ZTYY hotpot Shanghai

Custom Dining Chairs — A dining chair designed from first principles for the hot-pot ritual. The frame is solid European beech, selected for its combination of strength and visual warmth, finished in a deep walnut stain with an ultra-matte topcoat that resists both moisture and the inevitable fingerprints of a busy service floor. The seat and backrest are upholstered in a charcoal-grey performance fabric, woven with a subtle crosshatch texture that conceals minor spills while remaining breathable for the extended sitting that hot-pot demands. The backrest angle is calibrated to support a slightly forward-leaning posture — the natural position of reaching toward a shared pot — while the seat cushion employs a dual-density foam system: a firmer base layer for structural longevity, a softer top layer for immediate comfort. Each chair frame is reinforced at all junction points with Dual Jade's proprietary corner-block and mortise-and-tenon joinery.

Custom Hot-Pot Tables — Tables in solid timber with integrated induction cooktop housings. The tabletops are surfaced in a warm grey sintered stone — a material chosen for its absolute resistance to heat, oil, staining, and thermal shock. Unlike timber or marble, sintered stone requires no sealing, develops no water rings, and withstands the direct heat of a 100°C copper pot placed repeatedly on its surface. The induction housings are trimmed in brushed stainless steel, their edges flush with the stone surface to eliminate gaps where food debris might collect. Each table base is a single cast-iron pedestal in matte black, weighted for absolute stability on the pale stone floor.

Banquette Seating — A series of linear banquettes in the same charcoal-grey performance fabric define the restaurant's perimeter zones. Their backrests are divided into broad, unembellished panels with vertical channel stitching that introduces a quiet architectural rhythm. The banquette frames are solid beech with the same walnut-stained finish as the dining chairs, creating a visual continuity that unifies the space without monotony. Seat depth and backrest angle mirror the calibrated ergonomics of the dining chairs, ensuring consistent comfort whether guests are seated at a table or along a banquette.

Private Dining Rooms — Two enclosable private rooms, each furnished with a single large round table and custom dining chairs in the same design but upholstered in a slightly deeper charcoal tone, distinguishing the private spaces from the main floor while maintaining material continuity. The private room tables feature a lazy Susan integrated flush with the table surface, its mechanism concealed beneath the sintered stone top and operated by a silent, soft-touch bearing system.

Service & Condiment Stations — Custom mobile service units in walnut-stained beech, each designed as a self-contained preparation station. Featuring recessed compartments for sauce bowls, a concealed waste chute, and soft-close castors, these units move silently between tables, enabling the tableside sauce-mixing ritual that is as essential to the hot-pot experience as the broth itself.

The dual-density seat cushion system was prototyped across six iterations, with each version subjected to a 500-hour cyclic compression test simulating three years of commercial use. The final configuration showed less than 4% thickness loss — less than half the industry standard for contract seating.

The sintered stone tabletops represented a material innovation for the hot-pot category, where timber and marble remain the default choices. Each slab was precision-cut to incorporate the induction housing and the flush lazy Susan mechanism. The material's zero-porosity eliminated the stone sealing and maintenance cycles required for marble.

The chair's backrest angle was determined through a series of motion studies conducted in a mock service environment. The final angle of 103 degrees relative to the seat plane optimally supports the forward-leaning, reaching posture characteristic of hot-pot dining — distinct from the more reclined posture of Western fine dining.

The cast-iron table bases were designed with a low centre of gravity and a footprint diameter equal to 75% of the tabletop diameter. This ratio, refined through stability testing, ensures that tables remain immovable even under the lateral forces of multiple diners leaning into the pot simultaneously.

All performance fabrics were treated with a nano-level fluorocarbon-free stain repellent, achieving a grade 5 rating in standardized oil and water repellency tests.