Lee’s KBBQ Hot Pot — Restaurant in Pensacola

When we arrived, there were about four other parties in the restaurant. Our hostess set our menus down and walked off before we got to the table. I asked, “Does she want us to sit here?” And another server heard me and said yes. Our server, Delmae, was not notified that we had been seated in her section. We could hear her telling the hostess, “You can’t do this. You have to tell me when you seat someone in my section.” She’s right, but it wasn’t appropriate for that conversation to be taking place in front of us. Delmae, the hostess, and another server were having this conversation ten feet from our table while looking at us and it was just kind of awkward - it’s not like we sat ourselves but somehow it felt like this was our fault. We had been sitting for more than thirty minutes and Delmae repeatedly came to our table to tell us she was bringing the banchan (side dishes) and that she was going to set up the grill. She told us more than four times before she actually did any of those things. The other half of our party arrived after we did, and Delmae told them three times she would bring their drinks before she brought them, and said they had no ice. She was also asked three times for miso soup before she brought it. At one point she asked me if I wanted a different server. I told her I didn’t care and it didn’t matter to me, but in hindsight I absolutely should have said yes because if there wasn’t a problem at this point, there was about to be. The only thing I can figure is that maybe I looked annoyed with her - but that’s only because I absolutely was annoyed with her since all she did was talk about what she was going to do but wouldn’t actually do it. She couldn’t figure out how to turn on the table-top grill and said she needed to go get the owner to turn it on. I told her I could do it, and did it myself while holding my baby. Once the flame was on, she asked if I got it. The presence of fire would be a good indication that I got it, but I responded, “Yes I got it. I have one of these at home. I’m Korean.” From that moment on, every time I asked a question her response was, “I don’t know everything. Sorry I don’t know everything,” and whenever someone else asked a question she would point towards me and say, “Ask her since she’s Korean.” That’s understandable - this white lady couldn’t explain what the sauces were so what is she supposed to know about serving alleged “authentic” Korean food? I’m not saying that her lack of exposure is her fault. I am saying she should either learn the menu of the restaurant where she works or just stay in her lane. So that’s the service. As far as the food goes, this was the absolute worst Korean food I have had in my life, and I have had more Korean food than any other type of food. The first meat we asked for was pork belly. Two slices of pork belly were brought for a table of four people. The meat was off-color and it was mushy and stringy. Once cooked, it was still mushy and fell apart into mushy pieces. That’s not supposed to happen. The rice was all over the outside of the bowl, which doesn’t impact the taste but is sloppy and shows a lack of pride. Both types of kimchi were bland. There was a Korean family seated nearby and I could hear them complaining about the food as well. Even their little Korean baby was looking like “tf is this?” I was so excited to be able to get Korean food but everything was underwhelming and disappointing. I would never eat here again even if they paid me. I will also discourage everyone I know from eating here because it’s embarrassing and I don’t want my country’s food represented this way. If you really want Korean barbecue, please find yourself a Korean friend and let them invite you to their home for better quality, better taste, and a...

I've been a regular customer at Lee's since they rebranded from Meat2 about a year or two ago, and over the last few months, I've noticed a steady decline in what to expect when dining in, namely for the kbbq.

Food: For me, the issue is not the quality, but the availability. I've noticed an increase of times where I would come on a week day or weekend and they will be out of something (sometimes a meat or side, especially for kbbq, but also usually a good number of sauces for hot pot will not be refilled).

Most recently, we went for kbbq dinner and upon trying to take our first order found out they were out of all the pork belly, and half-way through the dinner ran out of brisket as well. They were also out of nearly all of the more traditional banchan sides and low on most of the sauces.

I was surprised since it was still relatively early on a Saturday night. Perhaps they just had a busier than usual week and ran out of stock more drastically than usual prior to our coming--but from my experience, unfortunately, this has been becoming more of a regular occurrence over the last few months where I am now expecting something from the menu to be unavailable, or I don't expect to see a full stock of sides or sauce options no matter how early we end up dining in either. I feel the consistency in this issue happening overtime is what drove me to write this review because the price you pay for AYCE is fair--but only if you are getting all the AYCE options available to you.

Service: The actual servers are fine and the staff have always been friendly and kind to us. My only critique is not toward the servers themselves, but just the lack of communication before seating us on how low in stock they were that night. I was shocked once we were sat and really felt like I was not getting my money's worth because of the lack of options for an AYCE kbbq (especially if the options unavailable are what your table usually goes for). I wish we were at least given that heads up prior to being seated. I can't say this was on the servers though because I don't know what direction they were given from management--which is why this is more of a general service critique for that specific night. In general, though, their service is usually fine.

Atmosphere: Another hit or miss lately has been cleanliness: the serving bar with the sides and sauces for kbbq was left a huge mess that night--especially the sauces. It was really uncomfortable to see how it was left, and I'm used to going to AYCE's with this set up and those areas being regularly maintained and cleaned. I will say that this is an issue that doesn't occur every time for the kbbq side, but it's happened often enough that I feel it's worth mentioning at this point.

Overall: This rating mostly goes towards my hit or miss dining in experiences for kbbq from most recently and over the last few months. The hot pot side has been more consistently good, and I've always had a good experience ordering food for delivery from them. I'm hoping the kbbq side becomes less hit or miss and will update my review depending on how my experience continues to be...

We went there tonight, and it was awful. After being told it would be a five to ten minute wait, we found out after twenty minutes that our name wasn’t even on the waiting list and the buzzer we were handed wasn’t recorded. It took another twenty minutes before we were seated by the hostess (who was amazing and very sweet). We sat at the table for fifteen minutes before receiving service, even though we were asked three times if we’d been helped. The last guy who asked called into his radio for a server and told them the wrong table. When we finally got a waitress, we found out she was literally a customer who was eating there and asked to help just because she was friends with one of the servers. She got our drinks and brought out some meats and rice, even though they somehow managed to run out of ice so we got room temperature water and coke. I’m also not impressed, as a half Korean myself, when you manage to cook rice wrong. Part of it was undercooked and part was mushy. The meats had no flavor to them and the marinades they were in were more like soup and very runny so they didn’t stick while cooking. We were given no side dishes and the kimchi we did finally get was very, very salty. When I asked for sides or dipping sauces, I was given the option of cabbage, onions, or mushrooms that were all raw and the sauces were this sweet and garlicky dip and the other tasted like the marinade from one of the meats. On the plus side, the meats were very tender and good quality cuts. The hostess (who took over for the customer) was incredibly apologetic for the experience and gave us a huge discount for the lack of service. She showed a lot of leadership jumping into action, and I was impressed by her.

The place shows potential, and I’m hoping we can have good authentic Korean food in town. But it’s going to be at least six months before I give this place...