"The world is full of unspeakable horrors, but at least there’s a hot pot place in the Century City mall with talking delivery robots, a giant self-service sauce station, and a guy who’ll do an improvisational dance at your table while hand-pulling noodles. Hai Di Lao is an ideal big group spot when you can’t get into Din Tai Fung or you’re in the mood to wear an adult bib in public (they provide some along with plastic baggies for your phone). Get the spicy pork and tom kha as your soup base, then load up from the long list of meat options." - cathy park, brant cox, sylvio martins, andrew ryce, garrett snyder