Landmark Hot Pot House 春秋火鍋: Fresh ingredients, nice cars, & birthday song

At a hot pot restaurant, aren't customers their own chefs? The chefs in the kitchen....don't they just wash the veggies and slice up some meat? Yup, I totally forgot about the seasoning and crafting up the soup base. Chef Raymond Cheung of Landmark Hot Pot House is one of the 8 who has achieved the title of the 2013 Chinese MasterChefs. The restaurant has also won numerous awards for being the "Best Hot Pot Restaurant" and for some of their signature dishes. 

We were at a table of 8 so we had two hot pot bowls. On my side, we decided to get two different soup bases: SiChuan Mala spicy (四州麻辣) and preserved eggs and parsley (皮蛋莞茜). This was convenient so that the spicy eaters and the non-spicy eaters were both happy. 

When the 4 assorted meat balls came, it's obvious that they weren't like the store-bought ones. (I also thought they look very cute, but that's just me.) From left to right: beef, dace fish, shrimp, squid.

Four Assorted Meat Balls

What's hot pot without fatty beef? Yum! Thinly sliced and tender beef goodness.

Fatty Beef

Before food came, we each got a glass of sour prune juice (酸梅湯) along with a pot of tea. People usually drink this during hot pot because hot pot is "yeet hay" (increases hot air in our body, or something?) and the drink is supposed to bring back balance because it's "cold". Food that's fried is another thing that can make us "yeet hay". Hard to explain, but a Chinese thing. I never liked this sour prune juice because it has this really weird sour, but sweet taste. However, I actually quite liked it when I drank it with hot pot that day. 

Sour prune juice 酸梅湯

We also had a number of other dishes like spinach, noodles, pork, fish tofu, etc. (Apparently their fish tofu is famous as well so I'm glad I got to try it. Definitely worth trying - it's like a tofu pop, but with fish in it instead.) Unfortunately, I did not focus too much on taking pictures of the food that day.

Landmark Hot Pot House is opened until 2am for "siu yeh" (late night snack/meal). They have a separate menu for that in which congee becomes the base for hot pot. I think there are a number of reasons that make Landmark Hot Pot House different from others. The place is very spacious and looks upscale, they are known to use the fresh ingredients, their soup base are unique, and they have 3 different sauces for each person. Also, they have some really nice cars parked in their parking lot (in which they actually have a worker directing traffic and watching the cars). Hence, it's also on the pricier side. 

The waiters there were friendly and one of them was also very talkative. Near the end, I did feel a bit of a rush to finish eating to let them clean the tables. For dessert, they gave us complimentary neapolitan ice-cream. Since it was my birthday, they put the "Happy Birthday" song on and it played three times in the entire restaurant (hence the candles were half gone).


I would like to sincerely thank my friends for planning this surprise birthday dinner for me. Though you guys may have thought you failed in keeping everything a secret, there were definitely surprising factors that night. I've never had anything like this planned for me before and never would have expected it so I felt especially loved and grateful.

The smile right here is from all the birthday wishes I received and being surrounded by lovely people. I truly believe that thoughts count the most and time is the most precious gift. 

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

And here, I'm going to share one of the funny cards I received.