Yo! Hot Pot x Dim Sum Restaurant at Tea Tree Plaza is a futuristic family friendly dining venue with robots, conveyor belts and cute desserts!
Review by Claire Davill
Hot pot restaurants make great family friendly dining options, and Yo! Hot Pot x Dim Sum has taken it to the next level, with a sushi train style setup for choosing your hot pot ingredients. Small plates of meats, vegetables and noodles trundle past you, while brightly coloured robots zip along tracks above the conveyor belt delivering other dishes to tables. A robot waiter expertly wheels around the tables delivering drinks and smiling and winking at you as it returns to the front of the restaurant.
There are two table options at Yo! – booths next to the conveyor belt with individual recessed hot pot bowls, and open tables with a single, large hot pot. We were seated at an open table when we visited. These tables are better suited to families or larger groups, as you can all share one large soup base, or divide the large pot into two or three different soup bases. Kids are unlikely to be able to eat a single soup base serve, so this can reduce the initial cost of the soup overall.
You won’t have access to the conveyor belt from the open tables, but you can order using a QR code on your table and have your plates delivered. Prices are clearly listed, and conveyor belt plates are colour coded by price, just like a sushi train restaurant.
There’s a wide selection of soup bases to choose from, clearly labelled with dietary information. The spicy soups are clearly identified and you can choose your level of spice for them as well. There’s several kid-friendly soup options, including Japanese Sukiyaki (our choice), fresh tomato broth and soy milk broth.
Staff will set your chosen soup into the recessed pot and set it bubbling. The edges of the pots don’t get hot, and the recessed design makes it very safe for kids. You can control the heat using buttons on the side of your table.
Order your sides from the menu or pick from the conveyor belt, and start cooking your own customised soup! We chose corn on the cob, lotus root, king oyster mushrooms and instant noodles for our soup.
There are meat and seafood options on the conveyor belt and menu, but for extra flair and fun, you can order one of their signature options – Beauty and the Beef or Beauty and the Pork. The result is a doll wearing a meat dress, surrounded by dry ice smoke delivered to your table. The meat is wafer thin and delicious when cooked in the soup base.
There’s a self serve station for sauces, dips, and plenty of pickles and garnishes that’s well worth a visit too, and this won’t add to the cost of your meal.
The restaurant’s focus is hotpot dishes, but there’s also plenty of delicious looking dim sum options as well. Check the display at the front of the store to see the options.
There are a few dessert options available and these are amazing. We chose the Meow Panna Cotta, a jiggly, wobbly, adorable dessert shaped like a cat, served on a slice of cake with strawberry sauce. There is also a very cute milk tea teddy bear and a mango and sticky rice icecream that looks like a real mango. We also ordered the mixed berry cheesecake which was delicious. The dessert serves are quite large, and the Meow Panna Cotta in particular could be easily shared between a couple of kids.
Things to consider:
- Like all hot pot and sushi train style restaurants, it can be easy to over-order and lose track of how much you’re spending, so it can get expensive quite quickly. Be conservative, you can always grab more dishes from the conveyor belt or order extra from the menu if you need. It’s easier to keep track of your spending if you order off the menu rather than the conveyor belt.
- While the hot pot is quite safe, kids will need to be supervised while dropping food into the soup and will probably need help serving themselves to avoid splashing hot liquid.
- Because the restaurant is newly opened, it’s very busy (we visited in September 2024). There may be a wait for tables at busy times. Unfortunately you cannot book ahead, although the website states this will be available soon.
- If you’re planning on ordering one of the desserts, it might be a good idea to order them straight away. They do sometimes sell out. You can specify when ordering if you want your dessert now or after you have finished your meal.
- The restaurant is right near the small play area in the courtyard of the dining hub, which has a tunnel and slide for kids to burn off some energy before or after a meal.
Location:
Tea Tree Plaza Dining Hub, 976 North East Road Modbury. There is plenty of parking nearby, including undercover parking.
The restaurant is open 7 days a week – 11am-3pm and 5pm-10pm daily (as at September 2024)
You can follow Yo! Hotpot on Instagram
For more information and all enquiries please visit the Yo! Hotpot x Dim Sum website.
All photos by Claire Davill for Play & Go Adelaide
As per all our Play & Go reviews, this is not a sponsored post and our review is done completely independently.
At Play & Go Adelaide we make every effort to provide accurate information to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication. We recommend confirming times, dates and details directly before making any plans as details may be subject to change.
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