Little Pig Hot Pot

TL; DR version: The food is good but not the place to go if you don’t believe in lineups.
I am a newbie when it comes to hot pot, but I could tell this place served good food. For the yin yang pot I chose the mushroom broth (instead of the pork base) and spicy pot (instead of the explosive one), which I loved. Compared to the other average hot pot places I’ve gone to, I think this place has the best soups, hands down.
They use iPad for customers to place orders on their meats and veggies which is very convenient, rather than the old school paper and pencil. The servers are fast, efficient and very friendly.
I went around 7pm on a Friday so definitely the peak time, and I waited for just over an hour for 2 people. That’s the only thing I didn’t enjoy at this place. I was told that they would take resos for more than 5 – 6 people, FYI.
I would definitely go back, but maybe not at the peak hours.

Price：
–Overall: ⁸⁄₁₀ (10 means really expensive)
–weekday $ 25.9; weekends $ 27.9
–soup base has diff kinds but at only two price $ 6.5 and $ 12.5. (Additional cost, expensive for less ppl)
–drinks cost additionally; there are several high quality meat and sea food cost additionally.
Service: ⁸⁄₁₀
−10÷10 for the manager
Food: ⁸⁄₁₀
It is fine. Everything is fresh and delicious. But not as good as a 10.
Food amount: ¹⁰⁄₁₀ (10 means a lot)
All you can eat!
Environment: ⁹⁄₁₀
The loft design is great and the plates are beautiful. Clean and warm.

This place doesn’t take reservations and doesn’t enforce a time limit. The space is small so you can imagine the waits. We had a party of 8 and we were forced to wait almost an hour before the waiters told the previous customers to hurry it up, when they we’re clearly just chilling. I definitely wasn’t impressed with how they run business.
Also, the soup base cost $ 25, on top of the already overpriced cost per person. I ended paying $ 40 after tax and tips. The food was good but not that amazing to warrant the $$$$ price tag. And let me tell you… The waiter/​person collecting our bill had the audacity to count our money in front of us and DEMAND for more tips, saying its usually 10−15%. Well did you ever think about how awful your service attitude is?! Tip is not mandatory.
Never coming back.

Hot pot! Hot pot!
I cheer for hot pot with an enthusiasm usually reserved for sports.
Hot pot is *practically* a sport though. I mean, it’s AYCE — it’s like a challenge that goes down the very depth of my raison d’etre.
Now, onto Little Pig Hot Pot. The TL;DR version: It’s good, but pricey.
The ingredients are of pretty high quality. There’s a pretty wide selection to choose from — ever had a cheese-​filled beef ball? — and the regular sliced beef is rolled into frozen, pretty cylinders for you to dip into your boiling hot soup of choice. Vegetables are all fresh. A variety of dipping sauces are available, but you have to order them from the iPad menu (fun!). You’ll also actually receive everything you order, which other places don’t necessarily do anymore (tsk, tsk, to those places). Tip: If you’re a gluten-​puff addict like me, be forewarned that this item is one puff split into two, so order more if you’re expecting to eat a ton of them.
Ambiance-​wise, it’s a clean environment, though a tad on the small side, you can still sit quite comfortably. Although I highly recommend that you make sure to make reservations before coming, because even on the random Wednesday night that I came, the place was packed to the brim.
If you find yourself waiting a bit in line, you can amuse yourself through some selfie props at the entrance — a giant «Insta frame» can be held while you use those wolf and pig-​noses on a stick props to take the perfect Little Pig selfie.
Service is great. Really appreciated that the owner/​manager came over to our table at the end of the night and asked for our input and explained the concept of the restaurant and the reasoning behind the pricing.
…which is really my only deterrence from coming here more often. I’m totally addicted to the ma-​la/​super spicy broth, but at an additional $ 12.50 per pot, it becomes a much higher price than I’m willing to pay as a single or dual diner (you’re looking at walking out having paid $ 40+ as a single diner!). While I can appreciate that the Szechuan peppercorns used in the homemade broth are delicious and I would actually peg it as one of my faves, I simply can’t justify paying this rather large sum. So sad. I shall go weep my hot-​pot-​less tears now :(