I'm going to touch in a few things that other Yelpers haven't really addressed. Hello People, there is a cat robot here that delivers Boba tea. This would likely be my main reason to go. To order Boba multiple times. That's right, a giant wheeling robot with a cat face with multiple shelves will bring Boba to your table. It'll tell you to remove your Boba from one of the shelves and then tell you to touch it's face to complete your order. The Boba tea comes from Ben gong's next-door. The brown sugar Boba has long been my go to there. Now onto the hot pot. Hot pot is always delicious and I really like their broth the way the tables were laid out and the overall atmosphere of the restaurant. When you first come in they first ask you if you want individual or a shared hot pot. Since we wanted to get multiple broths we went for individual with three people. Then you'll get a tablet to order all your meats vegetables and other items such as rice balls etc. The ordering process is quite easy with the tablet. The server advised us that first servings are actually quite large and then they taper off on the serving size afterwards cause they assume people are getting full. All the meats that were delivered were incredibly fresh. I particularly like the pork belly and brisket. Even the chicken breast was actually quite tasty it was sliced thin and very tender. There is a sauce bar that has a lot of great ideas and recipes posted. I went with the tomato broth that was just right with flavor and it tasted great with the brisket and the inclusion of broccoli and mushrooms. We ordered three servings for three people of each type of meat and vegetable was actually really large in the beginning. We only needed one refill of select proteins. Although I was enamored by the robot and the Boba tea, The hot pot here is fantastic and a great place for a group gathering. They were also very friendly to my baby that just hung out in the stroller. I was hoping for more robot baby interaction but the cat robot didn't seem to care about infants. read more

Hot Pot Hero - Hot Pot Near Me - Gaithersburg, Maryland

The future of dining is here. When you are seated, you are given a tablet to place your order. You can also add items mid-meal from the tablet. No need to wait for a server. Though you do need a server to make payment at the end. You can also make a purchase of boba tea from the connecting Ben Gong shop and it will be delivered to you via a robot. You first start with a soup base and there are many varieties to choose from. This might be the most I have seen. I went with the herbal soup and was not disappointed. (And btw, that soup got so tasty towards the end of the meal!) You can also have a large split pot to share but the four of us went for individual bowls. We ordered almost everything (excluding the extra cost items) from the menu. It was great to try all the meats, veggies, and seafood. I think my favorite item was the beef tendon. The tendon really shrinks in the cooking process but it is so soft to eat. And don't forget the sauce bar. There was a sign that says gloves must be worn since so many people are handling the ladles, however, the box of gloves was on the other end of the station away from the sign and no one wore gloves. I added my ingredients and thought I got a pretty good concoction with the sesame paste, green onions, cilantro, sa cha suace, minced garlic, leek sauce, and hoisin sauce. Service was friendly. Servers came to check on us a few times, filling our water glasses, and making sure we had enough broth in our bowls. I also like to see servers continue to wear masks and everyone did here. The restaurant can get pretty steamy with all the hot soups boiling in their individual bowls. We thought the temperature in the restaurant was too warm for summer and the heat created at all the tables. We would have been more comfortable if the air conditioning was cooler. read more

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Omg definitely my new go to hot pot place! The broths were so flavorful, the service was quick and fast, the sauce bar was loaded!!! They also had little appetizers that you could grab. We also took advantage of the ice cream hehe Overall the meat quality was great, the vegetables were fresh and crisp and they had lots of options to pick from as well! read more

Hot Pot Hero - Hotpot - Hot Pot Near Me - Gaithersburg, Maryland

This is the best hot pot place in all of DMV. We come here just for the amazing customer service from Amy. She makes you feel at home and is so welcoming. The food is good and the dessert bar has some nice Asian desserts. read more

Me and my family we go every Sunday and it never disappoints we try almost everything on the menu and is absolutely delicious and when you are a little bit sick amazing for you read more

Went to Hot Pot Hero yesterday to celebrate my's birthday... As soon as we entered, was welcomed by Amy who walked us through the process of Hot Pot, and provided us good overview of what to expect. She also stopped by frequently and kept tab on us as time went by... Amy also made sure we had a great experience including taking family photos of us and also guiding us as we experienced and savored the delicious Hot Pot food. The other servers were great as well and they worked very efficiently and were awesomely helpful and amazing. read more

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Just wanted to give an updated review as I tried hot pot hero out again with my family and so glad I did because this is now our favorite go to spot for hot pot (it was had such a lasting impression on my family the first time we tried it that we ended up going every weekend for a month straight). Everything that was said in my last review was definitely fixed and worked on which I'm so glad to see. When you first walk in, we are always immediately greeted and often seated right away. We found the best time to go is always before the dinner rush due to there always seems to be a wait or line around that time. Depending on the table options of what they have open at the time, you can either do a shared hot pot with your table or individual hot pots for everyone. I love both options as the shared hot pot you can always do a mix between any 2 broths or just one big singular hot pot for the table. My favorite broths to get are always the spicy hero medium, house herbal and the original soup bases as they are all super flavorful and delicious. The options they have for food you can order is also very different and unique from other hot pot places in the dmv area, and the quality is also a lot better which is why this is my favorite place to go. If you're a seafood lover then I would say this hot pot place has the best seafood options, as they always taste super fresh and it's a big noticeable difference in portion and the overall size of the seafood (for example their shrimps are super massive and look like more like jumbo shrimps). I also really love the sauce bar here as they offer a house made special sauce that pairs really nice with any addition condiments you want to add. They also offer little small jar of packaged sesame oil which I thought was super adorable and convenient to bring back to your table. They also allow you to order Ben gong bubble tea from next door at your table and deliver it to you too, which makes it super convenient if you don't want to get up and wait in line (fair warning it can take a bit of time so I would suggest to always order it first with the soups). They also offer this grass and ai-yu jello dish with a lot of different toppings as one of their dessert option, and I personally love that since no other hot pot place around here does it too. Service can be quite hit or miss depending on when you go and how busy they are but it's not a big deal since it's all you can eat. They are however usually quite fast on when you need a soup refill as they have someone with the pot going around to see if anyone needs refills which is convenient as you don't need to flag someone down when you're low on soup. The only downside is that their ventilation system isn't the best and everything that you bring into the restaurant will have a super strong hot pot smell on it. All in all, highly recommend this place if you're craving good quality hot pot! read more

I recently had an amazing dining experience at Hot Pot Hero. The service was exceptional, and the staff went above and beyond to ensure we had a delightful meal. The sauce bar solid and I appreciated the inclusion of Thai chili peppers. Ambiance is very nice as well. The meat quality exceeded my expectations, and I appreciated the flexibility of choosing between shared or individual hot pots. The dessert selection was a sweet surprise, offering a satisfying end to the meal. I ate like 5 ice cream sandwiches and also had coconut jelly. Also if you like intestines, Hot Pot Hero has the best intestines of any hot pot place in the area. 10/10 read more

Hot Pot Hero - (Uncooked) Family Hot Pot Combo for 3 (Uncooked) Family Hot Pot Combo for 3 - Hot Pot Near Me - Gaithersburg, Maryland

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Went here around 5:30pm on a Sunday night after the last snowstorm in DMV before springtime and after ice skating in Wheaton. There's just something comforting about eating hot pot after doing a cold winter activity. It wasn't crowded at first, but as the night went on, it was fully packed to the brim. You get to choose between individual pots and shared middle pots. We felt more comfortable with individual pots, but if going with just a partner, I'd so recommend doing the shared pot - it's an experience. I can't say enough good things about the service. You order on an iPad and less than 5 minutes later your food comes out to you. The price is on the higher end, but listen, no other hot pot place I've been to has included slices of meat with the AYCE price (did I even mention the VARIETY of all the meats?!) The only downside is the more crowded it gets, the service does dwindle a bit but I can't fault them for that. I've worked in the food industry before so I get it. If you're looking for a bubble tea fix (not included in AYCE), you also can order from the iPad from the neighboring shop, and a robot -- yes a robot -- will deliver it to you. It's the cutest thing ever. They also do seafood boil for an extra price but we didn't opt for it. The ambiance is great, the taste is the closest you can get to authentic Chinese hot pot, and the quality of ingredients are top notch. Highly recommend the dinner specials on the menu, as well as following their steps on making great sauce! Will be coming again for my hot pot fix after ice skating in Wheaton! read more

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I come here for Amy she makes the best drinks and gives the best service! If you come here hopefully you see Amy! read more

Fresh and reasonable prices in a clean and well decorated environment. I usually go on Weekdays so it's not too crowded. read more

Always fresh ingredients, quick service, and soup base are great. The meats are the superstars here: if you come on a weekend or weekday evenings you'll have access to their premium meats menu and the Angus beef is excellent. Seafood is always fresh, and the sauce selection is really good. The only suggestion I have is to bring an alcohol wipe for the iPad used to order food, you don't know where other people's fingers have been. read more

It's been a while since I've had good hot pot, and this place definitely met that bill. Inside, a beautifully decorated restaurant with little nooks for each group, as well as a main area for a conveyer belt experience (which wasn't in use when we went). They have a half dozen different broths to choose from, and you can pick up to twelve at a time items to add to it. They're mostly unlimited, all you can eat. And they're good -- fresh cuts off meat, delicious vegetables, and awesome seafood. This was a fantastic dining experience, and one I'll be sure to revisit. A couple of small caveats though: The seats are super comfortable, and getting up after a full meal is tough. :) The controls for the hot pot heater aren't in English. Our server didn't really explain how to use it, or what to do. That would have been helpful. There's a huge array of sauces to use. All of the food is raw, and cooks in the hot pot. Make sure you grab a cheat sheet up front which has some cooking times, and be sure not to overload the pot. It also would have been nice if they offered some suggestions on what goes well with which broths, which sauces. But, experiment. It's all good. read more

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This was probably one of the more disappointing hot pot experiences I've had. I didn't realize this was a Chinese hot pot when walked in, but I soon understood why I always preferred the Japanese Shabu Shabu hot pots over any others. The decor was very nice--I'm always partial to the lanterns. But everything from the service, to the food order setup was kind of all over the place. Being that this was our first time, our waitress explained the menu and ordering process to us, but because of the language barrier, she didn't understand some of the questions I had, so we basically had to wing it. They leave you with a tablet which you select the items that you wish to order and it sends a notice to the kitchen to bring it out to you. I normally am okay with the convenience of ordering through an electronic format, but one thing I'm really starting to dislike about that set up is that the servers begin to feel that they don't have to come by the tables anymore and check on people. This can be aggravating especially when you're not sure if you're ordering correctly or don't want to accidentally send too much back to the kitchen. There were a couple times during our lunch that we had questions and looked for our server but she was nowhere to be found the rest of the time. The broth selections were extremely limited and the ones we did order were pretty bland and overly salty. So much so that I had to keep getting up and getting sauces from the sauce bar to add to it just to tone down some of the saltiness. Not some place I'll be visiting again. read more

Hot Pot Hero - Hot Pot Near Me - Gaithersburg, Maryland

I had a great visit here, and it was my first time at a hot pot place that was primarily tablet ordering. I was impressed by the range of vegetable offerings and the freshness of them - bright lovely bok choy and very nice bunches of enoki. I was excited to try the tomato broth, which I enjoyed as expected. I do wish the tablet ordering allowed for different portion requests, because the brisket, lamb, and beef came piled generously on plates. The broth was so flavorful and I didn't even need dipping sauce. I also liked the tofu offerings but again was a little taken aback by the portions because it is wasteful if I want to try and end up not liking something. In the future I might use the feature where you can call someone to your table and I would inquire about a small portion specifically. Sometimes it did take some time for our orders to come out, so I almost wish you could see a queue of items on the tablet and whether or not they were coming soon. That is the only reason I took a star off my rating. read more

First time here and I like it but don't think I would go out of my way for it though. The place is not too big but enough space that you are not so close to other parties. We were seated right away when arrived. Our orders came pretty quickly. My husband and I usually get tom yum broth and tomato broth. I like that their meat portions are generous because usually at other hot pot places, sometimes I have to keep adding more meat to the order because they only come out in such small portions. My favorite was their house sauce that I used to dip the briskets, it was sooo tasty! I would recommend trying it. They also had some side dishes that they brought out but I wasn't a big fan of any of them. read more

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AMY was an amazing teacher. For my first time here she made sure we chose the best meals. DEFINITELY coming back again.

Hot Pot Hero offers a fantastic dining experience with friendly, attentive service from start to finish. The menu is packed with options, from fresh vegetables and tofu to a wide variety of meats and broths, so there's something for everyone. The service Amy provided was fast attentive friendly and helpful. read more

Fancy all-you-can-eat hotpot place served with quality ingredients. Priced very similarly as other hotpot places in the area. The service right now is definitely much smoother and better than when they first opened. However the soup base quality is inconsistent. From the most recent visit, our soup had no salt and tasted very watery. I wouldn't let this one time bad experience affect my rating though. Overall I still enjoy eating here. It's definitely stands out in a sea of hot pot places in the area. read more

Hot Pot Hero - Hot Pot Near Me - Gaithersburg, Maryland

With the cold and windy weather yesterday it was the perfect day to enjoy some comfort food. A group of us went here for lunch to celebrate a friends birthday. It wasn't too crowded and we were seated quickly. We placed our order electronically and that's what we used to add more items during the course of our meal. You pick your broth first and can add meats, veggies, and other items which are brought out for people to add to their individual hot pot. The majority of us ordered the mushroom broth and second most popular was the spicy. We got fish, calimari, pork, beef, and lamb as our protein. The veggies we selected were corn, bok choy, Ramen, watercress, bamboo shoot, pumpkin, cabbage. There is a sauce station where you can either select the house special that's pretty made or create your own. This is used to dip your cooked items before you eat. A friend and I ordered bubble tea from next door and this was brought to us by a robot. We got the brown sugar milk tea which was sweet even though we selected it 30% option. Come here for your next hot pot craving. Its perfect for small and larger groups. read more

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I went during a weekday lunch for ayce hot pot ($19.99 each) and I had a great experience. The lunch menu has fewer selections than dinner but it still has a good variety. You order using the tablet, and the servers will bring the food to you. They have a sauce station where you create your own sauce. Service was fast and friendly. Food quality was great. For the price, I think it's a great deal. read more

The food here was fresh and great quality. The amount of food you get is well worth the money. The restaurant was very clean and I must say I was pleased. It was soooo cute in there. The ladies that served us was on top of everything. If we needed more soup or more water, they came even before we needed to ask for more of anything. read more

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This is the second hot pot place that I have tried. The food was ok and the service was average. I felt the selections on the rotating bar to cook in your broth were a little lacking at times. However, ambiance is nice and it is relatively clean. They sometimes have little droids delivering items to your table. I really enjoyed the pork bone broth and the bubble tea as well. I may come back at some point, but I'd like to try out others in the area first. read more

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I gotta say it again, I LOVE AMYY and HOT POT HERO!!! This is hands down the best hot pot place and I get the best service every single time. Amy has and always been my server when I come here but also the rest of the staff is always on top of everything every time I come. The sauce bar is always clean the food is amazing and I can't stop coming back I wish this place was closer to where I live but I don't care I will drive the hour there and back to enjoy my dinner and my girl Amy! Thanks again for the amazing dinner! read more

We had a nice time eating at Hot Pot Hero. Be warned that it gets quite busy here on the weekends. There was a line of hungry diners when we left. It's all you can eat hot pot and definitely not cheap although we did enjoy our experience here. You use a tablet to place orders and a server brings your items. You can also pick items off the conveyor belt but I didn't see that many people doing this so it seemed like the same untouched ingredients were in circulation on the conveyor belt. There's also a cute robot that can bring orders although a server brought ours. This place shares a roof with Bengong bubble tea so you can order bubble tea right from the tablet but boy is their bubble tea $, like $6. Overall, we had a satisfying experience here but it doesn't come cheap. Also, parking is pretty limited so we ended up parking a bit further away. read more

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This place is the best hotpot in the area. It is easy to just go to Rockville and get hotpot, but d yourself a favor and drive 15 extra minutes to Gaithersburg. The good: -all hot pot items are fresh and presentation when it comes out is super pleasing. -broths are all super flavorful -sauce bar is top notch with many options -dessert bar (yes they have one) is great. Nice authentic jelly desserts to cool you down. -staff is nice The bad: -like all other hotpot places, sometimes it doesn't seem like all the things you order from the iPad comes out all the time. Maybe they ran out of the item, but I wish they would tell you. I would highly suggest everyone try this place and keep going back. It is sad to see a few of my favorite hotpot places closing down due to lack of business, but this place is better than the rest. Update: Just came back from another trip. Amy told me to tell everyone in Yelp land, "hello!" and don't forget the parking garage is free and connected to the restaurant. Just go through the door marked 100. Another 5 star experience! read more

This is our go-to hotpot place! They have two options, a shared pot or individual pots. We usually go with the individual pots since some people like spicy and others do not. We love all the options that they have for AYCE. You order everything through the tablet. They're generally pretty quick with the service. They have a fully stocked sauce station as well, I've noticed on busier days that it can get pretty messy...they should probably take some time to clean up every hour or so. After hotpot, they have bubble tea that can be delivered by their robot from the store next door. It's extremely cute and the perfect way to end a meal. read more

great food, price, and atmosphere. top tier hot pot can't go wrong with hot pot hero. i love the fatty beef brisket read more

Hot Pot Hero - Hot Pot Near Me - Gaithersburg, Maryland

Drove all the way from philly to meet up with my friend for her birthday.. and she suggested hot pot hero! Now, I'm originally from northern Virginia and when she mentioned that hot pot hero was in Gaithersburg..I was like ok well that's a hike. If anyone knows dmv traffic.. it is HORRIBLEEEE. Took me around an hour to drive from nova to Gaithersburg and honestly, it was totally worth it!!! Hot pot hero is actually connected directly to bens gong tea, which was the first I've seen a hot pot place connected to a bubble tea shop. I've seen it before in other restaurants, just not a hot pot restaurant. We came around 2pm on a Tuesday and I'm so happy it wasn't busy because I was starving. The restaurant was super cute! The seating was different. It had long benches that were pretty low. So for short people, It was a little inconvenient. You order directly from an iPad and there is a lunch and dinner menu option. We went with the dinner menu (more choices). We got the big pot and got half mushroom spicy and half normal broth. They accidentally gave us the mushroom broth without the spiiceeeee, so they gave us the paste to put in ourselves along with the oil and spices in a block form to add more spice if need be. The flavor of the soup was soooo yummy! The spicy wasn't overly numbing and it was just packed with flavor. The meats and sides came out a few minutes after we ordered and everything tasted so fresh. For an AYCE place, you'd assume they'd be a little stingy on portions.. but nope!! Each item came with enough to serve the 3 of us. The service was pretty good as welll. They came to refill our soup often and clean the table. I wish that hot pot hero opened up in philly. There isn't many ayce hot pot places down this way. The one thing I miss most about the dmv is the amount of hot pot and kbbq options around. Definitely would drive back to Gaithersburg to eat at this hot pot place again. read more

We had an amazing time there! The food was amazing and they had so many great options. The house sauce blend is very yummy and I highly recommend. The restaurant itself looked beautiful and had a great atmosphere and the music wasn't too loud. We were seated immediately and waiters came by often to refill soup, water and deliver the orders. The ONLY thing that was a downside is if you have sensitive ears the table makes a high pitched noise. It definitely bothered my ears a bit and we had to move to a different quieter table, but that could have just been me. read more

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Local go-to for convenience. Portions are sufficient and some of the more sensitive options (like seafood) meet quality standards. Soup base is nothing to write home about but no complaints either. Staff is hit or miss - I've had great service and I've also had staff who apparently decided to go to work choosing violence that day. Their hotpot takeout is actually impressive and a good deal. read more

Amy was wonderful and gave us excellent service. The food was good and we enjoyed our time.

YUM. I came here last night with some friends and it was a great experience. The food was delicious, fresh, and flavorful. Service was lightning fast. You place your order on an ipad at the table and you can always order more. Serving sizes were small (think individual size), so you'll want to place four orders of things if you have four people who want them. We enjoyed being able to get our own, individual pots of broth instead of sharing one large pot. I took off one star because I tried ordering a couple of items that never arrived at our table. When we were asked if we got everything, we said we were missing a few things. We were instructed to reorder them. I did that and still didn't get everything I ordered and gave up. Maybe they were out of a few things but that should've been communicated in some way. read more

Hot Pot Hero - Hot Pot Near Me - Gaithersburg, Maryland

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The ambiance was soothing. This was my first time here at this restaurant. Ms. Amy was informative and, in detail, explained how it worked. She checked on me often and ensured I was satisfied with the food. This kind of service doesn't come often. I saw that they have a robot that brings drinks; I've never seen that before. This was an excellent experience, and I would recommend this place to everyone. Great experience. Thank you Amy again for the Great Customer service. read more

This is a follow up to the 1 star review I posted yesterday. I spent much of today in the bathroom. When I wasn't in the bathroom, I was sitting quietly hoping that I would have to go to the bathroom again soon. Such was the aftermath of my meal at Hot Pot Hero! Still, after all that and pondering my meal experience 1 day after eating there, I can honestly say that the food is better than the service. I am still stunned at the bad service we received at Hot Pot Hero. I cannot recommend this place at all read more

Amy is always warm and welcome during work lunches and dinner nights with the family. She provides quite the experience while dining at this exquisite establishment. Always prompt and ready to tend to any of our needs. read more

The food and service is always outstanding. Amy is an amazing hostess/server. I highly recommend this place for dine-in or take-out everything is always delicious either way you do it. read more

One of the newer spots for hotpot in Maryland and I would say that I liked this place a lot. First, I want to point out that the service here was great. From when we walked in, and while we were eating - the workers were excellent. They were like older workers unlike some places where it's mainly younger workers. That would actually walk around and pick up empty plates even when it was busy and crowded. I really liked that about this place in particular. The only reason it's not a 5 is because on their menu, they did not have a lot of options. It appears there are some key items that are missing that can distinguish them from other restaurants. A lot of vegetables were missing - they only had a few greens such as spinach, bok choy, Napa cabbage. I'm not sure if it was because they were out or if it was "sold out". Also their conveyor had nothing on it. Isn't it about the experience sometimes? Lastly, on the far side of the restaurant, it appears that it's for big pots only (where you don't get individual pots). So if it was a busy night and that table was open, you only have a choice for big pot. How come they didn't make all the tables individual pots and big pots like they do on the other parts of the restaurant? Ben Gong Bubble Tea is connected to the restaurant and you can order from the iPad and it will come to you at the table. That's pretty neat. read more

Hot pot season has finally arrived! Hot Pot Hero is within walking distance from my house and I took a nice little stroll to meet friends here for dinner one evening. They are located at Spectrum Town Center, side street parking and free parking garage are available. Since COVID began, I have been cautious with dining indoors and the staff made my visit here as comfortable as possible. They have closed a few tables in the restaurant to keep everyone distanced from each other. Reservations are required to keep it at 50% capacity. The customer service was fantastic and our server was attentive! I was ecstatic to find out that they offered seafood broth because I have only had pork broth in the past at other hot pot spots. The broth was tasty and hands down the best broth I have ever had. AYCE menu is the way to go to get a variety of meats and vegetables! Everything was fresh and the menu had a great selection. I was impressed to see a sauce bar, I have never felt so overwhelmed! I highly recommend their house and peanut sauce. I'm convinced that Hot Pot Hero is my favorite hot pot spot in the area! I can't wait to be back x 10! read more

Hot Pot Hero - Seafood broth with glorious sides. - Hot Pot Near Me - Gaithersburg, Maryland

Came back for another visit for a birthday dinner, wasn't a pleasant visit as the last. When we were seated, the restaurant was insanely hot, was way warmer inside than outside. The restaurant was humid and the floors were extremely slippery, I had to be extra careful walking from the sauce bar back to my seat. In regards to the quality of food, broth was great as usual and food was super fresh and had plentiful options. The service was nice, but it was difficult to flag down a waiter for water and other services even When requested on the iPad. The worst part of the night was when we received our bill, the waiter assumed we didn't pay for our Ben gong drinks connected to the restaurant. However we went to Ben gong first and got drinks because we were craving bubble tea. We showed our receipt of our bubble tea order to the waitress to prove we paid for it. She kept negatively repeating that we should order it on the iPad instead of going in person to order it. First of all, both establishments are owned by the same person and the money goes to the same person. Second of all, I feel like we were wronged of how she approached us on the drinks making it seem like we stole them. Did they think I just jumped over the bubble tea counter and ran back to my table??? I'm guessing she was trying to get even higher tips for our table even though we already paid over 20% in tips. Probably wouldn't come back because of the service and there are much better hotpot places around now like latao hotpot or supreme hotpot. read more

Hot Pot Hero - Yin yang (half mushroom half hero spicy) - Hot Pot Near Me - Gaithersburg, Maryland

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