Papa Zhang’s BBQ & Hot Pot — Restaurant in Rancho Cucamonga

My wife and I were very excited to see a new hot pot place in Rancho!

The freshness of the food was fantastic! They are running a "promotional deal" with AYCE Wagyu cuts for $25 per person (along with the other four types of meats that came with the base price). Broth selections were great. The meats, veggies, and other hot pot side dishes (self-serving) were all very fresh.

The current main issue is the flow of service. Every server and the manager (who came around and checked on each table occasionally) were truly friendly, but there were no clear roles being assigned among the servers. Also there was zero communication among servers. For each aspects of our visit, e.g. drinks, ordering, serving meat and side dishes, adding more broth, and paying, there were duplicates of servers coming to our table asking the same questions. Everybody seemed busy going to different sections of the restaurant, but the overall efficiency was still very low.

With AYCE being the main attraction point, every table waited for a long time for the proteins because servers did not know what was being ordered from each table. Different servers would come to the same table asking for orders.

There were multiple times where a server retrieved a plate of meat from the kitchen and just stood there looking around the entire restaurant not knowing where the plate should be delivered. We ordered a side dish half way through the meal, and it was brought to the table after we paid the bill about 40 minutes later. Another side dish we ordered at the beginning was never served (after asking two different servers about it, for which neither knew what was being ordered originally).

At the table next to ours, another server who was adding broth to each table got asked about updates of orders as well as drink refills (because of the long wait time already) so he scrambled back to the kitchen to check on these tasks. Few minutes later a different server came around asking "is everything okay" and looked lost when being asked about the meat orders and drink refills, then scrambled back to the kitchen to check. Eventually, the manager came around during her routine check, and was asked the third time for the same request. She then went to the kitchen to retrieve the refills.

Overall, we really hope this place will thrive, but think that at the current stage the quality of service (again, not the friendliness of staff; the efficiency and flow) might be a significant barrier. At least for us, we will not return until a few months later and hope the management figures out something...

First time trying this place and I was surprised. It was very spacious and clean. You aren't too close to the next table and each table has your own individual soup pot.

Buffet was nice and clean, you have great selection. One side had all your veggies, on the next side had all the seafood. I love the sauce bars and the poster signs on suggestions on how to make your sauces. I wish there was ponzu sauce but that's okay the other options were great.

Meat selection was great and also comes with appetizers. We only tried the chicken wings and fried rice. The fried rice is small and individual so if your ordering it order one for each person. Soup options, I wish there was a description, but I got the ancient spicy soup which is like the Sichuan flavor. Personally it wasnt really spicy for me but I love spicy and the flavor was good. You can always add more spice for your liking. We also got the gold soup which is like chicken broth base.

There is also a small dessert bar with a few sweet options and the rest is fruit.

Overall first experience with food, service and atmosphere was great. I would come back and reccomend to try...

Papa Zhang's is a unique spot (for the area) where you can cook your own Chinese style food in a hot pot. The name is a bit misleading because while you can also order skewers, you don't get to BBQ them yourself. For the hot pot, there are several levels of meats available but we were very satisfied with the basic tier. You select the soup base, order meats from your server, and load up buffet style on a wide selection of veggies, noodles, meatballs, seafood, etc, to cook in your hotpot. You can get different soup bases for members of your group, they will also come around and top off your broth. There are also sauce and fruit & dessert bars. On the day we went precooked lobster was also available, it had a delicious sauce - note that lobster is only served on certain days. We really enjoyed the food and it was good value (AYCE) for the money. Service was outstanding. The only issue was that they were out of some drinks that day. I would definitely...