Hot Spot — Restaurant in Chantilly

Hiiiiiiii, this place is absolutely over-rated. The majority of the employees seem to hate their life & their job. Especially the woman manager (short and a little heavy set) I have seen her be some kind of disrespectful to the workers as she sits around. First experience-- We went on a Thursday night & was waited on by Rafel, firstly I do not appreciate being waited on and have the server cussing while having a normal conversation with me. He rushed explaining how things worked & was not very knowledgeable when asking questions about different menu items, we were never told about the sauce bar just so happen to see other customers going & coming. When the food came out (super quick) from another associate half of what we asked for was not there and items we did not order came out. I asked several times for the lamb to come out on a separate dish due to my partner having severe allergies. This did not happen, and when we told him we needed a separate plate of the other meats we were told he was unsure what other meat was on the tray. We ordered chicken, lamb and brisket... not sure how you can't tell the difference in chicken & brisket, but we waited until he came back and had to order single items to get things plated separately when we asked. We also had a groupon this is where our experience with the lady manager came into play, she told us that since it was expired they would only be able to take off $18 from our bill which was totally fine, but as she was walking away we felt absolutely belittled as she was telling another coworker how it really gets on her nerves to give someone an 18 dollar discount, & "what the hell is $18" may not be alot, but at 32 dollars a person, an $18 discount is better than nothing...

Anywho, we decided to give Hotspot a second shot this Sunday we were greeted & served by Cassidy- the vibe, attitude, attentiveness, etc was MUCH better! We explained the food allergy up front, asked questions, etc. When the food arrived the lamb was plated separately, our questions were answered very thoroughly AND she offered to make us a sauce of our choice between -tangy▪︎sweet▪︎spicy- when we mentioned that we didn't mind, we liked them all she brought us one of each, explained what each was and the ingredients in each one, as well as wrote down the ingredients & portion sizes in the one we absolutely LOVED so we could make it IF we decide to dine here again. We were told about the bar specials, she checked on us each time our next portions of food hit the table, assured we never went under half a cup of soda, also checked in on us often to assure we were okay! AND overheard my wife saying she would love to come for lunch one day with her coworkers but we're unsure if they would have time and let us know about the call in option and also let us know that call in orders are still uncooked but told us about the fried rice option if they wanted to order something quick but still delicious & the different options they offer there. We truly enjoyed the experience ALOT more the second go around, she even offered to purchase our bar drinks (on her) for the experience we had previously! Will definitely be requesting her as a server if we decide to come back!! Thank you so much Cassidy for the amazing, attentive, perfect sever!

Just to finish off here, the first time we came here I observed two [A&B] employees absolutely freaking out on one another because B would not help A with something that needed done because B had "done too much and didn't feel like it" very unprofessional to stand, argue and cuss at each other in front of customers, and I will not even get started about either of the lady managers. ( skinny with black hair, and the blonde thick chick) they both need a...

Solid 1/5.

Went here on a Saturday evening with a couple of friends, as we were all craving some Hotpot. After being greeted by the staff, we were seated down and waited for our service staff. Everything was good until we noticed that most of our bowls/plates and utensils were dirty. They had stains and left over food crumbs that weren't thoroughly cleaned. It was noticeable enough to where you'd think someone would have seen it when placing the utensils and bowls on the table. After setting them aside, it took a little long for the staff to come back so we can let them know the dishes were dirty. So a friend had to just go to the bar and grab us fresh new ones. Now, onto the food review:

The Food: The hotpot was good. They had a good amount of selections to choose from and the broth was delicious. I went with the Tom Yum broth and it had a good amount of flavor. The different meat and veggie selections were great too, however the portion sizes were very small. Especially for a party of six. Even after requesting multiple times for two orders of meats since we were a large group, the waiter failed to do so. So as you can guess, a lot of us had to wait for multiple meat/veggie orders to come through. Also, well into our meal we had to ask for water, since our server failed to bring that out in the first place.

The Service: Service was plain out terrible. Not only did the experience here already diminish from the statements above, but our waiter was incredibly slow and lacked the attention of serving our table. We didn't ask for much and were a very simple table. We put in our orders that were big enough and accommodated our table, we didn't get that. We asked for clean plates and utensils, we didn't get that. The lack of attention/service our table received made it a terrible dining experience with our friends. It was hard for us to understand why this was happening, when comparing to the service other tables were getting.

Overall, a solid 1/5. I won't be coming back...

Sep 2022 update: Great place for casual meal. Not much has changed from previous review. Just don't recommend being seated at table right below ceiling mounted speaker blasting really loud kpop music.

ATTENTION: 6 star ratings should be allowed because Hot Spot deserves it.

I know this is not super authentic ethnic eatery but I would believe that this would be a place that a Food Network star should be introduced to if they are doing a special on "what to eat in NoVA area". The main reason why this place is off the charts is their formula for being a hot pot restaurant. Hot Spot offers only 1 (yes, only one) price for every person and it's $25/person for all you can eat. That's it. No fuss, no rushing, no hassling, no pressure, and non-stop refill in ingredients unlike other hot pot places close by. Ok, so here's my rundown for why this place rocks: All you can eat for all items including meat (tongue, tripe, brisket --- YES!), seafood, veggie (they have taro, 3 mushrooms, and watercress ---- double YES!). The veggie, meat, seafood is very VERY clean. The shrimp and baby octopus is obviously cleaned and fresh. Six kinds of broth to include spicy Szechuan style. The waiter/waitress service is laid back, not pressuring, and they don't rushing you out the door - they do advise 2 hour eating sessions but that's just fine because you don't have to do anything of the food clean up or prep. Sauce bar ..... a clean sauce bar. Stellar food service ..... yea, I mentioned this already but I meant the short/fast cycles with which refills are offered. Unlike some other hot pot places in Centreville where they offer the 3rd ingredients refill after having you wait 30-40 minutes.

Now if there is anything I would ding them on, it's that you don't get to take home the delicious cauldron of meat, seafood, & veggie-laden broth. So we'll be taking my family to this place so they are not burdened with clean up...