SŌKE BBQ and Hotpot — Restaurant in Brooklyn Park

Where do I even BEGIN?! From the moment I walked in, I knew something was off. The vibes? IMMACULATELY BAD. The service? A joke. I swear I stood there at the entrance, waiting to be acknowledged like some kind of ghost. I even waved to get the staff’s attention, and do you know what they did? They looked at me and then WENT BACK TO WHATEVER POINTLESS TASK THEY WERE DOING. EXCUSE ME?! Last time I checked, I was the CUSTOMER, and the customer is ALWAYS right. When I was FINALLY seated (after what felt like a LIFETIME), I expected some kind of apology for the wait. Did I get one? NO. Just a half-hearted “What do you want to order?” Like I was an inconvenience for daring to eat here. First of all, I AM A PAYING CUSTOMER. Second of all, I don’t tolerate rude service, and this was straight-up ATTITUDE. I should have left right then and there, but NO—I decided to give them a chance. BIG MISTAKE. I ordered my food, and the wait was outrageous. At one point, I seriously wondered if they had to go out, harvest the ingredients, and build the kitchen from scratch before making my meal. That’s how long it took. And when it finally arrived, I wish I could say it was worth the wait, but it was the complete opposite. First of all, the portion size? LAUGHABLE. I’ve seen toddler meals with more food than what they put on my plate. It was like they were rationing my food as if I were on some kind of survival show. And the broth? WHAT BROTH?! I don’t know what kind of scam they’re running here, but what I got was barely a splash of liquid. I literally tilted the bowl, expecting to see something, but there was NOTHING. It was drier than my patience at that point. And let’s talk about the flavor—or should I say, the LACK OF IT. I took one bite and had to pause. I thought maybe my taste buds had just given up on me, but nope! The food was just that bland. I’ve had cardboard with more seasoning. I even asked for extra sauce or something to fix it, and the server acted like I had just asked them for their firstborn child. Oh, but the real kicker? The PRICE. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the bill. I thought maybe I had accidentally ordered the gold-plated, diamond-encrusted version of my meal, but no, that was just the standard price. FOR WHAT?! A few bites of underwhelming food and the privilege of waiting an eternity to get it?! At this point, I was fuming. I called the server over and politely (yes, POLITELY!) mentioned that the portion was small, and do you know what they said? "That’s just how it is." THAT’S JUST HOW IT IS?! Excuse me, NO. That is NOT how it is. That is NOT how it should be. That is how you LOSE CUSTOMERS. And before you even THINK about coming at me with the whole “Oh, you could have asked for a manager” excuse—I DID. And the manager was just as useless as the rest of them. No apology, no refund, not even a discount. Just a smug, “Sorry, but we can’t do anything.” OH, YOU CAN’T DO ANYTHING? You sure had NO problem taking my money though, DID YOU?! Honestly, I am SHOCKED this place is even still in business. If I ran my household like they run this restaurant, my entire family would have starved years ago. Save your money, your time, and your sanity—DO NOT EAT HERE. I will NEVER come back, and I will make it my LIFE'S MISSION to warn everyone I know about this absolute scam of a restaurant. I’ve already posted on Yelp, TripAdvisor, and even my neighborhood Facebook group because people NEED TO KNOW. I’d rather eat microwaved gas station sushi in the middle of a hurricane than step foot in this place again. If you love yourself, AVOID THIS RESTAURANT...

So decided to go try the Wednesday AYCE on 5/8/2024 for dinner. Did both the hotpot and BBQ since it's our first time there and wanted to see how it is. Below is my review based on my experience.

Food - The meat quality and selection were very good. I think it's way better than most of the AYCE hotpot and bbq in and around the twin cities. The meats/seafoods taste fresh and high quality. I would rate this 5/5.

Atmosphere - It's an open concept room with tables all around that allows for hotpot, kbbq, or both. They do not blast their music like other locations, so it's a great place if you just want a nice atmosphere to be able to enjoy your meal. Only thing is the restaurant is a bit tiny and not good for large groups. They do have a few tables for 6 people, but if you have more than that, then you will need to be split. I rate this 3/5 for atmosphere.

Service - This is where it's very lacking and hence the 3 stars only since this scored the lowest. It's not that the servers aren't doing a god job, they are. The issue is that you have only 2 servers managing the whole area, especially when it's a AYCE day. I felt sorry for the servers since they're working super hard and couldn't keep up. Also they run out of a lot of meats/seafoods. We were there at 6:15pm and did not get our meats at 6:50pm. That's way too long to wait to get meats and they have a 90 minute limit. Since it was our first time, we didn't know the portion size so we didn't order much, which was a mistake. Our 2nd order, took another 30-40 minutes to get to us. A lot of customers are just waiting like us. All in all, it's poor management. I rate this 1/5, and not the servers, but poor management.

Summary - I would definitely go back if they can improve on the service. If you are offering AYCE, make sure you have enough staffs. Make sure you stock on your meats/seafoods so you do not run out. Have all those meats precut so it's ready to go. With the 90 minute limit, we where there for 2 hours and 15 minutes in total. We were there at 6:15pm and didn't leave until 8:30pm since it just take so long to...

Food was good, but the dining experience was what took me out. (Just wait) The staff at the front was very nice, but the wait was so long I questioned if the food was worth it. (We tried reserving a table, but our table of 3 wasn’t worth it to the store) We decided to order some stuff at the front in the meantime. Spent 10$ on three preprepared mochinuts. (Also got boba drinks) We then waited 20 mins. to find out that they were in fact out of things we ordered because staff put the wrong stuff on labeled shelves. Fine, people make mistakes, we got other stuff instead. After waiting 45 mins, we got to our table and ordered everything. Food was coming slowly, but was to be expected since it’s so busy, but the server that was helping us regularly wouldn’t come back to help after making eye contact with him. I would normally give grace since it’s a busy place, but I saw him sitting down, eating, and talking with the table quite literally directly next to us during all of this. I’m not a needy person when it comes to dining out, but all I needed was new chopsticks since mine fell on the floor. After getting our proteins for both the BBQ and the Hotpot, All of the meats were frozen. This made it hard to cook on the BBQ, not so much the hotpot since it melted very quickly. I will admit that the fact that they offer both hotpot and Korean BBQ in the same place is very nice, but the way the tables are set up in such a small space makes it hard to eat/cook. I had to regularly reach over the whole table to get stuff to cook on both set ups. All of us spent almost $200, including tip, and I’m not sure if I want to return. Overall, I thought the food was nice for sure, but the cramp space, long wait time, selective service, and high prices tell me that this is not a place I want to...