Haidilao Hot Pot at Dubai Mall was one of the first restaurants I wanted to write about.
If you’re traveling between Dubai and Abu Dhabi,
chances are you’ll end up at Dubai Mall more than once.
I already thought Starfield malls were huge,
but when people call this the largest shopping and entertainment complex in the world,
you really start to understand just how massive Dubai Mall is.
From luxury brands to global SPA fashion labels,
plus restaurants, cafés, and all kinds of attractions,
it somehow feels new every single time you go.
I have way too much to share about Dubai Mall,
but for my first post,
I’m starting with a hot pot favorite: Haidilao Hot Pot.
Hours: 10:00 AM–12:00 AM
A lot of people have probably heard of Haidilao already, right?
It’s a chain that also has locations in South Korea,
mostly hot pot restaurants around Seoul.
Funny enough, I’d never actually tried it back home.
There’s a Chinatown area inside the mall,
and this spot is one of the restaurants there.
Chinatown is on the first floor of the mall
and it’s marked on the signs throughout the building,
so it wasn’t hard to find at all 🙂
I heard Chinatown only opened this past March,
and it has this flashy, slightly Hong Kong-style vibe
with red walls and bold accents everywhere,
so it’s worth a quick look even if you’re just browsing.
Haidilao is near the area with all the neon signs,
and the restaurant itself is pretty big,
so it’s easy to spot.
They asked us to wait out front
just until a staff member came over,
so we sat in the waiting area for a bit.
Since it was around China’s National Day,
they handed out what looked like traditional snacks,
but we were seated before I even had time to open mine.
The staff explained the restaurant setup,
showed us how everything worked, and escorted us to our table.
My husband said it felt just like
the Haidilao locations he’d been to in Korea, both in decor and system.
You order on a tablet,
and while I didn’t photograph the full menu,
you can choose up to four different broths.
We went with a half-and-half hot pot: spicy red broth and white broth.
It’s definitely on the pricier side,
so if you keep adding things without thinking, the final bill can be a little shocking.
Vegetables, dried tofu skin, and yuba
all have to be ordered separately too.
For the two of us, the total came to about $74.
While we were waiting for the food,
they brought over something that tasted a bit like a clear kimchi soup without any solids,
and even gave us a plastic pouch to store sunglasses.
Then the hot pot finally arrived!
They also gave us two pairs of ladles, which made things much easier.
The white broth had a few stock options,
and I think there may have been a beef-based one too,
but we just chose the chicken broth.
The red broth was Sichuan-style,
and for me, the mala flavor was pretty intense.
I’m not usually great with that super numbing spice level ^_^
For sauces, you mix your own at the self-serve sauce bar.
If you’re not sure where to start,
there are a few recommended sauce recipes posted above it,
so you can use those and tweak them to your taste.
There was also fruit and a punch-style dessert at the bar for after the meal.
The Dubai watermelon was surprisingly sweet and really good.
Then all the ingredients we ordered started arriving~
dried tofu skin, yuba, lotus root, cabbage, bok choy, cilantro, and wood ear mushrooms.
They gave us what felt like an entire bunch of cilantro,
and even though I tried, I couldn’t finish it all.
But thinking about it now, you probably don’t need to order extra cilantro
because at the sauce bar,
they already have finely chopped cilantro available.
Soon everything was bubbling away~
And while we were sweating and eating,
there was even a noodle performance happening, so it was a lot.
Whenever we do hot pot, my husband and I always order lamb.
The lamb in Dubai was good too—no gamey smell at all.
Hot pot is always a little chaotic while you’re eating,
but it’s so satisfying that I keep coming back to it anyway.
I expected mostly Chinese diners,
but the tables were filled with people from all kinds of backgrounds.
I think we ended up ordering two plates of meat,
and we were absolutely stuffed.
If you look inside the white chicken broth,
there were actually quite a few chunks of chicken in it,
but for some reason I didn’t feel like eating them, so I left them in the pot.
Near the end, we added fish balls too,
and the portion was kind of adorable—but by then we were already too full.
At the next table, there was a family who looked Indian
celebrating a birthday with their little kid,
and it reminded me of old-school birthday parties at TGI Fridays—
several staff members came over singing, and it turned into a whole event.
It made for a very lively, slightly chaotic meal.
For National Day, they were also giving each table
complimentary pan-fried pastries based on the number of guests.
The fillings came in two kinds: red bean and egg-flavored.
The red bean one was unexpectedly refined and delicious.
It kind of reminded me of yokan—if I hadn’t been so full, I would’ve eaten more.
But I was already completely full, so I only managed two pieces before leaving.
When I took photos and videos of them cutting the pastry,
they proudly showed me this too, saying it was part of the tradition.
I’m guessing it has some kind of meaning,
though I’m not exactly sure what character it was supposed to be.
I finished with another slice of watermelon
and then asked for the check.
Before we left, they offered something like Polo mint candy
and toothpicks, so of course I grabbed a few candies.
And then, as we were heading out the door,
they gave us another snack as a gift.
It tasted kind of like squid-flavored chips,
and I ended up taking it back to the hotel and eating it as a late-night snack.
You might be wondering,
why go all the way to Dubai for Chinese food?
But once you’re there, you realize there actually aren’t that many memorable local meals.
I genuinely loved my Dubai trip overall,
but if I had one disappointment, it was the food scene.
And honestly, that’s kind of a major thing to be disappointed by ^^;
So throughout the trip,
I found myself eating mostly Asian food.
We went to a lot of Vietnamese restaurants, Japanese spots, and Chinese places.
Anyway, if you’re heading to Dubai Mall,
I definitely recommend checking out Chinatown at least once.
It’s not some huge must-see attraction, but it’s fun to wander through.
And besides Haidilao Hot Pot,
there’s also a big food court, a Xiaomi store, and more nearby,
so stop by if you have the time!