 3 or 4 spots along the bar for lone diners with their own burners. spotted a couple of fine gents having hot pot on their own when i was there.

I had trouble finding this restaurant on Unilocal,because this place used to be called Osama Hot Pot! Alllahhhhh Hotpoootttt!
I’ve been to a hot pot restaurant a total of 3 to 4 times throughout my 17 years here in Canada. For a Northerner like me, I should be going 3 to 4 times a day. It just doesn’t feel the same here as opposed to going to hot pot in China. It’s not a civilised thing that Canadians have lead you to believe.
I was brought here by my friend Ray and a few others. I’ve watched people eat here for years during my teens while I was spending most of my time smoking cigarettes by the West entrance of Pacific Mall. The place really was called Osama Hot Pot, I’m not imagining this.
Having stepped in for the first time, it was much smaller than I anticipated, and way more crowded than any restaurant in the area.
Here’s the deal:
Step 1: Choose your broths — Spicy/​Mild and etc.
Step 2: Place your order
Step 3: Line up for your individual bowl of seasoning sauce
Step 3.5: Wait
Step 4: Eat
I hate lining up at a restaurant, 17 years and I’m still not used to the lack of servitude from the restaurant staff in North America. If I dropped a napkin in a restaurant in China that’s short on napkins, they’d make the chef go outside and chop down a tree.
The food is superb though, and the sauces exceeded beyond my expectations. The is almost no décor, and even if there were any, it would have been obstructed by the sheer number of people here. It’s an intrusive dining area when it gets busy, but that’s really the most authentic characteristic about this place as a hot pot restaurant. Corner hot pot restaurants in China is a chicken fight.
It’s not bad at all, good eating and reasonably priced.

Ok so they get an extra star because the name of the restaurant is «Rolling Pot» and that’s exactly what I did before going in for some all you can eat.
Same deal as other hot pot places, however a little cheaper than my fave «Mongolian Hot Pot», there is no buffet you order off a paper menu and then they bring you the food to cook. I sort of wish there was a fruit bar for after the soup. Price was right however. See you soon Rolling Pot *snicker* hehehhhehehe.

Winter time! Bring on the soup!
This is one of my favourite places to visit during the winter season. Nothing is better than curling up to a nice pot of soup with ayce meats and veggies!
Plus its boiled food perfect for the winter time when you trying to keep those dreaded pounds off haha!
The moment you walk in you can just see the steam coming out from all the pots on the table. Nothing else really grabs your attention in terms of décor or look, just plain and simple and right to the point. The tables that you sit at are equipped with burners with a control knob underneath.
So the idea is you have a choice of what kinda soup broth you would like to cook your food in. It varies from non-​spicy to spicy, seafood, lamb, chicken, or beef broth and a whole lot of other different types of soup. With me and my friends in the beginning we picked different broths to see which ones are the best ones as we visited the place more and more we found out which ones our favs. As well with the broth I think that it makes or breaks it whether or not you will like the food.
So once that’s done you pick the different kinds of meat; veggies or noodles you would like to eat. I can go on and on with the list of foods available but I won’t, ill put down my favourites like I always do at the end. As for drinks it’s aycd, but you have to get the drink yourself. The cups are located at the front so are the drinks, the one thing that was different was that they had the 2L pop bottles on a cart at the front. So instead of getting up all the time to get a drink we just took all the pop bottles we liked and left it at out table. Lastly you can create you’re own sauce to dip your food in but personally as long as you get the right broth your good w/​o the sauce.
Fair warning this place gets very busy after 1900hrs (7pm) but if you have to wait trust me it is definetly worth the wait. And don’t be wearing too many layers b/​c you’re just gonna end up taking it off.
Items to definetly get:
— shrimp ball
— squid ball
— beef ball
— fish ball
— beef
— udon noodles
— spinach noodles
— bean curd
— tofu
— shrimp
— tripe
— definete must for the soup is something with spice I would suggest the Tom Yum

Checked this place after walking the nearby mall and inspecting the other food places nearby. The place was kinda neat I was expecting a communal pot for everyone but this place uses induction hotplates at each seat so everyone gets their own broth. Not a big fan on boiled meats since you are responsible for its done-​ness it still was tasty with the variety of sauces available and cuts of meats, dumplings. seafood, and veggies. My major gripe was the drink service, you get your own drinks from 2 liter bottles like you were at a picnic.

Gather as little clothing as possible and start rolling your pot because Rolling Pot serves up some «Shabu Shabu» or «Hot Pot».
This hot pot place has something I have yet to see — individual pots! All my previous experiences with hot pot involves a communal bowl and someone stuck with the chore of cooking everything.
This place gets packed and gets fairly grimy. Steam clouding the windows and spilled soup on the floor. Most hot pot places look the same with hot plates, a sauce station, and as many tables and chairs that can fit. You feel like you’re in a chaotic environment because of the loud conversations, the sounds of boiling water, steam in your eyes, and servers that disappear like ninjas.
The service was sporadic to say the least. I found it very hard to get the attention of a server to order more food or get a glass of water. There were some issues with bits of raw meat on someones glass, which I found unsanitary but not unexpected considering the location and the look of the restaurant.
The food was good, as good as hot pot could be. Basically boiled meats, vegitables, and noodles. I found the broth to be more akin to water but the self-​made sauces available made up for the lack of flavor.
Overall, this is one of the better hot pot places to go since you get your own pot to make the flavors you like. $ 18/​person makes this all you can eat hot pot a great destination for those cold winter nights. Just try to leave your jacket in the car or you’ll have a hefty dry cleaning bill.

The place is called «Rolling Pot Shabu Shabu» but it’s not a place for marijuana cigarettes or shabu shabu in the traditional Japanese sense. Rolling Pot serves up all-​you-​can-​eat Chinese hot pot for $ 18 per person[1]. Each diner gets an individual glass-​top burner with their choice of broth to simmer any or all of the following on the menu[2]:
Beef* Pig blood
Lamb Pig kidney
Ox Tounge* [sic] Tofu/​Fried Tofu
Pork/​Shrimp dumpling* Squid
Pork/​Beef/​Shrimp/​Fish/​Squid ball Octopus
Pig liver Pig intestine, skin
Noodle Honey Comb [3]
Short Napa* Chicken
Spinash* [sic] Fried egg
Watercress Rice cake strip*
BUT WAIT. There’s more! Winter melon, Mushrooms, Shrimp, Saugage [sic], Taro, Lotus roots, Fried Gleuen [sic], Corn and several other items.
After you’ve ticked off your choices on the order form, you prepare your little bowls of dipping sauces at the buffet that includes: soy sauce, hoisin, sesame sauce, cilantro, preserved eggs, chile oil among several other options. The abundance of choices will make you pop a few Ritalin tablets just to keep focus.
Soon the waiters will bring plate after plate of thinly-​sliced meats, seafood, vegetables and starches. Don’t bother asking what each item is (unless you speak Cantonese). Just drop it in your pot, swish it around, dip in your sauce, and chow down.
I had a gay olé time with the five other Unilocalers I went with but a few things you should be aware of:
— This place was bursting at the seams on a Saturday night which is good in that you’re guaranteed a high turnaround of ingredients but bad in that you may wait a while to be seated and then wait even more to get your food.
— The waiters are not going to win any Best Server in the Suburb awards and since the place was packed they seemed especially absent-​minded and forgetful.
— You will leave reeking of EVERYONE ELSE’S hot pot. Now take a good look at the above ingredient list. You’ve been warned. (I got a full-​on stank stew sauna when the lady next to me kept her pot on a furious roil and somehow the overhead ceiling fan blew her stank-​stew steam directly into my hair and face.)
— The experience is akin to visiting a whorehouse; You will leave satisfied but also feeling a little dirty and gross.
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[1] $ 17 on weekdays; includes AYCE drinks and dessert
[2] I’m gonna bring a fine-​tip red Sharpie next time to correct the typos
[3] Probably not what you think it is
* My faves of the night

I LOVE hot pot. It was my favourite thing to do when I was a kid. We’d set up our pots and all the food we were going to make. This was all at home, before the invention of places like this.
This was my first time going to a hot pot place in which each person had their own individual pot to cook in, instead of the communal pot. I do believe that this trend started right after SARS hit. It never made a difference to me since I always went with my family but clearly it came in handy when going out with my fellow Unilocalers.
We waited for approximately 10 minutes, which wasn’t bad for a party of 6. While we waited they gave us the menu to tick off what we wanted to order so we could sit and have our order placed immediately. There was a bit of disorganization after we sat down as we should have gotten our pots first to start boiling the water and then have the food come. But we ended up getting our food with no pots to cook them in, uh hello water needs time to boil.
Another thing was that there were drinks on the menu that we could tick off but found out much later that drinks were serve yourself and the menu clearly stated that there was hot tea, I did not see any hot tea and I think that you had to ask for it but what’s the point of having a beverage station then?
As always, you get to go up and make your own sauce. Allergy sufferers beware, there is peanut sauce in the sauce bar and well, let’s just say that sometimes people use the cutlery for more than one thing. And cilantro lovers/​haters there is raw cilantro and you will get a whiff of it as you pass.
If you’ve never been to hot pot, it’s quite simple. Order food (meats: beef, lamb, pork; veggies: napa, spinach, watercrest…), put food in to boiling water, wait for it to cook, take it out of boiling water, add your special ‘homemade’ sauce and devour. It is all you can eat and there is no extra cost if you don’t finish everything.
The service was ok, there were many times when I would look up and not see a server in our area and had to wait to wave someone down but it was busy in there. There were some funny misspellings like «Spinash» for spinach, the rest of the night it was called spinash and I do believe I will be calling it that for the rest of my life.
Reminder: don’t wear nice clothing unless you want your dry cleaning bill to be high, I left my jacket in the car which isn’t smart for the 2 degree weather but it was for the sake of my nostrils for the rest of the night.
They need to get better ventilation in there but hey, maybe they have a great one but people just keep cooking up a storm. Just don’t go in here freshly showered with nice clothing on that you will be wearing out.
All in all a great time had with great friends. Definitely will take my parents here one night, but I do miss the communal ones as it lets my laziness creep in while my mother makes my food and feeds me.

** 3.5 Stars **
15 Word Review: «A fun experience with good food made better by leaving your jacket in your car!»
Generally when you start walking towards a restaurant and realize you can’t see inside because of the steam from the food inside, it should be a good indicator to go inside with as few items of clothing as possible unless you enjoy doing laundry!
However regardless of this fact, Rolling Pot is a great hot pot (or Shabu Shabu, whichever you prefer) place and if you’ve never been it’s a fun experience!
1) You start out by ordering your broth in which your food will be cooked in
2) Order up all the items you want (raw meats — pork, lamb, beef, shrimp, veggies, greens, etc, etc)
3) Walk up to the «Make-​Your-​Own-​Sauce» counter and mix as many possible types of sauces as you can and pray it turns out for the better
4) DUMP EVERYTHING IN!!!
5) Consume with your specialty sauce and enjoy!
Good thing was the food tasted really good but I would’ve preferred if this place was cleaner. They served us water with murky glasses (others with raw beef chunks on them) and a lot of the place looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in ages!
And I’m taking another 0.5 star off for the rather slow and off service. Given the place was full and it’s an AYCE (all-​you-​can-​eat) place so the servers are running around but I was hoping they would be a bit more attentive.
All in all though, Rolling Pot provided a group of us Unilocalers with a good time and good food so I can’t complain! And I’m sure I’ll be back here again soon!