KPOT Korean BBQ & Hot Pot — Restaurant in Swatara Township

I am still boiling mad. Boiling more than my hot pot was. And it's a shame because my food was delicious. But I will never come back.

First of all, we are a hot pot family. Have dined in many varieties of hot pot restaurants and love them. Seeing one open up in Harrisburg, PA was very exciting for us. We came with our party of 8. Of course we opted for both the hot pot and the BBQ. Our server's name was Dory. She was friendly enough but not the most attentive as our plates were not usually cleared by her and we had to ask her for more water. This didn't bother me overall because there were other team members that were very attentive.

As far as the dining experience went, we didn't love it. The tablet ordering system seems fun in theory but the tablet had to be reset multiple times, and often we didn't get items we ordered. And again, there were 8 of us so we were confused with what we ordered as we passed the thing around.

The food was plentiful and good. I loved the sauces and the desserts and the appetizers. So food wise, we were very satisfied.

This is where I turned what might have been a 3.5-4 star experience right down to a 1. Dory brought us the check and said to us that there is a "mandatory tip of 18%" She said it like this "For parties of 6 or more there is a mandatory 18% tip. It's not on here but you can put it on your card or give me cash or venmo. I prefer the latter, You can give me more than 18% too". That immediately turned us off. We are good tippers but to ask this way really rubbed me wrong. With the service experience we had we were tempted to tip less than 18% but common decency led us to leave an 18% cash tip. We paid the bill with a card. I laid the tip on the tablet. When we left she lingered and was looking quickly at the table and then looked at her credit card machine and then looked at us and literally followed us out the door. Then she says to me "Excuse me, I am sorry, but did you tip me?" I said "UM, yeah its on the table and I am finding it really odd that you're asking me this" She did not respond as she went running to get her tip. I was so mad I wish I could have thought faster to run ahead of her and grab up some of that tip. We work hard for our money and she definitely didn't earn what we gave her. I am so angry with how she was. Who does that? Chases a customer down for a tip! She did say at one point, "Come see me again. My name is Dory, like the fish". I can tell you one thing for sure. I will NEVER come here again as long as Dory is working. And I will do everything I can to make sure others know this too. She does not belong in the...

The concept is great, but a little customer service and explanation would have gone a long way to making this a nice experience for me. Our server didn't explain anything to us. We had a group of 7 and we really needed guidance and an overview of what was happening. Using a tablet to order was ok, but it wasn't clear that we were ordering for the whole group.

The meats arrived, with a quick comments about what it was, whether anyone was paying attention or not. We ended up with a table of unknown items and were not sure what went in barbeque or what in Kpot. One server said it didn't matter, just thrown them in and another was specific about what shouldn't go in the grill. The server never checked on our drinks in the 2 hours we were there.

The sound from the fire system or AC was very loud, and some kind of music was playing on top of that. Not a nice environment for a relaxing dinner with friends. It was chaotic and confusing.

The food was good, but I wanted to have an idea of what I was eating and when it all got dumped on table, it was a challenge. The food arrived quickly once it was ordered, but we had no idea who it was for at our table or what it was ( in some instances).

If you could take a few minutes to explain how it works ( Even Outback and Texas Roadhouse do this and ordering steak is simple compared to this adventure) that would be the first step in making for a more positive experience! Having table service on the table and not needing to get up for every little thing, sauces, napkins, rice, sauce, etc. We had people with physical issues at our table and getting up for everything was not convenient.

Do something with the LOUD noise... stop the music.... it was not needed and was overwhelming.

Check in on us with drinks and answer questions. I suspect people want to come here to enjoy this cultural experience. The workers were huddled by the side talking to each other and not helping. Share your concept with us and help us appreciate what we are doing.

Can you label the food you bring to the table? Can you make the ordering process clearer? Another Restaurant like this uses a Lazy Susan concept to pass things around... that would have been nice.

The value of the food was good.... but I...

Glad another hot-pot restaurant opens in the area even after the demise of Fusion Fire on the West Shore. It helps that this one is a proven chain and offers the now popularized personal (vs. traditional family/shared style) hot-pot with the Korean BBQ option to boot. I've been to the K-Pot in East Brunswick NJ so I had an expectation prior to going.

For a weekday lunch it was reasonably busy but since this place is so huge a vast portion were empty. The decors are trendy and new - I believe it grand-opened earlier this month (April'24).

After being seated we were directed to the tablet to select the hot pot ingredients. The waitress had to enter our choices of soup bases (hot pot only option $20.99 pp). The entire table must purchase the same option (either all hot pot, all BBQ, or all hotpot+BBQ for $5 more). There is a 2 hour dining limit. We tried the tomato soup and Korean seafood soup bases. Between the two we definitely preferred the latter. It has a chili indicator next to it on the menu but it's not very spicy.

The controls for the BBQ stove are on the side of the table whereas for hot pot cooktop they are (dangerously) located on the surface right next to the boiling pots.

The sauce bar is very on-point, with many choices to concoct your own. But I didn't like the K-pot Sauce at all, too sweet and gingery. The side dish bar is very nice. Definitely sample a few of those.

Each order of hot pot ingredient generally come in a set of 4's. As such, 4 thin slices of beef amounts to half a plate and after cooking they reduce to 1/4 of a cup! So definitely go generously on the meat order, like quantity of 2, 3 or even more. I also like the swai fish.

A few things that lowered the rating: Many ingredients we ordered never came, like 1/3 of them! Big miss. The dessert bar was pathetic, unlike the NJ location that we've been to. Everything seemed high sodium and we got really thirsty even during the meal.

Try to go in small group size, lest be prepared for a frazzling experience ordering and keeping track of who...