KPOT Korean BBQ & Hot Pot — Restaurant in Houston

honestly would have loved to give this place 5 stars—the food was great, and the concept is really fun—but I left feeling upset and disappointed with the service we received on Saturday night (7/05/25).

It was our very first time at this restaurant, and also our first time ever experiencing Korean BBQ/hot pot. We made sure to let both the host and our server know this upfront. We ordered our proteins along with the hot pot, but only the hot pot was brought out. Our server passed by shortly after and asked if we had ordered anything else, and we let him know that we did—several items in fact—but nothing ever came.

Even though we work in the service industry ourselves and understand that small delays happen, it felt like our server was rushing around more than actually helping tables. He kept zipping by our table, seemingly busy, but mostly just talking to coworkers and not checking in on us. After some time, we politely let him know again that we hadn’t received our food, and only after another 10 minutes or so passed did he finally put in a reorder. Eventually, the proteins did arrive.

Once we began cooking, my partner accidentally burned a piece of meat, and we weren’t sure what we did wrong. When we asked the server for help, his response was a little off-putting. He looked annoyed and said, “Damn, that fast? I have to change it out already?” He did replace the grill and then seemed to keep a bit more of an eye on it, which we appreciated. But from there, things went downhill again.

Dirty plates started stacking up on our table, and our server didn’t come by to clear them. I glanced around and noticed another server on the other side consistently checking in on his tables and clearing plates, so I politely asked our server if he could take ours. He made a face, as if I were asking too much, and said, “Yeah, I’ll get them when I come back.” Then he walked off again to continue chatting in the corner. Despite walking by multiple times afterward, he never picked them up until the very end.

The moment that really made us feel uncomfortable was when he approached us, without asking how we were doing or if we needed anything else, and asked if we were ready for the check. I said we weren’t sure yet—I was considering getting more pho or another drink—and he responded with, “Well, it’s a two-hour time limit and you guys are almost at that point,” while just standing there and staring at us like we were a burden.

Look, I totally understand having time limits, especially at a place like this—and there’s nothing wrong with that—but it’s all about how you communicate with guests. We had no idea about the time limit and were never informed about it when we were seated. If we had been told ahead of time, we would have been more mindful. But being told in such a blunt and borderline dismissive way, especially during our first visit, just made us feel embarrassed and unwelcome.

Overall, the food and concept were great, but our experience with the service left a really bad taste in our mouths. I’m honestly not sure if we’ll return. I’d love to try it again—but I also don’t want to go through that kind of treatment a...

Worst experience in life. feel like they present like a yes man, once you dine-in(earn your money), then they rush you out(off earlier).

My friends and I (6ppl) were looking for a korean bbq, which opened at late Saturday night with less crowd and less wait.

We called this restaurant almost 9pm, they said there was no wait and close at 11:30pm, so we could still have more than 2 hours for the bbq, they said we were good to dine-in, so we decided to go there.

There were about 30% full when we arrived around 9pm. The staff provided a table with very narrow seat space cause the customers on the right side pushed the seat all the way back for wider space. We asked the server for solution, he seemed he didn't know what to do. Then we asked if we could change the table, and he said the other table was not his area. He went back to info the front desk for a while, but they didn't help with anything. We were all just standing for nothing, so we asked the server again if he could ask the customers to move back. He did asked and we could be sat finally.

There was only 1 bbq stove on the side of the long table, so 2 of us won't be able to reach the stove to cook any food. After our first round of meats arrived, the server told us the kitchen would be close in 30mins. We were like What!? We told the server that we did a call to confirm before came, and they didn't mention anything about the last order time, only told us they close at 11:30pm(also not even info us when we just arrived). If only have less than 1 hour to have bbq, we won't come for sure!! That was not enough time for cooking and eating in 1 hour!! didn't make sense!! However, the server only repeated the kitchen would be close soon, the salad bar was still open. Then we asked the server to help us to order more meats cuz the tablet has limited quantity, and there was less than 30mins left.

We were in a rush, but there was only "1 STOVE" for "6 PEOPLE", and it was electric, not gas, which won't heat up fast. The only thing we could do was ask the server to bring more meat before the kitchen closed. After he brought out some more meats, he told us some meats were out of stock. BEFORE 10pm.

After the kitchen closed at 10pm, we thought we could finally enjoy the time, but then we were told the salad bar would be close soon. What!?!? again??? The server said cuz they closed at 11pm. It didn't make sense cuz we were told they closed at 11:30pm in the beginning, and even the Google Map and their Door Sign show 11:30pm on Friday and Saturday. The server had no say.

It is very Ridiculous!!!! We were not the only customers at that time. Does it mean cuz there were 10-15% customers left, so you decided to close early and blow the rest of the customers out??? This is not the way to do a business like this.

Also, we saw there was a cockroach on the wall when we were busy at fighting with our food, but it ran away before we found our server.

We have blacklisted this restaurant and never come back...

I ate at KPOT this past Sunday on 03/24, and I had a great experience the first time I ate here in the summer so I wasn't hesitant to try it out again. I ordered a large selection of meat to eat with my friends, and it tasted fine. We did notice that the grills got burnt quick, and we had a server who was walking by who helped us switch out a girl, and then a different server who saw the condition of the grill that last server gave us and said that she would bring us a different one because it didn't look like a good grill. Other than that, nothing out of the usual. A couple of hours later after dinner, when I was trying to go to sleep, I woke up with stomach pain and an elevated heart rate. I couldn't really pinpoint what was going on, but I knew that it was probably something I ate. I ended up throwing up all of the food that I ate that night, before it was even digested (I'll spare you the details). I thought that I just had an upset stomach that day, but this continued throughout the whole week and I decided to ask a doctor for help. She diagnosed me with the stomach flu. Right after the doctors visit, I immediately threw up again my dinner from that day (Thursday) and my dinner from the day before. I'm currently writing this with brain fog, nausea, stomach pain, and overall a bad experience with kbbq, making me never want to eat it again. I've had to take almost a week off of work, and I've been in pain this whole week. I heard negative reviews from this place from word of mouth, but since I had a positive experience the first time, I just thought that maybe everyone is different, but this was definitely the experience that I don't want to relive. I don't usually write reviews, but it's been a really tough week. To preface, I have not gotten the stomach flu in years and I'm a pretty healthy individual too, so this is not something that I experience commonly as I am still pretty young. I don't hope to bring any malice to the business, just hope that everything is up to standard and that things are running well, before anyone else experiences any illness worse...