Hotpot giant compensates 4,000 diners after teenagers pee in soup
13 Mar 2025

Chinese hotpot giant Haidilao has offered to compensate over 4,000 diners after two teenagers allegedly urinated in broth at its outlet in Shanghai.

Haidilao confirmed the offer after a video of two men urinating into their hotpot broth while dining in a private room surfaced online late last month.

The 4,109 consumer will receive a full refund for their meal from that day, and an additional monetary compensation equal to 10 times the order value.

Apology and acknowledgment from Haidilao
Company response

Following the incident, Haidilao apologized to its customers.

The company said it recognized that the incident brought to light shortcomings in their training process, which is what caused staff to detect the situation late.

"We fully understand that the distress caused to our customers by this incident cannot be fully compensated for by any means," the company said in its apology.

The company also filed a civil lawsuit application against the men on Monday.

One of the men shared the video online
Video

According to police investigations, on February 24, two 17-year-old boys called Tang and Wu traveled to Shanghai from other provinces and dined in a private room at the restaurant with others.

Both of them were inebriated when they urinated into the hotpot.

Wu then shared a video of the incident online.

Since the incident, the restaurant has replaced all hotpot equipment and eating utensils, including chopsticks, and carried out a comprehensive cleaning and disinfection operation, Global Times reported.