The Spot Rotary Hot Pot — Restaurant in Niles Township

Please be advised that if you are vegetarian then the only soup base available to you is the vegan mushroom! The rest of the soup bases have chicken broth. The menu does a very POOR job at making this clear. There is absolutely nothing on the menu that lists chicken broth as one of the ingredients for the soup bases (except one base), and one tiny symbol next to the mushroom base indicating that it’s a vegan option. I went with a group of my friends today and our waitress (Donna N or Jenny) did not mention it to me or my friend once that the soup bases are made with chicken broth. For reference, Donna/Jenny was aware that I wanted veggies because I did not eat meat. I ate basically the entire meal and only found out when we were basically done with the meal that the soup bases are made from chicken broth. I’m very upset at how Donna/Jenny failed to mention this important information to us. To make it worse, she blamed us for failing to disclose to her! At this point, I was too shocked to advocate for myself and ended up paying for the meal that I later threw up. The fact that I was blamed for the restaurants fault blows my mind! Not to mention the fact that she was aware about my being a vegetarian! This is the worse customer service I’ve ever experienced in my life and I’ll be sure to let my vegetarian friends in Skokie know of this! I work in Skokie and made plans with my friends to try out this new spot and I will be sure to let others know of my experience. Donna/Jenny also gave me and my friend a measly 30% off and then proceeded to charge 20% for tip. Truly one of the worst experiences of my life and very very poor customer service. The people basically just blow you off or blame you.

EDIT:

I wanted to reply to the owner's reply but for some reason, I am unable to do so. I was pretty upset that night and should have waited to write my review. I will edit my rating to reflect that the atmosphere was visually aesthetic and clean. Additionally, the staff were welcoming. However, if you watch the survelliance footage then you would also hear our server tell us to ask for water when our soup was lacking of liquid. She explains this as she's showing us how to work the stoves. This led me to believe that the soup bases had water, not chicken broth. I will admit that I could've reiterated that I was a vegetarian but the mention of water threw me off. I've spoken to my other vegetarian friends (who recommended me this place), and they were also shocked to find out that they had consumed chicken broth. This further confirms my belief that there is a problem with the way the menu labels the vegan and non-vegan options. This might seem like a trivial matter but not consuming meat is a major part of my religion, hence why I was very upset to find out that I had accidentally consumed chicken. I am also partially to blame for this, however, I still believe that the server should not have told us to ask for water as a substitute for chicken broth. I truly do believe that the way she explained the process was very misleading and should not be repeated moving forward with other customers. Thanks for...

What a fun place to enjoy hot pot! I've been to several hot pot places and this one offers many of the features of a standard hot pot restaurant (ie, AYCE, sauce station, appetizers). However, there aspects that make this place unique enough to stand out among the crowd of hot pot establishments quickly popping up everywhere.

1. rotary service: there is a slow track and a fast track. The slow track is where you can find vegetables, tofu, noodles of all varieties, fishballs, fish fillets, mushrooms, etc. The great part is each selection is headed with a card that tells you how long to cook each item. For example, the bok choy came with instructions to cook for 2-3 minutes in the broth. The fast track is found above the slow track and those are your requested meats: beef, chicken, pork, etc. The meats arrive on trays atop cute spaceships zooming towards you and stops with an announcement so you know these are the items you ordered.

2. individual pots of soup: this is becoming more of the norm in newer hot pot establishments but nevertheless, it is very much appreciated. No longer are you forced to choose a mild broth because the person you came with can't tolerate spice. Order the Mala soup base if you want that mouth numbing burn from peppercorns or the mushroom broth if you value your tastebuds. We ordered the Tum Yum broth and it was a perfect level of spice.

3. accommodates large groups: hot pot is only fun if you can share the fun with friends. Our server said they can accommodate up to 25 people if given enough notice to section off the tables so everyone can sit together. Because the conveyor belt travels all around the restaurant with frequent refills, everyone has exposure to the food so no one gets hangry.

There is a parking lot next to the restaurant, as well as, street parking which makes it easy for everyone. There are different prices for lunch and dinner AND there is senior pricing! The sauce station offers over 9 sauces, however, I think offering some recipe suggestions would be appreciated for those not confident in their sauce creation abilities.

I'm so glad there is a worthy hot pot restaurant in Skokie. Please support local business and give The Spot...

I’ve been to a lot of hot pot places at this point, so I really wanted to like this place but unfortunately I found it quite disappointing.

My number one complaint is that the food took an unreasonably long time to arrive. At one point, one order took almost half an hour, and the staff simply told us the kitchen was “backed up”. I don’t work in the kitchen, but I simply don’t understand how preparing raw meat slices in a box can take such a long time, and regardless of the reason, it was just a poor eating experience. Especially when you consider one of the first things we’re told is that we have a 90 minute time limit. How is it reasonable to have a 90 minute time limit when a third of that time is spent waiting for your food to arrive while all the broth in your pot evaporates?

Maybe the food was slow because it was a bad day for them, but at the same time it felt like we were being bottlenecked for how much we can order. At one point, we ordered 4 meats for 6 people and immediately realized it wasn’t going to be enough, but when we asked to order more we were told we had to wait. I get you have to mitigate food waste but how is it AYCE when you’re literally told no to ordering more food and the service barely comes around to take more orders? No other hot pot place I’ve been to has ever been so stingy with ordering meats. (in fact in some places I’ve been it’s comical how often they come to your table)

The conveyer belt is very cool and exciting until you realize how much of a gimmick it is. They don’t put meats or special items in there. They put stuff like broccoli and instant noodles. Literally any other hot pot place has these basic items readily available whenever. So not only am I being rate limited with my meats, but I have to wait for vegetables and noodles too? Their bullet train is cool too except it never showed up once at our table, and seeing the table next to us get way more food delivered from it really felt like a slap in the face.

The one good point I can say is that the food quality overall was decent, but for $50 per person including tip, the fact we walked away hungry from an AYCE makes this place somewhere I would really...