Q Pot Korean BBQ & Hotpot — Restaurant in San Jose

Mixed Feelings about this restaurant. Lets break it down. The restaurant I've been told is only in its second month of operation but is STILL working out some kinks in service and its menu.

The concept is to combine a traditional Korean BBQ & Hot-Pot restaurants into one AYCE experience at your table together. The service is a mix of traditional servers, people who seem to be running food, and self-ordering from a built-in tablet at the table. The tablet seems to work pretty well, menus easy to navigate, and good visuals built in (part of the HINTS system). The self-pay system isn't activated yet and they only accept 2 credit cards per table (so get ready to Venmo friends). The food selection seems to be pretty good in variety for both hot pot & bbq; and some items we found you could use in both styles. A self-serve dipping sauce bar was pretty awesome. The restaurant visually was in great condition, sleek, modern, and with plenty of exhaust hoods. The meats & veggies were pretty good; not the best I've had but not poor quality.

What I didn't enjoy: No prices listed on website, in the restaurant, but word of mouth told us it was $25 for both AYCE; not until we waited, then sat did the server offer up that the price has now increased $28 (I believe) which isn't horrible but would be nice if you posted this and were transparent. With plenty of exhaust hoods it certainly didn't seem like ours was working at all; steam and smoke was definitely not going up ours but seemed to trail the next tables vent. I've heard friends say it was too cold from theirs working. So this doesn't seem consistent yet. Ventilation in this style restaurant is highly important. The service; while our server, Huy, was cheerful and happy guy, he didn't seem to be fast with getting items out to us or knowing where we were in terms of getting the items we ordered. Pressing the 'help' button on the table didn't seem to equate to him coming over, more my eyes tracking him down worked better. ICE in the summer; I've seen this as an issue on other reviews and we experienced it too; sorry no ice right now... and then none came later either. If you split a check (which is most customers) be aware that the suggested tipping amount on the bottom of your customized bill is still the amounts for the full bill but not noted. Adam the manager I spoke to about this acknowledge this after I called in; I don't think that is a wise and transparent practice. Some items ordered in the system never came, some only came when we placed a second order into the system. But by far the most frustrating is that it took 18 minutes for us to receive the lukewarm soup base which took 10 minutes to get to a boil; so 28 minutes in we could start eating.

Be aware its new and popular so you should expect a wait; we waited 1hr 10min; they estimated an hour so no points off for this; just helping you know the reality. Should you wait? If you want to try it out; hope they've worked through some things by then. The food was okay, service needs improvement, their process needs a lot of improvement, and my conversation with the manager didn't seem to address much at...

RESTROOMS: 4/5 SERVICE: 5/5 FOOD: 4/5 EFFECIENCY: 5/5 COST/BENEFIT: 4/5

The RESTROOM was not perfect but not bad either. There was not paper towels or tissue lying around. No obvious water stains on the sink (which would show lack of cleaning) or dried stains near the urinals. The electronic hand dryer is very effective and reduces over all waste. Only concern is that an inward swinging door can swipe you if you aren't leaning to the left.

The SERVICE is definitely where this restaurant shines. The minute you walk in you'll notice a convenient tablet where you can register for the wait list. There are at least two workers monitoring the flow and calling out names. Our server was very fast and I mean fast with every thing we ordered. She made sure to refill our drinks without even us asking. The server explained out to order and would come by from time to time to ask if we needed our grill changed. It was never an issue if we asked passerby server for help (this is a huge problem at chain restaurants).

We have been to a lot of Korean restaurants and the very best tend to be in Koreatown but this restaurant is really the best for Korean FOOD in the south bay / silicon Valley region. Everything was very flavorful. No unnecessary fat. There was even a self serve sauce bar. Honestly no complaints at all with the food.

EFFICIENCY... this place was the very best in efficient use of space, staff, technology and teamwork. The restaurant was huge and there were no empty seats but even then we never felt cramped. The host had all the Korean side dishes prepped and saran wrapped at the front counter ready to be brought to the table. There was very little if any wait for any additional orders. The staff seemed very good at communicating and showed teamwork at all times. No one was slow walking. Everyone had a purpose.

The cost of about $30/person for the BBQ dinner is an exceptional value and the benefits far exceeded any cost as we had six total meat dishes including cheese corn. We left full but not uncomfortable. We felt that we got more than our money's worth.

The last point I want to make is on morale. Something no one really talks about. From a customer perspective, the morale appeared high. I saw server's helping each other, smiling, talking. I saw two servers bump each other and play it off as if they were friends. Everyone worked like they were in it together.

Yes. We will come again. Yes there is a 60 minute wait....

Was actually pretty disappointed. Night started off great but just went downhill from there. The Pros: service was good at the get go, they were quick to bring up dishes, they constantly changed our grill in the beginning (maybe even a tad too much). The Bad: Meat quality was not as good as other places (think cartilage, excess fat, or tough cuts), portion sizes were too large (a problem because some of the items just aren't good and you're stuck trying to finish them when all you wanted was to try it), they became completely inattentive after we passed our first hour of eating, their ordering pad was faulty, and they really do stick to their two hour eating limit to a tee and were pretty blunt about it. Most places will use the two hour time limit as a guideline and generally exercise more finesse when it comes time to gently remind you to wrap up. Here they hand you the bill 25 minutes before your time is up and tell you you're almost out of time. No last call for orders, drink refills, or offers to get anything. If two hours sounds adequate, you'll quickly realize it isn't since they seem to count even the time it takes you to sit down, learn how to use their ordering system, and not to mention there's a line for the sauces. We realistically got about 80 minutes of eating time. Add to this the time it takes to grill meats and you'll quickly realize two hours isn't really adequate to actually have a good time. When we got the bill, we were also charged $26.99 for dinner instead of the advertised $25.99 price. +$3 for hot pot person but I thought it was worthwhile since I liked the hot pot more. In terms of selection of meats and veggies, they don't offer as much as other places though we did like that they had oysters which was different and the highlight of our bbq. Recommend coming here for lunch first to see if you like it. Dinner doesn't seem...