Hai Di Lao is well known for their superb services and tasty soup stock. Originating from China, it is surprising that there is no branches in Hong Kong, yet there are several international branches in USA, Korea, and Singapore. Luckily for us, it took us less than 2 hours from Hong Kong to get over to the nearest branch in uptown Shenzhen, which is in a shopping mall diagonally opposite Ritz-Carlton Shenzhen and opposite of Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Centre.
It is a weekday today, so only a few tables were occupied. The waitress will first introduce herself, give us the wifi password, teach us on how to use the iPad menu, before covering our bags with a chair dress, handing us the apron, wet towel, ziplock for handphone, hairtie for girls etc.
Anyways, if there is a queue during rush hour, there is free flow of snacks (crackers, cherry tomatoes, guava), iced tea, and manicure service (gel nails)!!!!!! Plus if you don't want your kids to be running around, there is a childcare service and play area inside the restaurant too. Did I mention all these are free of charge?? Really suspicious of how they sustain their business now.
Food is on ala carte basis (whole or half portions), and free flow of sauces and some Sichuanese side dishes. Do order the "Lao Mian" (dried noodles), whereby a waiter will pull the noodles with various fancy moves right in front of you! I will strongly recommend the tomato soup base too! In total, we spent RMB¥679 for 5 persons, but I think it can be cheaper if we kept our order to how much we could consume, and also with lesser soup stocks.
The Hai Di Lao (FuTian CBD, ShenZhen, China) is 5 - 10 minutes walk from the Convention and Exhibition Centre metro station. The best part? It is open round the clock!