Aroma Hot Pot 朝天门火锅 — Restaurant in Chicago

Since it's still been cold in Chicago lately, my mom and I have been trying different hotpot restaurants. Aroma was next on the list.

Here they have pots that separate up to 3 broths. I thought that was nice to try out tons of broths and see what you like. We don't like spicy hotpot so we opted for two kinds of chicken broth and mushroom broth.

It was sort of empty when we got there around 5pm but filled up slowly as dinner time crept up. They sat us fast. It was very easy to get my sauce made, pick up whatever cold bar food, and get some pop to drink. They were constantly refilling all the items at all the bars. My worry for this is that it's small and since they were constantly refilling items, if it were super busy, then I would probably not have much to get to eat with the meats I ordered.

They were very attentive. The most attentive hotpot staff that I've experience so that's good!

I also thought the layout of the tables and the side table to hold more dishes was good! They had napkins stocked on the sides so I didn't have to ask for them. I like when practical dining is figured out for me.

I think it could be cleaner around the sauce and hot food bar. I also wish the pop was included in the AYCE price. Other than that, it was a...

Latest addition to the Chicago Hot Pot scene. Very nice overall, great bang for your buck. Highly recommended!

Value They are an all-you-can-eat type establishment with some premium items a la carte. $27.99 for the standard combo, and $32.99 for the premium. The premium includes everything in the standard combo plus a few fancy meats and seafood. Great price among hot pot places.

Broth They have 10 flavors to choose from. We tried medium spicy, sour beef soup, and golden chicken broth, and they are all amazing! My favorite is the golden chicken. It tastes great, and all the ingredients that you cook in it has a nice rich chicken soup taste to it.

Meat We had the $32.99 premium combo. Tried every meat option in both the standard combo and premium. They are all really nice. The freshly sliced meats have great marbling and are extremely fresh. The marinated meats are tender, juicy, and flavorful. Have not had a thing I didn’t like.

Sides Their fried rice is really really good. I know it’s stupid to eat fried rice at an AYCE place but it’s that good. It’s dangerous so have your meat first :)

All in all a very solid place. Great quality broth and meats at affordable prices, can’t go...

I’m very disappointed with my experience at this hotpot restaurant today.

My friends and I planned to enjoy the lunch special from 12:00 PM to 4:00 PM, which offers $4 off per person. We entered the restaurant at 3:47 PM and specifically asked the waitress (a woman with a ponytail) to help us place our hotpot order quickly so we could qualify for the discount. She assured us there was no need to rush, saying that as long as everyone was seated and inside before 4:00 PM, we would get the lunch price.

We finalized our order at 3:55 PM and each of us chose the $34.99 per person all-you-can-eat option. However, after a shift change, a new male server with glasses charged us the full dinner price — no discount at all. We ended up paying $4 more per person.

On top of that, the restaurant uses the Chowbus menu, which includes tax in the listed prices. Tips are calculated after tax, which already makes the final bill higher. I was willing to overlook that, but the overcharge for dinner pricing was unacceptable.

This kind of dishonesty leaves a really bad impression. I won’t be returning, and I don’t recommend this...