Teenagers caught urinating into 4,000 people’s hotpot broth

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It’s enough to put you off your dinner – a video has gone viral of two teenagers urinating into a hotpot broth.

The boys, both 17, were filmed taking a leak into a broth pot in a private room at a Shanghai branch of China’s biggest hotpot chain last month.

The restaurant, Haidilao, has offered to compensate 4,000 diners following a public outcry.

The teenagers were both drunk, Shanghai police said, and they have now been arrested.

The broth gained an unwanted new ingredient, but it was not served to any customers.

It is unclear whether the hotpot was properly disinfected before it was used for new meals.

People dine in a Haidilao hot pot restaurant in a shopping mall complex in Beijing on March 13, 2025. One of China's biggest restaurant chains has promised to refund thousands of customers after footage of a patron urinating into a simmering hotpot went viral online, triggering a public outcry. The clip, filmed last month, appeared to show a young man standing on a table at a Haidilao branch in Shanghai urinating into a vat of boiling broth. (Photo by JADE GAO / AFP) (Photo by JADE GAO/AFP via Getty Images)
A Beijing branch of the popular hotpot chain (Picture: JADE GAO/AFP via Getty Images)

The popular restaurant chain has now apologised, saying it replaced all hotpots and dining utensils.

The restaurant only confirmed the incident on Wednesday after the video went viral.

They wrote on social media: ‘In the early hours of February 24, two men urinated into a hotpot after dining in a private room at a Haidilao branch on the Bund in Shanghai.

‘As management had never made contingency plans or given training for dealing with this type of incident, staff at our branch were unable to detect any abnormalities at the scene or uphold the safety of the dining environment.’

People dine in a Haidilao hot pot restaurant in a shopping mall complex in Beijing on March 13, 2025. One of China's biggest restaurant chains has promised to refund thousands of customers after footage of a patron urinating into a simmering hotpot went viral online, triggering a public outcry. The clip, filmed last month, appeared to show a young man standing on a table at a Haidilao branch in Shanghai urinating into a vat of boiling broth. (Photo by JADE GAO / AFP) (Photo by JADE GAO/AFP via Getty Images)
The restaurant said the utensils have now been cleaned (Picture: JADE GAO/AFP via Getty Images)

Haidilao’s owners are now dishing out cash reimbursements to all customers who dined at the branch from February 24 to March 8.

They will all be given a full refund as well as a cash compensation 10 times the amount they were billed for their meals.

If ingesed, urine can cause illness and even kidney damage.

This is because it contains waste products and drinking it can force your kidneys to work even harder or expose you to unnecessary toxins.

This is not the first time someone has dumped personal waste into a Chinese broth.

A noodle shop owner in southern China found a man urinating and defecating in broth in his restaurant.

The owner discovered the security camera footage of the incident after noticing a foul smell from his beef broth, and was suspicious it could be malicious behaviour from a next door restaurant.

Authorities had to test a sample of the broth to confirm it contained traces of urine and human faeces.

The father of the next door restaurant was arrested but then released later.

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