SOT BBQ — Restaurant in San Diego

My full review will be up on Yelp, hopefully tomorrow, but it's acting up so here's a quick version!

First of all, my apologies to Gavin, our awesome server whom I pinky swore to that I would have my review up before midnight. This is the best I can do for now, lol!

Sot Korean BBQ is the hottest new kbbq joint on the Clairemont scene in San Diego. They recently opened just 3 weeks ago, and the place is beautiful! We had a reservation for 5, and we were seated right away even though we weren't all there. Gavin was amazing from beginning to end. He answered all our questions, got us everything we needed/asked for, and he cooked our food for us (although you can choose to cook it yourself). The man was hard at work because I looked up a few times and he was sweating a few beads!!

We got the Sot Sampler and it was perfect. We were not sure if it would be enough for 3 adults and 2 teens, but with all of the banchan and rice, it was the way to go! The sauces really made the food come together. The meats are of high quality and you can tell!! The red bean paste sauce thingy was tasty and made my rice wake up!

All in all, it was a very good first time experience and we will definitely return. They don't have japchae or the rice paper wraps, so there is a slight deduction for that, but Gavin more than made up for it with his upbeat attitude, professionalism and friendly smile. Thank you, Gavin & Sot Korean BBQ staff for a...

This place definitely offers a unique experience of grilling your meat on a sot (the cast iron lid of a traditional rice making pot).

The sampler options are good if you don't really know what you want at first. Try a little bit of each and then order what you liked best. I wish the menu indicated the portions though, so we know how much meat to expect.

Meat was good. Came with kimchi, chopped lettuce salad, sliced onions in soy-based sauce, steamed eggs and a few other side dishes along with 3 types of sauce per peron (flavored salt, soy sauce and spicy sauce) and a separate ssamjang. Ssam (veggies to wrap your meat with) needs to be ordered separately (not like in Korea) but they do free refills. They also grill kimchi, bean sprouts, mushrooms and onions with the meat - just like how they do it in Korea.

Service was great Everyone was SO nice and attentive. They grill the meat for you, so all you need to do is enjoy.

The only tiny I didn't really like food-wise was the fried rice. It was a bit too salty for my taste. Maybe it was just mine but the rice to sauce ratio seemed a little off.

Oh and the ventilation hood doesn't seem to work very well. It gets pretty smoky inside, so expect to leave with a full stomach and a...

Decided to stop into this new korean bbq place that just opened since Menya Ultas line was pretty long. We got there around noon and the resturant was just opened. No issues getting a table. Service was excellent. Since it was our first time, our server helped us pick the appropiate dishes for our table. We had 4 adults and 3 kids in our party. We ended up ordering the sot sampler platter. It had a good amount of meat and came with rice, banchan, and 1 steamed egg. We also did order the fried rice on our servers recommendation. Our server helped cook all our meats to medium rare. Everyone enjoyed the meal and surprisingly the kiddos all ate multiple orders of the kimchi, pickled raddish, and spicy cucumbers. In both instances it wasn't very spicy and was quite balanced. Any extra kimchi we placed on the grill and after we were done with the meats, they grilled the fried rice and added the grilled kimchi as well. The kiddos ate all of that, so in the end we had to order another one for the adults. Everyone came out full and happy with the delicious meal. By the time we were done there was quite a line.

Try to get here at opening as parking can be a little tight. If you cant find parking in the center there is street parking...