Urban Hot Pot — Restaurant in Columbia

Sept 2024 We were spending the day in Baltimore and decided to check out the Columbia location. I called ahead to make a reservation, since we were going to be dining during busy dinner hours on a weekend. The person on the phone was polite and professional, though they got a bit flustered when I asked them to confirm the details I gave them. They sent me a text confirming my reservation.

The restaurant is part of an apartment/retail complex, but I'm not sure if they have an attached garage. They are right across a small street (with a crosswalk) from the parking lot of a mall, and I noticed a lot of customers parked there. It takes a bit of hunting to find parking, but there is enough parking.

The restaurant is on the corner of the building. They have a few tables and chairs outside, likely for people on the waitlist. The inside is dimly lit and a little bit loud. They have booths seating 2-6 people. And two booth-chair tables seating 8 people. There is a conveyor belt in the middle, with non-meat food items coming by. There was a larger car thing on top of the conveyor belt that probably delivered to those tables from the kitchen. But I think they discontinued that when they got the bigger robot that delivers orders. The staff use the robot a lot to deliver food and drinks. I think while we were there, we had our stuff delivered to us by a human only once.

The sauce bar is on the left side of the restaurant, by the 8 seat tables. It was pretty depleted at that time of night. There was a freezer with cup ice cream next to it, but it seems they require you to order the ice cream through the tablet and it will be delivered to your table. They offer strawberry and vanilla flavors.

Each table has a tablet on a swiveling, extending mount. Though the joints are very tight and it takes some effort to actually extend it. In the top left corner, there is a clock icon and the remaining time you have to eat. You have a 90 minutes time limit. The tablet resets when your time ends.

The food quality was the same as the Rockville location, though I noticed that the portion sizes were about half the size. The veggies were all fresh and crisp. The meats were good, if a bit fatty. Of the non-special meats, the lamb is the least fatty. I also appreciated them serving the different types of meat on their own plates instead of putting all the meats we ordered on one big plate. The Tom Yum soup was also spicier than I was used to. I was interested to see that the vermicelli noodles were served to me dry instead of wet.

The staff were polite and quick. Though they generally have a hands off approach unless you order something over the tablet. Even then, they prefer to hand deliveries to the robot. They are very quick when clearing off and cleaning tables.

There are 2 single men/women bathrooms in the back, on the right side. They are decently clean and dry. There is also a separate sink outside the bathrooms, presumably for people that eat with their hands (like the crab legs).

Overall, a decent hot pot location. I may consider coming back if we're...

⚠️WARNING ⚠️. There all you can eat $33 per person is actually $33 plus $10 per person. Just want to warn you. They don’t warn you up front or on their fancy tablet that they instruct you to order from. It says $0 for the included items. Nope it’s not. Be careful using the tablet to select an item you can increase the amount DON’T you will be charged unknowingly as it still says $0. Don’t increase just get 1 thing. Don’t experiment and taste different things like you would normally do at an all you can eat because in the end you will be randomly and surprisingly charged an extra $10 per person for it and you won’t find out about it until the end. I suggest you skip the surprises of random extra charges AND DON’T COME HERE NEVER. All you could eat should be that. Bottomless should be that. Not that and then plus $10. Since when…..I never experienced this in my life. They are some shady crooks! I will contact the Bureau of Better Business. It’s not about the money it’s about the principle be upfront and honest. Inform people of all stipulations and costs on the menu on the tablet. For example, anything over three selections will be an additional costs. They only have it as $0 additional cost and only $33. Sooo shady.

I would give this shady bad business 0 stars if I could. This was our first time coming here and was excited to try something new. However, this place is not honest and I will NEVER come here again! We informed our waitress that we never been here before and she told us it is $33 per person for all you could eat PERIOD. So, we ordered our food on a tablet unaware of the portions or anything because as I said this was our first time eating here. On the tablet it said all our selections were $0. Very soon we were full and asked a waiter if we could take it to go. They said no and that because we are waisting so much food they will charge us an extra $10 per person. This rule was not mentioned to us nor was it in writing. No one warned us or anything. The $20 was put in as a tip. We tried to explain explain to the manager this was our first time and that we were not informed of this hidden fee.This place is crooked and shady. I will contact the better business bureau about this. I never been to a buffet and they charge you extra for all you can eat. That’s why it costs $33 per person. Second, if you know the costumer is NEW don’t let them order on a tablet a bottomless amount of options and if they do warn them before you bring it out. They could have came out and simply warned us that are you sure you want this much food because if so we will charge $10 extra person making it $43 per person. We did not know until we were ready to go. This place is dishonest and is shady. I will contact the better business bureaus about their shady business...

Worst experience I have had in a while! I was looking forward to trying this spot out with my family since my sister highly recommended it and the service was horrible. When we first arrived they put on us on a waiting list for 20-30 minutes. They were suppose to text us when our table was ready, luckily I was watching the clock and waited 40-50 minutes before going back in to check on our table. When I arrived at the host stand I told them I didn’t think the app was working properly because there was no update on our spot in line. They asked the reservation name and then said our table was ready. Nobody acknowledged my question about the app working. We were sat down without menus or any explanation as to how things worked since it was all our first time. I had to ask two people to explain the menu to us because we were still confused. We ordered everything off the tablet. But everyone is not tech savvy and I think there should be a paper menu for u to be able to order. Nobody checked back on us they dropped our drinks off super late after our food arrived. The food was ok I was not impressed. I had to ask three different people for our bill and one of the ladies asked my daughter how old she was which came off very rude. Finally the check arrived after my family went to the car. I looked and realized that the gratuity was included in the bill and told the server I refused to pay the gratuity for a poor service. I paid the bill all cash. The woman Initiated to grab my arm and made a scene as if I didn’t pay my bill when I explained to her I paid the bill but I was refusing to pay the gratuity for horrible service. I usually don’t write reviews but this was the WORST experience ever and I was humiliated and highly offended that the woman grabbed my arm. I was looking forward to a nice dinner with my family that was extremely complicated...