KPOT Korean BBQ & Hot Pot — Restaurant in Jackson Township

My wife and I have been eating at K pot since they opened. Service, food, atmosphere is always excellent. The owner has gone out of his way on several occasions to “level up” our experience. We have brought guests on multiple occasions and recommend k pot to all our friends.

We were with a large group last night, my wife’s boss took her employees out for a holiday dinner together. 17 people on a slow Thursday evening all arriving within about a 15 minute window around 8pm.

The first few to show up explained we would have a large group around 20. The restaurant staff wanted to seat the group together but had customers still at the table they wanted to place us. Our people said they didn’t need to sit together, they group splits up into cliques and families anyway - the main point was “Boss is buying dinner, everyone worked hard all day, let’s go eat good food!”

There was 30 minutes of arguing and confusion trying to get seated in a half empty restaurant. The management even complained our group was clogging up the hostess and waiting areas, and wanted them to go wait elsewhere. They even approached the large group that was at the table they wanted and TOLD THEM IT WAS TIME TO GO!! Twice, our group received dirty looks from the group that was rushed out. Our group was finally seated, and ironically NOT TOGETHER, NOT AT THE BIG TABLE. Same area but 3-4 tables, which was good, why all the fuss for so long?

I arrived late to meet the group. 9:15ish. Assuming the group is nearly done eating I came in and requested to just sit with the group to visit for Christmas. They said the policy was I need to pay a full meal price to sit. After 10 minutes of arguing, clueless to the previous drama (at this point), the manager reluctantly allowed me to sit. I even offered to tie my hands, I had no intention to eat since I was late.

The service was incredible, our waiter “Kachow” took care of our entire group. He was kind, gentle, funny, and extremely attentive and polite. I can’t say enough good things about Kachow. 店主可以把他最好的顾客托付给这个服务员。

This experience was not a normal visit for my wife and I, it’s a shame so much stress and drama had to be added to a nice night out, and huge sales ticket for the restaurant. The 5 star review is a direct result of Kachow being able to serve with a smile to such a large group of stressed...

I’ve had Hot Pot before, but it was always at restaurants with a full menu option. So I have them Hot Pot, my choice of the menu items, freshly prepared sushi, or all of the above This place does not appear to offer a full menu option. They also only offer appetizers from the buffet. They had one type of 🍣 sushi at a time. I went up several times and the sushi selection didn’t appear to change or get updated. Buffet’s appetizers is not bad if they have what you want on the buffet, but when they don’t it’s just an L and bonus steps fire the fitness app. As an older person I did not go out to prepare my own food. I must admit that I used to think that places like Steak on a stone and Hot Pots like this were fun. This location has a rule that if one person in your party of six picks the more expensive BBQ Option the entire party has to pay $5+ for the higher dining option. I can understand the why, people try to be slick, but I just feel that it’s worth mentioning. Mainly because the per person price just went up for the entire table. They give each table a table to order the ingredients for the dinner. It was very impressive how quickly the meat and vegetable selections for the soup or BBQ made it to our table. KUDOS!(does anyone say that anymore?)🤪 Our server was extremely attentive. Our soda never got near empty before another showed up. He took time to explain and assist with every step of the process. He even offered insight along the way. My problem is:

I’m not a very good cook. I’m an even worse Asian food without video instructions cook, so I had to pay $40+ to turn what appeared to be high quality, fresh ingredients into a not-so-tasty Asian meal. I would’ve preferred to go to my favorite spot, had a master chef prepare it to perfection for ~$20, plus the bonus of having extra food...

Our server — a larger Black woman wearing multiple pins on her apron, including one from "Arthur’s" sister DW ” — only approached our table twice during our entire meal. She brought us our water and menus, and we did not see her again until we were waiting over 20 minutes at the end of our meal just to receive our check.

When we finally got up to ask for the check from another server she then came over we paid then, she physically blocked our booth and confronted us about not leaving a tip. This confrontation was very weird and completely inappropriate. We calmly explained that we hadn’t received service from her during the meal and that we typically only tip in cash, not on the card. Still, she continued pressing us, saying things like “so you’re not going to tip?” and then launched into a speech about her personal financial situation and how tips are her only source of income.

We found this entire situation extremely unprofessional, uncomfortable, and borderline coercive. No customer should be harassed or blocked from leaving a restaurant because they didn’t leave a tip — especially when service was nearly nonexistent.

We hope you take this matter seriously. Employees should never confront guests in this manner, and this behavior reflects very poorly on your brand. We ask that appropriate action be taken, including retraining staff on proper service etiquette and boundaries.

Sincerely and respectfully

Reply: Thank you for your response and for taking this incident seriously. I appreciate your commitment to retraining and addressing the behavior directly. It truly was an upsetting experience, and we felt very uncomfortable during our visit.

I’m open to further follow-up. Please let me know how we can connect privately to discuss this further. Thank you...