KPOT Korean BBQ & Hot Pot — Restaurant in New York

If it wasn’t for their general manager, I would’ve given this place a four-star.

To start, it was a 1 1/2 hour wait to be seated. We did not receive a phone call and after one and a half hours went in and was told that they called us two times. We reviewed the phone and there were no missed calls or voicemails ever received. We were directed to seats after we shared and the young lady at the front admitted we were not called. We were at seats at approximately 9:30 PM.

The server was polite and honest about her workload. My friend, and I knew what we wanted, and so knowing that she would be busy focusing on another table due to a couple of issues there, we told her immediately of our choice for the hot pot soup base. It took over 20 minutes to receive the soup base. My friend was focused on the barbecue and I was focused on the actual hot pot. I asked for a fork or spoon and had to wait an additional amount of time for there were none available. By the time I was able to receive the hot pot base and be able to eat it was 9:55 PM. We received the bill at approximately 11:10 PM. My friend and I were discussing amongst ourselves what we were going to do next. At 11:17 PM, a gentleman whom later learned was a general manager, came to us and said that we had been there for over two hours, and we needed to leave. He was rude, abrasive, and patronizing. Instead of saying, thank you for joining us this evening we are drawing to close, Can you please settle the bill within the next five minute? He was the total opposite of what a general manager should be. I was greatly disturbed by his tone and manner, and moreover, his false statements. He had the audacity to speak to us in such a patronizing manner it put a sour taste in my mouth. I gave the server $20 cash as a tip for a bill that was only approximately $76. I gave her a credit card to pay the $76 charge and was told by her moments later that the manager asked for me to write down that I gave her a $20 tip. Again unacceptable. If I just paid in cash, put the money on the table and walked out of the restaurant, I would never have been asked to come back and sign something to indicate what I gave as a tip.

Let me be very frank with you, I was initially looking forward to attending this K pot restaurant, for I go to many others, including 99 flavors throughout the city. I have never experienced such poor service from a manager. This place only deserves one star because of the way the servers worked together.

There are many other issues at this restaurant, which I will not waste my years of experience in systems, thinking, and leadership to give away for free in a review. I will just say that I’ve experienced many Korean barbecue and hotpot restaurants and would invite the local community to not accept the bare minimum in Co-op city just because it’s close. Respect must be granted equally in Co-op city as one would expect in...

It’s great that there’s a Korean BBQ spot in the Northeast Bronx. I’ll start with the positive. The service was friendly. We were greeted with a smile when we walked in. We visited on a Saturday afternoon, so it was pretty busy. There was a 20-30 minute wait time, but it went by quickly.

For $30/adult, you have your choice between either a Hot Pot or the BBQ. For an extra $5, you can do both. However, I don’t know if this is just for a party of 2, but if one person at the table orders a hot pot, EVERYBODY else has to order the hot pot as well. I thought that was odd but I didn’t mind having the hot pot, too. The drinks are okay, but to be fair, I only had one. I had a mule and it didn’t taste like much of anything. I wanted a frozen drink but the server said they weren’t making frozen drinks. However, moments later, I heard the bartenders making several frozen drinks and saw a pina colada leave the bar. The waiter was apologetic, so no hard feelings.

KPot is an all you can eat buffet style. Once you’re seated and put in your order for either hot pot or BBQ, you go to get all of your meats and fixings. Personally, I have a thing about raw meat, let alone raw meat out in the open buffet style, so I struggled with that, but that’s just me. My mom didn’t seem to mind at all. They have a variety of meats, sauces, veggies and sides to choose from. They have cooked sides and offerings like fried shrimp, fried chicken, French fries, crab sticks. They were pretty good. Freshly fried and crispy. I liked the fried chicken. I chose the miso base for the hot pot and really enjoyed it. It had a nice umami flavor with a bit of sweetness. I’d have it again! In fact, I’m still thinking about that hot pot lol.

The restaurants here before (Joe’s Crab Shack and something something seafood- I forgot the name) didn’t last long, but I hope this one does. This is a family friendly spot. Tons of families were there yesterday (Saturday). With supervision, kids would have a great time cooking their own food here. There was a little girl at the table next to me was having the time of her life cooking her ramen in the hot pot. It was a sweet sight.

Overall, it’s a pleasant addition to the offerings at Bay Plaza, and the part of The Bronx. I don’t think it has the most authentic Korean BBQ menu, but it wasn’t bad at all. I mostly enjoyed seeing the diversity of families coming together and having a good time. I probably won’t go back because I simply don’t love the idea of raw meat (I get the heebeejeebees cooking chicken at home, so it’s not the restaurant’s fault lol) in a buffet.

That said, if you’re interested in trying Korean BBQ and want to have a fun time with family and friends, I’d...

I been to this place twice.

First time about 3 weeks ago: Overall decent experience but improvements were needed. Our server was MIA the whole time, which is confusing because this isn't the typical serving experience.  A lot of this restaurant requires you to serve yourself/cook for yourself etc due to it being open style buffet, which helps alleviate how overwhelming serving can be, especially during peak hours. However, he was no where to be found, took 20 minutes for one draft beer to the point where another server had to come bring us our drink (mind you we were seated right by the bar area) and did not give us any cooking oil. However, the food was good and we enjoyed the experience.

Second time was this past weekend: The service was IMMACULATE in comparison and our server Aldo (I wanted to be sure I got their name) was amazing and super attentive, conversational and created a night and day experience versus the first time around. However, similar to other reviews here I unfortunately got Food Poisoning less than 24 hours after eating here. It was horrible, I vomited consistently for about 9 hours and had the runs for about 24 hours. I couldn't keep anything down for about 48 hours and was at work running on straight willpower and adrenaline. My partner did not get as sick as me, but experienced nausea. I unfortunately don't think it's the food, as everything did seem fresh, I believe it's strictly cross contamination. When you have an open style buffet with hundreds of hands touching the same tongs/utensils and breathing on all the food it's super easy for germs/bacteria to spread.

I think this idea is brillant, but unfortunately way more precautions need to be put in place so this does not happen and also the ventilation in this place is not good at all. We went both times during lunch when it was significantly empty and was still struggling with the stuffiness, so I couldn't imagine this place at peak hours when all the grills are being used simultaneously.

I won't be back due to how bad the food poisoning was which I haven't had in over 7 years and it's a shame because this is without walking distance...