iCook

I love their teriyaki and tepanyaki buffets. Most other hot pot places do not offer them. However, they don’t have many deserts, only different kinds of jello. In addition, I wish they play more modern music in their restaurant. The last few times I went, they were playing 80s and 90s music like spice girls and N’sync.

Went here late at night for dinner. Arrived at around 9:15 and last call was 10:00. They have a wide selection of skewers as well as soup base. Everyone gets their own mini pot but it took around 15 minutes for the pot to boil.
This is a self served style hot pot restaurant where the selection of food is comparable to other hotpot places. Not much seafood selection other than mussels, shrimp, octopus and some fish. Beef was a bit rough and the quality of food was nothing special.
Their service was okay as there was a person following me every time I got out of my seat, but maybe that’s only because they were bored and there were only 5 tables left. They get an extra star for this weird and cute waiter following us around making sure that we had everything we needed.
Price came down to 25 $ per person after tax and service charge. Would probably only come here once a year.

Bento box lunch — Grilled salmon
I need to try the hot pot/​fondue set next time. The bento box was okay, nothing too special. I loved the fruit the most because they were fresh and sweet. The salmon was pretty dry and seemed like it was cooked for a bit too long. The seaweed salad was abnormally green (food dye?), even the sesame seeds were green :/​
Service was good though :)

We booked a table for 11, the staff told us there is 12% service charge, when we get there, they gave us 3 separated tables, we told them we will pay the bill separately. Staff seemed acknowledged our requested. When we ask for the bill, they charged us 12% service charge on each bill. We asked the staff why, but that male waiter said they have already informed us on the phone about 12% service charge but we said they didn’t tell us we won’t be sitting together. No matter what we say or argue, they just ignored us! Food was good but POOR customer service!!! No wonder the resto wasn’t busy on Saturday!!!

This place must had changed its management since my fiancé’s brother has last visited. He warned us that this place has gone downhill to a point that he was embarrassed to have taken our cousin here last time. My fiancé just liked the concept of having your own pot and I really didn’t care for hotpot (it’s basically boiled veggies for me), we decided to give it a try anyways.
This place was pretty empty when we came (especially for a Saturday night). To our surprise, we learned that we could once again grab our own meat and veggies — and there was an abundant of choices! Lamb, pork belly, beef tongue, beef, shrimp, chicken, all the intestine goodness, fish balls, lobster balls, lots of balls, dumplings, Sui Mai, salmon skin, a great variety of noodle and veggies!
The sauce station had all your hotpot needs too — BBQ, hot sauce, shrimp paste, dark vinegar, hot chili oil, sesame oil, fresh cilantro, scallion, ginger and peppers.
There was a list of basic free broths and ones you could get for an additional charge ($ 1 or $ 2). I went with the free miso broth, a few of us went with chicken broth and also the dairy and cheese broth.
As usual I didn’t care much for my hotpot. No matter how much variety there is — still blend to me. Miso broth was good but hot pot is still hot pot to me. What I did enjoy however was the teppanyaki small dishes! They offered made to order Japanese, Korean, Thai, American, and Chinese appetizers (all included in the ayce). The enoki mushroom beef rolls were flavorful and the shrimp wontons were crispy. The star of the night however were their grilled ox tongue — so tender and melt in my mouth good. I must had ordered at least 7 of these.
For some reason when I grabbed the ox tongue from the hotpot selection, it came out a lot tougher and chewy (maybe the way it was cooked?). So I went back to ordering the grilled ones!
Dessert — they had cup sized mango tapioca, red bean soup, taro pudding and custard. I thought the red bean soup had the perfect amount of sweetness — and since they came in a small plastic cup — I told myself I must grab 4 at a time — multiple trips later I was stuffed and had to wobble out.
Hope they keep the current management until my next return. Ox tongue + red bean soup, although both not hot pot items — I will return for u two!

iCook used to offer a wide range of soup broths, but they’ve taken them off the menu. The price for AYCE hot pot is similar to other places (around $ 25 per person after tax).
What’s different at iCook:
1. DIY self-​serve items that you can load onto a plate and take back to your table. You even need to get your own drinks at the pop dispenser with many options out of order.
2. Individual Pots — this was great when there were more soup bases offered
3. Meat selection — You have to order the meat with the waitress, they no longer leave it out in the buffet area (lamb is the best choice, every other kind of meat was tough and did not taste fresh)
This place used to be A-​OK, but I think it’s gone downhill in terms of quality and freshness. I’ve never tried their dim sum, that’s something I’ll try next time.

We came here at 9:00 am for dimsum and overall I would say it’s pretty tasty, but not quite as good as I thought it would be (considering that they are more pricier than other dimsum places)
I think the dimsum menu is really diverse and offers a lot of items for customers to try! If you’re thinking about trying something new at dimsum, I think this place has a lot of variety. I think that it’s best to come try this place out on their special pricing hours. Special pricing on weekdays is 9 — 11am or 1:30 — 3:00: $ 2.58 (S/​M/​L), and $ 3.98 (XL); and on weekends it’s $ 2.98 (S/​M/​L), and $ 4.38 (XL).
Some of the things I loved:
–The korean style BBQ beef ribs! So tasty and hot to order.
–The deep fried squid/​cuttle tenacle was good. It came in a crispy texture that I really like!
–Really good and prompt service.
Some of the things that I didn’t like:
–The Ha-​gow was not full of big shrimp pieces to my surprise. I felt that it had more skin in portion to meat. The skin’s texture was also different, kind of more chewy than other places.
–The dried scallop plain congee did not taste like it had scallop flavour at all.
–The steamed rice noodle with shrimp (ha-​cheung) didn’t look as appetizing as other places; there were steam bubbles visible on the rice noodle.
–The dessert steamed milk pudding was too sweet for my taste that I couldn’t finish it.

Not quite fresh. Only like the fish noodle.

Horrible service, poor quality.
Our bowl was dirty, and when we asked for a replacement, our server returned 2 min later with exact same bowl with scum in exactly the same places. Way understaffed, I also had to get up to grab sauces for myself.
The food didn’t taste fresh, the cuts used to separate the food were very sloppy, and to top it off, we found hair in our food. It was definitely the worst service and food I’ve had in years and I’m never going there again.

Good dim sum. Great price!

We went here for Valentine’s Day dinner yesterday. I have wanted to try out this place for a while since the location is so convenient for me.
iCook Buffet is an all-​you-​can-​eat hotpot restaurant. Where it differs from all the other chinese hotpot places is that each person gets their own small hotpot bowl and instead of checking items off a menu, you go up and pick your own food items/​drinks. This is very useful for those who find it difficult to decide what to select on a menu as you’re not sure what it is and don’t want to waste it. The individual hotpot allows you to eat by yourself here as some hotpot places require at least 2 people.
You’ll start off with your selection of soup base/​broth (chicken soup, fish soup, vegetable soup were free, the rest of the specialty soups add extra $). We picked the chicken soup and fish soup, but were unsure which was the fish soup as neither looked like fish soup to me. I only tasted MSG in both.
These small hotpot bowls heat up very quickly. The food selection was alright, not as big selection as some of the other places. Also some of the foods were not labeled, and some we didn’t know how to cook it so we didn’t pick it (there was fish in a plastic bag that I later learned you cook it with the bag). Also they only had fountain drinks (pop, nestea ice tea, water) and not the asian drinks found in other hot pot places (plum juice/​chrysanthemum tea). They also had dessert which you help yourself to (mango sago pudding and sweet tofu pudding).
We found this place not as «yeet hay» as some of the other hotpot places. Not sure if it’s because of the smaller hotpot bowls.
Also there is a 10% service charge automatically put on your bill. So no need to tip extra. The menu says there is a 1.5 hr time limit but we were there for 2 hours without a problem.
Overall a great place to try out if you are into hotpot, or just looking for a new buffet experience!

It is ridiculous busy here. The variety of the buffet and the broth selections are great but when it comes to the overall finesse of the restaurant they’re lacking. There are no extra plates to pick up from the buffet so you have to use the same plate over and over — which is a huge health violation i think. The condiments are also a bit messy. There is absolutely no service here as well. All they do is bring over broth, reset tables and occasionally clear a plate here and there. The guest gets their own water and food.
I would come back late at night when it isn’t so packed and its cheaper!

For starters, I’m not a hot pot frequenter nor am I into soups at all (I love phở but I don’t consider phở a soup, more like a noodle broth — would you consider ramen as soup?) For 19.99 all you can eat hotpot for a weekend adult price, you can’t really deny that Icook is very well-​stocked — lots of selection of shrimp, multiple tofus and veggies, noodles, frozen pork, lamb, beef, chicken. Also, I just love mango sago dessert and tofu dessert at the end of any and every meal. But I find the concept of paying for «All you can eat» for hot pot just a rip-​off in general. Most of the time, I filled up on fatty soup base and noodles.
But I do want to counteract that I have been here for dim sum previously and really enjoy the deep fried goodies available for dim sum. They lean towards contemporary dimsum with creative dimsum dishes.
If I were to score the restaurant, I kept it at a 4 because I love the dim sum ambience, quickness of service and quality but I’m not really a fan of the hot pot dinners.

THE GOOD:
All you can eat hot pot. There’s a refridgerated wall of veggies, seafood and meats where you pick what you want. Great for a group that includes vegetarians because there were plenty of veggies and tofu products to choose from. There’s a small bar for mixing your sauces. They refilled the soup broth frequently. It was $ 18 + service charge. Extra cost for specialty items like oysters or specialty broths. Most of the meats and seafood were previously frozen which I don’t mind cause it would keep the food from spoiling while on display in the fridge. Suggest starting at early dinner time i.e. 5:30 or 6 as it gets really busy around 6:30 and onwards. Menu says there is a 1.5 hr time limit but we went over that without them shooing us out.
THE SO-​SO:
Service charge is added even though we serve ourselves primarly. I suppose this is standard as most people would probably not tip, otherwise. Location is in the Warden/Steele’s plaza where the T&T is.
THE BAD:
No dessert but that is okay considering how much food I ate for the main meal.

This is a go to place for our family for dim sum. They closed the dim sum in the summer and changed it into an all day hot pot. Problem is, no one went there when it was hot pot in the day. Alot of people missed the dim sum.
Well they realized their expensive mistake and have changed it back to dim sum. All the staff have changed and while they charge you $ 1 per person for unlimited pop and tea it’s now just tea. A bit of a rip off considering you used to get pop too.
It’s a safe bet for dim sum compared to all the other places in the area.

Huge hot pot dinner restaurant. The joint transforms into a dim-​sum restaurant during the earlier parts of the day. Great place to go with large groups of people.
During hot-​pot hours, I like how each person gets their individual hot pot.

Was recommended this place by a friend and took us about an hour and a half to get there from downtown TO by subway and bus.
The place was all you can eat hot pot buffet — you self serve and can go up with soft drinks dispenser. Hot pot items include sliced lamb, beef, pork, chicken, various vegetables and seafood balls and tofu. Puddings were limited to some red bean and mango on the day we went. Also a variety of condiments which you can mix to form your own potent cocktail to dip and flavour your soup base — the free ones are chicken, fish and vegetable. They do offer you more varieties but all these are charged extra.
Don’t forget to ask for senior discount if not offered and applicable to your party.
It’s in an out of town retail park and the place is reasonably modern with a big round TV atop showing some karaōke video clips.
Was stuffed after 2.5 servings! Eat slow and pace yourself :)

If you ever wanted to try something different or wanted to stuff your face with food without it being too particularly of the unhealthy kind, this is the place to go. Everyone gets their own individual boiling pots of soup/​broth then you go make your own dipping sauce and pick out your selection of meats, tofu and vegetables to dunk in the soup/​broth. If you’ve never been to a hot pot restaurant, it’s a very fun and interactive experience.
It’s a fixed price all you can eat «buffet», or in this case, hot pot, that includes fountain drinks (it seems like they no longer carry the Chinese self-​serve drinks). Depending on your choice of broth, you may be charged extra. Vegetable and chicken broth are always at no extra charge. Their spicy broth is actually extra spicy. Just remember, you can always concoct your own sauces at the sauce station to add more flavour to your meal.
Service is probably a little crappier than mediocre, but it’s okay because it’s mainly self serve. They do come around to help adjust the temperatures and re-​fill your broth.
At its best, the atmosphere is calming, clean and private. At its worse, it’s like a huge chicken broth sauna filled with steam, people and wet floors. It all depends on how busy the place is.

This is a buffet with a choice of hot stock pots (2 per table), some of which are priced extra.
There is a wide array of items from thinly sliced frozen meats, a large variety of frozen «balls», and a few other items. The frozen balls where the kind you can buy in at any Chinese grocery store for $ 1.00/pack. They were largely tasteless. The meat can also be bought those same grocery stores for around $ 4.00/lb. What you add to this mix is simply sauce from all the necessary ingredients which are supplied at a ‘make your own sauce’ area.
They also automatically at a 10% service charge, and I don’t know if this is applied before the HST or after the HST is applied. Dinner for the 2 of us was $ 47.00 and some change. This is not good value at all, and the taste is generally insipid… and you have to cook your own food.
This is an interesting concept, but it has to have a better selection of food at this price. I will not return.

I went to iCook a couple times and to me it’s very average as a Hot Pot destination. There are definitely better ones as I’m one of those that do not like to go up to the Marketplace-​style display to pick out my selection of food because some items would be misplaced.
The GOOD about this place is that it is at a convenient location, same plaza as Warden T&T. It has a much more hype décor than other Hot Pot places as you will see a 360 degree screen fixed on Asian MTV while music places in the background.
It is a larger place than your typical Hot Pot place as well, which means less wait time or NONE. What can be better than UNLIMITED drinks you can go up to the dispenser and get yourself? I forgot what selection they have, but it’s better than PAYING for water-​down drinks at other Hot Pot restos.
What really surprised me was that the FIRST and ONLY time I went there for Dim Sum Brunch, I actually quite enjoyed it as typical Asians would always joke that whatever they had leftover the night before would be used to make the Dim Sum. I have nothing to prove if they did or not but I was HAPPY eating there that morning.
There were maybe another 2 – 3 tables of patrons that morning, so it was much more quiet than your busy and LOUD Dim Sum spots. I enjoyed the chat with my family that day.