Sota — Restaurant in Montreal

If I could give 0 stars, I would. This was genuinely the worst 'restaurant' I have ever been to.

Two friends and I were going to go to a different, better-reviewed Korean BBQ but due to long lines and the bad weather, we decided to go to Sota BBQ. We have been to real Korean BBQ places before and this was not one of them. We didn't have high expectations to begin with, but it a terrible experience.

We got seated, which was the first and pretty much last time we got acknowledged by the waiter. After figuring out how to order (kind of), we waited for our food. It came, but more than half of what we ordered did not. The portions were literally one to two pieces of what you were ordering. The meat was so thin, the pork belly was 99% fat, and the salads were very, very tiny.

Sota is a great place to go if you want to burn your hands. There was no dial to control the temperature of the fire on the table. Trying to cook the meat was extremely hard and dangerous as flames were flying out.

Also, there was a piece of hair in my miso soup. When I called over a waiter and told him, he immediately just took the bowl and left without a word, let alone an apology.

My friend headed to the bathroom but didn't realize he had to walk through a little flood to get there. Workers were nearby and therefore aware of what was happening, yet did not do anything about the situation. The water in the toilet was black and everything overall was quite gross.

We ordered some sushi but they were super soggy and disgusting. After one bite, it was impossible to eat without gagging.

We eventually got the bill, which took a while as well, but it turns out that they don't take debit. Instead, they have an ATM at the front and only accept cash or credit. My friend ended up paying for my overpriced food (a total of $31 per person) on credit and of course, did not leave a tip due to the horrible everything. The waiter was confused because he thought that my friend made a mistake and let us know the tip was not included in the bill - of which we were aware. He demanded for the tip and we refused, letting him know that the service, food, and overall experience was not close to satisfactory.

Meanwhile, a different waitress was cleaning our table and I mentioned that we had a very disappointing time. She completely ignored me and continued to collect some plates and just left.

After we explained to the waiter as to why we didn't tip, he started to argue with us. He very rudely said that we received all of our food and if we didn't, we should have just reordered (which we did).

My other friend paid with cash and was waiting for her change. After asking about where it is, she was given the wrong change. At this point, we were completely exhausted from this place and the terrible service, and just left.

Another fun side note: The Lettuce. This an "all you can eat" Korean BBQ, but it turns out that ordering any more leaves of lettuce after the first is an additional $3 PER leaf. The lettuce was literally just ONE leaf.

Overall, this restaurant (if you can call it one) was appalling. Probably would not pass a health inspection, terrible service, very small portions, $3 lettuce leaves, fire licking our hands, hair in your food but no apology - just horrible. Would not...

I really entered the shop with a very happy mood with my beloved colleagues, the staff welcomed us and took us in very politely and friendly, everything was fine until we ordered ice cream for dessert, on the rim of the small bowl containing the ice cream were some red stains that looked a bit dirty, one of my friends said very gently to the staff who brought the food: "Please change this bowl of ice cream for me?" she said "it's okay, it's yours? why do you have to change it?": my friend was still very gentle: "because it's dirty" the employee replied: no, it's just the pattern of the bowl, it's not dirty. we said "oh" and she turned away, I immediately picked up the bowl and wiped my hand on the dirty spot - a red mark we weren't sure what it was, maybe it was their sauce or dipping sauce but it was a bit dry and crusty. we continued to call another employee to explain, he said the same thing as the other employee, but when I showed him the red mark on my finger, he said ok and took the ice cream bowl away, I looked at him and saw the two of them talking, it seemed like he also showed the girl the mark. she nodded and continued walking - walked past our table with a proud attitude, her face held high - she must have thought she was walking on the catwalk. no apology, a few minutes later the other employee had brought the ice cream back, he deliberately said that the ice cream dish was fine and the bowl with the decorative pattern was for that type of ice cream. we thanked him but felt really indignant, then I immediately checked the remaining plates. it was also a stain of sauce or oil, soy sauce or something, it was dry, maybe they didn't wash it clean, and let it dry, we paid in full, even tipped the full amount on the price list, but suddenly thought we were not treated properly and more importantly, it felt like you were eating someone else's leftovers because the dishes served to customers were not washed, rinsed, and sterilized properly, with a large restaurant and located in the center of Montreal, what did the owner do and how did he manage to have such an incident today? I encourage you to come to this restaurant, touch around the small dishes containing sauce, ice cream to see if they are washed clean or not? especially white dishes will be easy to see. I'm not sure about black. I have attached a photo - a fun note for...

I almost never leave reviews at restaurants, but I had to figure it out again just to leave a review here. This is because the experience was so incredibly bad that I am left almost speechless. I have to write a full essay about this.

My group of 3 came to this restaurant in good spirits and very hungry, hence all you can eat. For the first half hour, we received some very questionable sushi and nearly nothing from the BBQ items (we ordered well over 20 items). After asking and even complaining multiple times about this, the head server came to our table and told us that the machine apparently malfunctioned and we need to order again.

We took this in good spirit and ordered the exact same order, no problem. 20 minutes later, we still received almost NOTHING. I had to ask the same server, is the machine still broken? We came shortly after 6pm and were still very hungry well after 8pm.

Finally they could tell we were very upset and brought us our order immediately. After the first round (finally), we ordered again. 30 minutes later NOTHING YET AGAIN. We ordered 12 beef tongues (this was the only thing that tasted well on their menu) I had to ask the server AGAIN about the order, this time, they had the audacity to tell me, “oh yeah sorry we’re out of the beef tongue now :)”. This happened right when the table next to us immediately just gets their order of beef tongue.

We were absolutely fuming at this point, it was past 9, we were still only half full at an all you can eat restaurant, and it was getting so late we actually did not have time to continue dealing with this. Here’s the kicker, when we received the tip machine, there was not even a 15% option at the top, they had the audacity to start at 18%, 20%, 30% for this kind of service.

Need I also mention we also had stomachaches shortly after leaving? The items they served us was surely not fresh.

I will refrain from directly bashing on the restaurant, but the treatment of customers should be clear from this review. For the sake of all people wanting BBQ in Montreal, please visit Gyubee directly across the street instead. Same prices, infinitely better service and food, and their machines even start at 15% tip! (I always give them more).

I am happy to provide any additional information any other customer would like to know, please even feel free...