12 Ji Hot Pot — Restaurant in Morrisville

Firstly, I am all for supporting our local restaurants. So we wil try anything once. Unfortunately, we will not be going back. We had never tried a hot pot restaurant. We walked in. A very nice waiter seated us. We explained to him in great detail that we had no idea what we were doing and how does hot pot work. Drinks came with no glass. I didnt want ice but my husband did. Just a soda can and a soda bottle. We asked for regular utensils. We cant eat soup with chopsticks. A pretty lady walked by and said hello and kept walking.

Issues: When you explain to the waiter that you are not familiar with their food and how it works. You expect the waiter to thoroughly educate you, walk you through in detail on what is involved in basically your own preparation of your own food. We did not get any indepth explanation. So the spicy broth is indicated on the menus as slightly spicy on the menu whereas there is I assume a super hot version with 3 peppers??. The waiter should have explained that even the one pepper on the menu broth was actually a 20 chili pod broth that was searingly spicy to the throat it was inedible. In addition to a visible film of thick chili oil. The other broth chicken and mushroom tasted like dishwater. We did not care for either but the main issue was the incredibly spicy broth. We didnt get untensils that we kept asking for. The pretty lady that walked by us was the manager and at no point did she greet us with I see you are new here do you have any questions. Are you familiar with how hot pot works etc. She came over when the waiter told her that we said the spicy broth was inedible. In a nutshell she stated she could not refund us for the broth. I didnt ask for a refund but she immediately jumped to that conclusion. What I wanted was an education in hotpot eating but apparently her lack of customer service skills came in to effect instead of trying to rectify the issue she just made it worse. So not being one to give up we said ok we will pay for the spicy broth and brings us some beef broth with chicken and mushroom broth. They came back with both broths but one was missing the meat, the vegetables and the noodles that we had put in the spicy broth. So now we would have had to pay for more meat, etc to put in the beef broth side. When I pointed this out to the waiter he said yes I would have to pay for more ingredients to go into the beef broth. At that point I gave up. I paid for a searingly spicy broth that they suggested they put it in a take out container so I can take it home and water it down to an edible point which was a ridiculous suggestion but I paid 20.00 in addition to the can of soda and a bottle of Perrier for it and nothing else. By now I had thoroughly lost my appetite and just want to leave.

Suggestion if someone comes into your restaurant firstly if they tell you they have never had this type of food and how does it work your staff needs to go over every detail on what it entails. Including going over how spicy some foods are. Perhaps a sample of the broth upfront for a taste test. Secondly, pretty lady, when you walk by customers who you know have never been to your restaurant engage in a dialogue. Ask them if they had ever been in your restaurant. If they say no, ask them if they are familiar with hot pot. If they say again no it is time for you to educate that customer and answer any and all questions. This will lead to less food waste and less frustrated customers who may go back for another meal.

We will not be going back but if you dont change the attitude and the way you treat new customers coming in the door you wont have a...

Before I went to 12 Ji, I found some bad reviews on the social media platform/Google map(e.g. expensive/bad service/umm food)

Because of that, I didn’t ever plan to go to this place for eating hot pot. However, one of my lab mates went there and said this place was actually good in terms of their flavor and food. So yes, finally I want to give it a try.

So here is my review: Pros:

1. Great environment, more quite than other hotpot place, no need to wait to be seated.
2. Lots of food choice, the flavor and soup are actually really great for me, I can say that their soup base quality are very good. They have very special meat choice of high quality and taste wonderful!
3. Price are quite fair, it’s similar compared with Szechuan Mansion Hotpot.
4. My boyfriend really like their vegetable mix since it has more kinds of vegetables compared with other place. Cons:
5. Some noise come from their machine. Other: Service is okay, not bad, I’ll give the service 3.5/5 star.

Overall: 4 star. I give 5 star due to other bad reviews which I do not understand. So the extra star is to encourage them and help them survive in the Triangle area so that I can have more options for hotpot. I will definitely come back for hotpot. But next time I expect there is NO...

Was very excited about this new hot pot place in Research Triangel Area, went there this noon, very disappointed experience. Arrived at 12:05 pm, and ordered the food at 12:15-12:20pm-ish, it seems not long waiting but two to three groups came after we already ordered. Fine, it just opened and was understaffed, we tried to understand and just waited, then waited waited, and waited. Suddenly we realized that those who came after us already started eating but we havent even got the soup base. The lady sat next to us seems know the owner and reminded the waiter that we’ve waited over 40 mins but didn't get anything, then the waiter replied very loudly ”we are understaffed” then went away, without checking, asking or even looking at us. I actually ordered some drink as well, but never got it, idk why it took so long to just get the coke(can, not fountain) to customer.

Wasted almost one hour there and got nothing to eat or drink, it's 80+ degrees outside, had to find another place for lunch though I made the reservation 4-5 days ahead since was told it’s reservation only. So the reservation is for watching other customers eating? It's interesting.

No review comments about the food itself, but the service is awful, will...