Umami Seasons Hotpot — Restaurant in University City

Update in response to the restaurant’s reply To restate what I said in my initial review, when we put our name on the waitlist the hostess told us the wait would be about an hour; she did confirm we wanted to wait and at that time we did, so had her put us on the list. However, the hostess did not check in with us after the estimated hour had passed. Rather, our party went back in after not hearing any updates two separate times (once shortly after 6:30, when an hour had passed, at which point we were not told an estimated wait but that we were now 4th on line; and a second time just before 7:30, at which time she said it would be another 15 minutes). We didn’t leave until just before 8pm, at which point it had been 2.5x the wait time we were told to expect. At no point did the hostess mention it was limited seating capacity, just that the wait list had 9 people ahead of us.

And I’m sorry, but that the table right at the front of the restaurant window was reserved for the owner to sit and eat while they had a 2.5+ hour wait time is frankly ridiculous. Customer first, no? After seeing the response to both mine and another reviewer’s experience, we will definitely not be returning to give them another shot.

Original review We arrived at 5:30 on Sunday evening (an hour after they opened) and put our name on the list for a table for three. At that time, we were told it would be about an hour wait, with 9 tables ahead of us. We checked back shortly after 6:30pm and were told we were now 4th in line. We could see there were a number of empty tables in the restaurant, but figured it was due to them being short staffed which is understandable.

After grabbing some teas at Kung Fu Tea next door, we sat on the patio between the two restaurants to continue waiting for our table. About 45 minutes later, we took note that a table of two at the window had been finished eating for some time but still hadn’t gotten up. A few minutes later, one of the men at the table got up and went to sit behind the host stand…while the other man remained at the un-bussed table for a while longer before also getting up to join other staff members at the host stand. By now it was nearly 7:30pm, so a member of our party went inside to ask for an update. He was told it would be another 15 minutes (meanwhile, the table that the two staff members had been eating at was still uncleared).

7:50pm rolled around and we still hadn’t been called, so we went inside to wait at the chairs by the host stand. Just before 8pm, another party walked in asking to be seated and one of the staff members (possibly owner? He had also been sat at the table that was still uncleared) greeted them saying it would just be a couple minutes - it appeared that they knew each other and in the nearly 1.5 hours we’d been waiting with a clear view of the restaurant/host stand, we hadn’t seen this other party come inside once, so that led us to assume they were friendly with the owner and would be getting seated before us.

After 2.5 hours of waiting, we finally called a tried and true hot pot restaurant who said they had no wait and could seat us immediately. Our party got up to leave and let the hostess know she could take us off the list, at which point she said it would just be a couple more minutes. We said no thanks, were seated at the other restaurant by 8:05, and had finished a delicious meal by 9.

Was really looking forward to trying a new hot pot place and realize Umami Seasons is still new, but we were extremely disappointed by the service, how the staff members took up a table despite having a 2.5+ hour wait list, and the appearance that they were giving priority to people they’re...

*Updated review - after I wrote this previous review, the restaurant wrote back a nice apology about their bad service early today at 1:05PM (4/15/2024) on Google review. But a few hours later, they didn't want to accept the fact that they provided bad service and wrote a different response to put a blame on me. Kid's tantrum whether it was there or not should not have affected their standards of service. We waited almost an hour for our food to be served without spoons and it’s a hotpot place???Any young kids would cry if they were hungry, they saw food in front of them and they couldn’t eat without utensils… or didn’t have water to drink. How this restaurant responded to my honest review said a lot about this new business. I guess family with young kids are not welcomed here. AVOID, MOMS! We would not recommend this restaurant at all!

• Original Review I was so excited to try a new hot pot place in the Loop. However, I was pretty disappointed at our dining experience here today. We arrived 5 minutes after their opening time so we got a table right away. Soon enough they stopped taking customers due to being short staffed. We waited other 20 minutes before somebody came saying she was our waitress and she would came back with water. Then, she came back with 3 waters while we had 5 people. Because we ordered through a QR code so nobody came to check on us if we needed anything. We waited another 10 minutes before we were able to ask another waitress for the missing waters. We waited for a while before the food came out. There were no spoon or napkins on the table and again....we had to ask for it. And we waited more than 15 minutes to get our spoons. I felt so bad for asking for stuffs a few times but at the same time my kids couldn't eat without spoon. It's just so frustrating that we didn't have any server come checking on us. Also, the music here was terrible... lol

About food wise, we chose the Yin Yang Pot which allowed you to choose both spicy and non-spicy broth in the same pot. I got non spicy the Savory Mushroom and Herb and Imperial Golden Chicken Broth since we dined with kids. Both of the broth were tasty but they didn't refill the broth midway. With my previous experience with hotpot, regardless AYCE or a la carte the broth was always refilled midway. They have a small dipping sauce booth with some simple recipes on how to make the dipping sauces which was pretty cool. For meat, we got the One Meter Meat Lover's Platter ($15.95) for 9 pieces of beef. For seafood, we got the Shrimp Jumbo ($7.50) for 5 small shrimps. For noodles, we got the Hotpot ramyun ($3.95) for 1 pack of instant noodles... Overall, we left hungry and got to take the kids to somewhere else...

Easily the crappiest restaurant experience I have ever had.

First and foremost, the food sucks here. Maybe everything else wouldn't have been so bad if the actual food wasn't hideously mediocre. They use obviously cheap meat that barely works in the hot pot and everything was generally bland at best.

No physical menu. The wait staff was just a bunch of teenagers standing around talking to each other with little knowledge of the actual food when asked. Whoever owns the place clearly has no interest whatsoever in providing any actual service.

The hot pot both cost more and was depressingly inferior to other hotpot restaurants in the area like shabu day.

They charge highway robbery for each individual ingredient in the hotpot, when at Shabu Day you can get unlimited ingredients as part of the normal cost. $4 for a block of ramen? A $1 upcharge for the sukiyaki broth? $4 for a handful of chopped carrots? It's a restaurant-not a car dealership. If I knew I was going to have to spend the pre-meal adding up criminally overpriced ingredients like features on a car I wouldn't have come at all. Their food sucks too much for them to also insult you by itemizing everything so ridiculously.

Their "sauce bar" wasn't even fully stocked. That was literally the one advertising point they had over shabu day and when we got there a bunch of items were just missing.

They put us in a booth and the stands they use to hold the actual cooktop for the hot pot take up all the leg space. I'm not even that big or tall, but I had to basically sit with my legs outside the booth just so I wasn't cramped while I ate.

Umami Seasons was inferior in every qualifiable way to Shabu Day which is right down the street. I was left both hungry and disappointed upon leaving, and definitely bitter for having to pay $60+ for the experience.

There was not a single redeemable thing...