Haidilao Hotpot at The 02 Arena

From China's Sichuan Province all the way to the O2 Arena in London, Haidilao might be the best-travelled restaurant in the whole of the capital!

What started out as a chain of hot pot restaurants in Sichuan has now crossed multiple seas to offer the same delicious sustenance to Londoners. They're impressive at the O2; the precision of the modern architecture outside speaks volumes about what you can expect on the inside. Inside, it's just as lean and symmetrical and offers diners an uncomplicated, unadorned space in which to let the interactive dining style really shine. Where each booth comes with an in-built hotpot, there's nothing quite like watching it bubble and marinate before tucking in.

If you're not accustomed to hotpot restaurants already, the first thing you need to do is choose your base or broth. Depending on what you're in the mood for, you can choose between chicken and mushroom, tomato, spicy butter and more. Then, it's time to customise your soup with delicious additions, starting with customer favourites like marinated beef, basa fish, mashed shrimp and tofu pudding. The deep-fried pork belly is particularly tasty in its crispy glory.

Then you want to bulk out your hotpot with ingredients like ox tongue, Iberico pork, beef meatballs, pork kidneys and Japanese sausages. Alternatively, keep it meat-free with lotus root, bamboo shoots, enoki mushrooms and Chinese cabbage. Whatever you choose, you're likely to try something entirely new and fall in love with a beautiful style of communal dining.