Weibo Fame: Haidilao Can Do Anything!

When you hear “Haidilao” what do you think? Friendly service? Amazing hot pot? (Well, they did win the Beijinger restaurant award for Best Hot Pot and Outstanding Service.) Never mind the hip-hop noodle routine that rivals anything I’ve seen on America’s Best Dance Crew. Haidilao are so good that they now have an Internet meme.

A girl in Shanghai thought she got food poisoning from Haidilao and weiboed about it.

“Woke up with a stomach pain, is it because of Haidilao last night?”

The restaurant contacted her via Weibo within an hour, asking about what happened and which Haidilao she had gone to. They suggested that she go see the doctor, and that they would foot the bill. She went the very next day and got a visit from the manager of the restaurant, along with a fruit basket and cash. She probably felt a bit better after that.

Netizens have since put their own ridiculous spin on Haidilao’s miraculous altruism.

Best stories so far:

A journalist appeared to be unhappy in Haidilao; a waitress saw her distress and asked her what was wrong. The journalist said “I have four pages to write tomorrow but don't have a topic yet.” After the meal, the waitress handed her an USB drive and said "Don't be unhappy." The journalist took the USB drive home and discovered a well-written 20,000-character article in it.

A customer dropped his phone in the hotpot, and a waitress reached in the soup and fished out a gold iPhone; she asked if it was his, but he said no. The waitress reached in a second time, and pulled out a silver iPhone. He still said it wasn’t his. Finally, the waitress fished out a crap phone, and he said, "Yeah, that's mine." Then the waitress gave him all the three phones.

There’s also a comic poking fun at Haidilao waiters who are willing to give you their meat if you don’t have enough on your plate.

Who knows? Maybe next time, other Beijing institutions like The Den or Da Dong will become overnight internet sensations.

Photos: Arealruby, Chinatraveldepot