Dining Out: Christmas Day 2025 Dinner at Xiang Zi Hot Pot

My mom and I decided to go for Christmas dinner at Xiang Zi Hot Pot after last year's rousing success. We invited her bestie and got a 5:30PM reservation. It seems like they decided to do two seating times this Christmas instead of having reservations at any time like they usually do, because when we got there, it was a full house.

Tofu puffs, fish balls, quail eggs, beef tendon balls, luncheon meat, lotus root, daikon, and winter melon
Chrysanthemum greens and tender beef slices
Bean curd rolls, lettuce, napa cabbage, king oyster mushrooms, and spring rolls
White fish, squid, beef tripe, and tender beef slices
Premium abalone
Fresh-cut beef slices
Mushroom and pork bone soup

So, last year, we were blown away by the assortment and set up they had at Christmas. They had a huge buffet-style spread of various prepared dishes and snacks as well as extra raw items to pick up ON TOP of their full tablet menu. But they decided to do things a little different this year. They cut down about half the menu and put almost everything out buffet-style. A bunch of our favourite things — various slices of meat, prepared cold dishes like lettuce stem salad or spicy cucumber salad — weren't available. A lot of the ready-to-eat foods weren't being refilled fast enough. There were only about 10 items we could order from the tablet to the table. Disappointing, since the sheer variety of food is what we love about coming here over other hot pot places.

An issue this evening, though, is that we were seated upstairs. I don't really mind myself (hey, extra steps means I can eat more, right?), but my mom and her best friend are in their 70s and have bad knees and arthritis. And the buffet? Where all the food is? It's downstairs. There's no elevator. So I ended up walking up and down the stairs about 8 times to get enough food for everyone. And that's fine because that's as much exercise as I'm getting this holiday week. No biggie. The real problem? They FORGOT OUR HOT POTS. You know, the actual pots with the broth that we can cook all of our raw food in? Yeah. All three of us ordered the same type of broth — mushroom and pork bone. Not a particularly complicated order. They usually get our pots to us within minutes. But tonight, it took them 45 MINUTES for them to bring our broth pots to our table. This was after asking three different servers to check on them for us. And, mind you, every table gets a 2-hour seating limit here. The server sheepishly had to assure us that they wouldn't have a time limit for us tonight — frankly, the least they could do. If we weren't hungry when we arrived, we were starving by the time we could actually eat our food. 

So, yeah. Xiang Zi's Christmas dinner service this year was a disappointing, disorganized mess. Judging by how long they took to get our hot pots to us, how many empty chafing dishes there were at the buffet, how long it took them to refill all the different ingredients, and just the lack of variety that they usually have, I'd say they were way too understaffed for the sheer amount of customers there tonight and had to cut way back on food costs. I've never had a less-than-excellent time at Xiang Zi, so this dinner was particularly disappointing. (I also just discovered that they don't even have an official website anymore. Are they going out of business?)

On that note, I hope everyone had a merry Christmas and a better dinner experience than we did!

Xiang Zi Hot Pot

Uptown Market Shopping Centre

3989 Highway 7

Markham, ON L3R 5M6

(905) 305-9888

Dining Out: Premium Hot Pot and Sushi Feast at Gourmet Tribe

Took Minji out for her 30th birthday at the newly-opened Gourmet Tribe, an all-you-can-eat hot pot and sushi restaurant. The premium menu is $20 more than the regular menu, but includes a bigger variety of soup bases, meats, seafood (with lobster and crab!!!), and sushi. The regular menu only includes hot pot — no sushi — and has a much smaller variety to choose from. Needless to say, we went for the premium menu.

Shrimp, scallops, bean curd rolls, lotus root, quail eggs, tofu, and tripe
Winter melon, abalone, enoki mushrooms, bean curd sheets, quail eggs, and taro
Lamb and beef slices
Corn, shrimp wontons, winter melon, and daikon
Lobster!
Sukiyaki hot pot
Sweet shrimp, white tuna, squid, and salmon sashimi
Salmon, scallop, and octopus nigiri

Gourmet Tribe is both a market and a restaurant, so you can actually just drop in to shop for a variety of Japanese seafood and meat. The market area is open and airy, and the dining area is sleek and spacious. If you're dining in, you get a dedicated cart for your table, choose your hot pot broth, "shop" for a huge variety of food at the market with the aforementioned cart, and then bring everything back to your table to cook. (Each person at the table gets their own individual pot, which I personally prefer.) Nigiri, sashimi, maki, and donburi are ordered via the QR code menu on your table. 

The food selection for hot pot is fresh and nicely presented; all ingredients are stored in wall-to-wall, transparent-doored fridges that are well-stocked, incredibly clean, and properly labeled. The sauce station comes with a huge selection of condiments, and liquids are stored in pourable bottles so everything is neat and tidy (and, most importantly, avoids contamination). I was incredibly impressed with the quality and presentation of the food. The service was also lovely — super friendly, helpful, and attentive to our needs. Frankly, the only thing I regret is not leaving enough room for sushi. By the time we got through all of our hot pot selections, we were already quite full and I only had room left for a few pieces of sashimi and three pieces of nigiri. So, yes, I would absolutely make a return trip and do the premium menu again, but will need to be far more strategic with stomach space next time. A rookie mistake.

Gourmet Tribe

7500 Woodbine Ave., Unit 201

Markham, ON L3R 1A8

(647) 368-7732

Dining Out: Chinese New Year Dinner at Xiang Zi Hot Pot

Starting the Year of the Snake with a family dinner at Xiang Zi, where we miraculously got a reservation for tonight:

Lettuce stem salad

Spicy cucumber salad

Premium item: Abalone

Sliced pork belly and tender beef

Sliced New Zealand lamb

Sliced Angus beef

King oyster and enoki mushrooms

Daikon, winter melon, and lotus root

Pork blood jelly, Chinese sausage, pork intestines, and fish and beef balls

Pork bone broth

Because is there anything more appropriate than hot pot to celebrate Chinese New Year?

Wishing everyone a prosperous and healthy new year!

Xiang Zi Hot Pot

Uptown Market Shopping Centre

3989 Highway 7

Markham, ON L3R 5M6

(905) 305-9888

Dining Out: Christmas Day 2024 Dinner at Xiang Zi Hot Pot

Every year, my mom and I go out for Christmas dinner, usually a set menu type of deal. But I wanted something a little more comforting this year, and more warming because I've had a runny nose and nasal congestion since Sunday. And what could be more warming than hot pot?

Ready-to-serve dishes: Cucumber salad, lettuce stem salad, and marinated duck tongues

Premium item: Abalone

Napa cabbage, lettuce stems, king oyster mushrooms, and enoki mushrooms

Beef tripe, beef tendon, fish and beef balls, winter melon, daikon, and lotus root

Premium item: Tender beef

Angus beef, beef brisket, beef sirloin, New Zealand lamb, pork belly, and basa fillet

Cooking in mushroom and pork bone broth

Dessert: Fresh-cut papaya, oriental melon, honeydew, and watermelon

On top of their regular menu, they also had a Christmas-exclusive buffet-style spread around the main centre booth, which included ready-to-eat foods like marinated quail eggs, braised tofu, and stewed beef tendon; raw items already separated into dishes that you could pick up instead of ordering from the tablet; a huge variety of all-you-can-drink canned pop; as well as an assortment of cakes, Melona bars, and fruits for dessert. This was awesome. Kinda wish they had this all year round, but I know it's a lot to maintain and it makes the restaurant way more hectic than it needs to be since so many more people are getting up to roam. Still, the food was excellent, the service was excellent, and therefore, Christmas was excellent. 

Hope everyone had a similarly delicious and merry Christmas!

Xiang Zi Hot Pot

Uptown Market Shopping Centre

3989 Highway 7

Markham, ON L3R 5M6

(905) 305-9888

Dining Out: Japanese Hot Pot at Daimaru Shabu Shabu

Started this weekend off with some Japanese-style hot pot at the newly opened Daimaru Shabu Shabu. We decided on the regular "All-Day Premium AYCE Menu" and basically ordered everything. Started with the snack options — Hokkaido potato chips, takoyaki (which was surprisingly good — as close to authentic as it can get from frozen), deep-fried rice cakes, steak katsu, Nagoya-style chicken wings, and watermelon slices (random, but quite an excellent palate cleanser) — and then ordered all the meat, beef balls, beef tendon, dumplings, scallops, quail eggs, deep-fried bean curd skin, crispy bean curd rolls, nappa cabbage, winter melon, radish, corn, enoki mushrooms, king oyster mushrooms, bamboo shoots...

Hokkaido potato chips
Takoyaki
Two-flavour soup base: Tom yum and sukiyaki
Ribeye
Premium beef chuck, selected sirloin, and pork belly
Ribeye and beef brisket
Quail eggs, deep-fried bean curd skin, crispy bean curd rolls, crab meat, mushrooms, and assorted vegetables
Fresh beef balls, dumplings, beef tendon, scallops, and watermelon

Compared to a typical Chinese hot pot place, Daimaru actually doesn't have as many food options, but their broth and dipping sauce flavours are quite different, which is where the Japanese style comes in. We decided to do a two-flavour soup base — one classic sukiyaki and the other with the new tom yum soup. The tom yum was decent, but the sukiyaki was excellent. It is a classic and distinctly Japanese flavour (soy sauce, sugar, and mirin), and it's so flavourful that I didn't find the need for any kind of dipping sauce. Sukiyaki is the one to get if you actually want Japanese-style hot pot. Desserts are also excellent here; they only offer three options, but the ice cream (available in vanilla and chocolate) comes in sealed (!) individual cups so there's no freezer burn on pre-scooped bowls like at most AYCE places, the Hokkaido milk pudding is actually milky with delicious bits of mango and mandarin oranges on top, and the crème brûlée is incredibly rich and luxurious with torched sugar on top that is actually crispy (sorry, but crème brûlée at Asian AYCE restaurants is usually really shitty, usually too gelatinous or liquidy, so this was shockingly good).

Not sure if it's because they just opened (quite literally two weeks ago), but Daimaru's new location is exceptionally clean with incredible service — unfailingly polite, efficient, and helpful. Including drinks (Coke Zero for me, peach soda for Minji, and lychee mint soda for Daniel) and after tax and tip, it was about $58 per person, which is on the steeper side but about average for a more upscale hot pot restaurant. Perhaps a bit too pricey to eat here regularly, but it's a great option for a treat meal or special occasion. In fact, I might just come back for Mid-Autumn Festival...

Daimaru Shabu Shabu

8333 Kennedy Rd., Unit 1073

Markham, ON L3R 4P8

(365) 536-0506

Cooking at Home: Victoria Day Weekend Hot Pot

Seven of us went over to Minji and Daniel's house for edibles, hot pot, and playing Betrayal until 3:00AM.

Spicy broth and tomato broth for hot pot
Dumplings, fish balls, seafood balls, rice cakes, udon noodles, king oyster mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, winter melon, Chinese yam, kohlrabi, gluten puffs, tofu puffs, bean curd puffs, watercress, and dandelion greens
Dumplings, fish balls, seafood balls, rice cakes, udon noodles, beef balls, and lamb slices
Spicy broth and mushroom broth for hot pot

And we got enough food to bring home for the next three meals because we bought enough groceries for a small army.

An excellent start to the long weekend!

Dining Out: New Year's Feast at Xiang Li Hot Pot

Food-wise, 2024 has started off with a bang as my mom and I went for AYCE hot pot at Xiang Zi:

Sliced beef, pork belly, and lamb
Assorted pork and beef intestines, enoki mushrooms, and lotus root
Assorted beef intestines, cucumber salad, lettuce stem salad, scallops, and tender beef
Mushroom and pork bone broth and hog maw and chicken broth (center)
Daikon, luncheon meat, stuffed bean curd pouches, fish balls, bean curd sheets, fried tofu cubes, wontons, beef balls, winter melon, and quail eggs
Sliced beef x 2
HOT POT!
Watermelon and cantaloupe for dessert
Who knew my mom would become one of my go-to food buddies? (Like mother, like daughter...?)

Xiang Zi Hot Pot

Uptown Market Shopping Centre

3989 Highway 7

Markham, ON L3R 5M6

(905) 305-9888