Hot Pot & BBQ Jax — Restaurant in Jacksonville

I had plans to meet a colleague for dinner, and my colleague invited me to bring my daughter, so we let my daughter pick the restaurant just knowing she would a steakhouse, but no of course not, she picked Hot Pot & BBQ Jax.... I was a little skeptical about this place at first because I didn't understand what HotPot was or meant, I thought it was just a fondue restaurant like Melting Pot which I wasnt impressed with all personally, but you can't judge a restaurant if you haven't eaten there, right, like judging a book by it's cover..... The reviews that I read were good but did not do this place any justice on how truly amazing it really is.

As soon as we walked in, the uniqueness of the restaurant was very impressive with the magnetic conveyor table. When we met our server Khan we told him none of us had been to Hot Pot and didn't quite understand it all. Not only did he explain it, he went well above and beyond, he gave us a tour of the restaurant and buffet, and explained which foods from the buffet we should cook in the HotPot and which to cook on the grill. He explained how certain foods from the buffet were good cooked either way as well.... And the BUFFET.... OMG, all of the food on the buffet was so fresh and stayed that way the entire time, meats and veggies both, the staff maintained the buffet as if we were royal guest who only deserved the absolute best... When or server Khan was explaining everything to us, our introduction to HotPot was spot on and couldn't have been described any better, he was answering questions before we could ask them.... Khans service was Absolutely amazing, he was close by the entire time, we never had to search for him or wonder when he was coming back, we also weren't being hovered by any means also.... Khan was very courteous, very knowledgeable, outgoing, etc etc etc, I can't say enough about his impeccable service, and I'm sure the other servers are great too. I'm sure it's because the owners care enough to train their staff to provide excellent service, because no matter how awesome the food is, bad service will ruin a great meal and your wont find bad service here.... Khan if you happen to read this, Bravo just Bravo!!!, Great job and is was a pleasure to be served by you sir.

If you haven't been yet, its worth the money and your time to experience this place. I will be back many many times, and asking to sit in...

I came here very often since the restaurant opened and I always had a good experience. The got pot here is great and theres a lot of good options as well. However, I had the worst possible server experience of my life today.

First thing that happened was she was refilling our broth and put the incorrect broth into my dad's pot. She put tom yum broth in his herbal flavored broth. She didn't ask what broth we had which was okay, so we let her know that she put the incorrect broth in the pot. She said "oh Its fine it still tastes good just try it" and points and nods at my dad to eat it anyway. He reluctantly tastes it and lets her know he doesn't like it so she ends up replacing it with a new pot with fresh both. But she left the old pot with the messed up broth on the table still as we are eating.

The worst part was checking out. We were still eating and she brought us our check. This felt extremely rude and we felt rushed. We had not hit close to the 2 hour limit yet. So why are we being rushed out? We didn't put the card in the check til we finished eating. But she still came to check if we put the card in every few minutes.

Once we paid she brought back the check for us to sign. She placed the check in front of my dad, CIRCLED the tip section, said "this is where you tip", then drew a smiley face (she had a straight face during all this btw). That was already extremely shocking and felt incredibly rude to insist a tip like that. We continued to sit at the table so we can finish our ice cream and finish our conversation. She came back multiple times to VERY OBVIOUSLY look and check if we had written a tip yet. After the check was signed, she came to the table and opened the check book right in front of us to see if and how much we tipped. She unfolded the folded receipt and everything, then made a face when she wasn't very pleased with what was tipped.

Me and my family wanted to be as considerate and understanding as possible since she may be new or there may be a lack of training or knowledge. However this was too much, too uncomfortable, extremely rude, and felt extremely disrespectful.

Hopefully this is addressed to her so that others don't have to experience the same. It would be a shame for this to ruin someone else's experience at a restaurant that I...

Food was good and satisfied my Korean bbq craving! Service was also good and the restaurant is bright and clean. I have been to this location a couple times and will definitely be back!

We came in on a Sunday for late lunch, and although they were busy, we only waited 5 minutes to be seated. We were greeted when we got there, our server took the drink orders and we immediately made our way to the self-serve, buffet-style options. There’s seafood, various marinated and frozen meats, along with veggies and sides.

There could be more veggie and side dish options in my opinion, for the price per person. I would have loved to eat some fresh lettuce or had grilled onions with my meal. But they do have a GREAT sauce station, where you make your own combinations. They even have signs of suggested sauce combos you can try and the measurements for each ingredient.

I also love the magnetic conveyor feature that runs throughout the restaurant—makes it easy to grab mushrooms, noodles and other items. For drinks, they have some domestic/imported beers, a small wine selection, sodas, water and tea.

We decided on doing both the hot pot and bbq grill. I got the original soup base, which is a clear and pretty bland soup base. I would recommend adding sauces and toppings such as green onion or cilantro to flavor it up. My mom got the tom yum soup base (I got this the last time I was here), and I recommend this if you like a bit of spice. I didn’t really go for any seafood this time around, but I had meats and some sides.

My favorite was the thin sliced beef brisket, which was a frozen option. It was delicious with the sauces (I tried their recommended sauce combos). The meats were fresh and the marinated versions had a good flavor to them. I also recommend the seaweed, which was fresh and had a great crunch to them. The rice was a little dry and the kimchi was just okay.

The service was friendly and our server was super attentive, constantly coming to take empty dishes. They have a nice selection of ice creams for dessert, as well as a few other small desserts and fruit.

I will most definitely be back for some hot pot and...