Top Pot K BBQ & Hot Pot - Delran — Restaurant in Delran Township

This was our second time coming to Top Pot. We went on a Saturday around 1PM for a party of 2 for hotpot only. They offer All You Can Eat (AYCE) for both KBBQ and hotpot. You can do one or both. I believe there’s a slight surcharge per person if you do both. It was a little busy but we were seated immediately. The server was quick to take our first order and drinks.

In the back of the restaurant is the appetizer/sauce/dessert bar. There are plates/bowls stacked underneath the bars that you can take. They have a bunch of appetizers to choose from, but most of the items are fried: wontons, fried rice, egg rolls, fries, onion rings, orange chicken, chicken poppers, noodles, etc. This is probably the biggest/best/most variety for an appetizer bar that I’ve seen, which is a huge plus! The sauce bar is right in the middle of the appetizer and dessert bars. There are maybe 10-12 sauces you can use. They have additional stuff, like scallions, garlic, seasoning, that you can add in. There is also a poster for sauce mixtures if you’re not sure what sauce to make. The dessert bar was the most underwhelming. They had some fruits and pudding, though I was too full by the end of it to have space for dessert anyway. The staff did a great job keeping the bars stocked and clean.

Behind the app/sauce/dessert bar is a small table setup for additional straws, chopsticks, napkins, etc.

For the broth, this time we ordered the Spicy Korean Soup (🌶️🌶️🌶️) and the Mixed Mushroom Rib Broth. The Spicy Korean Soup broth comes in 3 different spice levels. Comparing both the Korean Soup and Szechuan broths at the 3rd spice level, the Korean Soup broth was more flavorful but less spicy. The Mixed Mushroom broth was similar, if not identical, to their Special Rib broth. I think the rib broths are fine but a little plain and could be more flavorful. They do have a lot of broth options, so I’m hopeful to find one I like a bit more next time.

We also ordered slush drinks: lychee and grapefruit. If you’ve ever had the slush drinks from TSAŌCAA, it’s from the same shop. Flavorful and refreshing. I recommend getting a slush drink to cool off from the hotpot/BBQ heat.

Typically, the broth arrives before the food and you have time to wait for the broth to boil. However, as you can see in the attached pictures, we actually got the hotpot food items before we even got our broths. We ended up eating some appetizer items and having to wait about 5 minutes for our broth bowls to arrive. YMMV on whether you get your broth first or the food items first. In terms of service, it was fine but a little slow after our first order. As I said earlier, it was a little busy so the service time was understandable. To order, you have to check in with your waiter. They will input the items that you want onto their iPad but the table itself does not have an iPad to order from.

The actual food items were great. One order of something was sufficient to share between 2 people. The menu size is pretty good for AYCE. They do have limited seafood options, so if you mostly eat seafood during hotpot, I think you’ll be a bit bored with the options.

Overall, a great AYCE hotpot/KBBQ spot. Good broths, good appetizers and sauces. I definitely recommend checking this place out if you’re craving...

I absolutely loved this place, the ingredients were obviously very fresh and tasty, I got to try new things like bamboo shoots and Lotus, and the decor and atmosphere is totally top notch. For 2 people with soda as our drink, the total came to about $90 which is fine, just letting others know.

However, I do have one kinda big complaint. Maybe im the one in the wrong here, but as it was my first time here I wasn't entirely sure what to do and I feel like our server, while he was very nice, didn't do a great job of explaining how to properly do hot pot. All he said was to keep the pot at P-6 and when it started boiling turn it down to P-1.

In my picture for meat I had fatty lamb and spicy beef shanks. I wasn't entirely sure how to know it was done, but I was under the impression to cook my food fully I had to just dunk it into the hot pot for a certain period of time. However what was NOT explained is the hot pot must be actively boiling, and I have to keep the meat in the boiling pot for 15 minutes and then past the 15 minutes, the cooking would start.

Theres a sign that reads something like "food must be boiled 15 minutes then cooked" and maybe its just me, I dont know but I read that multiple times and had no idea what it was saying. My server told me to turn the pot to P-1 when it was done boiling and I thought that was all I had to do. In hindsight now that I'm home and my belly is full, im realizing that I just ate a ton of raw lamb and beef that I only kept in the simmering pot at P-1 for about a minute, as the misleading sign reads. So I hope I don't end up getting sick.

Im not trashing this place at all- it was a great experience and great food! However though I feel the instructions should be made more clear and I wish the server was more clear with his instructions, that I didn't just have to wait until it boiled then turn it down. Because both the sign and what he said were contradictory and misleading.. Something like this is amazing in this area because there's not a lot of fun things to do here, and I'd hate for this to happen to somebody immature enough to try and...

My husband and I decided to do a date night on Friday, 2 Dec 2023, at approximately 6:30-7:00 p.m. We chose this spot because one of his clients recommended it.

When we arrived, we weren't sure of what to expect. It was his first time dining at a place like this. I had dined at a place similar to this in Chinatown in Philadelphia about 6/ 7 years ago.

They had a 40 - to 45-minute waitlist. We were in no hurry, so we decided to give it a try and wait. Our wait was more like 30 minutes. We were glad we waited. We were escorted to our table. Within a few minutes of being seated, our server Maggie explained to us how everything worked; it was pretty simple.

My husband and I both had the hot pot and BBQ All You Can eat. We both ordered lemonade to drink. In addition, We both ordered Szechuan Hot Spicy Broth (#2 as heat index), and he added the following: bok choy, bella mushrooms, chicken, and broccoli and ramen for his hot pot. I ordered spicy beef, spinach (they were out), bean sprouts, bella mushrooms, and ramen for my hot pot (all of this we cooked in the broth that we requested).

For his BBQ he ordered two orders of spare ribs, spicy beef Bulgogi, and calamari, and I ordered spicy beef Bulgogi (we cooked it ourselves on the pan in the middle of the table w/butter).

While waiting, they offered a small buffet section of which my husband took full advantage of. He had chicken, crayfish, and vegetable fried rice. He enjoyed it. I had a piece of his fried chicken, and it was good.

We only had one suggestion; take the alcohol off your menu until you have your liquor license and replace it with BYOB.

Other than our suggestion, our overall experience was great, and that is why we gave this place a 5 rating. Maggie was a wonderful waitress. We enjoyed our food, and the ambiance had a retro/ contemporary feel, as if you walked into a restaurant in a Asian country, which we really enjoyed; we don't see that too often. The pricing was reasonable with the tip included. The total was $97.88. We highly recommend this place and most definitely will be dining...