SoHot HotPot & BBQ — Restaurant in Raleigh

I want to give a realistic review and this is obviously based on my personal opinion. I typically don’t review places if I can’t give them at least a four star review. I just couldn’t do it and I wanted to tell you why. To be fair this place is still fairly new and working on things. The parking is a little annoying. I immediately drove into the garage because I thought parking would be abundant instead of in the lower lots that are small. The first floor is hybrid, handicapped, and guest parking. Once you get to the second it’s all valet for the other restaurant. I didn’t go up any further than the third floor. I turned back around and went back to the first. The atmosphere is absolutely stunning. The service is impeccable, really nice servers who are well-versed in the hot pot. You order everything from the screen, which is a little bit confusing and unnecessary but I guess if you want all you can eat and you want food to keep coming to the table you can click a button to make it happen. I went with two of my friends and we didn’t get the most expensive tier, but we got the middle tier which included beef, Korean barbecue two different hot pot flavors, muscles and squid. The sauce station is small and if there’s two people there you have to wait, which was kind of frustrating. They bring you seasonings and sauces to the table as well, they are different from the ones at the sauce bar. I honestly felt like for this being Korean and Chinese the flavors were lacking. The hot pot barely had any flavor. The flavor resembled lightly salted hot water. The sauces were good, but not great. Like I said the atmosphere is beautiful the servers like Larry and Skylar are wonderful and it was a neat experience just very expensive. We drank the Thai tea which was a huge option. I think it was 20 ounces I wish they would’ve offered a smaller option and let you pick how much sweetener goes into it. Each of us paid $45 before tip and I wasn’t even full. Maybe that was our fault but we had been there for two hours I did not have time to order more food. Which we probably could’ve done in the beginning. It was just hard to tell how much would come out.They also have a two hour limit by the way. It was OK, but I don’t think...

We came for lunch on a Saturday. Parking was easy to find in the parking garage next door (spot says 2-hr limit, which works since the restaurant limits you to 2 hrs as well). We were seated fairly quickly and the server was very nice and informative. I liked having a tablet to order food.

Some food (meat) comes relatively quickly but others (mussel) take a bit longer until you forget you even ordered it. The coconut shrimp never made an appearance after we ordered it. To be fair, we didn't ask the server about it later because we got too full. The food was pretty well seasoned, and the portions were good. The lamb chop had too much fat on it, but the meat itself was quite tender.

What didn't make sense was that we had to order both the hot pot and the bbq. I'm used to going to KPot, and they allow you to order just hot pot or just bbq if you want. Or pay $5 more to have both. However, we were told that wasn't an option. So we couldn't eat as much variety of hot pot meats as we wanted because we were also eating bbq. My stomach is only so big. Thus, the experience was slightly disappointing in that I had no choice but to spend more money and dabble in two cuisines if I wanted to eat at that moment. And I was hungry. You could say that I could have just ordered hot pot despite paying for the combo, but I am not about that life. $40.99/person for just hot pot is an assault on my wallet. The service and food were both good though, so I would go again. But I just wish there were more options as far as which AYCE selection...

1. Hot Pot Base The base was the same as in their old store. The first round of cooking tasted good and spicy, but after they added bland soup once, the spicy broth completely lost its kick—no flavor at all. We asked the server for more of the hot pot base; instead, they told us to help ourselves to chili oil at the self-service station. We explained again that we wanted the actual hot pot base, and they brought us a plate of chili sauce, which wasn’t what we asked for. Then they came back saying the manager wouldn’t allow them to add more base. We paid 40 for hot pot, and yet they’re scrimping on the broth?

2. Equipment We sat at a table with a grill, but the flame kept turning off. The server was already juggling multiple tables and wouldn’t let us touch the control panel ourselves. It was pretty awkward just sitting there—everyone can imagine how that felt.

We never got the fried crispy pork we ordered. When we asked about it, they said there was a problem with the equipment but assured us it’d come right away. We even added a few more orders, but by the time we left, we still hadn’t received it. This was the 40 option. They also have a 60-yuan “premium” tier available (thankfully we didn’t choose that).

I think management is the main issue. I can’t figure out why a new store would have so many equipment failures, and still seat customers at a table where things keep breaking.

Overall, it was a...