Jump to content

K-Pot, a Korean-Based (?) Chain of Asian Hot Pot Restaurants, Montrose Shopping Center on Randolph Road in Rockville


Recommended Posts

Opened Wednesday next to MOM's market in Rockville.  Mini chain, other locations out west.

Soft opening-10% off.  I went last night and suggest waiting and paying 100%.

Very awkward- from being seated-to waitress-to mgrs-to owners-cooking at your table, etc.

They have 2 options.  AYCE BBQ or Hot Pot-or both.  $24.99 for BBQ at dinner.  16.99 at lunch.  more options on dinner selections.

I had the BBQ.  Your waitress takes your order for up to 5 meats/seafood.  They then bring bunch of marinated veggies, nothing special. She also mentioned that you can order as many appetizers as you like.  I ordered Japchae.  That was delivered with the meats.  The meats were just placed next to me.  Nobody explained or turned on BBQ/  After about 10 minutes, a mgr asked how everything was- not sure why he didn't notice raw meats sitting there.  I asked if I should cook- or how it works.  He got the grill going and then he started cooking.  Never really answered if I should be doing this.

Short ribs with bones, very flavorful.  Thick rib eye, just ok-dry, tasteless.  Brisket (prime) very thin and boring.  Another manager cam by and asked how everything was..I asked if they had sauces I could order.  He then said I was supposed to serve myself at the Salad bar...had no idea, nobody had told me.  Chalk that up to opening blues.  Tried a couple of more BBQ options...still found it hard to figure out who cooked-or to order from.  

Bottom line is...I think it could be good, just not yet.  If/when you're very hungry it could be a good option. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm pretty sure (but not 100% certain) that this restaurant chain is based in Asia, probably Korea, and that California is the base of their USA operations. If anyone can find out more information, please let us know.

This is in Montrose Shopping Center in the former Teppanyaki Grill and Buffet space. This is a view heading towards Rockville Pike on Randolph Road:

Screenshot 2018-11-04 at 14.50.07.png

The real tragedy here is that K-Pot is a pun on K-Pop (didn't think about that one, did ya!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Went here for lunch yesterday: we could either wait for a table that could do bbq, or be seated immediately in a place that could only do hot pot. We did the latter. Nice choice of broths - miso, herb, and spicy Szechuan were all good. The hot-pots are individual rather than one large shared one. Extensive beer selection for this type of place. As noted above, you have to go to get sauces from the salad bar, which they don't tell you about. Some of the sauces had run out, unfortunately, hopefully just a teething problem. But all in all a good addition to the hot pot options, if nothing to get too excited about.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also had the "nobody told me about the sauce/salad" bar experience.  Having tried basically every hot pot and k-bbq place in the area, KPot surprisingly rates very favorably.  I had the Korean spicy tofu hot pot broth, and it was the best broth I ever had for a hot pot.  The quality of the bbq meats was pretty good too (and a nice selection), but I found the grilling area a little small for what it needed to be (and some occasions where our server was tied up with another table and we weren't sure whether we were supposed to grill it in her absence).  Still, I would happily go again (my 7 and 9 year olds loved it too), and will enjoy the experience a lot more when the service experience becomes more seamless.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Totally agree about the small grilling area.  It could only cook about 1 order of meat at a time- that could be a problem if they really bring 5 items.

The grill was quite impressive with a downdraft ventilation system around the perimeter...no "stinky clothes, like Honey Pig".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This place has quickly become our favorite KBBQ/Hot Pot place in the area. 

I love that you get individual hot pots, so I can get the excellent Szechuan broth, and the spice-adverse folks at the table can get whatever they want. 

Really nice variety of meats, veggie and appetizer dishes. 

For the grill, we really enjoyed both the regular and spicy bulgogi the best. 

For the hot pot, I threw everything in...dumplings, clams, thin sliced beef, veggies and was happy with pretty much everything.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was here on the first day they were open to the public and it was a mixed bag. A couple of other trips yielded some consistent pleasures: good broths; and consistent problems: service, out of stock items, lack of their promised "good beer program." With legend being so close, I took my hot pot jones there and only thought about K-Pot on days I wanted both BBQ and Hot pot. {an interesting aside, my first hot pot experience was in Berkley in the 70s. The place had pans with both  a dome for grilling and an outer ring for the broth with the happy result being that the juices from the BBQ flavored your broth. But I digress}

Once it became a long drive, Legend got my business most of the time. I realized today while running an errand in Rockville that I had not been in perhaps a year and a pot of Tom Yum broth felt like a great idea. They now offer split broth pots for $1 extra but they only offer two fixed combos rather than let you pick 2: Thai Tom Yum/Miso and Spicy/Herbal. I chose the former.

They do give you a menu but they also leave you an i-Pad for do it yourself ordering which I liked a lot. You start with an array of banchan {after all the K stands for Korean} and today I got cucumber, sprouts, potato salad, kimchi, and one more, all tsty {better than Iron age, more varies than Honey Pig, on a par with my distant last meal at YeChon,not up to Oegadjib quality/selection}. On the starters for the hot pot, they offered tripe and tongue slices sichuan style and was rewarded with a nice version of the dish with a lot of veggies {slivered green onion, bell pepper, carrot shreds}in a decently spicy sauce. Not Sichuan Jin River good but very nice as a change with hot pot.

The sauce bar remains their weak point: nothing bad but too many pre-made sauces {which lean sweet} and not enough separate ingredients for make you own.

The broths were quite nice if a touch sweet. They were better for hot potting than sipping as soups. Sliced black pork & beef brisket found their way into both hot pot and onto the grill. Both were quite good, especially for an all you can eat. Pork Cheek and spicy pork shoulder met their ends on the grill and were particularly good. Lot of veggies and sides: spam {really good brand, definitely not spam brand, cocktail sausage, quail egg, tofu stick, king mushroom, crown daisy, bean curd roll, and pork gyoza. I could have picked an equal number of different veggies and side, the offering is quite wide. 

The beer list has some locals and typical big brands, but I had a pint of Sierra Nevada Hazy IPA which is quite a favorite. Nice to know that what is probably one of the original craft breweries {along with Anchor Steam} still puts out good stuff. The IPA was $3 which makes it a screaming value!

What set the meal off was the service. Liquan {I am butchering his name} was to the table often checking in and making sure I had what is needed and his service made a good meal better. I stopped to rave to the manager what a pleasure he was/ Since the manager was eating his lunch, I felt bad I went on so long about how good everything but especially the service was. 

With the beer, both hot pot and BBQ and the $1 upcharge, the bill was $27.00

I think I will return to Legend more than K-Pot but K-pot will have a more prominent place in my rotation. Urban has been shut out by how good these two are. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

By the way, Google evels thee distinct websites for different Kpot groups:

East Coast https://www.kpotbbq.com/locations

Los Angeles vicinity https://www.kpotusa.com/menu

Northern California https://www.kpotgrill.com/
This is called K-POT & GRILL and has a different menu concept. May be different entirely but I am surprised that they have not been it with trademark action. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thus far, I've been to the KPot three times. Once for the very confusing soft-opening, once on "girl-date" with my 10 yr old daughter, and last night with the entire family of four. I went to the location at 7-corners in Virginia; in the same parking lot as Home Depot. FWIW: My first hot pot was in China, in 1999. Such a fantastic and memorable experience done in pantomime. 

Anyway, hot tips: Get here at 5pm for dinner on Saturday, not later. It got packed. Go hungry. Don't eat too much. Don't accept the ice cream. Start with the bar, it's included. Have fun; make a few dipping sauces. The plates are hiding by your knees. 

We love this place. My son, 14, who is picky, ate 5 servings of BBQ protein: steak, 2-chicken bulgogi, and two different porks. Husband and I had beef bulgogi and focused more on hot pot. My son also ordered tofu soft and BBQed it in the bulgogi spot. He loved. He also at a lot of Jello. Not sure anything green crossed his lips. 

HOT Pot: I love that i get to cook my own pot stickers and fish-balls in the both and then get to dip them in sauce. I've had Tom Yum and miso and I like tom yum better. Miso is fine but too bland. Tom Yum is not that spicy but there's a bar full of spice so it's personalize-able. Of the usual stuff we got quail eggs which sort of pop in the mouth. So good. Veggies were very fresh but when you order dumpling like things, only 3 come with an order.

I think the meat quality is good and there's a nice variety but find the shrimp hard to deal with. Served shell on, I find grilling them uneven and cooking them in broth makes them difficult to eat. 

That's my only complaint and I realize it's cultural. In New Orleans we don't eat the shells.

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3/10/2024 at 10:14 AM, NolaCaine said:

Thus far, I've been to the KPot three times. Once for the very confusing soft-opening, once on "girl-date" with my 10 yr old daughter, and last night with the entire family of four. I went to the location at 7-corners in Virginia; in the same parking lot as Home Depot. FWIW: My first hot pot was in China, in 1999. Such a fantastic and memorable experience done in pantomime. 

Anyway, hot tips: Get here at 5pm for dinner on Saturday, not later. It got packed. Go hungry. Don't eat too much. Don't accept the ice cream. Start with the bar, it's included. Have fun; make a few dipping sauces. The plates are hiding by your knees. 

We love this place. My son, 14, who is picky, ate 5 servings of BBQ protein: steak, 2-chicken bulgogi, and two different porks. Husband and I had beef bulgogi and focused more on hot pot. My son also ordered tofu soft and BBQed it in the bulgogi spot. He loved. He also at a lot of Jello. Not sure anything green crossed his lips. 

HOT Pot: I love that i get to cook my own pot stickers and fish-balls in the both and then get to dip them in sauce. I've had Tom Yum and miso and I like tom yum better. Miso is fine but too bland. Tom Yum is not that spicy but there's a bar full of spice so it's personalize-able. Of the usual stuff we got quail eggs which sort of pop in the mouth. So good. Veggies were very fresh but when you order dumpling like things, only 3 come with an order.

I think the meat quality is good and there's a nice variety but find the shrimp hard to deal with. Served shell on, I find grilling them uneven and cooking them in broth makes them difficult to eat. 

That's my only complaint and I realize it's cultural. In New Orleans we don't eat the shells.

 

 

They also have the smaller, shelled garlic shrimp, which I'm not a huge fan of, but my wife really likes. 

This is still my go-to place, especially now that I have teenager with a big appetite. Like your son, he goes the steak and bulgogi route. 

I do more hot pot, mainly with the schezwon broth, dumplings, pot stickers, and sliced meats. 

I also really like the iPad ordering, and try to go just when they open, but the last few times I tried that, they really weren't ready to go. Sauces weren't out, bowls missing, and it took a while to get our first batch of food. 

Luckily, you can check in online before you go and get on the waiting list. I remeber doing it though google maps, but I'm sure there are other ways. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...