Lao Pot — Restaurant in Madison Heights

Last time ever coming here. Just disgusting business. The owner and staff will try to trick you into paying for things you didn't order and they will give you wrong orders and be rude about it and gaslight you and still require tip. Honestly disgusting service and owner, don't support this place. There are other hotpot places in the area.

2023 MARCH UPDATE: the third time coming here and sadly the staff has only gotten lousier, worsening the whole experience. I ordered a few things off the bbq menu, specifically the lamb kebabs, clams, and enoki mushrooms, but apparently the server missed all that on the paper we filled in, so she ended up putting it in 20min late. Then, she gave us the grilled eggplant instead of the grilled enoki mushrooms and I told her that, but she insisted the eggplant was the enoki mushroom. Please, never do that again. Do not try to trick a customer who knows the difference between an eggplant and enoki mushrooms. That was really rude of you and very disrespectful. At least you finally realized your mistake after and went to put in the correct order for the second time, but you didn't even try to really apologize for your mistake. Then you came back and told us to just eat the grilled eggplant anyway, suggesting that it would be on the house. But to our surprise, it wasn't. We had to pay for it at the end, but it was already getting late and too difficult to get the server's attention, so we just paid and left.

First review : The lamb and beef looked fresh and sliced thinly, the seafood combo included hoki clam (one of my favorites) which I've never seen at a hotpot place, and they also had lotus root and bamboo shoots, which I also really like. There are many things to try and it's really all up to your taste since you can order plate by plate. They also had a sauce section where you can go up and mix your own sauce to dip your hotpot foods in, but they seemed to be running low on sesame paste, so I had to use the peanut sauce instead, which was a little too sweet for my taste. I'll have to go back next time for the sesame paste 😄

Besides the hotpot they also had Chinese bbq! I loved the cumin lamb skewers, grilled eggplant, and grilled enoki mushrooms (they were so good I ate most of it before taking a picture 🤣). If you don't wanna try the hotpot, the bbq is a solid...

My friend and I went to dinner this past Friday and both wanted to try something new. I suggested coming here since it's been on my radar and we've both heard good things about it.

Walking in, the entrance is strangely in the back? Place is well decorated with plenty of seating throughout. We scoured the menu and basically got a lot of the same things. While neither of us had any clue what we were doing, we figured it out.

I guess you choose a broth first and then add stuff on and it's priced a la carte. Can get expensive if you overdue it, from what it looks like. The selection of items was huge, and there was no shortage of options to choose from. All sorts of vegetables, meats, so on and so forth. The options are endless here!

My only concern and reason for a star docked was the following reason. We are clueless about how to do the hot pot thing and had no clue what the spice counter was for? The selection was mediocre at best. Mostly pepper stuff and a few random sauces that I wasn't familiar with. I stuck to Soy Sauce and added a few things like green onions, but played it safe. My friend made a weird concoction and we just kind of went with it.

Also, while the service here's fabulous, it was hard to understand our waitress due to a language barrier. I told her we were new and she did her best to explain how it works, but I only got so much information from her. While it's reasonably straight forward, it can be overwhelming when walking in here the first time and looking at their huge menu.

We got like a million different things added on to our meal but the meat slices were fabulous. I couldn't tell the difference between the waygu beef and the regular beef slices, so maybe something to set them apart since they looked alike? Not the end of the world, but something I thought about on the way home.

My experience here with food, service and décor was top notch and awesome. I would gladly come here again as it was a great experience but for a first timer, it was kind of overwhelming. Honestly, I'd rather go here any day of the week versus the hibachi grill stuff that never impressed me to begin with. Place isn't cheap but worth every penny. Go check it...

Not recommendable! Terrible experience.Been seeing their advertisment to AYCE. Worst decision to try it We came in there and tried their bbq/hotpot. 1st we were sat on a non bbq table despite we want to try bbq. We got transferred eventually. Its been 12 minutes no one comes to us to take order nor our drinks. I asked a server to get us an appetizer because we are hungry esp coming from a long day and with the 2hr limit. We waited for like 15minutes before our food came in. Server told us to order little only because we can order again. If itll take 15mins per order then we wont be able to enjoy the experience. Oh the drinks everyone around us got their drinks even the people who sat after us. I got pissed off and went to the bar to get a drink. They asked where our table is and told us WERE BUSY! in a rude way. I have the right to get pissed off because the first thing u do to a guest is give them drinks while they wait but apparently everyone got theirs except ours. So our food came in with small orders of what we ordered. I specifically asked the server to double it because it takes them forever to bring food and next thing we know its already 2hr limit. I can guarantee no leftovers will be. We are so close to walking out. IT RUINED OUR VALENTINES! The server eventually made up by being attentive to us and bringing food quickly. She kept apoligizing. I almost decided not to give her a tip but because of what she did i gave her a decent tip for trying to make up. Definitely it wasnt a great experience and wouldnt recommend the place nor come back. Too bad this was a special place before for me and my wife, not anymore!!! Imagine waiting 15 plus mind for this for 2 person. You gotta be kidding me for $35.99 its a RIP OFF! Go somewhere else

Thanks for the response after almost 5months. I dont plan on spending another dollar or even a penny just to have a bad experience from your establishment again. So i cannot go there to "discuss" its a rip off! I hope you guys treat your guest better and dont give the experience we had. Bad for business. Imagine asking us to come back to spend money again with the opportunity of being not treated good...