Swish Swish — Restaurant in Lynnwood

We had a great time on a weekday lunch around noon. Restaurant was near full but didn't have to wait more than a couple minutes. Server Alex was very friendly, another lady provided consistent service throughout the meal (didn't catch her name though).

Will provide some tips and compare/contrast to Happy Lamb in Bellevue which was our primary hot pot destination prior to Swish Swish opening in Lynnwood.

5/5: Appetizers came out warm each time we ordered them and were very good considering its all you care to enjoy. We liked these better than Happy Lambs offerings. They were all good, would recommend trying at least one of each. Cutlet is a bit heavy on cinnamon, one person didn't care for this, but I enjoyed it.

5/5: Soup - Szechuan, Taiwanese, Tom Yum broths were all good and each hit slightly different. Stronger taste than Happy Lamb soup due to the smaller size of the pot and quite spicy initially until you cook in it a bit (at the 4-5 star spice level).

5/5: Meat quality is, as everyone has stated, very high and fresh. No complaints here at all, this should be your reason for coming here as it is their strongest offering. Rib eye, Wagyu and Pork Belly are the strongest offerings here.

2/5: Meatballs (shrimp/squid/beef/pork) are not good, would recommend passing on them. Many are sweet in taste and cheap. If you get any, the beef tendon are the best option.

3/5: Vegetables and Tofus are mostly alright, as others have noted they do not appear to have Taiwanese cabbage so you are given Napa. Would not come here looking for a veggie or vegan hot pot experience.

5/5: Seafood was also very good, shrimp/mussels both nice sized and relatively fresh. Keep ordering this throughout the meal as the portions given aren't that big, just stay on top of it.

5/5: Cooking experience and ambience is good, easy to control the heat on your individual pot and cooks very quickly, its not a cheap electric KBBQ experience. This gets this job done, fast.

5/5: Service, as stated above, we had no issues here at lunch time on a Friday. Very friendly and kept coming back asking if we needed another menu to keep ordering more food.

*Drinks, we did not try any drinks here nor participate in the review promotion, so I can't comment on those. I wouldn't advise filling up on milk tea anyways so you can eat more meat!

*Sauces, I only ordered the sesame garlic sauce a la carte, I didn't care for it but another party member liked it. The provided sauces are decent, but you really don't need them, the soup has enough flavor and tastes better already.

Overall:

As first time Swish Swishers, we liked this better overall than Happy Lamb. Swish Swish in Lynnwood is closer for us and the taste and experience is very similar overall with better appetizers. The only thing we missed was the sauce/salad/dessert bar from Happy Lamb.

Would definitely recommend and...

We have been to Swish Swish three times. Our favorite one closed so we have been giving this one a chance.

I absolutely love hot pot so we went this year for my birthday. I am extremely disappointed and dissatisfied with the service. We have never been “cut off” before regardless of how many people are in the restaurant but this time we were cut off three minutes before the “allotted” ninety minutes. Not only that but we had to WAIT (emphasis on the wait) time and time again for another menu, more broth, and even our orders. We arrived per the ticket at 2:07pm and were cut off at 3:34pm. Literally right before we were going to place our last order. At 3:34pm even less people were in the restaurant than there were when we got there.

First - we asked someone for more broth. This was because I LOVE the broth and always reserve a little bowl of it when we first receive the pots to then drink later on. He then proceeds to make other tables their drinks (totally fine) and then COMPLETELY FORGETS that we asked him for more broth. He is literally standing there FOREVER while we wait for more broth. He finally walks by so we ask him again. He doesn’t even acknowledge that he forgot and then goes and takes his sweet time to retrieve the broth.

Then - it was one of our orders. We ordered two wagyu plates and a plate of tomatoes. Ten, fifteen minutes pass and we don’t have anything. We are literally staring at boiling pots of broth at an all you can eat restaurant. We decide to order ANOTHER round of two wagyu plates and a plate of tomatoes because by this point we have already been waiting twenty minutes. Another five to ten minutes later I see someone from the back come out with two receipts and ask the employee something like - why are there two orders for the same thing? She asks how many plates she should prepare for us and the guy says two. Mind you at this point we had ordered four plates of wagyu and two plates of tomatoes. We are literally starving again because of how long we had to wait.

How is it fair that diners pay an “All You Can Eat” price but the staff almost purposely waits a ginormous amount of time in between plates? There were a maximum of ten to twelve people in the restaurant throughout our whole dining experience.

Lastly - we had to ask three to five times for a menu. Sometimes they bring you the menu back and sometimes they don’t. This time it felt like we were begging for the menu over and over again. Another example of what almost feels like them purposefully waiting lengthy amounts of time to give you something.

Because of this we unfortunately will not be returning and will have to find another hot pot restaurant that truly follows the AYCE standards. $95.00 for two people is insane for the service they provide. Totally don’t mind price increases if we are being served...

*Limited time honest reviews encouraged for free all you can drink (valued at $7.99). Might explain the influx of reviews for a new restaurant, do take that into account. With that being said, I'd still say Swish Swish here is a top contender for best AYCE hot pot in the Seattle area. Roughly a 4.5 star rating for their first week opening.

Swish Swish from Bellevue is now closer to home! Have been a fan of the meat quality there so it's exciting that the commute is less of a pain. After waiting over an hour, we were seated in the corner which is a bit harder to see so there's less attention, maybe a good thing but also a bad thing to order more. I will start off by saying the service here is much better than the Bellevue location which is huge. They share a restroom with Kizuki and lead into each other.

Note most broths cost a bit extra, labelled right next to it. All broths have either an onion or chicken broth base you'll notice if refilled. There are also two menus for different AYCEs, one includes USDA and wagyu beef whereas the other doesn't. The difference is about $7 or $8.

Starting out with the downsides, the wait can be terrible. At 6:30 on a Wednesday, our estimated wait was 1 hour and it ended up being 90 minutes, so we were seated just before 8:00 and they close at 9:00. This was definitely a bit intimidating getting seated near closing time, but it was fine (more on this later). Other than that, they also ran out of a fair bit of items. Most notably we got one order of Chinese donuts and despite ordering them three more times, never received them nor were told that they were out. They also ran out of glass noodles halfway through and did not have any boba for the drinks. Their "napa cabbage" was also another Taiwanese cabbage, not real napa cabbage.

Now about the time constraint - despite being seated so late, they were very accommodating to us and a few other parties seated just before or after us. Not sure if the kitchen actually closes but we were able to place orders the entire time and received food until 9:00 on the dot actually. By then, we were already full and did not need to order more. Then when we left late-ish, there were at least 5 other parties still dining in. I think the closing time is a cutoff to enter, at least for now while they're still figuring things out.

Can't comment on every individual item, but the karaage is solid, close to Kizuki's (and they could be the same owner and recipes because they both opened around the same time with the same promotions). Chicken katsu was alright but a bit dry, would stick to karaage. Beef, lamb, and pork were all solid. They have enoki mushrooms! Napa cabbage is a bit suspicious as in it's not really napa. Milk teas are solid, good pairing with the meal but not phenomenal. A bit on the...