3.5 STARS Date: Saturday, April 6th, 2024 Time: 3pm Meal: Birthday Late Lunch / Early Dinner Part of: 6 Reservation Made: via Yelp about 1.5 weeks earlier Dinner BBQ & Hot Pot ($37.99) x6 *Japanese Miso *Healthy Herb x2 *Thai Pot: Vegan Spicy x3 *Pork Belly x2 *Ribeye x4 *Spicy Pork Belly *Pork Belly x2 *Pork Jowl x2 *Garlic Shrimp x2 *Galbi Marinated Short Rib x6 *Seapot Angus Beef x2 *Beef Tongue *Steam Rice x3 *J Lohr Cabernet 2019: 375ml ($23) *Sapporo Pitcher ($25) *Original Bottle Soju ($13) *Peach Bottle Soju ($13) *18% Tip ($54.35) For a friend's bday, we decided to do a late lunch at Seapot. I believe on weekends they are open all day and the dinner price applies all day as well. Tip was automatically added to the bill, but I think that was because we were a party of 6? I do adore Seapot for their conveyor belt offerings. I tend to like variety. And I gravitate towards a lot of veggies and seafood. So it's nice they are readily avail in small portions. I don't feel like I have to eat a portion of veggies for the whole table if no one else wants some. Also, super convenient since we don't have to wait for the server to bring those items out. Meat wise (and some seafood), you have to order thru the server. And there's a time limit of 90 mins. Unfortunately this took a while, so we were only able to order one round before the server came back for last call. For bigger parties, they should give two hours as that's not enough time to cook and eat everything. (We still had uncooked plates when they came back for last call.) There's only one grill at a table for 6. It's definitely not enough time to get your korean bbq on. For an AYCE place, this was one of the first times I didn't really leave full. Drinks wise, we had a red wine drinker, so we tried to order a bottle of red wine. The first bottle, they were out, so I asked about two other bottles. They were out of those too. He could only offer a bottle we didn't want, so we ended up with a half bottle of something we originally asked about. Corkage here is $25, while the average bottle was around $40-$50, so it didn't seem worth it to cork anything. I think if we had a smaller party, it would have been fine. But for a larger party, I don't think it's worth coming here. The time limit isn't really enough to take advantage of the AYCE.
Michelle S.
Don't use your credit card there! We paid for our check and gave a cash tip. Then, the server decided to write down an additional tip on the receipt even though I wrote cash at the table in the tip section. I called the unprofessional manager, and he did not want to give me back my money. I had to dispute it under fraud through my bank. We used to go there all the time, and now they completely lost our business because of this issue.
Maria Elena
Hello Vu (manager): We just finished eating at your location. We were a party of 12 (10 adults & 2 children). Kelly, the wait person, did not bring the 6 - and 4 year old children utensils for 1 hour. She was asked 5 times. Each time, she acknowledged she would & each time forgetting. We had dishes piled so high to the point that we could not even reach our grill. We asked (even pleaded) for her to take the dishes, and she said she would but never did. We had to put our dishes on the floor to have any room to eat. Thankfully, other waitstaff were kind enough to help take our dishes. Kelly acted irritated, impatient, and bothered to have to serve our table. She exhibited no customer service skills and seemed to not care at all. She didn't answer any questions when asked. Fortunately, Sid (a very helpful wait person who cared and communicated with us (when Kelly couldn't even spare a minute to help us) started to help us. He was wonderful. He immediately brought utensils for the children, took our plates, and actually acted happy to serve customers. He was communicative, helpful, caring, & genuinely smiled. He explained that Kelly was stressed. It's unfair that he provides such service & Kelly is terrible at it and that they are both called waitstaff. Kelly doesn't even come close. She was "the worst." Sid is the only reason that Kelly didn't ruin our experience with you & our family reunion.And, yes, we had reservations and we arrived on time.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 3
Service: 1
Recommended dishes: Hot Pot & BBQ
Kimi P.
This place never disappoints. The food is fresh and tasty!!! This is my favorite hot pot place.
Julia S.
Huge seating area, great sauce and salad bar, yummy soup bases, good quality meat and overall good service! The only catch is that there's a pretty long wait usually and you can only reserve a table if you have 6 or more in your party. That being said they do have a waitlist system through yelp which is helpful but not always accurate. We had a estimated wait time of an hour so we decided to go to a nearby shop just for it to say our table is ready after 20 minutes! Oh also we found out that if you don't see the item you want on the conveyer belt you can actually order it with a server!
May A.
It's good soup and choice of food to put into your soup. But it does feel like you get charged for the air you breathe. They charge an extra $5 a person for using the grill (even if you only use one grill). But we pay because we rarely go out for Hot Pot. Of course they don't want you to be wasteful or if you don't digest all the food you've ordered or taken from the moving line, then you do need to pay for that as well. The sauce bar is plentiful with variety of sauces to make your soup more delicious! I tried several, can't recall all the ones I tried but I came out with a good mix in my little sauce bowl. The line or wait is long but that's to be expected for a happening restaurant like this. If I were in the area of Cupertino, I may try it again.
Geoffrey Z
Their food wasn’t fresh, and both of us ended up with stomach issues after going there, twice!
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 1
Service: 3
Ryan L.
My friends and I came to Seapot recently and had the best time ever. The seafood was good and I loved eating the meats. My favorite meat that they provided was the Toro beef since it was fatty and just melts in my mouth. The sauce selection that they had was very diverse as well so I was able to make many sauces. However, the highlight of our night was our server Toni since she was very attentive to all the things that we needed and made sure that we were always helped. Definitely coming back!!!
Nhân N.
I visited this hotpot restaurant last weekend and was thoroughly impressed. The broth varieties are flavorful, complementing the fresh meats, seafood, and vegetables perfectly. Cozy atmosphere with attentive staff and reasonable prices. Definitely recommend for hotpot lovers!
Tiana M.
Great place for AYCE and good for couples, families and groups. The only downside is there isn't a reservation list only a waitlist and most days especially during dinner time the wait gets ridiculous. Average wait is 60-150 mins and last time we waited over 2 hours only to be told 5 mins before last call at 10pm that they will let us know when we are able to be seated. After taking to one of the managers at front check in that we understand it is busy but could we get any confirmation that we're guaranteed a table, we were given the run around that they will let us know. Our party of 3 decided to leave after and about 5-7 mins later once we arrived at khan Pocha shabu down the street (they are also really good and are open late!) we got a notification past 10pm that we were able to be seated. It was kinda sad, I've been going to seapot since they opened and have brought many parties for different occasions just wished we were able to enjoy it again. As of recent times they've been really busy which is good, but for many who've been turned away (this was not even the first time) it's a total let down. Thankfully they're opening a Milpitas location soon hopefully it won't be the same experience over there.
It's a unique experience but the food is just okay. Not sure if it is worth the long wait it requires to get a table. Only thing that made it bearable was the waiting bar (and my friends and I getting there early enough to get a spot at the bar) If you come in, there's a wait and there are no spots at the bar ... just leave. There's better food in the area. I probably won't go back.
Jonathan P.
The quality of food at this restaurant is top tier for the price you're paying. In addition the service is top tier and I can see the staff does their best with everything they can do. A lot of times the host stand is hectic but it's important to keep in mind the staff is doing what they can do to help you. Everyone's human so let's continue to enjoy good food and spread kindness!
Wesley T.
My friends and I came here on a Saturday night to celebrate birthday. We booked a reservation days beforehand to avoid the long wait. The inside of the restaurant was nice and gave a cool k-pop/karaoke vibe. I honestly felt that the service was mediocre. Despite our reservation, we still had to wait 20 more minutes to be seated, and our party of 8 got split into two tables. We were given a one and a half hour time limit to eat and they started the timer before we even got our soup. We spent 10 minutes of that time lining up for the sauce station since there was only one station. The meats also took a while to be delivered after ordering them. The food was alright for an AYCE place. As a disclaimer, I'm not a fan of seafood, I can't say much about the seafood at seapot. I will say that the fish balls were yummy. I got a miso soup base, but I don't think it added much flavor to the food. There were a small selection of vegetables on the conveyer belt but I liked the different types of tofu available. The meats were a mixed bag. The beef toro and ribeye were flavorful, and definitely filled me up. I was disappointed by the lamb as it had too much fat and had a strange taste. Overall, there is definitely room for improvement for seapot. After tax and tip, it was around $42 per person, which makes this meal on the more expensive side. I still believe in seapot though and I do hope to come back with improvements!
Brandon Doan
First time here at the restaurant with my brother, who is disabled. I waited for 1 hour and 30 minutes, as the staff couldn't figure out where to seat us. They kept passing us from one table to the next. They were very unprofessional and poorly trained. Overall, it was a bad experience.
Service: 1
Kelli K.
I Came here with my mom on Friday around noon and the place was crowded. Prior to arriving we made sure to join the waitlist on yelp. This made it a bit less of a wait. With 8 parties in front of us on the waitlist, It took about 30 min to get seated which was great. Upon seating, it was awesome to see that the hot pot choice had a conveyor belt that makes hot pot topping circulate around the restaurant. We were told that we have 90 minutes to eat hot pot and if we wanted to bbq it would be $5 more. We both ordered the hot pot with the mushroom soup base. Right away we stocked up on the toppings we wanted from the conveyor belt. As you can see.. I love mushrooms. So I got all the mushroom varieties they had as well as fishball/meatball, egg noodles, etc. Additionally, they have a sauce / dessert (fruit) bar. I got the ponzu with garlic, green onion, and cilantro. Overall, the food was good! All the ingredients were fresh and we were stuffed. The subtotal for the two of us was about $50-60.
3.5 STARS Date: Saturday, April 6th, 2024 Time: 3pm Meal: Birthday Late Lunch / Early Dinner Part of: 6 Reservation Made: via Yelp about 1.5 weeks earlier Dinner BBQ & Hot Pot ($37.99) x6 *Japanese Miso *Healthy Herb x2 *Thai Pot: Vegan Spicy x3 *Pork Belly x2 *Ribeye x4 *Spicy Pork Belly *Pork Belly x2 *Pork Jowl x2 *Garlic Shrimp x2 *Galbi Marinated Short Rib x6 *Seapot Angus Beef x2 *Beef Tongue *Steam Rice x3 *J Lohr Cabernet 2019: 375ml ($23) *Sapporo Pitcher ($25) *Original Bottle Soju ($13) *Peach Bottle Soju ($13) *18% Tip ($54.35) For a friend's bday, we decided to do a late lunch at Seapot. I believe on weekends they are open all day and the dinner price applies all day as well. Tip was automatically added to the bill, but I think that was because we were a party of 6? I do adore Seapot for their conveyor belt offerings. I tend to like variety. And I gravitate towards a lot of veggies and seafood. So it's nice they are readily avail in small portions. I don't feel like I have to eat a portion of veggies for the whole table if no one else wants some. Also, super convenient since we don't have to wait for the server to bring those items out. Meat wise (and some seafood), you have to order thru the server. And there's a time limit of 90 mins. Unfortunately this took a while, so we were only able to order one round before the server came back for last call. For bigger parties, they should give two hours as that's not enough time to cook and eat everything. (We still had uncooked plates when they came back for last call.) There's only one grill at a table for 6. It's definitely not enough time to get your korean bbq on. For an AYCE place, this was one of the first times I didn't really leave full. Drinks wise, we had a red wine drinker, so we tried to order a bottle of red wine. The first bottle, they were out, so I asked about two other bottles. They were out of those too. He could only offer a bottle we didn't want, so we ended up with a half bottle of something we originally asked about. Corkage here is $25, while the average bottle was around $40-$50, so it didn't seem worth it to cork anything. I think if we had a smaller party, it would have been fine. But for a larger party, I don't think it's worth coming here. The time limit isn't really enough to take advantage of the AYCE.
Don't use your credit card there! We paid for our check and gave a cash tip. Then, the server decided to write down an additional tip on the receipt even though I wrote cash at the table in the tip section. I called the unprofessional manager, and he did not want to give me back my money. I had to dispute it under fraud through my bank. We used to go there all the time, and now they completely lost our business because of this issue.
Hello Vu (manager): We just finished eating at your location. We were a party of 12 (10 adults & 2 children). Kelly, the wait person, did not bring the 6 - and 4 year old children utensils for 1 hour. She was asked 5 times. Each time, she acknowledged she would & each time forgetting. We had dishes piled so high to the point that we could not even reach our grill. We asked (even pleaded) for her to take the dishes, and she said she would but never did. We had to put our dishes on the floor to have any room to eat. Thankfully, other waitstaff were kind enough to help take our dishes. Kelly acted irritated, impatient, and bothered to have to serve our table. She exhibited no customer service skills and seemed to not care at all. She didn't answer any questions when asked. Fortunately, Sid (a very helpful wait person who cared and communicated with us (when Kelly couldn't even spare a minute to help us) started to help us. He was wonderful. He immediately brought utensils for the children, took our plates, and actually acted happy to serve customers. He was communicative, helpful, caring, & genuinely smiled. He explained that Kelly was stressed. It's unfair that he provides such service & Kelly is terrible at it and that they are both called waitstaff. Kelly doesn't even come close. She was "the worst." Sid is the only reason that Kelly didn't ruin our experience with you & our family reunion.And, yes, we had reservations and we arrived on time.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 3
Service: 1
Recommended dishes: Hot Pot & BBQ
This place never disappoints. The food is fresh and tasty!!! This is my favorite hot pot place.
Huge seating area, great sauce and salad bar, yummy soup bases, good quality meat and overall good service! The only catch is that there's a pretty long wait usually and you can only reserve a table if you have 6 or more in your party. That being said they do have a waitlist system through yelp which is helpful but not always accurate. We had a estimated wait time of an hour so we decided to go to a nearby shop just for it to say our table is ready after 20 minutes! Oh also we found out that if you don't see the item you want on the conveyer belt you can actually order it with a server!
It's good soup and choice of food to put into your soup. But it does feel like you get charged for the air you breathe. They charge an extra $5 a person for using the grill (even if you only use one grill). But we pay because we rarely go out for Hot Pot. Of course they don't want you to be wasteful or if you don't digest all the food you've ordered or taken from the moving line, then you do need to pay for that as well. The sauce bar is plentiful with variety of sauces to make your soup more delicious! I tried several, can't recall all the ones I tried but I came out with a good mix in my little sauce bowl. The line or wait is long but that's to be expected for a happening restaurant like this. If I were in the area of Cupertino, I may try it again.
Their food wasn’t fresh, and both of us ended up with stomach issues after going there, twice!
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 1
Service: 3
My friends and I came to Seapot recently and had the best time ever. The seafood was good and I loved eating the meats. My favorite meat that they provided was the Toro beef since it was fatty and just melts in my mouth. The sauce selection that they had was very diverse as well so I was able to make many sauces. However, the highlight of our night was our server Toni since she was very attentive to all the things that we needed and made sure that we were always helped. Definitely coming back!!!
I visited this hotpot restaurant last weekend and was thoroughly impressed. The broth varieties are flavorful, complementing the fresh meats, seafood, and vegetables perfectly. Cozy atmosphere with attentive staff and reasonable prices. Definitely recommend for hotpot lovers!
Great place for AYCE and good for couples, families and groups. The only downside is there isn't a reservation list only a waitlist and most days especially during dinner time the wait gets ridiculous. Average wait is 60-150 mins and last time we waited over 2 hours only to be told 5 mins before last call at 10pm that they will let us know when we are able to be seated. After taking to one of the managers at front check in that we understand it is busy but could we get any confirmation that we're guaranteed a table, we were given the run around that they will let us know. Our party of 3 decided to leave after and about 5-7 mins later once we arrived at khan Pocha shabu down the street (they are also really good and are open late!) we got a notification past 10pm that we were able to be seated. It was kinda sad, I've been going to seapot since they opened and have brought many parties for different occasions just wished we were able to enjoy it again. As of recent times they've been really busy which is good, but for many who've been turned away (this was not even the first time) it's a total let down. Thankfully they're opening a Milpitas location soon hopefully it won't be the same experience over there.
Restaurantji Recommends
It's a unique experience but the food is just okay. Not sure if it is worth the long wait it requires to get a table. Only thing that made it bearable was the waiting bar (and my friends and I getting there early enough to get a spot at the bar) If you come in, there's a wait and there are no spots at the bar ... just leave. There's better food in the area. I probably won't go back.
The quality of food at this restaurant is top tier for the price you're paying. In addition the service is top tier and I can see the staff does their best with everything they can do. A lot of times the host stand is hectic but it's important to keep in mind the staff is doing what they can do to help you. Everyone's human so let's continue to enjoy good food and spread kindness!
My friends and I came here on a Saturday night to celebrate birthday. We booked a reservation days beforehand to avoid the long wait. The inside of the restaurant was nice and gave a cool k-pop/karaoke vibe. I honestly felt that the service was mediocre. Despite our reservation, we still had to wait 20 more minutes to be seated, and our party of 8 got split into two tables. We were given a one and a half hour time limit to eat and they started the timer before we even got our soup. We spent 10 minutes of that time lining up for the sauce station since there was only one station. The meats also took a while to be delivered after ordering them. The food was alright for an AYCE place. As a disclaimer, I'm not a fan of seafood, I can't say much about the seafood at seapot. I will say that the fish balls were yummy. I got a miso soup base, but I don't think it added much flavor to the food. There were a small selection of vegetables on the conveyer belt but I liked the different types of tofu available. The meats were a mixed bag. The beef toro and ribeye were flavorful, and definitely filled me up. I was disappointed by the lamb as it had too much fat and had a strange taste. Overall, there is definitely room for improvement for seapot. After tax and tip, it was around $42 per person, which makes this meal on the more expensive side. I still believe in seapot though and I do hope to come back with improvements!
First time here at the restaurant with my brother, who is disabled. I waited for 1 hour and 30 minutes, as the staff couldn't figure out where to seat us. They kept passing us from one table to the next. They were very unprofessional and poorly trained. Overall, it was a bad experience.
Service: 1
I Came here with my mom on Friday around noon and the place was crowded. Prior to arriving we made sure to join the waitlist on yelp. This made it a bit less of a wait. With 8 parties in front of us on the waitlist, It took about 30 min to get seated which was great. Upon seating, it was awesome to see that the hot pot choice had a conveyor belt that makes hot pot topping circulate around the restaurant. We were told that we have 90 minutes to eat hot pot and if we wanted to bbq it would be $5 more. We both ordered the hot pot with the mushroom soup base. Right away we stocked up on the toppings we wanted from the conveyor belt. As you can see.. I love mushrooms. So I got all the mushroom varieties they had as well as fishball/meatball, egg noodles, etc. Additionally, they have a sauce / dessert (fruit) bar. I got the ponzu with garlic, green onion, and cilantro. Overall, the food was good! All the ingredients were fresh and we were stuffed. The subtotal for the two of us was about $50-60.