KPOT Korean BBQ & Hot Pot — Restaurant in Englewood

We thought that Englewood NJ, next to Shoprite supermarket was an odd place for a new Korean Hotpot (shabu-shabu) and BBQ place to open. Especially at the same place where a new Hook & Reel Cajun Seafood closed during Covid. After visiting, I realized that KPot Korean bbq & Hot pot is catered to non-Korean customers, especially people who are not familiar (or intimidated) with Korean BBQ or KPot. Basically, you won't get an authentic experience here because the whole authentic KPOT/Korean bbq experience has been simplified, sanitized, and hybridized.

Here are some of the issues I saw...

We didn't try their Kpot and they might do that much better but I noticed that, unlike most other KPOT/shabu-shabu places we've been to, all the items required for Kpot had to be ordered and brought out by servers.

Their buffet section was really small. The cold section had mostly seasonings for shabu-shabu, 2-3 side dishes like kimchee, some cut-up oranges, and canned peaches. Their hot section only had french fries, small egg rolls, and chicken nuggets.

This was their biggest problem. The temperature for the pot where you grill your meat was too low and took forever to cook anything. That's why none of the tables had a fan above the grill since it never got hot enough to burn anything!

It took 10-15 minutes to cook most items. Longer for thicker cuts of meat. When we complained about the low temperature, I saw the server trying to raise the temperature of the electric hot plate to above 320 degrees but it wouldn't let him. 320 degrees might seem hot enough but Kbbq is about cooking at a hot temperature for a short amount of time. Usually around 375-400 degrees or hotter.

Not only that but because the grill was electric, the heat went on and off every few minutes to maintain the set temperature. (Just like your oven) The "grill" would cook and sizzle for a few minutes and then nothing happens for a few minutes until the heat turns back on. A maddening experience unless you are not used to Kbbq.

Everything tasted exactly the same (salty and sweet) since they probably used the same seasoning to marinate everything. Spicier items tasted the same as well other than a little more kick.

Other than that, the place was clean. The people who worked there were courteous and professional. They had galbi (beef ribs) unlike most other AYCE Kbbq places after Covid. They even had 7 or so different broth flavors for kpot. They had free and plentiful parking spaces. Just don't come expecting an authentic...

I came here on a very busy night with my friend, and I had the pleasure of having Claire as my server. I have to say that her service was so amazing that I came on to this page to write a review just to tell you all how amazing she was and the service she provided.

First of all, despite the fact that the entire restaurant was full, she was super attentive the entire time. She would come around every few minutes and checked in on us to see if we needed anything. Our waters would never be empty because she would constantly refill them, keeping us from becoming parched!

When our broth for our hot pot was getting low, she noticed that and came over with some more soup to refill our pot without us even having to ask her. Next, when our grill was getting black from all the grilling we were doing, she preemptively changed the grill out for us so that we could continue cooking without us having to flag her down later and ask her for a grill change.

Also, when we were getting low on food, she would come over and ask us if we wanted to order more, ready to take our next order. Our table was never empty, and we were both happily eating the whole time! All the food was super yummy, and I loved all the sauces you could create from the sauce bar. Lastly, when we were done eating, she even turned the grill and the hot pot off for us so that it would not burn.

The whole time, she was smiling and very friendly to us, and never seemed to be annoyed at anyone or doing this. You could tell that she loves her job. This is very difficult, because everyone knows that being a server is not the easiest and it's very tough having to deal with customers all day on a daily basis! As for me, I would not be able to handle this job and could definitely not even imagine what it's like being a waiter!

I can't believe how great of a waitress she was, and she was honestly one of, if not the best server I have ever had across any restaurant I've ever been to! I will come back next time and hope that she will be our server again, because our experience was absolutely top notch. Even though this was not a fine dining restaurant, we would have thought this was, because Claire definitely treated us as such that we really did think we must have walked in and dined at a fancy,...

Terrible and disgusting place to eat!!!!! Highly do not recommend, never returning to this establishment! Was here on Saturday with a group of 7, our server Andrew was great no complaints he helped as much as he could considering the situation. As a large group of people we ordered a ton of food and drinks. My brother in law ordered one of their beef dishes and as he started cooking it he looked in the raw meat and saw a HUGE earring. DISGUSTING!!!!!!!! We were told the manager was informed of the situation and she would be right over…at least 10 minutes goes by and still no manager came to our table to speak with us. We had to ask our server a second time to have her come over. At this point, business is already bad a manager or owner should have been at our table within minutes of this happening, the customer shouldn’t have to ask TWICE!!! Maybe another 5 minutes goes by and a young girl comes to the table stating she’s the manager and she apologizing for taking so long, she was speaking with the owner. So we explain again what happened to this young girl and her response is apologetic she states she is trying to get to the bottom of it but they don’t know where the earring came from!!!!!!(don’t know where the earring came from, just what we want to hear) So with that she offers us 2 free soju drinks to rectify the issue. On a 300+ bill where your customers just found an earring in there uncooked food, they thought that was good enough. So of course we fought that and asked for at least the second round of food to be taken off the bill and she said don’t worry that will be taken care of and all the meals are going to be discounted. Our server Andrew comes back with the bill and a 10% discount was given for a total of 21 dollars off the bill …ohhhhh and don’t forget the two free drinks! I’m sorry but this business needs new managers and clearly a new owner if that’s what he sent this girl/manager to our table to say. Everything about this was UNACCEPTABLE, and us as the customers were not...