Raosu — Restaurant in New York

tl;dr: Nice space, pretty pricey, mediocre food, horrible service.

We came here on a Sunday evening. First, the decor is nice. It's very spacious, with high ceilings/windows, large plants, faux flowers, and even modern-looking statues. Everything is obviously very new.

Now on to the cons: Price. $49.99 each for AYCE hotpot or $69.99 each for AYCE hotpot AND sushi. Plus, an additional flat $19.99 for the hotpot soup base (I've never had to pay separately for the hotpot soup before). Though, the hotpot strangely comes with a 9 piece sashimi boat per hotpot and one small lobster per person (at least at the time).

Efficiency. Not really sure what was going on this night, but service was exceptionally slow, even though it seemed they had a legion of waiters and not that many customers until a couple of hours in. It took us maybe 30 minutes just to order our first items and we were missing cutlery for maybe the first 45 minutes. At one point, our server said they couldn't find chopsticks? When we did finally put in our order, the items would come in waves randomly, usually around 30 minutes later. Hence, it took us 3+ hours to finish our meal, and we still left hungry.

Dip station. The dip station offered a variety of basic sauces (soy sauce, satay, chili oil, sesame paste, peanut butter, etc.) and herbs (scallions, cilantro, garlic, etc.), but none of them were that good. Typically, I feel like there's a premade house sauce, but they didn't have that. They were also lacking bowls at the dip station for a long time, so you couldn't even grab anything for a while. Plus, 1/3 of the dips are empty at a time. Also, the floor leading from the kitchen in front of the dips to the tables was extremely slippery. We were joking that we were moonwalking back to our tables, but it's just a matter of time someone falls.

Food. Most of the food was okay, but the angus beef and "premium" lamb was literally half fat and somehow also stringy. I usually go to hotpot for the meats, so this was pretty disappointing. The mushroom soup base we got was bland and we had to dump sauces into it to taste any seasoning. I think 3 or 4 of our party got food poisoning as well.

Execution. The hotpots are fairly large, but the flame below covers a very small surface area, so a lot of the time the soup would boil in the center, but be cold and take a long time to cook in the outer 70%.

Service. As noted above, the service was very slow. Our server was nice, but seemed overwhelmed and clueless about the soups (we had some dietary restrictions, and it took them 3 round-trips to tell us whether certain soups had pork/beef). Interestingly, they offer a free cocktail (they're normally $20 each!) if we left a review (which leads me to suspect some of these other reviews), but they mixed up our orders anyway. When we called about the service the next day, they pretended not to hear us and actually laughed at us when we said we would leave a less then stellar review.

In conclusion, even if this night was a fluke, to me, consistency is part of overall quality, and for the price, I would not risk it. There are so many other hotpot places you could go to (ER, Dolar Shop, Hometown, 99 Favor Taste, a bunch...

My niece, visiting us from Montreal during the winter break, wanted to go to a good hot pot place in NYC. We wanted to find a place close to Times Square where we had booked Broadway Show tickets, and made a 9:15 PM reservation at Raosu restaurant via Opentable, impressed by its 4.5 rating on Google.

However, during the interval of the Broadway show we realized that the show wouldn't be over by 9:30 PM, and modified the time to 9:45 PM. The restaurant was open till 11 PM, as revealed in a Google search.

We reached the restaurant around 9:40 PM but received a rather lukewarm welcome. Apparently we were the only customers at that time. A gentleman and a lady sitting at the front desk mentioned that the kitchen was about to close by 10 PM, so we needed to order soon, within 20 minutes and the available options were limited. The lady mentioned that she had tried to call me to convey this information, which obviously I could not answer while watching a Broadway show.

I have been to many Hotpot restaurants with my Chinese friends and have always had great experiences. We always felt very welcomed and the vibe was cordial. This was the first time I went to one without a Chinese friend, and distinctly felt that my family was unwelcome. I do not know whether it was due to our ethnicity. I've had hundreds of dearest Chinese friends who are like my family, wonderful colleagues and have never, ever felt any sense of discrimination before today.

When I mentioned that we were here for a hot pot experience, the guy mentioned that they could do an a la carte hot pot. I was debating whether to leave or to stay, but because we were all very hungry, we took a seat. And then, barely giving us even a couple of minutes to examine the menu, the front desk guy almost forced us to do a rapidfire session of ordering, constantly emphasizing "last order, last order, the kitchen closes in twenty!" It felt like taking. a timebound exam under a constant threat of failure.

My niece felt annoyed and insulted by this pushy and rude attitude and suggested that we leave, but my wife and I pacified her. But the food was truly amazing. We chose a spicy and a coconut broth. Both were great. The squid, the scallops, the crab, the shrimp, everything were super fresh. The person who served us food was courteous and provided us with forks as soon as we asked for them. I would attribute the 20% tip I added to my check solely to this person.

As expected, the check came well before we finished our food. When expectations are low, you don't get perturbed. The meal, of course, was very satisfying.

To summarize, it is perfectly understandable that a kitchen could close within 20 minutes of arrival of a customer. However, such information should not be communicated in a manner that makes the customer uncomfortable, unwelcome and feel insulted. It seemed they were just polite enough not to shut the door on our faces, and would be highly obliged if we left. Unfortunately for them, we didn't.

Great food. Great ambience. Miserable front...

Oh boy, where do I even begin with my experience at Raosu Hotpot restaurant? Let me just say, it was a major letdown. I feel it’s only fair to share my honest thoughts, so here goes.

First off, bussing the table seemed to take an eternity. We sat there, twiddling our thumbs, waiting for someone to clear the clutter. Not the best way to start a meal, right? And to top it off, the chair I sat on was downright dirty. I mean, seriously? Cleanliness should be a basic expectation.

But wait, it gets worse. One of my poor friends ended up getting burned because of a soup spill. Can you believe that? I mean, accidents happen, but it was clear that the staff’s lack of attention contributed to the incident. Safety should be a priority, right?

Let’s talk about the staff. They seemed to have a knack for getting things wrong. Half of our orders went missing, they forgot to give us tongs, and to our surprise, they even served us the wrong food! It was like a comedy of errors, except it wasn’t funny. It was frustrating. Come on, guys, get it together!

And don’t get me started on the lack of attention. It was as if we were invisible. They hardly checked on us, and when they did, it was like they were going through the motions. Oh, and did I mention that we waited for a whole hour before they bothered to bring us water? Plus, most of the drinks on the menu were mysteriously “unavailable.” Guess what? We later discovered a secret stash of plum juice hidden beneath the sauce bar. Talk about false advertising!

Here’s the kicker: they didn’t bother to clear our empty plates. We were left with a table full of discarded dishes. It was an eyesore. And just when we thought things couldn’t get any worse, they had the audacity to dim the lights while we were still eating. I mean, who does that? It was like dining in a horror movie.

All in all, my experience at Raosu Hotpot restaurant was far from enjoyable. The slow service, dirty conditions, mishaps, and deceptive practices left a bitter taste in my mouth. I have to be honest, I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone. Save yourself the disappointment and look elsewhere for a hotpot experience worth your...