KPOT Korean BBQ & Hot Pot — Restaurant in North Bethesda

I have never been to a hot pot restaurant before so I don’t have a point of reference, but I have watched a lot of foodies on YouTube try hot pots and I have had shabu shabu. I was hopeful!!!

When I went a few weeks back, the place had just opened on October 31, and they were still operating as a soft opening. We got there a little before noon and people were already filing in. While we were second in line, we were seated third...was this a sign?

Interior wise - a bit confused with the lights and random “clouds”...the lights itself would have been better. The restaurant, itself, is clean with large tables and the tables are equipped with individual burners to heat your pot. The tables also have a large BBQ pit in the middle of the tables. In the background, Kpop was blasting, mixing with sports being shown on tv’s hovering over the bar, made it difficult to hear.

There are two options: KPot KPot + Korean BBQ That’s the easy part.

Appetizers: included (if you want) Spicy Korean Rice cakes — pass (there was nothing Korean about them, and had a weird after taste)...and they came out cold Japchae (Korean glass noodles) — they were ok - Popcorn Chicken— pass — they were cold and had a weird sauce.

Soup Base: you choose one from several — we choose Korean Seafood —-reminded me of fish stew Szechuan Spicy —- it’s really spicy Japanese miso Healthy Herbs

Then you choose your meats We wanted Kobe Beef —- they were out We ended up with: pork belly sliced beef belly beef of some sort

Then you choose up to 10 (combined) types of vegetables/ seafood/sides/ to put into your hot pot. You can order as many times as you want but max is 10 items per order.

Don’t ask me what we ordered...but what I do remember was ordering Napa Cabbage...and they were out.

Next, you choose your noodle —- or rice.

Then come out the pots - from what I observed, it was expected we knew how to use the special gadgets to heat the burners. When it was clear that we did not, another server (ours went missing) assisted in turning the burners on.

oh, before I forget, there is an oil bar in the back, where you can mix some oils or create dipping sauces...I don’t remember how we stumbled into that area - maybe our server informed us? Adjacent to the oil bar, there were some random fruits and some other soup like dishes for the taking- pass on both. the fruit was tasteless and I didn’t want to experiment with the soups.

Some observations:

The wait staff should ask if the patron is familiar with hot pots. Or they should really explain how the process works — we had to ask questions first...but our server assumed that we knew what we were doing and wanted to take our order. Other than that, she was very nice and friendly.

I understand that it was still a soft opening, but to not have Kobe beef or Napa Cabbage - three weeks after opening?? That should have worked itself out... ...and the server did not let us know before we started ordering —- tiny details, I know compared to the bigger details.

The cuts of meat were too fatty and when dipping into the pot, the soup base holds the fat. In hindsight, we should have ordered the bbq for meat and ordered the pots for vegetables and seafood making it a more healthy option. And dipping the meats made the base way too greasy to consume.

So... would I go to KPot again? I don’t think so. There was something off about the overall taste...particularly the after taste. It’s the taste that you get when you walk into a Chinese medicine store or the after taste from drinking Chinese herbal medicine ...

It was interesting - decor was ok - food was... overall...it was...

This place used to be one of my go-to spots for comfort food and it’s been about half a year since I stopped by, so I went by recently with a friend. To start off, the prices are still consistent and that’s amazing - there are a lot of places updating their prices to reflect the economy and I’m glad that this hasn’t affected KPOT directly. The quality of the food has taken a noticeable dip, but that’s somewhat expected in this economy.

The boneless galbi that used to have a rich sweet marinated taste now reminds me of the taste of cheaper chinese bbq pork. There are more options for vegetables now which is amazing. The cumin lamb unfortunately got replaced by beef. Cost cutting corners have been cut to keep prices consistent. In addition to some of the changes, I did notice that there was a whole different self serving bar which is great.

The service leaves a lot to be desired. When we sat down we didn’t notice but there were no tongs. After receiving our initial plates for the grill we waited for our server to ask for tongs, but she never came back. I asked a passing server for tongs and after he assured me that “he’s got you, bro”, we never heard from him again. Saw him continue to serve the tables behind us, though. We waited for 10 minutes or so without any follow up. We had to cook with the scissors for a few plates while trying to flag down another waiter. After asking a nice lady, she came back about a minute and 30 seconds later with tongs. Just goes to show that the initial server I asked tongs for deliberately ignored my request and instead decided to fiddle with his phone by the entrance to the kitchen. All this to say, this could have been solved if our assigned server came by the table more often than once every 20 minutes towards the first hour of our stay. Not noticing the tongs missing were a mistake on our part, too.

The tongs; let me tell you, they were specifically picked to fight the customer. They are so stiff and hard to use that it’s incredibly unappealing to use the ones they provide. I’m not going to be coming back here after this, but if I ever do have to, I’m going to be bringing my own tongs that aren’t incredibly stiff. I will say that the ones that were provided are good for scooping meat from the grill (like if you’re cooking a lot of brisket).

The whole customer service bit turned myself and my friends away from this place going forward. It’s a shame because this was one of our favorite spots for years. The decline in quality I understand; it’s a business and you’re trying to turn a profit. However your servers not coming by too often, or ignoring requests when not directly being served, left a bad taste in our mouths. I appreciated having a KBBQ place closer to the wheaton rockville area for a few years, but with other options like Honey Pig, Iron Age (quality of food has gone down but servers are amazing), and Jongro (now named something else last I checked, but located in wheaton mall) that have an increased price but consistent food and quality, I don’t see a reason to come back to KPOT. Hot Pot Hero in Gaithersburg is also a decent replacement for any hot pot cravings.

Thanks for...

I was craving hot pot so I came in for dinner on my day off. It was pretty empty so I had no problem getting a table. My server Yani was very nice and explained everything to me so I was able to understand how to order. You have the option to choose if you want hot pot, Korean BBQ, or both. Everything is ordered on a tablet which is easy to navigate and you choose which soup base, meats, and veggies you want. There's a complimentary sauce and appetizer bar towards the back of the restaurant and there's fruit teas and dessert included as well. After I placed my order for my soup and toppings I went to the appetizer bar to see what they had. They had close to 20 different sauces to choose from so I chose a dumpling sauce and a spicy sauce that I don't remember what it was labeled as. The appetizer bar was just meh. They had fries, calamari, plain chicken wings, and that seasoned shrimp that you see at every Asian buffet ever. I grabbed a couple pieces of shrimp, some fries, and a few pieces of calamari. The shrimp and calamari were okay. Everything had been sitting under a heat lamp for a long time so the shrimp was a bit mushy and overcooked, the calamari was pretty chewy and rubbery, and everything was room temperature. The fries were unsalted but okay. When I got back to the table my soup and toppings had arrived. I had ordered the Korean seafood soup base which was spicy but not as spicy as I expected it to be which I liked because most places make it way too spicy for me to handle. I also ordered ramen noodles and a couple of meats and veggies. Everything in terms of the soup and toppings were fresh and the soup was very flavorful and tasty. When I needed more broth my server was very quick to refill it for me. After I finished my soup I went to the dessert bar which had orange slices, melon, some type of cake, and a puff with cream. I grabbed a couple pieces of fruit and one tiny piece of cake. The cake had a coffee flavor which tasted nice but the cake itself was pretty dry. The fruit was fresh though. Then I grabbed one of the orange flavored fruit teas which was good but sweeter than I prefer. At the time of this review they enforce a 90 minute time limit to your stay although that could change at anytime. Although as a server I understand the need to turn tables personally I don't like being rushed through a meal like that. Pushing a time limit on the guest takes away from the experience for me. If you plan on trying Kpot I recommend having at least a basic idea of what you want ahead of time to cut down on time normally spent on deciding what you want to eat. I will be back to try the Korean BBQ and see if that experience is...