BoSa Kobe Hot Pot — Restaurant in Tempe

Shabu/Hotpot is probably my most favorite meals of all time. Being from California, I've had the convenience and luxury of experiencing DOZENS of different shabu restaurants - not including to the countless ones at home. I absolutely hate to do this to a new business but unfortunately, Bosa Kobe Hot Pot was the middest of the mid. The only reason why it's a 2 star and not 1 was because we came in when they were having their 50%. With that said, I sincerely hope management takes these reviews and look to improve on the what they have to offer.

SERVICE - 3/5 Service was ok - nothing exceptional. Servers were nice but clearly lacked training. Upon entering the restaurant, one of the servers looked at me with a blank stare and looked surprised as to why I was even there. I had to initiate the interaction and said that I was looking for a table for two.

When another server who brought out our meat orders out, I asked which plate was which meat order. He then listed them but clearly didn't even know the differences between them as he mistaken the short rib (bottom plate in my picture) as lamb and mixed up everything else. Nice dude but needs proper training.

MEAT - 1/5 As you can see from the picture provided, the meat quality was extremely subpar for the price listed on the menu. Even with the 50% off applied, it hardly worth it given the poor quality. We ordered: (3) Angus Chuck Eye Roll - $10.99 (1) Angus Premium Short rib $18.99 (1) Kobe Top Sirloin - $16.99 (1) Australia Lamb - $10.99

There was no attempt of defrosting the meat whatsoever. They were frozen and did not unroll itself when you went to pick them up. Aside from the lamb, there wasn't any distinct flavor differences between the other beef types. Once cooked, they were extremely tough and gristly.

BROTH - 0/5 The broth situation was probably worse than the meat. Here you must pay for the broth which is fine, other hotpot chains such as Happy Lamb and HiDiLao do the same. However as you can see from my picture, where's the broth? We ordered a tonkotsu and chinese herbal broth which cost $12. The pot was less than 50% full of soup... even more strange was when the server brought the pot out, he said "let me refill that for you" and refilled both sides with the plain soup from the kettle... why is the pot even coming out with 25% soup in the first place? We basically paid for just standard regular soup broth. After he filled it, both broths tasted identical and had no differences whatsoever.

SAUCE - 2/5 The only sauces they had was soy sauce, sriracha, a sesame sauce, and a chili oil. The sauce bar was severely lacking variety and condiments. It at least needs the basics which would include ponzu sauce, green onions, garlic, etc.

In addition to the above, rice was $4 each but tasted old and hard. Soda was $3 but was no refill.

With the other ayce shabu places in the vicinity, there's no reason for this restaurant to be serving this quality of meat at their normal price. HiDiLao is also expected to open up in Mesa in the near future... I find it difficult to see how Bosa Kobe Hotpot will maintain their current business model once...

One of the Worst Dining Experiences Ever

This was, without a doubt, one of the worst dining experiences I’ve ever had. The food and broth were mediocre at best, but the real issues were with the service and how the “all-you-can-eat” (AYCE) option was handled.

We were only able to place three serving orders total, despite the AYCE promise. The server sneakily divided our first order column into two columns, meaning we essentially only got to place two actual orders. On top of that, the serving sizes were ridiculously small—probably half of what we’ve received at other AYCE restaurants. The broth wasn’t replenished, and we had to eat with what little we were given.

The server was clearly untrained and failed to explain any of the limits upfront. To make matters worse, the restaurant was barely 20% full, which makes sense given the poor experience—it’s easy to see why people wouldn’t want to come back here.

This place is particularly bad for groups. Even if you’re paying per person, your orders are limited by the table, not the number of people. For example, even with a large group of 10 people, you can’t order more than 4 of any item. It’s absurd and feels like a bait-and-switch tactic.

To top it off, an 18% service charge was automatically added, but the service was far from deserving of that. We felt cheated and dissatisfied the entire time. I would not recommend this place to anyone, especially if you’re looking for a true AYCE experience or are dining with a...

The pricing structure is very misleading and slimey. I ordered the Gold option to share with my friend, which was listed as $30.99 , and there was NOWHERE on the menu stating a "Per Person" charge, so we ordered one pot and limited our add ons to what the waitress recommended... Turns out, at the end she charged us for two pots, putting it at $60+ total, despite us sharing one, so I asked if there was a per person charge listed on the menu that I may have overlooked, and she said yes, so I grabbed the menu and double checked and looked at every square inch of that thing.. There was NOTHING in reference to a per person charge, and we had to pay double what we intended to pay. I am not opposed to charging extra for more people, but at least give people the decency of being upfront about your pricing structure. It's incredibly disrespectful to your customers to play the "well you already ate so you have to pay whatever price we give you" game. It is a poor...