Tak Heng Hot Pot Restaurant 德興火鍋酒家 (2nd visit)

FIRST POST ON TAK HENG HOT POT [HERE]

As a self proclaimed "daily diner trying to find my regulars", I am glad to announce that Tak Heng is officially my favourite all you can eat hot pot restaurant (unless the third as well as fourth visits are not good)! When looking for a new hot pot restaurant to try in Richmond, I felt a bit hopeless since I have tried pretty much almost of all of them. So, remembering that I liked Tak Heng and labeled the restaurant as a possible "Richmond's version of Landmark", I decided to make the revisit. Before revisiting, I read my previous post on the restaurant (lesson learned to always check when revisiting) and was surprised that I thought the menu was limited. The menu has pretty much everything that I like and need!

Walking in for a late lunch, err... or early dinner at 5:30pm, the staff was still setting up. Tak Heng is newly renovated, has comfortable seating arrangements, and is one of the most cleanest hot pot restaurants. The restaurant offers a la carte as well as all you can eat, and we tried the AYCE again.

The restaurant offers complimentary drinks as well as sauces (chilli, bean spiral, vinegar, satay, soy and peanut). I am not sure what kind of drink it is but it tastes like the sweet basil seed drinks, minus the seeds. Also like the last visit, no cilantro, green onion or red chilli was available, but may be if asked?

ADULT $18.98 || CHILDREN (5-12) $13.95 

BROTH $8.00 || POP $2.00

HALF AND HALF, SPICY AND ORIGINAL ($8.00). 

The soup bases taste a lot better than the first visit. The spicy soup base tastes flavourful and has a nice medium spiciness, and the original is a chicken broth. Also, since we came while the staff was still setting up, one of the owners brought over a housemade sauce. The portion is huge (definitely too much for two) and the sauce consists of soy, minced garlic, green onion, jalapeño as well as red chilli. Usually I like a heavy amount of satay and never have a soy sauce base, however, the sauce tastes quite good. There is a flavourful taste from the minced garlic with some sweetness from the soy, and a nice heat from the jalapeño as well as red chilli.

FISH TOFU, SWEET POTATO, PUMPKIN, CORN, BEAN CURD SHEET ROLL, 

WHITE AND OYSTER MUSHROOMS, SPINACH, WATERCRESS AND TONG HO.

Everything tastes pretty generic and my favourite is definitely the corn! Like the first visit, the corn tastes fresh as well as sweet, and not previously frozen. As for the greens, the vegetables are throughly washed (as you would expect but unfortunately does not always happen) and although we did not order the watercress, we were charged an extra $5.00 ("open vegetable" according to the receipt) for not finishing it. We should have asked about the extra charge but did not.

1 1/2LB GEODUCK ($14.00 for 1/2lb).

The restaurant is currently offering a promotion on geoducks, $14.00 for 1/2lb. And despite emphasizing that we only wanted 1/2lb, somehow we received 1 1/2lb? Oh well… I do like geoduck anyways. The slices of geoduck are perfectly thin and tastes fresh as well as tasty, for sashimi and/or shabu shabu style.

PORK JOWL, BEEF RIB EYE AND LAMB.

Starting with the portion, we wrote "1" for each type of meat and there is a good amount of beef as well as lamb. However for the pork jowl, the portion is way too much for two people and there was at least thirty slices! Geezus… as for the taste, the meats are quite tender and is actually the best I ever had at an AYCE hot pot restaurant. The quality is definitely one of the better ones.

COD FILLET, SHRIMP, MUSSELS AND CONGEE.

The ingredients are pretty generic and again like the slices of meat, the portion of the fish is way too much! As for the congee, it tastes creamy as well as tasty and has that natural bland white congee taste which I like.

GRILLED SAUSAGE, CHICKEN WINGS AND STEAMED RICE WITH CHINESE SAUSAGE. 

Oh. My. God. So, one of the main reasons for coming here is because of the chicken wings! The wings are just. So. Good. Crisp with a nice charred taste as well as juicy tasting meat, and a flavourful slightly sweet marinade. The hard part was waiting for them to cool down and I burned my fingers a few times. As for the steamed rice, there is an aroma of smoked meat and tastes pretty flavourful.

CHILLED MANGO PUDDING, OSMANTHUS JELLY AND COCONUT PUDDING.

The mango pudding tastes slightly bland with a subtle sweetness and although not the worst, it is not that great either. As for the osmanthus jelly, I really like it. The jelly has a light, refreshing and slightly sweet taste with a really good amount of wolf berries. When we wanted a second order of the osmanthus jelly, the owner brought over some coconut pudding which is not on the menu (I could not help but think I wanted two osmanthus jellies and hate coconut pudding LOL). The coconut pudding has a light sweet taste and tastes more flavourful than the mango, with an actual tasty coconut taste.

TOTAL: $106.70 + TIP $11.30 = $118.00.

Overall we tipped only 10% because we ordered 1/2lb of geoduck rather than 1 1/2lb (which costed $44.70!) and was charged an extra $5.00 for the watercress that we did not order, despite being an honest mistake. Also, as I am looking at a photo of the receipt for my blog post, we were also charged for an extra can of pop that we did not order! Of course these are honest mistakes but I definitely recommend checking the bill as well as confirming the orders for seafood. And despite these mistakes, Tak Heng is my go to place for AYCE hot pot because the quality is great, the restaurant is clean and the staff is friendly. However, I probably would not order seafood from here again.

POSITIVES

- Clean and spacious restaurant

- Convenient sauce station

- Best AYCE hot pot quality that I have come across

- Friendly owners and staff

- THOSE CHICKEN WINGS AND OSMANTHUS JELLIES

NEGATIVES

- Miscommunication regarding the seafood

- Miscalculation with the bill

LITTLE THINGS

- First post on Tak Heng Hot Pot [here]

- When it hit around 6:30pm, a waiter showed up to work who was friendly as well as attentive (checked frequently if more broth was needed and changed plates without us asking)

- I probably would not try their dim sum

Food: 3.5/5

Service: 2.5/5 (3.5/5 if the minor incidents did not happen)