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Every best hot pot Toronto list you’ve ever read looks the same. Ten Sichuan spots. A split pot. Some chili oil. And…done.
But Toronto’s hot pot scene goes a tad further than that. There’s Mongolian bone marrow broth that’s been simmering since breakfast, Japanese sukiyaki in bamboo-lined private booths, Korean jeongol on Bloor West, and a self-serve spot in Scarborough open until 2 AM. Most of these never makes the list.
So here’s a different take for you. Twelve spots across styles, neighbourhoods, and price points, for anyone who wants to eat outside the default Sichuan split.
If you like this approach, you might also like our Toronto dim sum directory. Anyhow, so here we go with your new Toronto guide to hot pot heaven!
The Sichuan heavyweights
Haidilao Hot Pot
Signature Broth: Choose up to four — tomato, Sichuan spicy, mushroom, and more
Vibe Check: Theme park dining
Address: 237 Yonge St, Toronto
You’ve probably heard of Haidilao. About 1,400 locations worldwide, the largest hot pot chain on the planet. The downtown Toronto spot near the Eaton Center is the full production: iPad ordering, robot plate delivery, and hand-pulled noodle dance performances at your table if you ask.
Four broth bases at once means nobody at the table has to compromise. The DIY sauce bar is deep. It’s loud and busy and more fun than it has any right to be if you lean into the spectacle.
Liuyishou Hotpot
Signature Broth: Premium beef oil (Chongqing-style), Tom Yum Kung, coconut chicken
Vibe Check: The one everyone’s trying to get into
Address: 254 Spadina Ave, Toronto
Liuyishou started out on a small street in Chongqing and now has an incredible 1,200+ locations. The Chinatown spot on Spadina is one of the hardest reservations in the city on a weekend night. It’s all about their beef oil broth. Rich, heavy, and flavoured in a way that lighter broths just can’t match.
AYCE (All You Can Eat) model with a full sauce bar. They also do wine-pairing dinners and hot pot shows, which is a sentence I never expected to write. You get a Melona ice cream bar at the end, and after that broth, you’ll want it!
DAHU Hotpot
Signature Broth: Corn and Pork Rib Soup Base
Vibe Check: The neighbourhood find
Address: 47 Baldwin St, Toronto
DAHU’s first Canadian location is on Baldwin Street near Kensington Market, a block most people walk past on the way to somewhere else. That works in its favour. The Chongqing-style AYCE is solid across the board, but the move here is the Corn and Pork Rib base. Lighter and sweeter than a standard mala. Good as a palate reset next to a spicier pot.
Also: $1 soup bases after 9 pm Monday through Thursday. That’s not a typo.
Best budget picks
Happy Lamb Hot Pot
Signature Broth: Bone marrow (8-hour simmer)
Vibe Check: The reliable go-to
Address: 421 Dundas St W, Toronto
This place is a Mongolian-style hot pot, not Sichuan. That distinction matters. The bone marrow broth here has been simmering for about eight hours by the time it hits your table. It’s noticeably richer and heavier than what you’ll find at most other spots. The lamb is hand-sliced, which gives it a different texture from machine-cut.
AYCE weekday lunch runs around $21.99, the cheapest sit-down hot pot meal in the city. Multiple locations across Toronto, Scarborough, and Mississauga. Robot servers. DIY sauce bar. Nothing fancy, just consistently good every time you go.
Chine Legendary Hot Pot & BBQ
Signature Broth: Korean spicy pork bone, mushroom, tomato (four spice levels)
Vibe Check: Chinatown AYCE workhorse
Address: 327 Spadina Ave, Toronto
AYCE with a broad selection of soup bases. The Korean spicy pork bone is the underrated pick. Four spice levels so you can calibrate. Sauce station where you mix your own. Weekday lunch combos bring the price down further.
Two things to know before you go: cash and debit only (no credit cards), and there’s a 35% surcharge on unfinished food. Order carefully. The dessert station has fried bread with condensed milk, which is worth saving room for.
Beyond Sichuan: the styles you’re sleeping on
Daimaru Sukiyaki
Signature Broth: Sukiyaki (sugar and soy base)
Vibe Check: Quiet, precise, Japanese
Address: 390 Silver Star Blvd Unit 117, Scarborough
Japanese hot pot is an entirely different approach. The broth is lighter, with sugar and soy, and the point is to actually taste what you’re cooking, not bury it in chili oil. Daimaru has the highest Google rating among hot pot spots on this list, at 4.9 stars. Same ownership group as Gyubee.
Daimaru Sukiyaki is AYCE with Premium and Wagyu Set options. The bamboo-paneled private booths are among the nicest hot pot seating in the city. Open until midnight Friday and Saturday.
Jin Dal Lae
Signature Broth: Gamjatang (pork bone), Haemul Jeongol (seafood)
Vibe Check: Tiny Korean gem
Address: 647 Bloor St W, Toronto
Korean jeongol. Communal stew served bubbling at the table. It’s a different tradition from Chinese hot pot, but the experience overlaps: shared pot, group meal, very good on a cold night. The gamjatang is heavy on pork bone and potato. The haemul jeongol is loaded with seafood.
Small spot in Koreatown. Minimum order of two. À la carte. Worth trying if you’ve never gone the Korean route.
The new wave: self-serve and solo pots
Big Way Hot Pot
Signature Broth: Choose from 10+ options and dry mixes
Vibe Check: Late-night self-serve playground
Address: 1571 Sandhurst Cir #105b, Scarborough
Big Way opened its first Ontario location in February 2025 and brought the self-serve hot pot format with it. Walk through, pick from 100+ ingredients, choose your broth, build your own pot. You don’t wait for a server and you don’t order in rounds.
Open daily until 2AM, the latest-closing hot pot spot on this list by a wide margin. A downtown Toronto location is also in the works.
Kokumi Mini Hot Pot
Signature Broth: Miso
Vibe Check: Solo pot, solo peace
Address: 407 Spadina Ave, Toronto
Not everyone wants to share. Kokumi gives you your own individual pot with a Japanese-influenced menu that includes a miso broth option. One of the few vegan-friendly hot pot spots in the city. Quiet atmosphere, private booths, zero pressure to order for the table.
À la carte. Good for a solo weeknight dinner when you want hot pot without rallying a group.
Best for groups and late nights
Mix2 Grill & Hot Pot
Signature Broth: Korean spicy pork bone (free with AYCE)
Vibe Check: The “nobody can decide” restaurant
Address: 436 Dundas St W, 2nd Floor, Toronto
Half the table wants hot pot. The other half wants Korean BBQ. Mix2 does both at once, grill and pot on the same table. Chinese, Japanese, and Korean options across the menu. AYCE with broth included per person. Private rooms for bigger groups.
Mix2 Grill and Hot Pot is located upstairs on Dundas West (436) in Chinatown. If your group chat has been going in circles about where to eat, this is the answer.
Ye Skewers Hot Pot
Signature Broth: Rich, buttery Sichuan spicy
Vibe Check: The skewer hall
Address: 3260 Midland Ave, Scarborough
This one’s different. Instead of ordering plates, at Ye Skewers you walk through a self-serve skewer hall and grab pre-skewered ingredients, meats, vegetables, mushrooms, tofu, then cook them in a shared spicy broth. Over 100 options. The chilis are imported from China.
AYCE with cheaper weekday pricing. Second location in Aurora. Probably the most fun format on this list if you like picking your own stuff.
Go try something different
Sichuan gets the headlines, but the best hot pot meal you haven’t had yet might be a Mongolian bone broth that’s been going since morning, a sukiyaki pot in a bamboo booth, or a self-serve spot at 1 AM when nothing else is open.
Next time, pick a style you haven’t done before.
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