Strength: Fresh Ingredients, Good Service, Full Condiment Station
Weakness: Very Expensive
Other Hot Pot Locations
- Gokudo Shabu Shabu (4 Stars)
The Dolar Shop in Richmond has been open for a little more than a year. Its name, Dolar originated from Hong Kong and is a very specific way of eating hot pot. Authentic Dolar hot pot only has two types of soup base, Seafood, and Satay. Also, they do not use sauce that may cover the taste of the ingredients itself. Thus, the ingredients used in Dolar Hot Pot must be of the highest grade. We will find out if Dolar Shop lives up to its name. They are located in the West side of the Landsdowne Mall, Richmond.
The Dolar Shop Has Is Inside Lansdowne Mall
The mall entrance has a stand in front of it to hold its menu. Potential customers can see what they offer and gauge to see if this price point is acceptable before going in.
First Impression For Interior Design
Upon entering, we see the general style of the entire place from the front counter. Clean and white space with gold accent to make the space look very classy.
Large Waiting Area
There is a large waiting area. The Dolar Shop knew they would have long line up before the store was open. You might have seen a lot of comments about the long wait. Those are all true. Sometimes even when you have a reservation, you still need to wait for more than half hour. The interior is very large, so I don’t think we can blame the restaurant for the long wait.
We can see the good customer service while waiting. They have a small snack bar with drinks patrons can grab while waiting. Occasionally, you can even see staff coming out with a stroller to distribute cups of fresh fruit or other snacks. This does make the wait more tolerable.
Dolar Shop realized waiting has become an issue when most of the negative reviews about that. Aside from the snack bars, they are now offering free dish based on the amount of time you wait. This is quite creative, and speaks value to my time invested.
30% Off For Certain Time Periods
If waiting is not your thing, you can consider coming here when it’s less busy. Additional to that, you can get a 30% discount to make the high price point more justifiable.
High Attention To Detail On Decor
The inside of the restaurant looks very busy. The internal temperature is well controlled, perfect for having hot pot. Bright color and gold accent with some chrome trims really make the space pop. You can see the attention to detail in the crown molding. The Dolar Shop has created a space that brings out the princess inside every customer.
Comprehensive Condiment Bar For $4 Per Person
“The most comprehensive sauce bar” is what Dolar Shop calls this. It is not entirely a sauce bar because they also provide many other condiment, appetizer, and fruit. It is, truly one of the more complete condiment bar in hot pot restaurants in Vancouver.
Fruit are pretty fresh, and they are replenished quite frequently. Not really special, but not bad. The fruit bar are included in the $4 sauce bar access. It’s well maintained.
The sauce bar access also include appetizer. They have 3 types of appetizers at any given time, but the type of appetizer will rotate. These appetizers are well made.
This is the actual sauce bar. The long line of stuff to the left are condiments such as garlic, green onions, XO sauce, chopped chili pepper, etc. They really did not cheap out, but once again we paid $4 for it.
Dolar Shop Recently Upgraded Their Tableware
The last time I visit them, they were still using white tableware. This time I see pottery style plates, and lots of them. Looking back at the appetizer bar, there are at least 200 new small plates. I admire them for investing on this minor detail.
Electric Cook Top Has Very High Output
The electric stove top is very powerful. There are 6 settings, P6 being the highest. We bring the heat to P3 after it’s boiled. The heat is consistent, so we can expect how many seconds the food would be at its best. The high heat dries the soup base quickly and servers are vigilant in refilling the soup base.
Soup Base Cost $7 – $9 per Person
Another Dolar type hot pot is they are one small pot per person. Just like Gokudo Shabu Shabu. I’m a big fan of these type of Hot Pot because I hate people taking my food. I also don’t like swapping saliva with my friends. Single person pot is just more sanitary. My spicy soup base has lots of herbs in them, so it has a very complex profile. This is very tasty.
Server Mix Dolar Sauce For You
Earlier, we mentioned Dolar type hot pot rely on freshness of ingredients. This means their sauce cannot be too overpowering. This is the generic sauce Dolar Shop provide. It is very fitting to dip beef and seafood.
Server Will Split Shrimp Pate For You
The presentation of the Shrimp Pate is very interesting. It doesn’t look like much shrimp paste, but an order can be made into 8-9 decent sized shrimp balls. Our server explained to us that no starch was added to their shrimp pate, so it taste really good.
Stacked Presentation For Beef & Lamb Platter
The beef and lamb platter has interesting presentation where the plates are stacked. This works well for the limited space on the table. The top and bottom are beef, and the middle rack is lamb. The quality of the meat are better from the bottom up.
Bamboo fungus is crunchy. There is a lot of quail eggs for the half order.
Tripe Served With A Large Bowl Of Ice
There is a thin layer of tripe in this order. The rest of the bowl is ice. There are approximately 10 pieces of tripe in one order.
Fried Bean Curd
This Fried Bean Curd was one of the signature dish for Dolar Shop when they first opened. The perfect cooking time is 3 seconds. When done right, the bean curd should be crunchy and absorbed a lot of your soup base.
Free Ice Cream Taste Really Good
I’m not sure if it’s because it’s free, but these soft serve ice cream taste really good. The texture is a bit icy, but that makes them more refreshing after a hot pot. The waffle cones are dense and crispy with no sign of sogginess. The soft served ice cream fill the entire waffle cone all the way to the bottom. You can see there is a little bit of dripping on the ice cream to the right, so be careful when you eat them.
604 Food Critic Assessment
Dolar shop has a very steep price point of $50-$60 per person. Their ingredients lived up to the name of Dolar, and their services are superb. The interior decor makes you feel like a princess. Everything is awesome except the price. For people who do not have to worry about money, Dolar Shop is definitely the go-to place for personal hot pot. As for me, I would only come here to treat my parents or an important client. Come on, Gokudo Shabu Shabu is at $20 per person. Dolar Shop is an awesome restaurant, but not recommended for a monthly visit.
How to get in touch
- Phone: (604) 370-7077
- Address: 5300 No 3 Rd, Richmond
