How do hot pot restaurants get customers from TikTok?

Hot pot is a meal that films itself. Wikipedia describes a pot of broth kept simmering on the table. Raw meats, vegetables and soy-based foods sit around it, and diners cook them by dipping. A short video needs motion and change. Hot pot gives it steam, a pour and raw plates turning into cooked bites.

MGH asked 1,142 US adults who watch TikTok why they chose a restaurant they saw there. Their top answers read like a description of a hot pot night.

The top three reasons describe a hot pot table. The food looks good while it cooks. The meal is a night out with friends. A split broth is something many viewers have never tried. Most restaurants have to invent a hook for a video. For hot pot, the table is the hook.

Many of them do, according to the same MGH survey. Keep in mind who it asked. These are people who already watch TikTok, not every diner in your town. They are the ones a creator’s video reaches. Many go, and they also travel farther and spend more once they arrive.

The travel answer matters most for hot pot. It is a group meal, planned a few days ahead. A group that has picked a place will drive across town for it. Younger diners lean on TikTok more than older ones, as our look at how diners find new restaurants shows. A viewer survey is not a measure of your own sales. It does show that the path from a video to a table is real.

Yes, and quickly. Nation’s Restaurant News reported on Technomic’s yearly study of 500 US restaurant chains. Those chains grew sales by an average of just 3.1% in 2024. Newer brands built around trending dishes, hot pot among them, did much better.

Those five brands span ramen, hot pot, stir fry, Hawaiian and sushi. So the figure is not hot pot alone. Growth still brings new rooms near yours. Verdict Foodservice reported one Korean barbecue and hot pot franchise opening its 100th location. Its plan aims at busy suburban centers and dense city areas. When a group can pick from three hot pot places, the one they watched someone enjoy starts ahead.

What made it work was the group. A close-up of broth is pretty. A table of friends cooking together answers the viewer’s real question. Would this be a good night out with my people? Invite creators with a few friends, not alone. Seat them where the pot and the whole group fit in one frame.

Lead with motion. A still plate loses to steam, a pour and hands reaching in. The strongest hot pot videos follow the meal in the order a guest lives it.

Offer the list, then step back. The creator knows which shots hold their own viewers. If the video starts to sound like an ad, those viewers scroll on.

Look for creators whose viewers live a short drive away. Someone three states over will never book a table for eight. Searching for local food creators comes first. Then write a short invitation that names the night and the group size.

Short on time across several locations? CreatoRain does this work for chains and franchises. Our in-house team finds, invites and pays creators from our food-creator network. We follow up until each video is posted. It costs $300 a video, with the creator’s pay included.

Less than most owners expect. The biggest cost of a hosted visit is the meal itself, at your food cost. Smaller local creators often accept a hosted meal alone. Larger accounts tend to ask for a fee as well. Our guide to creator costs has the ranges.

Set the budget before the first visit. Then judge the month on tables booked, not on views.

Often, yes, once a video has proven itself. TikTok calls the format Spark Ads. Its help page says you can run ads “using organic posts made by other creators (with their authorization).” The creator sends you an authorization code. TikTok lets you “customize the duration” of that code, so agree on the length in writing.

A week at the $20 ad group minimum comes to $140. Aim it at your own area. Pick the creator video with the most comments asking where you are. Paying to show a video is a separate permission from the visit, so ask for it up front.

TikTok now has a Local Feed. Its announcement names three things that decide who sees a post there. One is where the viewer is. Another is what the post is about. The third is how recently it went up. Restaurants, small businesses and local creators all appear in it.

Each of the three is a task. Place means every video should tag your restaurant. Topic means the video is plainly about food and your room. Recency means a steady stream of posts beats one big video a season. TikTok says precise location sharing is off by default and optional. Your location tag is the signal you control, so never skip it.

A video that lands brings a rush of questions. Where are you? Do you take groups? How long is the wait? Answer while the video is fresh. A reply is how a viewer becomes a booking.

Make the group booking easy. The guest who saw the video is often the one rounding up friends. A clumsy booking step is where that plan falls apart.

Yes, every time. A dinner for a table of four has real value, and viewers deserve to know it. Ask for the label inside the video itself. A line buried in the caption is easy to miss.

Name the label in your first message, so nobody is surprised later. A creator who refuses to label a free meal is not one to host. The wording is covered in labelling a free meal. This is general information, not legal advice.

The simplest signal is at your door. Ask new guests how they found you, and write it down. Each week, set that tally beside the dates your videos went up. Views say a video was watched. A tally at the host stand says it was acted on.

Local videos keep surfacing for weeks, so wait before you judge one. Ask back the creators whose videos filled group tables. Swap out the ones whose videos filled none. For a fuller read, see how to tell whether a creator visit paid off.