Review: Grand Honour Hot Pot

[Obsideon]

In chinese it's "Ah Yut" Hot Pot on Granville & 41st, they have a "higher class" version Chinese restaurant across the street that charges an arm & a leg.
I normally don't write reviews unless it's a really good experience, but unfortunately this was the polar opposite of it! I dine out at least twice a week. I try to go different restaurants and I return to the good ones because I love eating all the times! (Evidence can be found at my gut area hehe) but I regretfully stepped foot into this establishment a few days ago.

Here's my lil' review:

The ONLY good thing here is that they serve unlimited Oysters (which I am obsessed with) whereas Chubby Lamb limits you to 2 per person, but that alone cannot save this atrocious restaurant.

At $18 for All-You-Can-Eat it's average around Vancouver.
First the food. I went with with a bunch of people and got to choose 3 soup flavours. We went with Satay, Spicy Hot and Century Egg + Cilantro base. The satay was disgusting and the other 2 had absolutely no flavour. They could have all been boiled water for all that mattered. I was still "ok" with that because we mix our own sauces of Soy/Peanut/Chili sauce into our own bowls for dipping to create some of the flavour but that's where I draw the line;
The portions served are NEVER accurate. We ask for 3 orders of wings and we get 4 wings. The next round we order 2 orders and get 6 wings?! What's going on! The seafood we order is always cut in half whereas the cheap stuff such as fried tofu and cabbage plates are doubled! (Don't be so obvious in trying to stuff us with crap and get us out) The fish was literally BITTER!
The server NEVER comes by to ask about anything, just plops down random plates of whatever (regardless of if we ordered it or not) and walks away, it wasn't busy at all!
We have to ask at LEAST 2 times for anything. Most things we have to ask 3 to 4 times. Simple things such as Plum Juice refill, napkins, re-filling the soup (water) takes 10 minutes to accomplish for these sorry excuse for servers. We also marked down the "special order" of adding Geoduck for $10 and it never came. We then had to flag down a server to ask if it was still on it's way, he just grunted something like "I'll check" and he never returned. I finally found the manager (if that's what she was) and asked about the same plate. She proceeds to tell me "oh we're sold out" Could she not have told us 30 minutes ago when we ordered? Are we just to assume that it's sold out because it never came? We asked for water about 6 times. That NEVER came throughout the entire meal but at that point we already gave up. We kept asking to get our soup refilled because it has evaporated beyond being able to cook anything and the food in the pot was already burnt, you could smell it. The manager finally came by again and we vented everything to her that happened to us. She apologized (half-assed) and offered to get us a new pot of "Clear Soup"
That's it!? After all the agonizing suffering we went through we were offered a fresh pot of Boiled water with cabbage?! Very unprofessional.

Now here's the icing on the cake. When I got home I had a very, very bad case of food poisoning. Cold sweats and runs free of charge!! I called my friend and she also said she couldn't even go to work the next night because of stomache-aches!

I don't understand how they can still be operating with such low standards. There are plenty of other Hot Pot places around that I thought were bad already but compared to this place it's like a Gold Mine!

Highly recommended to avoid. You have been warned!

Edit: Forgot to mention halfway through the meal they were "sold out" of Oysters as well ... but the kicker is I saw it being served to other tables. Apparently there is a limit! Ho ho ho!

[rsxrsxrsx]

i had a very similar situation at HKYK seafood Hot pot in richmond

[albert116]

wow thats brutal.

i went there a year or so ago and it wasn't that bad. Thanks for the heads up...looks like the place has gone down hill.

with such shitty service i sure hope you guys didn't tip them...i won't if i were you

[R8]

Sorry to hear that Obsideon... I never go to hot pot's other than Posh XD... not trustworthy man.... and I don't think the "ah yut" restaurant across the street is the same owner... cause the baller one is pretty good :P

[HonestTea]

Have you guys been to the one across the street, "Ah Yut"?

Cause that place is pretty fucking good

You should try it out hahaha but it's REALLY expensive..especially when you order their signature dishes(like Abalone etc.)

[nns]

http://dinehere.ca/restaurant.asp?r=331#39680

You own/run Ebisu, right? I like how you reviewed your own restaurant: http://dinehere.ca/restaurant.asp?r=2093#9168

[!SG]

this that hot pot place that shares the building with hsbc?

been there a long long time ago, was ok, but wasnt good.

haha, ppl that go to hkyk go there cuz its open late night, and u can get late night dimsum..., and well if ur special, u get the private rooms.

[hamsup]

and cuz of your horrible hot pot experience... we didn't meet up till 10ish .. hahahaha.. i should of went to play vball. haahha

[Obsideon]

That was when we first opened for less than 2 months. Had to get the word out somehow If you noticed I write good reviews of other restaurants too (quite possibly direct competition but I don't mind)

In all honesty I write it how I see it with as little to zero bias as possible. I write all reviews without thinking of comparing them to us. I really do enjoy dining with such a big variety of different restaurants and the diveristy of cuisines in Vancouver. I eat out all the time. It's at the same time a good and bad thing for me haha but hey all's fair in love and war so I just gotta work on NOT being even close to this Grand Honour's level.

[.Renn.Sport]

Originally Posted by R8

Sorry to hear that Obsideon... I never go to hot pot's other than Posh XD... not trustworthy man.... and I don't think the "ah yut" restaurant across the street is the same owner... cause the baller one is pretty good :P

posh is not hot pot LOL

[Obsideon]

I better hope it's not the same owner, or I actually think I should go over there and tell them how the Hot Pot place across the street is totally ruining their reputation!

[bbbj]

I'm pretty sure they're the same owner

[cowcowcafe]

last time i went...one year ago?
i had some unfinished food, untouched, but the meat was there for over an hour though, and some veggies too.
Thinking "shit, gonna get charge for it" manger tells me, O its ok we will use them again.

[TRDood]

^^^ WTF!?

i swear by the Cattle hotpot now. it's by far the most consistent and reliable place ever!

$1 for 2 cokes/sprites or $1.50 for the bamboo drink is the best thing ever. the waitresses doesn't give customer that much attitude and orders were pretty accurate.

btw, POSH is nowhere near chinese hotpot. LOL
and they are not great value anymore because it's now $15.88. i'd rather go cattle for $17.95.

[Obsideon]

Wow Posh raised the prices?.. I went once when it was like $12 but they charged for EVERYTHING, like a dollar for chili, a dollar for peanut sauce, a dollar for practically anything that comes to your table that's not on the order sheet! It still came out to about $16ish per person for us and for no seafood, 2 meat plates and a buncha veggies we all agreed that classic Hot Pot is definitely better!
Little Cattle FTW!

[wahyinghung]

I think Posh raised their prices couple months ago when I last went around Jan this year

[RiceFarmer]

Originally Posted by Obsideon

I better hope it's not the same owner, or I actually think I should go over there and tell them how the Hot Pot place across the street is totally ruining their reputation!

I had the exact same experience with this hot pot place. Order was ALWAYs cut short and the waiters were extremely rude and seemed like they dont give a crap. Went there once and never ever will go again. I have already trashed them to all my friends. Don't go give them business!