KPOT Korean BBQ & Hot Pot — Restaurant in Baton Rouge

They get 1 stars because the actual food was great but the experience was a complete nightmare, and that began before I even entered the restaurant. I tried to call ahead to get on the waiting list. No answer. Later in the day, I walked in to get on the waiting list at the front counter. They tell me an hour and 45 minutes, and I give my phone number to receive a message when my table is ready. I get in the car to go try and find something to do with my friends for almost 2 hours, and exactly 7 minutes after checking in, before I even got on the interstate, I received a text saying my table was almost ready and that I needed to be back at the restaurant within 10 minutes or my reservation would be cancelled. I turned around and made it back, and asked the hostess what gives with the time info. She said "1:45 is just an estimate." EXCUSE ME? "Estimate" is very different from "complete random guess." Normally I wouldn't be angry about this but with them giving me a wait time that long, then expecting to be back with only 10 minutes notice? It just doesn't make sense. You can't tell me I have over an hour and a half to kill and then demand I return within 10 minutes or I lose my table. So, being rushed to claim our table, we sat down and began our timed 2 hour meal despite the fact that only half the group was there. Hostess didn't really give us a choice. Eating at a place where you cook your own food, of course it is up to the diner to make sure their food is prepared properly and safe to eat, but I was expecting to hear at least something about food safety from the waitress. Not so. The ordering process was confusing and unnecessarily restricted as well. Between the six of us, there was a single Ipad that all food needed to be ordered from, so that naturally took forever to get even the first round of stuff ordered. The way they bring you the food is they have runner carts that roll to different tables with the receipts labeling what food goes to what table sitting directly on the food. I sure hope the receipt paper they use doesn't contain BPA, otherwise that could pose a contamination/health risk. Additionally, you can only order once every 3 or so minutes, which would be fine if we weren't six diners trying to order several items each. After ordering, the food comes to your table in small dishes, and with a large group it's very confusing trying to figure out whose food is whose, especially when the runner doesn't tell you and takes the label off. Several items never showed up at all. Additionally, one of the runners was quite rude. He kept bringing food without the little paper saying what it was, and the third or so time he did this he brought some sliced meat that i wasn't sure if it was lamb, pork, beef etc. I had to ask him what it was 3 times, and he rudely said "one moment" and walked off, leaving us guessing at what he had just brought us. After a while, we were all out of water in our cups. It was very hot having a running grill and simmering pots right under one's face, and when we ran out of water we really started to notice. We had to ask several people several times to refill our water. After about half an hour we finally got more water. About that time we also noticed our grill had gone out and our food was no longer cooking, which also took at least half an hour for the staff to notice and fix. The food was wonderful, and our waitress was funny and kind, but the service was just utterly disorganized. Several things took way to long to be addressed. Several food items never arrived at all. The process of getting a table was a hassle. Most of my time was spent worrying about the service rather than enjoying my meal. This was honestly one of the worst restaurant experiences I've ever had, and unless I hear of a change in management I...

recently (tonight) i went to kpot for my first time with a friend. we showed up and waited an hour and a half for seating which was okay with me, once we were seated i noticed the grill and the tongs had old crusted meat all of them, and the table and the seats were greasy and full of this reddish brown sauce EVERYWHERE. i wiped it up off of my seat as many servers watched me do, not offering even a wet rag for me to clean it. the server finally approached us after 15 minutes of sitting patiently, and begins to be brief and ask us what soup base we’d like and what we want. also explains that we can learn how to use the ipad, which ended up being dead and we’d have to order through her. i let her know i was new to this place and never ate anything like it before. i tried to use the grill since it was there, and i was made fun of by her by not using “enough” seasoning. along with that, i constantly ask her how exactly i turn the temperature down and other things in how to operate and cook the food. she was brief and didn’t know what she was talking about. i tried to be nice but i was losing some patience. for the whole 2 hours i stayed, i didn’t get any refills or visits besides one asking what we wanted after we had finish the starters we got. after ordering and eating the fresh ribeye i got, i started to feel sick after 15 minutes of eating it. i thought didn’t cook it long enough, but after cooking it for 7 minutes i looked at the cooking guide and it told me to only cook it for 5 minutes. which i realized the meat may have been bad, i asked her about to meat being cooked and again, was made to feel stupid for even asking such a thing. i was ready to leave by then and wanted out of there overall. i’m now throwing up profusely and went ahead and just got off the phone with the “manager.” i told her what happened and before i even finished she tried telling me that it’s a new place and they just got back from their maintenance, which didn’t have anything to do with what i told her happened and she began to make excuses like “we’re newer..”, “ we’ve never had a complaint before..”, and that for my experience and me telling it “for us it will be both a learning experience.” which i was confused in what i had to learn..she kept laughing over the phone AT me complaining about how im sick and she told me im the first complaint. i ended up telling her that the workers lacked hospitality and mannerism and that would be the best learning experience that is required for them. i ended up being shooed off of the phone and told to have a good night. overall very rude, unsanitary, unprofessional and needs to be worked on. never...

Ok, I’ll be specific about everything.

Firstly : The hotpot soup is very plain for me, it’s not flavorful enough to call it ‘Korean’. My husband and I ordered 2 different kind of soup and somehow they are taste kinda the same, plain and boring. For the milk tea too, it’s also very plain for me. Feeling like I was drinking water with some drop of milk in it. I don’t think the hotpot is worth to try.

Secondly : I think this restaurant kinda lacks one of the most important things that make the soul for the ‘KOREAN FOOD’ which is banchan. Even though the waitress did tell us they do have it but I have to get it myself. When I went to the ‘banchan’ section, it’s only kimchi, radish, green bean.. not enough to call banchan because it should be at least 5 small size food to call banchan for me. But fried chicken, cheese stick and fries aren’t banchan for me at all. Just lacking some traditional Korean flavors to give me the full Korean experience.

Overall : I think the KBBQ in general is okay, worth to try more than the hotpot. They did forget to bring some of veggies for me and my husband but it’s okay. But I would like they to pay attention more to the sanitary side if it, the plates were not clean thoroughly with some small grease leftovers. Service was great, she did everything so nice and sweet.

At the end, I give this place 6.8/10. It’s good but it’s not good enough to call Korean for me. I have a lot of experience for korean food but this place don’t give me that feeling :( . Would like to see they improve more in the future

EDIT : You know what , I went back again and was honestly surprised that they actually took some of my advices for the banchan section. Last time I mentioned that they should add more banchan since that’s the soul of Korean food, and this time they really did include two more side dishes. The radish cubes, to me, had too strong of a garlic taste and were a bit bland, not sour enough. As for the seaweed, it’s not really the right seaweed for the korean banchan, but at least they made some improvements. I really hope they’ll add more authentic Korean-style banchan in the future. Either way, I’ll definitely be coming back a few...