Meet Revolving Hotpot & Cajun Seafood — Restaurant in Carlstadt

Okay so I don't like rating things low usually but I honestly have never had such a bad experience with food before. I'll break everything up so it's easier for everyone here.

Atmosphere: Walking in, we were excited because we had heard such great things about this place and had passed by it numerous times on 17. It was a cute little restaurant and had little nick-nacks being sold near the hostess stand. However, near the entrance there was a strong smell of curry that made our stomachs turn.

Service: Our waiter was amazing and so kind to us even when he could tell we weren't satisfied. The hostess however, was a bit rude. We originally came to try out the revolving table that they have and requested to be seated at one of the three empty tables that we're around it, the hostess rudely told us that those tables were reservation only and walked away before we could ask any more questions. We sort of brushed it off as just us not possibly reading the website well enough. One questionable thing however, all of the employees were wearing earpods/airpods. They all seemed to just be walking around and somewhat in a rush to get their customers out. And even when we were visibly upset with what we had received nobody (aside from our waiter) said anything or even apologized for our experience.

Food/Drink: Now here's where the main issues began. First of all for an almost $300 check, we expected much better. We had ordered skewers (beef, shrimp, and mushroom) and the beef was extremely bland. It seemed like the only seasoning or topping they used was fennel seeds for some reason. The shrimp skewers were still bland but they had somewhat of a sour aftertaste. Their texture as well was strange, chewy and stale almost. And you can't really mess up grilled mushrooms so they were fine. Anyone who has ever had scallion pancakes at any asian restaurant will tell you how good they are. But upon arrival, we were immensely disappointed. It was insanely bland and so greasy that you could wring it out and fry an egg with the oil coming off of it. And it came with absolutely no sauce or anything just little triangles of a scallion pancake. We requested an order of the fried rice, hoping for something simple and familiar to make our meal a bit better. I mean how can you mess up fried rice, right? Turns out, for this restaurant, it's easy to mess up fried rice. Again, the fennel seeds make an appearance. It somehow had an aftertaste like smoking a used blunt from a Motel 6 ashtray. Not only the taste, but it's texture was that of dollar store microwaved rice. We ordered three drinks. The mango lemonade and the passion fruit lemonade were both amazing, we finished them and enjoyed the popping pearls. The mango boba (which is a usual order of mine anywhere else) was absolutely tasteless. It literally tasted like water with tapioca pearls.

Seafood: So we were genuinely so excited for because who isn't. And all the good reviews of the food quality made us even more excited. My first complaint regards the way in which you order your seafood. They give you an AYCE (all-you-can-eat) type of ordering sheet but it works nothing at all like those sheets. We ordered our seafood but with the almost hour long wait and the already subpar appetizers, we requested the check. Which they agreed but told us that we should take our seafood since it had already been made, we reluctantly agreed to take it even though we were weary. At home, (not even 15 minutes later) we attempted to try the seafood we had ordered. It was NOT what we ordered. When we had asked for headless shrimp, a singular lobster tail, potatoes, sausage, no corn, and snow crab legs; we received a full lobster, king crab legs, a whole bunch of corn, little to no potatoes, and absolutely no shrimp. ALL of which was either as salty as the dead sea or tasted sour.

If you made it this far into my review, thank you for taking time and reading. I hope my review has helped you in the way that a review could have helped us. And I certainly hope that something could get fixed...

What I ate was not good but I can't recommend the place to others and for the following reasons. I was initially greeted by a gentleman who sat me down. He went back to his table and began to eat and was frequently on his phone. He didn't offer me water for which refills required prompting. He never took the time to introduce himself and explain the menu. When I did get a waitress that was midway. She was much more prompt, however, she didn't introduce herself but overall she was great. In regards to the food. The spicy broth seasonings got stuck in the food and thus got stuck in the back of my throat. This also created extremely hot food. I'd would have preferred to see those seasonings in a tea ball. Like other hot pot places they have mushrooms. Id like to see some dried mushrooms as they take up the flavor of the broth. Some of the larger mushrooms tasted like bland sponges. I wasnt impressed by the kimchi. While this place is not all you can eat and the owner claims that you can't compare- I'd disagree. There are all you can eat hot pot/bbq restaurants that have extremely fresh ingredients at a premium price of about $40 per person for both BBQ and Hot Pot within 25 minute drive of this location. You should expect your bill here to be about $35 per person. I think they miss the mark of advertising bring your own bottles because all you can eat hotpots and BBQ nearby serve alcohol. So you may prefer to come here over an all you can eat because alcohol will be a premium. But like other reviews I felt hungry after I left. Id recommend implementing an all you can eat price plus the current structure of pricing. Because if you go to an all you can eat hot pot and BBQ and you dont like the food... Well... you're out some money.... But if you wanted to try this food for the first time by the dish maybe a better option. I prefer more exotic varieties of food and think the competition executes...

As an avid hotpot lover, this was probably the WORST and most DISAPPOINTING hotpot experience I’ve ever had.

Our “server” (pictured here) NEVER greeted/introduced himself to us and would blatantly ignore us while serving the 3 other small tables he was assigned to. We would try to politely flag him down multiple times, but he would just walk past our table and look over us like we didn’t exist. Because of his unprofessionalism and inattentiveness, we had to constantly walk up from our tables to ask the kind lady who was working at the cashier to give us bowls/utensils, take our order, and serve the food we ordered off their paper menus. He even doubled down and would communicate with us via the cashier lady, which I thought was pathetic and hilarious at that point.

Furthermore, the vegetables and seafood we had ordered for our hotpot never came, and was still in “queue” after over 20 min of waiting. Had we known it would take that long, we would’ve just taken the food off the conveyer belt instead of ordering via their menu that was given to us at the beginning. Because of the long wait, we decided to cancel everything we ordered. Overall, the hotpot was mediocre at best, and probably the only best thing on the menu was their fruit teas. Also, there is no make-your-own sauce station, which is one of the essential parts of hotpot that you mustn’t leave out. All in all, we anticipated a one-of-a-kind experience, but ended up leaving with a sour taste in our mouths.

Please hit up Garden Shabu & Grill, Cast Iron Pot, and Cap’t Loui (all located in NJ) if you want a legit/amazing hotpot, bbq, and seafood boil experience that has fast/efficient/attentive service, delicious quality food, and is more bang for your buck. We will NOT be coming back and will now go shower to forget this terrible smell from this dreadfully...