Lao Jia Hot Pot & BBQ — Restaurant in Tallahassee

I promise you I had never heard of this place before I visited my friends in Albany Georgia. We had a couple of birthdays to celebrate so they decided to drive down to Tallahassee to visit this restaurant. Yes I said drive from Albany to Tallahassee. It did not disappoint.

We had a party at 12 and we had called and made reservations. We were a bit late but we called them and they were kind enough to hold our tables. We had a wonderful server unfortunately I do not remember her name. She was very patient and knowledgeable with us because we had never had Hot pot before. She explained how it works and what we were supposed to do.

The soup you choose a base I chose tomato and lime. You then go to the buffet if you will of raw foods and pick what you want to put in your soup and also what you want to cook on the grill. Now I'm not really familiar with most of the raw food that Koreans put into their hot pot so I kind of did not try that. However I did go for the brisket, bok choy, onions, garlic, cilantro, garlic oil and such. After I had my experience with the soup, I then focused on the Korean barbecue.

Oh my God! The beef short ribs, the steak, the shrimp, garlic, onions and cilantro had a choke hold on me for the rest of the night. I really do believe we tried to eat all the beef short ribs that we could. The seasonings you will not forget, everything just blooms in your mouth. I didn't eat anything that was bad whatsoever. And the joy was just trying things that you might never try in your life. It was very delicious.

I recommend doing reservations instead of just dropping in because it does get crowded pretty quickly after 4:00 p.m. we got there at a good time frame otherwise we would have been waiting and it's not the type of place where you just hurry up and eat and go. You can be sitting there for hours eating. The hot pot and the bark Korean BBQ together was about $32 a person which is a good price excellent price you...

First time going, wasn't impressed. My friend made a reservation, we made plans to go eat on Monday and went Friday night, and made the reservation well ahead of time, and were told they had no reservation and would have to wait. What happened to "the customer is always right"? They were not busy, could have easily honored the reservation, but didn't. There were many open tables and we waited for 20+ minutes while the hostess kept saying we were next intermittently... and sat three other parties before us, two that came after us. The food was nothing to write home about-- $27.99 for the hot pot, $3 extra for the grill. Lots of options, just none were good enough to want a second serving of anything. Tried several broths prior to ordering, went with the tom kao (think that was the name, similar at least) and it was decent. The dessert bar included kim chi, which made no sense. Three options of "flavored" ice cream cups, some sprinkles, gummy bears, nuts, weird little lemon cake thing, pineapple, a strange pudding, and watermelon. For the price and wait, I expect more. Server was nice enough but didn't know the menu or wasn't able to articulate what he meant and didn't explain you could turn the hot pot down, so he put it on incinerate and before we knew it, the broths were transformed into a witches brew from hell. I don't plan on going back because the food was lackluster for the price, service was subpar overall (hostess/waiter/general staff), and the wait was entirely unnecessary for the amount of staff vs tables open vs traffic. I have worked in hospitality and restaurants for 10 years, and was not impressed in the least, thus, I do not recommend this restaurant, but I can understand...

In my journey around Tallahassee (and by that, i mean i just got out of the gym and wanted sustenance 😉), I stumbled upon another gem--Volcano Hot Pot & BBQ! I originally mistook the name for a BBQ joint, but was happy i made the mistake 😉. This place is a traditional korean hot pot restaurant! The way it works is that you order a soup and then add seafood or whatever goodies you fancy to your pot (potatoes, bean sprouts, all kinds of various seafood, etc)! To the right is a rotating conveyer belt of extra goodies to add to your pot (I am almost tempted to call it a pho pot)! You are then immediately struck by a buffet of goodies ranging from korean marinated assorted meats to seafood and then ending with a sauce and dessert bar! It is, for the new foodie, almost too much to comprehend 😉! I took one step at a time and ordered my soup, which was a spicy tomato broth with a hint of lime and bamboo. I added rice noodles, broccoli, and some assorted seafood! Along with all of this, you can grill some dumplings, crab balls, chicken satay (not sure what it was called) while you wait on your food to cook. My server, Corey, was outstanding and walked me through the whole process and made recommendations. All-in-all, i can honestly say that i felt like I had made a day trip to Korea! A very pleasant surprise on a Wednesday! Check this place out ASAP! You will...