A&J Hot Point Hot Pot
222 S Citrus St, West Covina, CA, 91791
A&J Hot Point Hot Pot Menu
Sorry, We are updating this restaurant menu details.
Visit below restaurant in West Covina for healthy meals suggestion.
Visit below restaurant in West Covina for healthy meals suggestion.
Visit below restaurant in West Covina for healthy meals suggestion.
Sorry, we don't have Q&A for this restaurant.
Sorry, No Coupons available for this restaurant.
-
Address :
222 S Citrus St
West Covina, CA, 91791 - Phone (626) 800-8470
- Click To Get Directions
Opening Hours
- Mon :12:00 pm - 11
Specialities
- Takes Reservations : Yes
Delivery : No
Take-out : Yes
Accepts Credit Cards : Yes
Good For : Lunch
Parking : Private Lot
Bike Parking : Yes
Wheelchair Accessible : Yes
Good for Kids : Yes
Good for Groups : Yes
Attire : Casual
Ambience : Casual
Noise Level : Average
Alcohol : Full Bar
Outdoor Seating : Yes
Wi-Fi : Free
Has TV : Yes
Waiter Service : Yes
Caters : No
Categories
Chinese Cuisine
The popularity of Chinese food in America can be adjudicated by the appearance of China Town in many major cities in the United State of America. The popular trend of ordering or opting for Chinese take away food isn't unknown in America. Chinese take away food comes to rescue when you're too tired from work or too exhausted to cook. No one can resist the temptation of eating spicy noodles, shrimp, chicken, beef or pork cooked in the sweet and spicy sauce. The cooking method of authentic Chinese food is a lot different compared to what is served in America.
Generally, Chinese use dark meat small bones and organs to cook dishes but this changes when you are eating American-Chinese fusion food prepared using white boneless meat cooked with broccoli, carrots and onions. Back in China, the food is less spicy and oily as they favor steaming and braising method for cooking the most popular dishes. So, if you have a taste for authentic Chinese food, then try finding a real Chinese restaurant in the city. You can also try the most popular fusion Chinese food like Pecking Duck, Chicken Feet, Hot Pot, Shrimp Dumpling Soup, Mapo Tofu, Wontons, Chop Suey, Egg Rolls and not to forget Fortune Cookies.
There are not many restaurants in America serving authentic Chinese food. A little research on Restaurant Listings directory can help you locate the best Chinese restaurants in the city. Chinese cuisine is continuously evolving, and you can find a variety of dishes categorized as the food for lactose intolerant, gluten intolerant, vegan, vegetarian, and diabetic friendly. So, if you have a group of friends with different taste patterns, save the hassle and visit the nearest Chinese restaurant in your city.
WE SERVE THE FOLLOWING STATES
Looky Weed - Buy Marijuana Online
Looky Weed is here to help you navigate the maze of legalized marijuana. We provide you with a complete dispensary directory.
Ann W.
this place is awesome，everything i want to eat for hot pot they have, and it is buy one get one free now, who care it is 112 degree outside, meet is good, soup is spicy, I love it.
(5)Amy B.
Tomorrow is my birthday and unfortunately I am sick. All i wanted was a bowl of soup. Never been here decided to try it. I left my phone at home because I am trying to use it less and have less electricty flowing all the time. But dear lord, I wish I read the Yelp reviews before coming. This place was empty, which is always a bad sign and I cant believe I didnt listen to my gut. Our waiter unfortunately didnt speak very well English. We have never hot potted before and for the first time I felt like an awkward white kid with culture shock. We sort of figured it out but, as my boyfriend said, the egg rolls have been sitting there for a week. Once the broth was boiling we added our meat.... He brought us pork and chicken even though we specifically ordered "chicken for both" and he heard "chicken and pork". He returned to check on us white kids, and after tasting the soup I looked up, and told him it was bad and i cant eat it. Everything smelled like bad cheese, even the water glasses and chopsticks. He simply nodded and said "i know" and walked away. There is clearly a language barrier. We were polite but couldnt eat much of the curry soup which started to burn and smell like burning rubber. It was the nastiest curry Ive ever had. I cannot stress enough that this was the most overpriced lunch Ive ever (not) eaten. The place is dirty and the food is gross. I'd eat pho or thai any day. Never ever again I will "hot pot" myself, or anyone I love.
(1)Lina T.
It's been a while since I've been here, but I'm sitting at 85c waiting for my car and thought I'd write a review. Let me start off by saying that I love hotpot. Growing up in my household, my parents would make it at least once every 2 weeks, we'd invite family over and have a huge hot pot party. So I kinda know a bit about it. This place seems a little dirty and not very well kept. There was a strange odor when we came in, but we just decided to ignore it and continue our dining experience with an objective attitude. The tables were a bit oily and greasy, I hate walking into a restaurant, sitting down and then getting up and leaving. I think it's kinda rude, and it makes me feel horrible. The menu is a little confusing at first but I think it was $19.99 per person for AYCE hotpot. We got the original broth and the spicy one. The spicy broth was loaded with oil and it was very salty, I did taste a lot of the herbs that they put into it though. The original broth was overly salty as well. The meat, veggies and service were pretty good, but honestly I don't think we'll be back.
(2)Kim T.
They changed ownership and pricing :( It used to be AJ Hot Point Hot Pot, but they took away the AJ part...pricing used to be $9.99 and NOW it's $19.99 and each soup is $3.99...urgh... Waitresses were friendly and attentive...Stuffed myself silly this time, but damn...Instead of paying maybe $40.00 for 3 ppl, it's $35.00 extra more...not returning anymore :(
(2)Kimberly R.
Never coming to this place ever again. I should of heeded and listened to all the reviews. Now I'm paying for it with the worst case of food poisoning!!!!
(1)Gloria C.
Ambiance \\ You will see RED when you walk in. No, literally, the chairs and tables are red. The lighting is dark so it makes it slightly difficult to see the hot pot buffet bar of items. There is plenty of seating but the chairs and tables feel a bit cold and uninviting. I think they were going for "hip" but instead the mis-matched decor felt a bit confused. Pricing \\ Dinner $19.99 AYCE. You pay $3.99 per soup base. My fiance was sick, so we each got our own soup base in a split pot. This means $19.99 + $3.99 per person. Food \\ In my opinion, A&J tries to do too much with what they offer and everything is just mediocre. Hot pot tends to be a bit expensive so the AYCE idea seems like a good idea, but the ingredients were just not up to par so I don't think I will be coming back. They have a hot pot buffet, divided into the types of items. There is a "cold food" section with random cold dishes - jello, pickled cucumber, pickled seaweed, cold mixed vegetables like broccoli and carrots. None of it looked appetizing so I skipped this section. There is also a "hot foods" section with Americanized Chinese and American Food items like fried egg roll, fried rice, steamed bun, fried shrimp, random fried chicken strips. This was weird to me as I am not sure how fried chicken goes along with hot pot, and somehow, there was no steamed white or brown rice available. I tried the fried rice which was over fried, crunchy and stale. Ick. Also tried the eggroll which was filled with vegetable and was slightly soggy from being set out for so long. No dipping sauce available for the egg roll. Sigh. Now, there are a few sections available with "hot pot ingredients." Although I found some things I really liked like tofu skin and fish fillet, other items were not as great. The meat ball and fish balls were cut up and were not labeled clearly so I wasn't sure if it was beef ball or pork ball I was getting. Also, for vegetables, there was plain lettuce, napa cabbage and spinach I believe but no other traditional hot pot greens available. Also, some hot pot items I usually like to order such as the yellow egg dumplings, rounded fish dumplings and enoki mushrooms were available. They had some shitake mushrooms I think that were sitting in this mushroom water but it looked sketchy so I didn't take any. The meats you order from your servers. We had chicken and beef. The meats were just ok... beef was a bit fatty but nothing memorable. Not the best cut of beef I've ever had but acceptable. Sauces are at a self serve station, nothing unique or impressive though. One thing that I DID enjoy was the broth. I thought they were flavorful and well made. Service \\ 5 stars for service, the employees here are really nice and check up on you frequently to see if you need anything. Overall, for the price, I would rather go elsewhere. Although the soup bases were good, I think a lot of key hot pot ingredients are missing from the buffet bar, and somehow it just didn't jive well with me.
(2)Raymond T.
Giving this place a 1star for arbitrary closing time. This happenes twice to us already. The hours posted were till 11pm, we got here at 9:20pm and they told us they closed early because lack of customers. Well if you keep doing that you won't get any!!
(1)Cecelia K.
If you go to this place, make sure you call ahead to make sure they aren't closed. The owner has a bad habit of closing shop hours early due to slow business. Unfortunately, this is the exact reason their business is doing poorly. If you keep turning away customers because you want to go home early, then you should not be in business!
(1)Shayla K.
New ownership ! This place use to be great, the past 3 times I've gone since the owner changed ......it's gotten worse, worse, and worse. They took off all the good broth choices! None of the broths taste like they use to! The flavor is dull and plain . It's not worth the price . No matter how good the meat and veggie selection, if the broth is dull ....I don't feel like paying about $14 a person . I use to tell my friends about this place and come with groups all the time . Now , I never really wanna go their myself! I really hope the owner sees all these bad reviews that have been posted since he took over the store and changes it back to how good it use to be, or sadly this place won't be around much longer .
(1)Romana L.
Such a wonderful experience here w the boyf. As soon as we walked in, the server explained to us the menu & how everything worked. She was very attentive throughout our meal & was very sweet. The food was awesome, I love the AYCE as well as the self serve part. Will definitely be back.
(4)Debbie K.
$19.99 for one person AYCE + $3.99 for soup base. Right now it's BOGO free so $19.99 for two people-definitely sufficient! We ordered the hot and spicy broth in medium with beef and pork as meat entrees. You self serve buffet style all the veggies and toppings. They had a good selection of frozen seafood items: clams, mussels, fish cakes, calamari. Veggies such as Napa cabbage, bok choy, shiitake mushrooms, eggplant, sweet potato, etc . Definitely a fun experience to try! Hot pot hits the spot on a rainy day or to cure hangovers.
(4)Brenda N.
I feel bad for leaving this review, but my siblings and I agree that people must know! This is the first time I've ever walked out on a restaurant. Here goes: we came here today (Friday afternoon) because I was craving hot pot and this was the closest place. I wish I had read the reviews before coming. The place was empty, our first red flag. I thought that it was super overpriced, but it must be that good, right? WRONG! We ordered the healthy and kimchi soup base with one of each kind of meat. They had beef, lamb, pork and chicken. After the server took our order, we went to the buffet bar and took a look around. My siblings both grabbed plates and got some fried rice. When I came that way, I smelled something fowl but I thought it was just the eggs they had. I grabbed some rice too so the smell followed. I started hot potting and then when I moved to the rice, I realized that was where the smell was coming from! I immediately tell my siblings not to eat it, but it was too late. I told our server and she took the rice to show the others. The manager lady came out to check the rest of the food at which point she said out loud to our server, you know why the rice is bad?! Because no one was here yesterday! We could no longer stand the place so I went to our server and explained that we cannot eat here, we're going to be sick. She apologized and said it was fine so we left. Service: 3.5 (server was friendly and somewhat attentive) Food: 1 Cleanliness: 1 (sticky plates. Gross) We won't be returning. I know the business is someone's livelihood, but I honestly don't know how they're still in business after reading the reviews and experiencing it for myself.
(1)Rebecca H.
From the beginning to the end i couldn't in my right mind give them higher than a star, even though I really liked our server Letty. We walked in and was placed at the front corner where there were barely any light, when handed the menu my man actually had to bring it to the light from outside to make out what was on the menu. Are we dining in the dark here? Letty went to ask management if we can switch a table further towards the sauce area a table that seats about 5 to 6 people but i figured since it was about 9pm at night we wouldn't be taking up a bigger parties table. Letty came back to us and said that management denied our request. Apparently a bigger group was on there way? Ill tell you now that "bigger" group that was supposedly coming never ever showed up! Personally I believed they probably didn't want to clean up a bigger table?! Where is the customer service here?!! Now on to ordering...We had ordered Combo A with split pot due to my vegetarian-ism. The tomato broth were pretty good to start, but after awhile i realized MSG was probably added to make it taste better, since it was super salty afterwards. After about about half hour i realized a lot of my vegetable that I had checked was never brought out and my section was nearly empty. So after bringing this to their attention it took them about 15 minutes before anything was brought out so when they finally did, the girl that went around pouring additional soup into peoples hot pot didn't ask me prior and just poured the meat broth into my vegetarian tomato soup! SOOO...It literally took another 15 minutes plus before a new broth was brought back out! I was still hungry and had to just keep waiting.... It was just so frustrating!! I don't think there sauces are cleaned or might of been the broth cause i actually got pretty bad tummy ache the following day!
(1)Myronn E.
Unlimited meat, your choice of lamb, pork, beef or chicken, the other ingredients for the hotpot is self service, among other things as well :) but its all good, the walk will help make space for more food haha. All in all, always an awesome experience.
(5)Vivian N.
This use to be my favorite place... Slowly went down the hole. Changed owners. Prices (charging for soup base?!!?) changed meats and quality. Took away all the good side options. No reason to spend $25 to eat here anymore.
(1)Ryong C.
Can't separate， that's soooooo weirdest! Is there still in United States????? Is there only one interpretation? LOL
(1)Lia L.
I've been craving for hot pot and I was about to come to this place. Thank you all for your very helpful reviews! You saved two stomachs tonight ;)
(1)Karen C.
I was invited by a friend because they were in the know about the buy one get one free deal. There are three tiers of pricing: vegetable, meat and seafood. Cheaper by a couple dollars if you pay cash, so seafood is $19.99 cash. I've been to other hotpot places that are $10 but they are $10 for a reason, service sucks and you play diarrhea roulette. The menu has a good selection of items so I went with seafood, the lobster caught my eye... but then as we were ordering they said lobster ran out. Strange since we were the first ones there during early dinner so maybe the restaurant doesn't even order it any more?! Who knows they were out of the fish fillets too and some drinks flavors. Don't know what is up, but the tap-water they serve tastes horrible, even with lemon it doesn't help! Don't drink it, order a $3 flavored milk tea instead it comes in a big mug and the milky flavor will help cool the spices in that spicy hotpot! There are many flavor options about 8 ranging from very mild and plain to numbing spice that will force you to eat slow. The serve your own sauce buffet bar seems like a cool idea but wonder how germy things get after sitting out for so long. You can find bland pineapple slices and colorful shrimp chips as appetizers. Staff was super friendly and brought items out in a good pace, but sometimes there would be items missing from the large metal basin if the you ordered too much stuff. Just asked for the missing items and they will bring them out on a smaller plate. I recommend getting the stuff that takes longer to cook like the big taro and daikon radish first. Also the sweet potato/glass noodles are bomb.com our tabled ordered three orders of those, they cook quick and stay deliciously chewy. They do have a stamp card, after visiting 10 times, one person gets 50% off the 11th time.
(4)Tya s.
This place underwent new management. I probably will not come back here again. It's sad to say. They only have one price for the all you can eat now which is $19.99. BUT they charge you extra 3.99 for the soup! So in actuality you're paying around $24 for very few selection of meats, vegetables and seafood. It doesn't even look fresh. Definitely not worth it
(1)Mr. S.
Eh... I give this place 2 stars instead of 1 because service was better than expected. Other than that, everything else was a disaster. The beef was super fatty and low quality so between myself and a friend, we only shared 2 plates. I saw the table across get lean meats which I would've much preferred but it was too late already. Their food bar was disastrous. I hesitated before getting some fried rice (who gets rice at AYCE, but had to try) and holy crap it was hard and tasted like its been sitting there for hours. Oh it was also super oily. The seafood section, tucked in the corner had some good choices like crab and shrimp but I was wary of their freshness, especially the clams which my friend gagged and spit out immediately. In the middle of the food section, there's a plate of this purple jelly. Its the most difficult thing to pick up with their provided tongs but it's definitely not worth it, it tasted like the smell of Asian grandma made into a purple sugar water jelly. Oh, all this for the hefty price of $20/person for dinner and they also charge almost $4 additional/person for soup base(s) The total coming out of this place was $47.93 (2x$20 + $4 + tax) when the meal tasted like one of those $8.99 buffets
(2)Ben Y.
Wow, I would have really loved this place as a kid. I remember loving this AYCE hotpot place near my house growing up and this is kind of like a better version of that. Sadly, with age and experience comes increased standards. It's 9.99 for the AYCE but an additional ~4 bucks for a soup type. Most people will probably get a half and half pot so that's around 30 bucks for 2 people. Don't let the somewhat newest restaurant and relatively up to date decor fool you....give it a year or so and I fully expect this place to devolve into your standard "bargain" Chinese eatery. And I don't mean "bargain" in a good way either. The quality of the ingredients (especially the meat and seafood) are questionable at best, and the cleanliness is borderline call the FDA. One of the biggest things that separates a "ghetto" AYCE and a high end AYCE (besides the food of course) is how clean the workers can keep the buffet tables. People are slobs and we all know that food is spilled everywhere and the tongs and spoons end up in the wrong trays etc. If look at say the Bellagio buffet, there are workers constantly wiping up food, rearranging the utensils, and cleaning out food that gets dropped from the chicken breast tray into the chilean sea bass tray. Most of "bargain" AYCE places just lets everything sort itself out...meaning if you go there right when it opens you might be ok...but if you go later in the day it's just a giant pile. The worst thing is that I see people busing their USED plates and utensils back into the area where the CLEAN plates and utensils are stored....
(2)Calvin C.
Quick Tips!!!! 1. This location is now known as Hot Point Hot Pot. They have decided to ditch the franchise and go independent. 2. The food is very similar, but instead of ordering from menu sets for different tiers of items, they only have one tier. 3. The pricing structure has changed. The pricing is now $19.99 per person. You pay for soup bases individually, which were about $4 each. However, they are, as of July 15, 2014, running a special $9.99 pricing on the buffet only. We're not sure if it includes the soup bases or if the worker counted our ticket incorrectly. 4. The buffet has changed by only having the workers deliver meats rather than the full range of buffet items such as lobster balls, fish balls, veggies, etc. Instead, they have moved the back area and put all frozen items, veggies, and a new, but small section of hot food items. 5. They will honor previous stamp cards issued by AJ Hotpoint. WHEW. Those quick tips weren't so quick were they? Anyways, I visited this place multiple times when it was still AJ Hotpoint and where it is now *blank* Hotpoint. Apparently, they were working out some issues over the franchise or they lost their franchise with AJ. Nevertheless, this is now a review for the newer Hotpoint. There are some good things with the reorganization of the restaurant. Before, AJ Hotpoint often had the problem of having good service. Part of the problem was that each of the tables may have had incredibly complex orders that needed to be fulfilled in the kitchen. As a result, each table had to wait while wait staff scrambled around to get the food bowls ready and the meat ready. Now, Hotpoint Hotpot separates the two by making you do some of the work. They have veggies and all other frozen foods in a section at the back of the restaurant. A more of a combined AYCE/Buffet style going on now. The only thing that they do bring you is water, soup base, and meat. The rest is self serve. This is great because the service has largely improved with the same amount of workers. Gone are the days of you having to wait forever to flag down a server to ask, "Where the hell are my frozen balls?" The downside, of course, is that this becomes a tragedy of the commons situation. When we went, some of the ladies decided to grab a lot of the items that were in the frozen food section. For us, this was not a problem because there were still quite a bit in the tanks. But, if this place was hopping with business, I imagine that they would run out of food rather quickly. I didn't have a chance to see how fast they restock their items, but when we were there they did a restock once. Another downside is that some items that have meat in them are placed near vegetarian items. Meaning that say raw fish is sitting right next to your raw tofu, etc. For some people this may not be a big deal, for vegetarians this might be a deal breaker. The other thing that has changed is the pricing structure. Before AJ would have three tiers of items that you could choose from and they varied in price. Now, its a one size fits all menu and each person costs $19.99. Furthermore, what I found interesting is that they now charge you for your soup bases. I find this part ridiculous. How are you going to charge someone $19.99, say its an all you can eat type of deal, and then go, wait, you have to pay for the soup you cook it in. At least, for now, they are running a deal for $9.99 per person for the buffet. Anyways, largely I feel like eating hot pot at this place will be less worth it when the BOGO deal is no longer around. As for the food, everything tastes the same. They did add a more "expanded" hot foods section and sauce section, but it's nothing to talk about. There are a few major complaints that I have though. The cooked chicken wings that they put out were raw. Absolutely pink and bloody in the middle--just so disgusting. Furthermore, as was the case before, I would carefully examine my veggies, especially the bok choy. We've found that the bok choy can contain dirt or even worse bugs. Hopefully their rebranding will result in some success. After all, they were still doing pretty well with a decent amount of customers on a weekday night.
(3)S C.
Bottom line..very dishonest business. Y? This is not only a run down place that probably got rejected by A&J but it also has a bad customer service that totally ruined my Friday night. You are absolutely screwed if you brought the Groupon deal. They charge $19.99 per person with groupon and would not let the people eating with you eat for $10 like everyone else, so you end up paying $40.00 for 2 if you choose to use your Groupon vs $20.00. I even ask if my guest can pay $10 like everyone else but the answer is NO. If you are not going to honor GROUPON why sell it at the first place, why advertise? Why make people pay extra $11.00 for the deal and make them pay for more and punish customers by bringing their friends there with an extra $10.00 per person fee. It is just bad, I left the place, haven't eat dinner just to write a review of how bad this ruined our day. Oh, the place also stinks like puke, people do not look like they enjoyed the food, I only came because I brought the groupon, looks like I rather just donate my $11.. it's way better than getting sick...
(1)Andrew H.
Such an incredible disappointment. I counted at least 4 health code violations, not to mention the veggies were looking really bad. I foresaw an achy stomach along with a lot of regret if I ignored the signs. I kindly paid and left without even eating a bite. I'd hate to do it, but people need to know. Two stars for having a nice staff.
(2)Michelle L.
I usually don't post reviews immediately after visiting a restaurant.. but I'm wide awake with gas, thirst, and indigestion that I might as well let out.. on yelp. So starting with service, the waitresses weren't as attentive as I hoped for them to be.. cuz hey, all you have to do is bring me a checklist and I'll mark the boxes. No memorization required. Someone had to be flagged down every time we needed to place an order or add more soup base to our pot. I am a very patient, but the restaurant wasn't even a quarter full. I can see how some complaints were about the poor lighting. Luckily, I was seated at the tiny table next to the drink refrigerator that had a bright light-up sign at the top. The sauce bar was OK. They don't have a tasty house sauce like other places but I managed to make my own concoction. I noticed they had egg rolls at the sauce bar area as well.. so of course I took one. It was cold and soggy. They could at least turn on the heat lamp for this stuff. We opted for the healthy and mushroom soup bases since I remember curry bases at other places fill me up too quickly. Did I mention I was thirsty earlier? Oh yeah, there's gotta be loads of MSG in this stuff cuz I drank so much water during and after the meal. The vegetables, frozen food, and sliced meat was alright. I'm pretty sure there's something wrong because I'm having a hard time digesting. When we wanted to order our second round of food, we got the same order sheet back. There was only one column of boxes so we had to erase all our markings from the first time to order again. Most places will provide you with 2-3 columns. The most entertaining part was the menu. Check out all those typos on the picture side! I want my money back. For the price I paid for AYCE, I'd rather go elsewhere to pay the same amount and get a larger variety of meat and seafood. I would've paid in cash to get $2 off but I figured I'd get cash back with my credit card rewards.
(1)Diana H.
First time coming here with the bf was about three months ago. We went in November 2013 after he got out from school. I ordered the Mongolian Herbal broths and wow...it was yummy. I don't know what happened to my photos and reviews, but I could have sworn that I wrote a review right after my experience. The waiter working on that afternoon was extremely sweet. He was attentive was more than happy to voucher our Groupon without any questions. The place is clean, tidy, and inviting. Writing this review for the second time is making me crave hot pot even more. However, I prefer Boiling Point because i'm Taiwanese and I still like my Taiwanese Styled hot pot. Will be back again, since it's in the plaza where 85 Degrees, Oto Oto, Guppy House, and such is at.
(3)Jenn C.
I'm a big fan of all you can eat and thought that this place would be a good one to try out. Unfortunately, I left not satisfied and pretty much not feeling too well. The draw in for the all you can eat portions was what grabbed my attention. The soups were not very good. The meats and other additions to the soup was not good at all. The food is just not good at all. The quality of the food is not up to par and their freshness is very questionable. Service was good, but not enough to make anyone want to come back.
(1)Eddie H.
I decided to make a visit at this place today since I always see it while visiting 85 degrees. I was careless and didn't read the yelp reviews, upon entering the restaurant only having 3 people in it the place had a disgusting smell. Our waiter didn't speak much English but tried to agree with the questions we had and told us about the buffet you can get good from for your hot pot. The veggies had a brownish look and the smell of the food in that section was making my stomach turn. Once they brought my hot pot I found hair in it that after I just asked for my check before eating and left this place. I did eat some egg rolls which sadly to say my stomach has been hurting the past 2 hours and hope I don't have food poisoning like others that came here. I would recommend staying away
(1)Darren C.
I'm always in the search for food and I happened to be in the area to visit my girlfriend. We found this place and tried it out. As soon as we walked in, we were happily helped by our server. She explained the menu and pricing to us, she was very informative, quick and always kept a smile on her face which was awesome! Her name was Kharen and the other workers were awesome too! The food tasted great! We ordered the kimchi base soup and it was superb! . We had an amazing experience at this place, food was great and customer service was awesome! We will most definitely come back again!
(5)Samuel G.
I honestly have been here a few times before... I'd say about 8 months ago. And back then, it had potential to be something at least decent. Today, it's like your typical China Buffet style side dishes (inedible) and their "self-serve-seafood" bar made me hesitate to put it in my dish... it was just on ice cubes in a storage container... Kind of scary and could be contaminated. But anyways, I skipped on that. The service was quite a bit better than my last experience, but everything else has gone waaaay down hill. Someone here said it's more like a 8.99 hot pot buffet, but I would like to add it's closer to a 5.99. The meat was fatty and disgusting. I literally almost gagged when I ate the shiitake mushrooms. The place has a new 'uninviting' feel that makes you want to leave immediately. Since I sat down, grabbed their disgusting eggrolls and flavorless seaweed (it used to be marinated in something, but now it's just chilled or sat out there for quite some time) I might as well endure this pain. Before, the food was decent enough for me to come back. Now I'm not gonna be back for sure. Roof was leaking, right next to me -- they should have sat us down away from the leaking roof! Instead, they just placed a white paint bucket on the ground next to me. And it's no longer AJ Hot Point hot pot, but just Hot Point. Bill came out to be 53 bucks because of drinks and the "3.95" soup base charge. save your money and go to Jazz Cat or Boiling Point. It's not all you can eat, but at least you can eat something!
(1)April C.
While we were eating we decided to order another order and spinach and received a piece if lettuce with a HUGE chunk of dirt left on the leaf! Totally ruined our appetite! We told the waitress and they were super friendly about it but we still will not be returning to this place! GROSS!
(1)Jimmy H.
Came here because my gf and I wanted to try this place for a while, I was a little hesitant about trying this place because of the low ratings. Here is my experience... The hot food bar looked like it was full of left overs... There wasn't any fried rice left so I asked if they were making more and they said there was no more... This was at like 8..? Somewhere around there and they close at 11 ! But when I was there it looked like everyone working was busy doing their closing task... Service was not on point.. Asked for a lamb plate in the first order and it did not arrive until we already had 3 beef and 2 pork plates... Server never Checked on us either. Even the most basic thing; water... It was not brought to us until I finally asked ! One thing that I did not really like was the fact I saw our server slice raw meat ! And wasn't even wearing gloves or washes her hands ! I trully believe that if u are a server that is the one job u need to focus on and not cut meat which I am pretty sure it's the kitchen's job... Maybe she wanted to help the kitchen but at least put on gloves ! Or wash ur hands before touching other stuff that ur handing to us customers! Onto the food... Food was alright nothing special, like I said the hot food bar was under stock and the other items were okay. None of the items in the cold bar looked fresh at all, their vegetables looked alright. Over this place was not really worth 19.99 plus 3.99 soup...
(2)kiki l.
Expendsive for this quality of food! AYCE hotpot $23.98 per person before taxï¼ï¼ï¼ Lamb and beef are so so~nothing good and worth to eat here!
(1)Ron L.
Nice place to try and say been there, done that.. It was quite interesting at the beginning for a first timer like me. Interesting concept for this place. I was here last year. I felt they had nice spicy sauces to add to your food. I thought the slices of food that they brought for us to put in the bowl seemed like the way a Mongolian restaurant sometimes do their food. However the food was OK, but you have to add spices to give it some flavor. Service wasn't really bad...seemed Ok.
(3)Danny S.
Definitely experienced better hot pot than this restaurant. First they mess up on bringing out the correct broth we had requested and second the service was just slow. (Restaurant was quite empty) The pot that holds the broth does not hold that much, so half the food we put into the pot doesn't even touch the broth lol. We request for more broth to be added and were told (It's full already...) They need better stoves to heat the food faster, better yet just redesign everything! We were seated at a table where only 1 light worked and the other light that hung had no light bulb, which resulted in half the party eating in the dark. Will not be coming back to this location
(2)Jeffrey H.
This place has changed owners... unfortunately. The food was decent but the selection of meats has been reduced from a big list to four items; beef, pork, chicken and lamb. There is also a self-service bar with fresh vegetables and some seafood items. The service was pretty poor and they rarely came by the table. Not like the original owners who were great. For $20 per person and $4.00 extra for each soup base I expect a little service. I'm not going back.
(1)Eileen L.
This young offspring to the Rosemead flagship restaurant may look the same, imitating the same bright red wall paint and trendy decor, but there are apparent, no... glaring, differences between the two franchises. Hits: * Reasonably priced AYCE Hot Pot -- where there was only one menu price and options at the Rosemead A&J, there are now 3 menu tiers, depending on which menu items cater better to your taste (Base Value: $14.99 L / $17.99 D; Special Value Meat Combo: $19.99; Special Value Seafood Combo: $21.99) * Lowered pot set-up, like at Hot Pot Hot Pot -- safer and easier to scoop out our food * The playlist makes me want to pull out my old PS2 and flimsy DDR pad * Sauce bars are always fun * Addicted to gilded cages much? -- but really, I'm not hating, I was pretty obsessed with the table in the human-sized cage.. no comment -.- Lessons Learned: * The service here is atrocious!! I kind of expected that coming in, but at least the servers were surprisingly courteous. I digress... Horrible-service-case-in-point: I asked for rice three times, allowing 5 minute each time to fulfill our order, and we finally got it half an hour later, when we were pretty much done with our meal... even our second round of ingredients came out sooner than our rice... the only excuse they have is that the cook was in a rice paddy picking fresh grains of rice! * The portion sizes are tiny and our orders were messed up all three rounds -- at least it's AYCE and the quality is acceptable * The check-in podium is on the left side when entering, but you will more likely get the servers' attention when you hover to the right of the wall partition upon entering * The Satay sauce is so watered down it's almost water -- add chili oil * The broth flavors are pretty mild -- guess it doesn't make a difference which broths you pick, since all the flavors taste the same at the end even after all the ingredients are soaked in * Dock 1 star for not using spell check on the menu -- what a train wreck! * Though there is less herbs in the broth (luckily), I do wish they placed them in teabags so we didn't have to pick around bay leaves and spices of which I don't know the names Franchises can be a good thing, if they uphold, if not exceed, the standards of the original location. Unfortunately, A&J West Covina relapsed notably more than it made progress, so I would rather drive an extra 10 miles out to Rosemead for a better A&J experience.
(2)Jennifer M.
Saw a Groupon deal and thought why not give it a try . Servers are friendly so I feel bad giving this place a bad review but...... we ordered hot and spicy for soup base...it was so greasy! I've never seen broth that oily. The beef was frozen and it kind of tasted like it. When I asked for a spoon they told me they were in the dish washer! I couldn't believe it I wanted to laugh. Server did bring one to our table sometime later. They forgot the mushrooms and getting a refill close to impossible. Oh and one of them sprayed Febreze around the restaurant while we were eating....couldn't believe that either. Needless to say I wont be coming back.
(1)Annie H.
My sister told me she liked the one in Rosemead, so I decided to try it when it first opened. I think AYCE was $20 for the lowest tier - maybe because we got the cheapest one, the quality of the meat wasn't good? The people here are friendly, but the food was just meh. If you want to eat ayce and don't care about quality, this is the place for you. I've had much better hotpot/shabu. I don't think I'll be coming back unless my friends really want to go.
(2)Jolene R.
Update: 1:30am the same night, woke up vomiting from the food! This place gave me food poisoning!! Stay away from here!!! Worst hot pot experience ever. Very dirty restaurant. When I walked in, 3 tables were left dirty with food all over the floor. I had to ask three times for them to please sweep the floor under me because I kept stepping on food and slipping. Their "hot food section" was filled with old fried food that had been sitting out. I had told the waitress that we had never been here and she did not tell us how it worked. We had to ask twice for water. There were no clean dishes. The burner turned off half way trough our meal leaving my soup cold and my squash uncooked. The servers were just standing around doing nothing while the place was a mess. I'm over it. This place is awful! Do not come here!!!
(1)Debby L.
Talk about unfair reviews! This place has excellent customer service and patient, friendly staff. Not that many selections, but you get what you paid for. However, the sauces are amazing and I get to order my favorite items, imitation crab meat and shrimp balls. We ordered the option A all you can eat. Service was quick and attentive. They kept coming back asking if we needed more soup. All in all, a good experience. Back to eating now.
(5)Mary T.
This place is one of the best all you can eat hot pot place I have ever tried. This place changed my mind of how AYCE hot pots are not good. I like how they have different AYCE options for people to choose from. My family and I got the B menu and got the spicy broth and Mongolian broth with it. They have a little station in the back to get sauces and some fruits. I like the satay sauce, and I tried mixing some sauces on my own too. I added soy sauce, garlic, spicy bean sauce, and cilantro and it was good with the meats. I'd say just go for the A menu if you are on a budget because the only difference between the A & B menus is that the B has shrimp and other types of meatballs. The food seems pretty fresh and the servers are nice. The only problem I had was some of the orders we placed never came even when we marked it for them. We waited and waited, and ended up asking the server for one of orders that didn't come. If you pay with cash you get $2 off or soda with free refills! It is a great deal and perfect for the cold weather!
(4)Taffy K.
I recommend trying the healthy soup base if you're unsure of what to order. I dont recommend the spicy one with chilis and chili oils. It literally feels kike you're eating straight up oil. The food bar isn't too shabby. Theres a good amount of different foods you can put jn your hot pot! One thing I find uncomfortable are the tables. I always seem to hit my knee on the stove top thing.
(4)Cari T.
I came here because of the living social deal, and the experience was just ok. Food: The quality was ok. The fatty beef was really fatty and the lamb was not very good quality meat. It's not bad either, but just not great. All of their "balls" tasted artificial with no fresh ingredients. The fish was good, and all the veggies were fresh. Their "frozen tofu" was great. We tried the curry broth and the house special broth and felt both were not flavorful enough. Too watery. The drinks were very generously sized though. Service: The servers were nice, but slow. I think they are just under-staffed. We had to consistently wave them down when we needed something. And it takes a while for the food you ordered to get to the table so don't come starving! Overall, unless I'm in the area and I absolutely have to have all you can eat hot pot, I probably won't return. The quality of the food just isn't there for me to want to come, no matter how great of a deal it is. And at $20/person, it's not even that great of a deal. This place has such great potential, I really hope they'll improve their food and hire more staff soon!
(3)Suzane C.
Just Average Juicy The idea is nice for an AYCE shabu shabu. There are 2 different prices for the different meals. However, the service is very slow, the soups are average, and the food is average. Got the spicy soup which was super spicy and just not the best. The herbal soup gave a coating in your mouth, seems like they put too much herbs or something so it didn't taste good at all. The meat wasn't premium and the cut made it taste very hard and harsh to eat. It's decent for AYCE but It was dry and thick. The seafood items were pretty good especially the soft shell crab and the mussels. The japanese sweet potatoes were good and the pork bung (intestine) was awesome. All the other items were very good. One really bad thing about this place is that they give you different pen colors to state the different times that you put in your order. However, there are times when they just miss the items you ordered since the pens are so close in color. First time is black, then it's blue, then it's a pencil. There were a few times that they just didn't even deliver our order since they didn't see it because it's dark and the colors are too close to each other. The efficiency of this place is just not all there. The service is super super slow, you have to put in your order at least 10 minutes before it comes and sometimes missing some items, then it will take another 10 minutes. The water takes forever and even getting the check. I believe we asked for water, the check, and rice a few different times and it was forgotten at all times and we had to ask 2-3 times. There was a time we just went to the counter to put our own water since we knew we would never get it. Also, the place ran out of rice. Who runs out of rice at an asian restaurant? It's unheard of!! Luckily, we already had our first bowl and was just ordering it for kicks. But I saw some people who just came in and their faces turned sad when they were told there wasn't any rice. The place looks gorgeous!! Beautifully designed. But I don't think I will be back unless they have a good coupon again. It's not worth it to pay so much for average shabu. I'd rather go to AYCE korean bbq for the same price.
(3)Livingston W.
Very good food. Sauce needs a little work. After reading the recent negative reviews of a couple of cheapskates and dolts, I tried to talk my wife out of going. Anyway, it was really great across the board. Good service, good portions, good flavor. Definitely good value. We will be back. Glad that my wife stuck to her guns
(4)Jasmine W.
Good try! A friendly reminder: pls note that the portion will be big, don't waste if u can't finish.
(5)Ryan E.
Charged me $9 for a 4 yr old that ate half a bowl of rice. Way over priced and the food was average at best.
(1)dbug z.
I've been wanting to try this place since it's new and close to my house. I took my mom in for lunch. All you can eat is $14.99, a little pricey but if the food is good, then I'm okay with it. We had a choice of two different broths and we got the House Broth and Kim chi Broth. The house broth was pretty good and Kim chi was just okay. Vegetables were fresh and came in a large bowl. It did take a while for our meat to arrive. I did ask the waiter and I guess he forgot which I really don't blame him. He was the only one there working. Not a fan of the sliced beef, it was tough and not sure what cut it was but the sliced pork was really tender. I always prefer beef than pork but I pretty much ate all my mom's pork portion. The sauce bar was kind of messy and not sure which sauce I was getting and I didn't see any Ponzu but then again, this is Chinese hot pot not Shabu Shabu. I will have to sneak in my own Ponzu next time when I come. All in all, I would come again and really look at their menu next time but not sure if I can stand the black and red interior colors.... LOL
(3)Rookie J.
It's kinda hot today but we were craving hot pot so we decided to check out this place. The reason I didn't give them 5 stars is because the service was very very slow. We waited for almost 25 min to get our first plate of meat. We had to constantly tell the servers to give us water/food (it's AYCE) the entire night - they either don't remember or they're slow. But I liked the food, the broth is tasty and veggies are fresh. The sauce bar has many selections and I think their sauces are very good :)
(3)Laura H.
This place is called Aj Hot Point. It is right off Citrus on the 10. In the plaza near 85, Guppy, a vape store, The Face Shop and many other stores.I only been to this plaza twice. The first time I was going to Guppy and I got lost, the second time I came to this hot pot place because it was all you can eat for lunch. Which was nice. It is a grand opening from what I remember they are having a buy a drink, and you get the 2nd drink for 50% to go though. It is also, all you can eat as mention. I don't know how that worked because my bill was like $30 something bucks. Anyways, I got a herbal soup base, which started off a no taste, but as I started putting my enokis, my fish balls, my shrimp balls, beef brisket, and artificial crab meat (crab meat was in its bag they didn't take it out for you lol ) it started tasting salty. Which was good, but bad because I didn't add more water and um it was super salty. I also got a strawberry yogurt drink their #2 drink on their menu. It was GOOOD! Tasted yummy. and the cup was big too! I didn't get to finish it sadly. The inside was really nice. Like they had cotton purple chairs near the windows which is romantic. I sat on the red chair which was like w,e, I think I'd enjoy myself better if I sat on that purple chair. In the way back they had like a romantic bird cage thingy? You know what I'm talking about? Those cages thingy not a gazebo. but it was really cute. They have a restroom, not sure what's inside because I didn't go use it. The thingy that keeps your soup base hot is electronic like Jazz Cat! The 2 workers were nice and even the smiley chef. The girl seem to have work there for a while or something but she was really chill. Another worker there that was a guy seem like he was scared lol. but yeah it was a good day, and a good meal. At the end of the day I got a really bad food coma which I slept off when I got home. I'd come back if I'm in the area. & TBH sorry I judged I thought this place was going to suck because it wasn't really in an Asian area LOL..~ 4give me! oh & BTW, they do give you a stamp card! :p
(4)Liyin L.
I like this place. It's close to me and if I go at the right time, very reasonable. I usually get their lunchtime all you can eat shabu shabu. which is great! lots of meat all the veggies that you want and 2 choices in soup base for $15. I like the curry base and the tomato base the best. I think this deal is better than the $9 mini pot, because the meat portion and veggie portion is tiny. normal person will probably want to get a couple of extra things a la cart, so in the end you are going to spend about the same as the all you can eat option. So the all you can eat is your biggest bang for your buck. now to some of the issues that other yelpers have brought up. tasteless and bland - traditional shabu shabu is done with water, so yeah I can see where it may happen. The soup bases here help with that a bit, but you should use the dipping sauces from their sauce bar in the back. Shabu shabu usually has a dipping sauce component. there are A LOT of sauce choices in the back, all free, just take your bowl to the bar and fill to your hearts content. (u can use the sauces to favor the soup too if you like) I saw that their servers don't always bring it up so maybe if someone from the restaurant is reading this, they will start bringing it up. soup bases are too salty - if you tell your server you need more soup they will happily put more soup stock into your pot. (works for mini pot as well as the big pots) the refill stock is lightly flavored so it will make your soup base less salty. Salty soup base is bound to happen since your pot is boiling away and evaporating all the water away so the taste of the soup gets more concentrated with time. Rap music? - I think they changed that. at least during lunchtime. what was playing was Chinese pop music when I went. labor issues - not going to touch that, I don't think this is the right venue. food recycling - this type of food/restaurant model does not mesh well with food recycling, since they're not selling a precooked item (like in a bakery). It wouldn't be safe to recycle.
(4)Emi L.
The food is ok, but the service is super slow n mess up. Ordered some food but it never come.
(1)Thida M.
Terrible service! Waited 45 min for the soup to come. Which hotpot place puts the meats and vegetables first but will not give the soup? The worst service I ever had!!
(1)Cindi B.
It was different but really good! A little costly but I had a groupon so it wasn't that expensive. I'm going back for sure!
(4)Vicky C.
Let me just say the customer service was on point!!! The food was absolutely amazing!! I would give them an extra star if possible just for the simple fact that the group we were with was not the easiest to deal with. To top it all off Enzo went out of his way to open the door for us as we left!! I am definitely recommending this place to everyone!
(5)Heather N.
I go here for my BD....my kids like it too. But there is one condition. They did not honor me 10 percent for entired bill. The discount i get was only $2.00 bucks . Oh wells.....wha the heck 2 bucks make me feel like a fools. Even my kids say....OMG
(4)James G.
This place is basically a Shabu Shabu joint...BUT REALLY RED!!! Nowhere close to that gaudy Ketchup place in Hollywood (so glad that place is gone now). This place is ok for me though. I rather go to the one in Diamond Bar or the one ALL THE WAY in Little Tokyo. The options here are amazing. So many to choose from, from beef, pork, seafood and....SPAM!?!?!?!!?? SPAM!!!! HELL YEAH!!! There's also a lot of different veggies and soup combos you can have. I had the Kimchi broth, which was amazing and great with some extra chili sauce, garlic, and sesame oil. Service was a plus to me. Now...on to the bad part. I've never been a fan of rap. Don't hate me for that. But this place is literally the only hot pot/Shabu Shabu joint that has rap in it for background music...and they blast it. I'm ok with it, but even that volume can get annoying. Next...the red...THE RED!!! So much red in the restaurant that it's distracting. Also, NO PONZU SAUCE!!!!!!!! WHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG WHY!!!!!!!!! Even the waitress, who was chinese by the way, did NOT have a clue to what ponzu sauce was. They had a lot of different sauces there to dip your meat in like peanut sauce, a fish? sauce, chili bean sauce (AMAZING!!!), and a bead curd sauce....bleh....Sorry, that's one star gone for not even having, lest knowing, what ponzu sauce is. The food is four stars, but the place itself isn't 4 star material. This place is good for a small kick back, but can be confusing for first timers.
(3)Alex W.
Good service, place is quiet and big, probably still new and people doesn't know about it. More attention and word of mouth needed. Pass it on! Pay cash, each person in party gets a free soda. Check in to get 10% off. AYE
(5)Bryan L.
The service was great. The food was ok. The veggie that they gave us was old and willted.
(3)Darleen.dimple P.
thought we'd try this place since my aunt had been raving about it. Didn't know it was all you can eat, which was a bit pricey. The soup I got was the curry it was good, but the hot and spicy... even the medium was WAY to spicy. Ordered the beef brisket, there was 2 kinds of meat we got, the one I got was so tough. I only could tolerate eating 2 pieces of meat. they didn't bring us rice as we requested, took them about 30min when we we're halfway done to check on us.. Then we asked for more meat.. NEVER CAME! so much for AYCE!! while all the other servers were running around one server was chitchatting it up with 2 guys and she spent about 15min with them laughing.. (POOR SERVICE) when we we're waiting for our meat. LONG story SHORT.. not even worth the soup or the meat, or the price. go somewhere else!!! like guppy house next door!!
(1)Francis C.
I've been wanting to write up a review of this place for a couple months but have just gotten around to it. It's a bit sad to me that the first review I'm writing on Yelp is on such a low note and as I hate being such a downer, I'll try to keep this short. To say I was excited when I saw that a hot pot joint was opening up in my little corner of the world, would have been an understatement. I was there to check it out the first week they opened and what a great first experience. The meat was fresh and options were plenty. They have an a la carte option as well as an all you can eat option. For most people, AYCE is the way to go. Plenty of options on all three menus and you'll fill yourself up for around 20 bucks. The waitstaff, though at the time very inexperienced, were all very friendly and helpful. If i were rating it on this visit alone, I would have given it 4 stars. Hey, I totally enjoyed it and I couldn't wait to go back. So I did. I went back with friends, I went with my girlfriend, I went with my family... and it got worse and worse with each visit. The meat didn't look as fresh as before and it tasted the way it looked. The vegetables looked more pale and limp. The staff, although still friendly, was still very untrained and their incompetence was starting to annoy me: I can order one dish three times from different people and when 20 minutes later, it had still not shown up, none of the staff would know what happened to it (this situation, by the way, has occurred multiple times here). The last two visits, the sauce bar was half empty. The last visit, however, really took the cake. I went with my sister and girlfriend. We ordered and sat there chatting while the soup was heating up and the vegetables arrived. My girlfriend suddenly went quiet and a few seconds later pointed to the vegetable plate and asked, "Umm... what is this?" We looked over to where she pointed and there nestled (literally) snug as a bug between some cabbage and spinach was a darling little cockroach waving at us. Aww... cute right? No, not really. Needless to say, we lost a good portion of our appetite at that point. We called a waitress over and after meeting our new friend, she said a quick sorry and took the plate away only to bring another plate (at least I'm hoping it wasn't the same one) back a few minutes later. Unfortunately, we weren't really much in the mood for veggies anymore. So this is usually the part of the story where the manager sweeps in to apologize and do some damage control right? Well the good news is that he was conveniently close, chilling just 10 feet away from us the whole time we were there. The bad news is that he didn't really do anything about it. Instead, he sent the poor inexperienced waitress to whisper a quick sorry and to let us know that the soda's were on the house. I can't help to laugh a little about it even now as I write this. Seriously... soda? You can see in the waitress' countenance how ridiculous she felt that offer was as well. There's obviously a real lack of loyalty there as other members of the waitstaff also came by to whisper and ask what happened and gossip with us. Friends that know me will tell you that I'm a very forgiving person. People make mistakes, whether intentional at the time or not. Restaurants will do the same. It's going to happen. The thing that upsets me is when restaurants can't own up to their mistakes and make things right. I can't tell you if the cockroach was from the kitchen or from wherever the food came from, but you either have an infested kitchen or you didn't clean the food well (in which case, your kitchen will soon be infested). Either way, man up! Own up to your mistake. If you're the owner (or manager), come apologize and make things right with your customer! And then, take whatever measures you can to ensure your business isn't infested with anything that's going to make people sick. At the end, it's the management's attitude that really turned me off even more than seeing the cockroach. You took a guy who patronized your business at least 6 times in the first 2 months it opened and turned him into someone who has refused to return and hasn't stepped foot in it for months since. My conundrum now is what to do with a LivingSocial coupon for this place that a friend recently bought for me, not knowing I had sworn it off. Note: I haven't visited this restaurant in the past few months since this incident, so I don't know if things have improved since then, but I sincerely hope it has for the sake of the people who still eat there. That is all!
(1)Daniel T.
Decent food, friendly service. They didn't have everything on the list, but that was ok; still have enough selection to keep us entertained.
(4)Natalie T.
Service is nice. Almost the best AYCE hot pot in the area. Save your tummy before coming here (Y)
(4)Brittany C.
I bought a living social deal to try this place. The food is good. But there wasn't any ponzu sauce :( they have all the sauces including soy sauce at a sauce bar that is a self serve. So you have to get it yourself. The all you can eat is a good price at 14.99. They have a large variety of foods. The only downside is that the service is pretty bad. I went around 1 and there were hardly any people seated. The wait staff still took a long time to bring drinks and rarely checked to see if we needed anything. When we asked for more broth, it looked like it was just boiled water that they poured into our pot. The food was good, but the service is poor. So I suggest going during a time that is not busy.
(4)Tony M.
Fantastic hot pot. Great sauce bar were the sauces aren't watered down. Tasty broth got the very spicy sichuan and herbal Mongolian. Great service too attentive and polite a teal team effort.
(5)Jelyn C.
The all you can eat deal was pretty exciting and it was buy one get one free, which made me even more interested in trying it out. It was my first time here and the waitress was really nice and attentive. The spicy soup we got was also really strong and they gave a lot at a time, so we got full pretty fast.
(4)Kevin C.
this place is terrible! i went about 2 weeks ago... i was with my mother and sister. me and my sis wanted to get the ayce then of course my mom can not eat much so she just wanted to get the single order that was like 10 bucks... and they would not let us! they said that we all need to get ayce or no one can get it. this is so dumb to me another thing... if you sit at a table even if theres 3 or 4 of yal... you have to share your soup! this is outrageous, each person likes to have their own soups of course. each person has to season it and only put the things they eat. this just makes no sense to me... every shabu place ive been to... you get your own bowl so you can make it just the way each person wants it. this place has lots of problems... the tables are unpractical... chairs uncomfortable... the interior is down right weird with bird cages and black n red everywhere... just really fobby. the workers here r the only bright point. no problems with service at all but it is expensive and the sauce bar is filled with bad sauces. i hope the owner sees this and makes changes.. and lastly this place is soooo expensive... only way its a value if they do that living social thing again... so dont come here til they do that again
(1)Ernestine F.
The food is good, but the service is horrible! I agree with the other review: hire more help! It's Friday night, after work...so we are a little hungry. We waited 30 minutes at least to get our orders in. And now our pot has been empty for yet another 30 minutes...we're still waiting, we're still hungry. It's not a good sign if we're planning to grab a bite at the bakery next door after we get out of here. Our pot has now dried out as a result of the refill that still has not happened. Are we sitting at the time out table? As I write this, we are planning to leave. Ok, spoke to the manager, we are out!
(1)Andy T.
Not as crowded as the Rosemead location. Will be back again this month.
(5)Erica Y.
This place is soooo Yummy. My favorite is the Kimchi soup and Hot and Spicy (mild) soup. Lorenzo is an awesome, entertaining waiter that helped is order. Will definitely come again.
(4)Norri L.
Food was wonderful. Service was pretty good for a hot pot place. I would go again. I like the flounder.
(4)Chris R.
This hot pot place is great! The meat quality is awesome, the broths are very flavorful and the price is very decent for all you can eat. I recommend the house special soup if you like mild and flavorful and the special hit and spicy if you like spicy food (don't slurp though! The chili oil will go down the wrong pipe!). The B combo is a good mix of quality and affordability. Our waitress, Lorena, was very friendly and helpful with any questions. I would gladly come back again and again.
(5)Anh C.
Food is delicious but the service was just terrible. Slow and disorganized. Twice we have been given the wrong order and then some were never put in. Besides that the food tasted excellent.
(2)Matthew W.
A very nice hot pot place. All you can eat. Plaza is also nice too. Pricing was ok. But you get 2 dollars off on cash payment. The only reason I gave 4 stars was that soup was only ok. Was expecting better soup flavor.
(4)Patrick H.
Amazing food and great service for a price that is super affordable. The staff is very attentive and will continuously provide you with numerous plates of whatever that you want. Will definitely be coming back here to get even fatter than I already am.
(5)Rex R.
This place is solid! If you're looking for a shabu2 fix on a budget, this is it.
(5)Brian A.
Great food, great service and excellent ambiance. I had a great time here and I have to say one of the best hot pots I have ever had. All you can eat hot pot is an amazing idea! I will definitely be back!
(5)Miranda C.
Living so close to this restaurant and seeing how new it was I was very excited to try it for the first time. Living walking distance to the restaurant my boyfriend and I decided to walk there for dinner. It was 10:40 and online and in yelp it said they were open until 1 am Saturday. We showed up to the restaurant and they were closed and wouldn't let anyone in. 11pm and 1 am are HUGE DIFFERENCES IN CLOSING TIMES. For us to walk there and it being closed was ridiculous. We had to end up going to oto-oto next door. We will definitely be returning customers to oto-oto and not to hot point hot pot.
(1)Sooz U.
Didn't like it. Left a bad taste in my mouth. Food wasn't well presented. Service was ehh and I didn't drink my water bc I saw stuff floating in it. Decor is terrible. Too much red for my liking.
(2)Cecilia L.
I normally don't write reviews, but this place did surprise me with the awful service. There's not many guests in the restaurant by the time we arrived, but we had sit for 10 min before a waitress came to us. After we ordered, we just sat for another 15 min, no plates, no cups, no napkins. After I asked for napkins from a waiter twice, he gave me a stack, enough for 10 ppl while we had only 3 and gave me the look like " happy now?" We asked for an egg, it arrived in 20 min. We asked for our menu, they gave us another table's. Food is ok, but, Gosh, seriously I'm not coming back again, ever!
(2)Willie C.
10/23/13 - went there earlier for lunch...we arrived when there were only a few people in there. price was $14.00 per person. there were 4 of us - so we ordered 2 different types of soup base. 1st issue - was with the split pot, the soup was so little, that we had to keep asking for some more soup base. 2nd issue - the food came, we waited for about 20minutes for the drinks and rice that we ordered at the same time...they forgot about it, we had to follow up twice. more people came and the restaurant was about 80% full capacity. 3rd issue - with only 2 waiters, service was horrible and we kept hearing them apologize. a couple went to the front and paid there cuz they were waiting too long at the table. Note: the waiters also make the drinks like teas, smoothies, etc. 4th issue - after we finished everything we had, we asked for more... took about 30minutes to bring the new meat, vegetables, etc. my dad literally fell asleep waiting. we waited too long that the pot was starting to burn food at the bottom. 5th issue - our pot was not replaced, so we sucked it up and cooked while there were burnt food at the bottom of the pot. food ended up having a burnt after taste. 6th issue - sister was ordering tea for take out....the waiter back and forth 3 times cuz whatever my sister was ordering they didn't have stock. with a huge menu, they seem to be lacking supplies on majority of them. overall....service sucked and only deserved $3 tip (it's what i only gave). food was your average. note: they only give you "basic" additional soup base when you are running low, not the soup base FLAVOR that you ordered in the beginning. this place is only good for 1-2 people, any more than that you will get bad experience like this. edit: i forgot to say that the waiter asked me to turn off the stove....like i'm going to shove my hand in a small hole between a boiling pot and the table....
(1)Harrison W.
Nice decoration. Decent food and reasonable price.
(5)Laura Z.
The food was good, especially the soups. BUT, the Chinese waitress are sssooooo slow, and always forgot what I ordered. I recommend the other A&J at valley blvd. the service is good!
(2)Elisa R.
This is the same place as the other listing but different street address (Valley) but its just one place and I still think its horrible! Terrible service!!!! I wouldn't even give it a one star but I had to rate it! Curly hair young waitress was super rude and was bother that we didn't know much about the menu since it was our first time but no one was friendly and it seemed like they wanted us out of there. So before finishing ordering we left. If the service was terrible, who knows what kind of food they will bring out. This place should be closed ASAP!!!
(1)Kimmy T.
I have no complaints here. Server was very friendly and came around a lot to check on us. The soup base was good. There was a good selection of sauces at the sauce bar and it didn't look old or like too much double dipping was going on. Bubble black tea was traditional old school and shaken well.
(4)David T.
Pretty good ayce hot Pot. Clean restaurant, nice variety with the 19.99 combo and 10% off with a yelp review! Good sauce options and its comparable to little sheep.
(4)Peter P.
The waitress where very nice. But the manager who is the long hair, who is also a cook was not willing to change the TV station from ESPN to NFL playoff game on NBC. I did not understand why he was so lazy to change the channel. There was no one watch the TV and they had multiple TV with at least different two channel. What kind of Chinese restaurant, which has TV does not play have a NFL playoff game on. The food was good and the price was okay. I bought a groupon coupon .
(3)Christian R.
*** don't believe any 5 star reviews of this place. Anyone with a mouth and a brain will tell you not one thing about this place is 5 star worthy. They actually give you a 10 percent discount if you show them your review. Not for a check in but an actual review. I was considering writing a review to show the waitress but once my satisfaction hit rock bottom at the end of the meal I didn't have the time to write this review and show it to the waitress. If she saw what I'm about to write it would just be awkward. Also was she expecting reviewers to write a one sentence review that was made up? (which all these 5 star reviews are made of hint hint) Here we go: The decor is dumb. Random pictures you'd get for an 11 year old girl at ikea. But the place is clean! That's good. Sitting down we get one large menu. I noticed that All You Can Eat is 14.99 during lunch hours (Noon to 4 PM). We got there at 3 so I was happy I wasn't going to pay the regular 17.99. One of the first things the waitress said to us was that 14.99 AYCE was only for the week days. We went on Saturday. Nothing on the menu told us that so thank god she told us before we got our bill. But I was still a little upset. Like most Asian AYCE places the menu is split in three with each menu adding a few more items but at a higher cost. I felt that the more expensive menus weren't worth the extra price for the few new items. We settled with the smaller menu. But before we decided anything the waitress had to explain the menu. This was my first time to a hot pot so I was listening carefully. She gave a speech longer than this review. I got what she said but maybe for other people they'd be completely lost. She also explained there is set items you can get for cheaper and smaller size if you didn't want AYCE. Everyone must get all you can which is understandable. Before she left she told us its only one card per table. Yeah hello these kinds of places are usually with groups or individuals who want to pay separate. She told us cards can only be used for purchase of 20 dollars or more. We finally figured out who's gonna pay for who and the waitress still looked confused. If only we could split four ways it would have been much easier. BONUS: free soda when paying with cash. We were allowed two kinds of broth and any sides. We got the healthy broth (tasted eh) and the Kim chi? (Very good!) and a bunch of sides. For the love of god stay away from anything in ball form. That includes beef ball and shrimp ball. It's probably the left over cuts that fell on the factory floor in ball form. The first round of beef was great. Second round came with a ton of fat and didn't taste to good. Pork belly had hard pieces in it. You had to swallow that down. You couldn't chew it. We never received tongs to move the beef so we used our chop sticks. So if we die its their fault. We got imitation crab. I wasn't expecting much but it actually came in the plastic wrapper. That was strange. There drink menu had more drinks on it then all of their food items. My friends decided to get lavender milk tea and caramel milk tea. The waitress asked if they wanted that with black tea or green tea. Since non of us have ever been asked that question when ordering milk tea we asked the waitress what she prefers. She said green tea. Wrong choice my friend. Neither of my friends liked their drink. Neither did I. They were kind enough to let them get a free drink of something else but they still charged us for the drink they took back. During our time eating we never got asked if we wanted more sides. We got enough water though. Some dude I guess the manager asked if we wanted more broth. Our broth was super low and basically burning. We expected him to change it because it looked like crap with bubbling burning smell and our left over bits and pieces from the sides. But instead he came and just poured water into it. Hm I'm no cook but wouldn't that water it down? Because that's what it tasted like from then on. The staff was slow like other reviews say. They would walk by once in awhile but never asked if we wanted anything. Our waitress had to ask her manager about different things multiple times about questions or things we requested. We also asked her recommendation for a few things and it seemed like she never had the time or was never given the time to try most of the menu. I wasn't satisfied with my experience, the food, the menu selection, the drinks, and the staff.
(1)Chris L.
Just dropped in tonight and it's a nice place. Good idea about multiple soup base in a pot which was divided into 4 parts. The meet and shrimp are very fresh. Definitely coming back.
(5)Andrea V.
This is a nice loooing restaurant. Food needs more flavor, service is ok. Waitresses r nice. I hated the cooks, we came in an hour before closing nd the cooks were complaining who let us be seated. The cooks were rushing the waitresses to see if we needed anything else so they could leave. Owner was nice. I will probably never come here again. Jazz cat is wayy better tasting.
(2)Pearl G.
We tried this place tonight. At one point we were the only ones there. Not so good!! the hot pot soup base was tasteless. I had the tomato base, I asked for a soup with NO PORK. Guess what spam has PORK in it for the server that doesn't know this. Would I go back NO thank you.
(1)Missile S.
Place is clean, service was excellent. Meats were good and fresh, as were their vegetables. Came here for lunch and got more than I expected. I was supposed to do somethangs after lunch, but went home and napped from a food coma. Really recommend this place.
(4)Adele L.
First: an A rating from the Health Department! All uncooked items appeared fresh and healthy when delivered to the table. Definitely not for typical American children and not for neophytes; if you aren't knowledgeable about this style of eating, and you aren't an adventurous diner, you will be very displeased. You need to know how to order to avoid waste, and some foods need longer to cook, so you need to be an experienced cook yourself. Plus you have to select items in advance, without knowing their portion size. Newbies should order a minipot and observe other diners for a future visit (unless they are already good cooks in their own kitchens). Minipots aren't AYCE, but they are less expensive. Notes: Green onions are at a side bar. Don't allow yourself to be seated next to the kitchen, it's too loud. Check your chair leg, some chairs, after only a few weeks of business, have lost one or more nylon feet, so you'll end up scraping the lovely floor tiles as you position yourself at the table. Don't go here if you have an expensive hairdo, the steam from your table is abundant. It's easy to burn items at the bottom of the soup tureen while you talk. Then you get to smell this and appear foolish to neighboring diners. Almost all soup bases are spicy, again only a problem if you're dining with a picky eater. Garlic cloves in soup base can be mistaken for a piece of potato, beware. Our servers were wonderful even if they were oblivious to the fact that Americans expect water served at the table to be ice cold. This might be an excellent example of this style of dining, but I think the restaurant is doomed. There aren't enough customers in the area who want to spend $15 on a lunch you have to cook yourself.
(3)Dave M.
Awesome hot pot. Meat was very tender and delicious. And, the atmosphere was very hip!
(5)Michael P.
If you're planning on a feast think again... if you don't meet their "demographic" expect towait and see many people being served before you. If they even remember you're there, or notice you haven't left (because you have the patience of a mountain or you're incapable of rational thought) they may grace you with the base of your soup. Terrible seating, service, and concept. This establishment needs to rethink their business plan and service before they become a sinking ship....
(1)Lisa L.
The worst restaurant experience we ever had. Never go here with groupon, in fact just save yourself headache, and don't come here at all. Most other yelpers failed to mention the reason the service is bad is because of the manager guy with the longish hair, who only speaks mandarin, or very bad English! I thought he was that way bc we don't speak mandarin, though we are Chinese. But seeing the other bad reviews, could be just he's a bad owner/manager. Even if he got good waitresses, which the time we went were non Asian nice servers, but he overruled anything they tried to do to be helpful. He doesn't understand how to do business in America. He wouldn't let us sit together because we had two groupons, then when we sat near each other, but were going to pay on separate checks, he told our servers to add on extra soup price even though we didn't share a soup. Our friends even paid and left before us! But just because we sat near them he added more for the soup, which made no sense. Besides the hateful man, they ran out of the main sate sauce, and took about 20 minutes to make a new batch. Now I read the other review about them recycling customers soup, and not washing the vegetables - an outrage! Everyone, please don't spend your hard earned money here!
(1)Tiffany C.
It's not that bad, lol.
(3)Stephanie H.
This place is hip inside with black and red decor. However, this hot pot joint is overpriced and not delicious at all. Expect to pay around $20 for AYCE dinner. The broth had so much seasoning in it I felt like I was downing a whole pot of salt. Sauces were horrible. Sorry, I'm not sorry. Boiling point is forever my #1 hot pot spot.
(1)Andrea Q.
Took me a while to write a review for this place but here it is.. This place is a circus! And by that, I mean it's crazy and dangerous. Came here with the family and ordered the mini pots. They were tasty and everything was clean and healthy (got a bit dizzy from all the healthiness this little soup packed). Great food and a lot of fun to make if you have the patience for it. They were fairly new when I came in and didn't accept EBT at the time, cash only. The little soups said that they came with a drink, we thought it was a good deal and asked for that little special. The owner said that it was a mistake on the menu but kindly gave us the drinks since we "unfortunately had to pay in cash" and apologized for the inconvenience. When they brought the soups, it was filled up to the brim (not that I'm complaining) BUT there was no room to add the noodles and the veggies AND the meat because it would overflow. Bigger sized bowl maybe? On top of that, the soup started to bubble and splattered all over us. OUCH. Then, the waiters had to constantly keep changing the "fire jelly" (don't know what it's called) because it was "old and dried out". Then the fire kept going out so we had to bug the waiters to keep lighting it back up. Once, the waiter lit up my brother's "fire jelly" pot and these huge flames started to burst out and he grabbed the pot and started to wave the pot around in the air to try to put it out and some of the "fire jelly" flew out onto the floor. Now there was burning "fire jelly" on the floor!! We couldn't help but laugh as the poor waiter got a bit frantic. The food is great, don't get me wrong, but I am NEVER going to get the teeny tiny pot ever again. I suggest everyone just stick to the big pot with the electric stove -__-
(4)Miriam T.
Came here for the buy one get one free dinner ayce deal. Opt for the seafood option for $21.99 and was looking forward to the lobsters. Waitress didn't tell us there was no lobster until after we decided. I check the lobsters but they didnt bring it out. I only found out that they don't have it after I went up to the front to get another paper to order more. I was there at the beginning of dinner, so there shouldn't be any excuse for being out. It is all you can eat but the portions they bring out are pretty small. The soup choices were good. 2 type is part of the deal, if you want to split the soup more than 2 way then there is an extra charge. The beef was pretty fat but I guess some people like them like that. For regular price I am not sure if I would come, but for the special it was worth it other than the lobster incident. Service was good. All the girls were nice and came to check on us every now and then. The self serve area had different selections of sauces. They even brought out some shrimp chips and sliced pineapple. I think the pineapple was for our curry sauce because it tasted like it had been sliced and sitting there for a long time even thought they just brought it out.
(3)William L.
Only try this place if you want to start flipping tables. Worst service ever. Servers are lost including the manager. Ended up walking out because the food took so long to come. Workers see you calling/waving at them but will ignore you.
(1)Elaine H.
I love hot pot, and I was eyeing to trying this place! I came on a late Monday night. This place has fantastic service (partially because it was nearly empty). The staff is friendly, and open to help! My friend and I got Combo A with Mongolian Herbal Soup and Japanese Coconut Curry Soup. The broths were all right, and I did not find it as flavorful. Despite having so much herb in the Mongolian broth, it did not really resonate as well as it should. The Japanese Coconut curry did not have much coconut in it, so all I tasted was curry powder. Combo A had a good selection of side dishes. The meat and veggies were fresh. The noodles had a nice texture, and tasted great! I really enjoyed the fish. However, the rice was hard and dry. Also, the sesame sauce was extremely watered down with some sesame paste chunks on the bottom (not really well-mixed). Despite some negatives, I would still come back. If you are in the area, and want something comforting, I recommend checking this place out. :)
(4)Melanie C.
Service was very good. The servers were very attentitive and always checking up. Its a very good pricing for a ayce shabu place. They have a variety of choices on the menu you can choose from. The meat was horrible. I couldnt tell the difference between the chicken beef or pork. Only thing set apart was the spam. The meat was extremely cheap. The sauce tasted like it was sitting outside for way too long. The broth was very good tho. Nothing to complain about. The curry broth was perfect and not too thick. I gave this place a two star only because the meat was really low quality.
(2)Amy L.
I came here with my family during their grand opening because they had a deal for buy two mini hot pots and get one free. Normally, if you purchase a mini hot pot deal, you choose your own soup base, whether you want rice or bean curd (type of noodle), and you get a free drink. But just a heads up- you have to get your own drink if you are using the coupon deal! My family and I each ordered a mini hot pot. Two of us got the original house special and one of us got the tomato soup base. 1. Food: The portion for the mini hot pot was alright. The meat portion was tiny. At least they still gave you assorted vegetables, your choice of rice/bean curd (you can get either thin noodles or thick noodles), and whatever else your meal combo comes with. With the 3 mini hot pots, we ordered an extra side of meat (this was given in bigger portion so that was good), some chopped up taros, and sweet yams. It was enough to fill us because we don't eat a lot to begin with. The price for the mini hot pot was $9.99 so I guess you get what you paid for! If you are someone that needs more to be full, you probably have to get their all you can eat deals (price varies, depending on lunch/dinner and what kind of combo you ordered). 2. Customer service: I like how the place hired people of different races. Also, they taught their workers to speak some phrases in Mandarin. So even though they may not speak the language, at least they know how to greet you with "welcome" in Chinese and "come again" when people are leaving. But I guess one downside is that people might think they speak Chinese when they don't. Overall, the workers were all very helpful and friendly. However, there were 2 things that irked me: 1) When the manager came over to refill my water, she missed and spilled a bunch onto the table next to us. Instead of grabbing some towels to clean up the mess, she just used the paper napkin on the table to wipe down the water ONCE. She didn't even wipe off majority of the water and she just left to go serve someone else. I felt bad for people who had to sit there after. 2) I literally just got the fire started again to cook my food when the same manager came over to our table to try to "lower the fire" because apparently it was too high. However, I still had a lot of food that needed to be cooked and she didn't seem like she knew what she was doing. Instead of covering the fire a little with the cap, she covered the whole thing and then just left. I don't know if she knew but she pretty much killed the entire fire and I had to flag down another waiter to have them start the fire, again. 3. Atmosphere: The music was on way too loud. I could barely communicate with the waiters, let along my family. We ended up having to yell over the music a lot of times. Also, the music choice seemed a bit out of place. They were playing EDM/clubbing music while we're eating at an Asian hot pot place filled with families. I'll give this place another try some other time. But there are also plenty of hot pot places that are even better and cleaner.
(2)Frank L.
Quality of meat is fine vegetables fine ordering kinda confusing, however I do like the fact it's all you can eat, and you can pick what YOU want so no wasted food. Staff a bit and new and young but once they get comfortable with what they are doing they'll be great service wasn't bad. Just new. FYI the more you order the more your quality of meat goes down. ;)
(3)Jodie W.
Second time coming to this spot for hot pot. Plentiful sauces, vegetables, and fresh meats to choose from. Service is friendly with a quiet environment. I loved the soup bases available to choose from. Whether if its mild, healthy soup or spicy you will find the perfect soup base for your eating experience. By the way, they also have milk tea drinks!
(5)Jonathan Y.
DO NOT EAT HERE!! Worst restaurant I have ever been to. Terrible service, gave us the wrong food and is ran by crooks. The people who run and own this establishment want to make easy money while taking advantage of customers. There is another Yelp page of this business (made by accident I believe) that also share the same points of others and I. In addition those reviewers claim that they tried to work at A&J Hot Point and were taken advantage of. Please take the time to read this page and the one below to see how truly despicable this restaurant is. yelp.com/biz/a-and-j-hot…
(1)Jonathan C.
Music was way too loud and the servers are very green. They just skip the items for your order without telling you if they are even available. The 3 tier price menu is also confusing. Table is very uncomfortable to seat at because the hot plate is built too low into the table. You will need to sit on your side or at the very end of the table.
(3)Adrien O.
Came here for the first time, and dam the vegetarian broth with Shiitake mushrooms, Taro, Spinach, and Black Tea drink. ON POINT! I'm glad they have a vegetarian option :]
(5)Emy S.
Went for dinner on the opening night. Was sat at the big round table right away. Had a party of 6 people but was only given 1 menu. The pot is to small for our party and quite far from our seats. So we decided to move to another long table that had 2 closer stoves. Since it is the first night. All the staff was clueless and confuse. Finally we ordered. Got our broth and meats. Then suddenly the 2 stove stop working. Then we had to move to another. It was just too much hassle. Server was not prepared. Only had 1 pen to reorder for all of us and its so hard to get just another menu. We never got the mushrooms that we ordered. Also some of the other stuff. Server need a lot more work. They seems to not have any steps of service. did not even introduce himself. Makes random jokes that did not make any sense. The food quality is Ok. Broth are very salty compare to any hot pot place. Over all we prob wont be back for a while..
(2)Ann D.
This was my first time eating at AJ, and I had a pretty good experience! There are several broths to choose from. My boyfriend and I tried the hot & spicy and the kimchi soup. Both were very flavorful and delicious! The restaurant is an all you can style for a really good deal (~20 a person) There were plenty of meats and veggies to choose from. Whereas some hot pots are a la carte for everything, this allows you to try much more sides and meat here. The staff is very friendly and attentive. I would definitely recommend this place!
(5)J S.
I must say... I had high hopes for this place. But can you say disaster service?? Me and my boyfriend were standing at the front door for 10 minutes without one person asking us how many or even to just asking us to take a seat and wait. We finally get sat down and then ten minutes later the waitress brings ONE cup of water... Just one.. Then 5 minutes later she brings one more.weird. So were sitting there for 35 minutes waiting for them to take our first order.. We were so fed up with it my boyfriend just walks straight up to the bar to try and order because I was honestly close to just walking out. We finally get our order in, and the food is ok. We put our first pieces of meat in the pot and they were taking a while to cook, and we realized the little stove underneath wasn't even on. It was just one thing after another. The brisket was nothing but fat. We both just ordered brisket and noodles for our first order and they literally brought us a plate to feed one. Typically at ayce places the first plate is the biggest one and then they go to a smaller plate. One tip of advice would be to have water jugs at every table so that can be one last thing the customers have to ask for. And adding a service button would be good too since sometimes the waiters seemed to disappear. It was a good place, but poor management and lack of good quality food is what killed it for me.
(1)L. C.
ok....im sorry to have to write this but THIS WAS TERRIBLE. OMG... worse AYCE hot pot we've ever been to. were there for over an hour before we got our rice. food came out so slow. took almost 30mins to get te broth out. the soda they almost forgot to give ended up being flat...like the syrup ran out...they ran out of items and forgot to tell us after we requested for them thinking they just forgot to give it to us. whenever we kept asking wheres the rice all the waitresses could say was "so sorry it's still cooking..." like how can an asian restaurant run out of rice? husband ended up complaining to mgmnt because he got so fed up. we couldnt even get our 2nd serving of items because that meant we'd have to wait another hour...NEVER AGAIN. highly disappointed because this was mine and my husbands first date night since forever ago since we both have to work all the time and are parents to a high energy toddler. hot pot style should be quick because technically theres no cooking on their end. terrible kitchen system. i personally feel ripped off. we're not coming back. that is all.
(1)donna c.
They are super sweet and attentive, I hate to give them a low review, but the food is really flavorless. I ordered the original soup, but all I got was a pot of salt water. The meat was sliced paper thin, just too thin, it melted into a glob, and I just had to throw the whole glob into the pot. The sauces were pretty bad, the leek sauce was downright nasty. I was hoping they would be good, because it's the closest hot pot place to my home :(
(2)Vanessa D.
First time here! Loved it! great service! will be back! Lorena was our waitress, she was so helpful awsome!!
(5)David C.
i was so excited to come here when i arrived i was give dog food.... very chewy meat i will never come back waste of money.. the only thing thats good is the bean sauce
(1)Eddie C.
Food was bad, service is good, hopefully they will improve, good luck
(2)J B.
Wow I am so happy to find a hot pot place that doesn't require a long trip. The staff was very attentive- food really fresh- no beer on tap but a good bottle selection and the spicy bean sauce that you can purchase to take home. Well worth the visit for those who are a novice to hot pot- you will love it!!!!!
(5)Juju W.
If I could give this place zero stars I would. Don't come here if u want to have a nice dinner without wanting to punch the waiters/waitresses and then pull your own hair out. All staff completely clueless. The restaurant as whole lacked training and accountability. Customer service is as bad as bad can get. I'd elaborate but then that'll mean writing an essay on my worst meal. All in all, decent dinner means steer clear!
(1)Tiffany L.
So I recent went to $10 hotpot in Rosemead and just tried this location which is ALSO doing $10 hotpot. DIFFERENCE between the two locations for this months special (August 2014) Rosemead location didn't charge for soup base, it was bottom line $10 here (westco) you get charged for it. My friend and I got half and half bill = to $21 with tax I guess or something ** cons for some odd reason they had no more soup bowls... But a month or so ago they had some ? (Rosemead) service wasn't great either when I came for the special 2/2 times I went we had to ask for bowls plates spoons napkins basically something a WAITERS hired to do ... There r more choices in west co but cons are they only had one kind of noodles clear. PROS everything is self serve you can start cooking in ur pot right away! There's a great bar for veggies, eggs, sauce location wise a lot larger. Lots of choices CONS some dishes weren't very clean, Veggies didn't look fresh, only had one kind of noodles charges for soup bases
(3)Yi Z.
We went to A&J last night and had a horrible experience. After walking out, we decided to rate it 2 stars if I didn't get diarrhea and 1 star if I did. I'm happy to report that 18 hours later, I have not experienced any symptoms of diarrhea. Cons - We sat at THE MOST UNCOMFORTABLE table I've ever sat in at a restaurant. The two tables to the left of the birdcage have platforms under the table top that stick out in a way that make it impossible for you to put your legs under the table. I had to sit with my legs completely open, which was very unladylike. -The "soup" is not premade which means that it is "made-to-order." Usually getting things made to order is a positive but that is not the case when it comes to broths. Do you want a pho restaurant to make your soup from scratch when you order? Absolutely not. In this case, the "made-to-order" soups literally tasted like the seasoning from a bag of ramen. Super nasty and flavorless! -The beef was of such poor quality. It was so chewy and unappetizing. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, I reached the bottom of the pile of beef, which was even worse than the beef on top. -The sauce bar was very weak. -For $20pp, I could've been completely full at a non-AYCE hotpot restaurant, eating better quality broths and meats. Please stay away.
(2)Marauder M.
This is a nice hot pot restaurant which we don't mind returning to. The service was good but the price could have been better. It's not competitive with other hot pot restaurants regarding the selection of vegetables, prepared dishes and meats. One of my favorite things was their make your own sauce selection.
(3)jackie e.
Took a couple month break from this place, when our family finally went back, we were skeptical right when we walked through the door. Instead of having different types of all you can eat(each tier would include more stuff, and went up a buck or two) now, its a flat $19.99 BUT you have to pay $3.99 for each soup base. For our family of four, 2 of them being children, we paid $75 not including tax to eat here. Not worth the price you pay for a whole bunch of veggies and some soup. My husband and I both agreed that we're over this place. charging for each broth is too much...its all you can eat, shouldn't that include broth?
(2)Stephanie T.
We've been here about 4-5 times and just recently saw that they have a $9.99 hotpot with a self-serve bar with side dishes (gyoza, egg rolls, fried rice, etc), sauces, and other items (veggies, fishballs, etc) for cooking. Meat is ordered from the server. It's different from when they had the more expensive options. The menu is literally cut in half...with scissors and things are Xed out. However, there is still some variety in what you can order but they do not have the fishballs that pop. :( I feel sorry for whoever had to wash the dishes because we used up a lot of plates and bowls that we wouldn't have if our side items had been brought to us. This came back to bite us in the butt because the waiters did not clear our dishes so we were pretty much eating amongst a pile a mound of dirty plates. Anyway... PROS It's cheap. CONS: They need more staff. Servers are nice but seem to be overwhelmed. We were there on a Friday night and it wasn't that busy and it was so hard to flag someone down to pour us more broth, give us water, order more meat, etc. The bar was in dire need of being refilled-- the sauces were completely empty, there were no more veggies, there were only scraps in the fried rice, dumpling, egg rolls areas, etc. When we asked one server to refill the sauces, she stopped refilling the veggie bar (which was also very much needed) and went to the kitchen for a really long time before she came back out and refilled the sauces. We literally had to stop eating to wait for about 15 minutes. Then after the sauces were refilled, the veggie bar continued to be unstocked....and the veggies that the server had been putting into the bar were just sitting on the side in a random basket that she had left behind... It's hard to do AYCE hotpot when there's nothing to eat... Some of us also had tummyaches in the morning. Stomach pains aside, I think if they improved their service and had a fully stocked bar at all times and cleaned the dishes off our tables, it would make for a pretty good experience for $9.99.
(2)Dao M.
Food - A option - had the hot & spicy and the house special healthy soup. Medium Hot and spicy was the perfect amount of spice. But the house special was a bit plain. Beef was actually decent, although some plates had way to much fat, which I personally don't like. If you like fatty beef then you'll love these plates. Portions of veggies and side dishes were generous. The burner and pot in the middle of the table is lowered into the table so it is very easy eat! Probably one of my favorite perks about this place. Service - Patty the waitress was very nice and polite. She always had a smile on and made sure I was comfortable the whole time. Absolutely nothing to complain about here. Ambiance - it's pretty laid back and "cute". a theme of red and black colors. Looks a bit like very cool tea lounge with good music and good vibes. The only reason why I took one star away is because the service was just a tad bit slow. Not to put anything on Patty at all, Since a good group of people served us. Overall a great experience though.
(4)Gurpreet S.
Friendly staff but worst place to eat. This place smell bad and the food quality is very bad and they are definitely overpriced almost 25 per person. Owner of this place definitely not thinking long term.
(1)Talia M.
My friend and I are shabu connoisseurs and we just had an amazing experience here! Greattt food with huge portions, awesome friendly service, and really decent prices. I can't understand how you'd have a bad time here! Thanks to Lorenzo for a great dinner!
(5)David L.
9.99 for your basic all you can eat hotpot. It's a great deal for all you hotpot lover. Julie did a great job serving us. The first two times we was here they shorted my order of meats. Even though I requested more. Julie brought the exact amount we wanted . Minus one star cause the bok choy was disgusting. Most of them were brown.
(4)Andy W.
Cheap ingredients and floors that smell like someone biebered in their mop bucket. Don't waste your time here. Literally one of the worst hotpot places I have ever been to.
(1)Timmy N.
I would have given this restaurant 4.5-5 stars if it wasn't for their staffs lack of experience. I understand they just opened, but it shouldn't take ten minutes to be seated let alone greeted. The server never took down a drink order or even asked for that matter. It was my families first time to any hot pot restaurant, and the server should be smart enough to inform us that their was a sauce station in the corner. After ordering our food came out fairly fast, about five minutes. This was a good thing cause we were starving. The bad thing was we had nothing to eat with, so we borrowed chopsticks from the next table. When we finally did get everything situated on out own, i was surprised that the food was delicious, we ordered the house special healthy broth, and the Japanese coconut curry broth, both were amazing, the lamb and beef had the perfect amount of fat on it, and the veggies were perfectly fresh. The only problem was, when adding for more spinach and bok choy, it never came. We had to ask a different waitress to finally get our refill. All in all id come back for the food, but i would inform the owner to either hire new waiters and a hostess or see their restaurant crash and burn
(3)Blic M.
Since they have changed management the service went down the drain. Their peanut sauce has gotten from thick and good tasting to watered down and sometimes very very sour to the point of making you think "is this expired"? The buffet bar is a good idea, take note "idea". But overall I feel sorry for this place. Quality is no more.
(1)Mulan M.
Came hungry and stayed hungry. Wow. I was told my party of 3 is a 29 min wait at 7:00pm. When asked about our table at 7:55, they said it was ready and they just seated a party in front of us because our table was ready at the same time as theirs even though they arrived 10-15 mins after us. When we got seated at 8:05 we waited another 5-10 min to order. It is now 9pm and we have had to re-order food 3x as of now since it was forgotten. Two people seem to be running around (Amy-saved the restaurant from us walking out on this place) and cleaning while 2 others just go table to table and talk to their friends. It helps if you speak Chinese because then you will get service. The meats are good and the healthy house broth is the way to go and just add spice to taste. So that's why it gets one star. But don't be in a hurry. Ridiculous. Oh and the rice with black sesame was ICE cold and looked like day old rice. Ugh. 9:10 and still waiting for my correct order...still hungry...wow. Thank you Amy for trying to help us and make it better. She was obviously getting some push back from the kitchen though. She was standing at the window waiting and telling them to make more orders, but they gave her half the amount...maybe it's because she's not Chinese too. Very sad.
(1)Jen A.
There was a guy hacking a noggie in the kitchen while we ate, that means it's authentic right?! Either way we ate our food no complaints.
(3)Syb S.
Kudos to this place for being able to mess up on hot pot and make it so bad! Cheap furnishing, dirty table, and low quality food served. Beef and pork slices look like the cheapest meat they can get, beef is mostly fat and only a bit of meat. And I don't know what they do with the sauces, my satay sauce is so salty (I only added a little bit of the garlic, which is all watery)! BTW This is definitely a cheap copy of Jazz cat... Will not go back.
(1)Aileen G.
I bought a groupon $19 for $11. Don't buy the groupon since u can't use the cash deal. If you pay cash, you pay $2-3 cheaper per person. If you have a party for more than 4 people, u better pay cash rather than the Groupon deal. Food was good and tasty. I like how they have a station for variety kinds of sauce. The beef is so fatty, half of it is the fat! Went here for second time. Wont be back. Too awful service. Need to ask hundred times when u want to order more.
(1)Kat C.
The lamb here is awesome. The soup that we had was the spicy and the house herbal special. Both really good. As all hot pot places, there had to be a variety of items. We had lamb, A-veggie, mushrooms, quail eggs, and definitely tripe. The service is so friendly here that you can't help but smile as they come by.
(5)Mae N.
Just went back to actually use Groupon. Last time I came they had their summer 9.99 deal and was told groupon could not be used then unless I wanted to be charged full price. Anyhow, this time the buffet of getting your fresh food to cook had very poor selections. The vegetables looked wilted and still dirty. Was told some staple items in a traditional hot pot were no longer to be available. They just got rid of items! The meat was sliced really big and had a bunch of fat on it. The chicken was so frozen still, it just fell apart in the pot. They charge 19.99 per person plus 3.99 per soup selection but yet they are providing cheap vegetables, etc. for patrons to cook. I'm not asking for lobster or anything but heck dirty and wilted veggies?? Come on! Will have to find another hot pot now. Don't want to go back here for my beloved hot pot cravings.
(1)Anita L.
I am a Taiwanese and Vegetarian, sometimes still hope can have Taiwanese style hot pot (all you can eat ) at LA, lucky today i got a chance to try it! The waitress was nice and really helpful, Food is fresh too! defiantly will go again!
(5)Kimberly R.
Don't do it. The meat is frozen the extras look old and the seats are uncomfortable, the way the tables are set up. No leg room. The soup pots are real shallow and FYI the mild is hot as hell.
(1)Maggie K.
I went with 3 of my friends on New Years Eve. The food was tasty with a wide variety of sauces and condiments. The food is fresh, although the meats were 60% fat. Unfortunately, the service ruined the experience for me. I am not sure if it was because it was New Years Eve, but there were only 2 servers present and active. It took them over 10 minutes to seat us even though half the tables were empty. Another 10-15 for the broth to arrive at our table. A good 30 minutes for the rice to arrive The long waits for literally everything made the experience frustrating. Although they were understaffed, each waitress/waiter present were genuinely friendly and hard working. It seems like the real problem was the workers in the kitchen: they didn't take the customers seriously, had an attitude, and moved like a snail. The price is pretty fair for their selections (we got the 19.99 meat menu). I'm going to give it another shot and if the wait is 30 minutes for a bowl of rice next time, I'm not coming back.
(3)Marsha M.
Everything was pretty good just one big factor... the meat was waaayy to chewy. I don't like chewy meat ): and expensive. We literally ate just veggies and soup. Very dissapointing. Never again.
(3)Courtney J.
I enjoy this AYCA hot pot shabu shabu meal.... For lunch, it's $15 buffet where you pick what you want on the order paper and they brought it out to your table. The sauces is the only thing you pick up yourself, which I like it that way. Services were fine. They were fast in bringing the food out and they do walked around tables to check you out.
(3)Sam A.
Visited them twice. First time was bad, thought they were still working out kinks because they had just opened. Visited again a few months later, worse than the first time. Both times the waitresses never checked on my date and I, we always had to watch when they passed and flag them down. Second, it's supposed to be all you can eat, the portions we were served were so small, even 1 person couldn't enjoy it, and we couldn't get much because there are 3 rounds to order stuff. Third, waitresses didn't give us what we ordered MULTIPLE times, so frustrating. Last, they served me rotted cabbage leaves!!! This place has horrible service and quality, won't ever visit again.
(1)Jennifer R.
My husband and I dined there for the first time it was delicious and a wonderful place to have dinner we definitely will go back
(4)Jose A.
Restaurant has gone downhill , their lunch is $19.99 plus a $3.95 extra soup base charge totalling @ $25.00 plus tax ,talk about gouging wow . The food was crappie and the waitresses are young unprofessional. Please save your money and go somewhere else. I'm predicting that this restaurants days are numbered. Can you say "Closure" !!!!!! Permanently!!!! Due to being a horribly ran restaurant.
(1)Abby S.
I purchased a groupon and I was about to use it at this place. Luckily, I went online and read the yelp reviews from prior customers. If you bring a groupon, they charge you $19.99 instead of the $9.99 per person. I called the restaurant to confirm. Here's the phone call: Me: Is it true that if you bring a groupon, you have to pay double the normal charge? Store: No, you don't get charged double, you pay the normal price. Me: And what would that be? Store: It would be $19.99 per person. Me: And if you don't use a groupon, you pay $9.99 is that correct? Store: Yes Me: Well then you are charging double for groupon customers. Store: (silence) I will not be going here. If you want to advertise on groupon, you should treat groupon customers the same as you would all other customers. There is no reason for me to pay $11.00 to groupon and then another $19.99 per head to this restaurant when everyone else without a groupon just pays $9.99. This is discrimination!
(1)Mohammad I.
I first walked in this restaurant and was like hmm this might be a good deal so I started eating my soup and at the corner of my eye I saw the workers recycling other customers unfinished soup and reusing it for new customers!!! Outrageous! How are they not shut down I will never eat here again and I demanded a refund and they gave me one because they knew that they were wrong.
(1)Maki K.
My friend and I both did the AYCE on a Mon for lunch for $14.99 each. Pros: -AYCE (All You Can Eat) Mon-Fri from noon to 4 PM for $14.99 (regular price AYCE other times is $17.99). -If you choose AYCE, the options are great: we chose the brisket and the pork belly for our meats. (And holy moly, they brought out a heaping (and kind of disorganized looking) pile of both meats. My friend and I tried our best, but there was so much meat, we couldn't finish it all. My advice: when you first order AYCE as a pair or a group, start with one meat and then choose another one later after you start eating. The pork belly was yummy, whereas the brisket was tough and VERY fatty.) -They have spam as a meat option! Interesting. -Tons of veggies, broth, and noodle options. You can also get an egg and fish/meat balls. Didn't try the fish/meat balls. We got the healthy broth (which was herby and was meh) and the kimchi broth (which was delicious). -They have a self serve sauce bar in the back. -Service was great. They were very attentive: refilled our waters, asked if we wanted more veggies/meat/anything from the AYCE menu, asked if everything was fine, etc. The waitresses were very nice. -Free soda if you pay with cash (as it says on the menu). Cons: -The restaurant itself was clean, but there was something in our veggies that made me question the cleanliness of the place. The waitress kindly took it back to the kitchen and brought us out a new one. Things to Know: -$20 min for card. -They only accept one card per table. -They give you 10% off if you write a Yelp review, but it's kind of hard to write a review while eating a meal (in my opinion). ***If this is your first time, I recommend you try the AYCE. They give you a checklist and you mark what you want. Take a look at my photos to see what's on the checklist.
(3)Roni T.
My first time here and really enjoyed the food.
(4)Derek P.
This place is about quantity. If you want to stuff your face and have no regrets, come here. If a restaurant focuses on quantity, they generally skimp out on the quality. That is the case with their meats. However, their tofu, veggies, and fish balls is where it's at! All fresh and how else are you supposed to get your 8-9 servings of veggies? That's right, in one seating! Also, their broths are pretty heavy to mask the cheap meat, but that's not a bad thing either. For the spicy lovers, try the medium spicy broth first.. no joke. Also, their milk/iced teas are served in jugs. That was a pleasant surprise.
(3)John L.
Decent flavors and good prices cannot compensate for horrible management and poor execution. Let me be direct. The servers here did their best, but without proper management by the manager and kitchen, A&J Hot Point is an abysmal example of the hot pot experience. The highlights of A&J Hot Pot are a flexible and varied menu, well-designed tables and hot pots, and an adequate flavor for their soups and condiments. The hot pots are actually below table level on custom-built tables, making it easy to reach into pots to add or remove items. The servers try their best to attend to customers, and though they don't always succeed in good service, they at least try. A moderately-priced menu and an all-you-can-eat option leads to an ability to try a variety of things... if items ever come. It took at least 20 minutes before our first order arrived. It took another 20 minutes for anyone to come check on our needs. This is in a restaurant where at most, 20% of the tables were occupied, and there were 3 servers roaming the restaurant. One of them even told us, I'm sorry, I'm not even supposed to take orders. I'll try to get you someone who can. A horrible sign was that the condiments bar ran out of soy sauce. Soy Sauce! In a Hot Pot restaurant! It took me having to notify the manager, who was standing right next to me for at least a minute, to get it filled, and even then it took 10 minutes to do so. Lackadaisical kitchen staff filled out a number of orders that never seemed to go to their tables. They stood around idle for extended periods of time. The manager stood around and was more interested in his mobile phone than actually managing the restaurant. Servers had no direction or leadership, and didn't know what to do. They were barely able to take orders, and in three separate occasions, just never brought us what we ordered before telling us that oops, the kitchen had run out. They wouldn't have said anything if we didn't ask. Slow service wouldn't be an issue if you didn't need it very often, but you do. The portions they give you, even for an all you can eat situation, are so pathetically small, that you may never get all you can eat before dying of old age. We are talking a SINGLE beef ball per order, and THREE mushrooms per order. 3 tiny, ritz cracker-sized pieces of fish. Pathetic. Combined with the crappy service? Rage inducing. Slow service, average-at-best food, and worthless, pathetic, no-direction management means that you should avoid this place at all costs. Go somewhere else, even if you have to pay more. That and I suspect that they are not keeping their raw eggs at the proper temperature. Don't bother. This place is pathetic.
(1)Sylvia C.
I don't usually give reviews but this is for the 10% off my meal. I've been here a few times before but this is the best service I've had from this place. Granted it's a Wednesday night and it's practically empty. The food is exactly what you expect from a AYCE hot pot restaurant - mediocre cuts of meat with leftover scraps ground together and molded to form "meatballs" you'll see on the menu. I do particularly enjoy their broth because they are one of the few restaurants not afraid to dump in the chiles and hot sauce when I order "extra spicy". American restaurants, take notes. Price is $17.99 per person if you pay cash, and $19.99 with card. Bring your cash I rate this 4/5 for the following: price, and broth.
(4)Hank C.
An hour to get rice and 30 minutes to get soup. If only those were the only two issues. Where do I start? Soda was flat, got it changed, no biggie. Food takes forever, order is wrong and they forgot multiple items. And does the head chef always dress like he's going to prom? Roll your sleeves up and hustle! He worked so slowly. Oh and they got my broth wrong. Asked for medium and it came with a layer of spicy chilli oil and about 20 peppers in it. Cant imagine what spicy looks like. So the forgotten beef balls finally arrive. After 15 minutes passed, we ask about the shrimp balls and only now are we told they ran out. We ask for rice, that never came, and the manager says its cooking. About 20 minutes later, we're out of food, still no rice and waiting for round 2. Ask waitress where's the rice because they brought some other customers rice. She said it's cooking. Rice finally comes but at this point, we can't stand waiting any longer. Talked to the manager, he seemed to know the drill and he gave us 20% off. The last time I felt compelled to talk to a manager, a waiter threw straws at my wife, over 5 years ago. It takes alot but this place was a disgrace to hot pot. I have never left a restaurant feeling genuinely sorry for the wait staff. The system is absolute garbage and the kitchen could care less. Worst part is, the waiters have to share their tips with the kitchen. So sad. Considering the circumstances, the waitresses were great. The food was good, but come on... A damn machine can slice meat faster then those "chefs". Fire the chefs, pre-prep everything else, let the waitresses make the rice and let people scoop their own rice. Boom! Oh yeah and the chairs suck.
(1)Cyrus H.
Tacky Decor and cheap furniture detract from the dining experience. Not the best Hotpot, but palatable. I spent most of my time eating feeling annoyed at the red and disorganized ambiance. There's so many Pros/Cons to list I've got to use bullet points: Pros: -Vegetables are fresh (Napa Cabbage, Mushrooms, lettuce, potatoes, etc) -Its all you can eat and you get to select exactly what you want. i ordered lots of plates of beef -the ingredients were mostly good, nothing bad -The wait staff is very friendly Cons: -The tacky decor, the overload of red (if this were a bar/club it would be perfect) -the cheap furniture -the cheap table tops (its a layer of glass that leave streaks and feels dirty if its not clean fully, all the tables felt dirty because of this) -the beef slices i got were the FATTIEST I've ever had, made me feel sick -the disarray of the restaurant, there were chairs bunched together towards the back -the sauce bar ingredients were watered down. the satay sauce was especially bad -the wait staff is inexperienced, but friendly I honestly would like this place to improve since its the only hotpot place in a 3-5 mile radius. It did not have to try so hard to be hip. If it had spent its design budget on better layout it would be perfect. Hopefully it has some money to replace its gaudy designs. Quality food and good service always makes a great restaurant.
(2)Katherine N.
Soup was so bland, tasted like water even though we order the healthy herb. Meat that came was still frozen so when you cook it it was hard and had no taste we got our soup before getting water. They didn't even offer us water until we asked for it. Price now is $19.99 per person plus $3.99 per soup. The place is low on staff so one of the waitress had to cut our meat. The buffet selection is still better than the a&j hot pot in rosemead but not worth the drive to get. Guess ill just still with Jazz Cat for my hot pot cravings.
(2)Rosalind M.
Background Story: My dear mother and I came to A&J Hot Point Hot Pot before she left for Thailand the past year (2013). It was a last minute choice and we wanted to give the new place a try! Service: We were quickly seated and opted for the all you can eat set A. Our servers were very polite and always had their eyes out to make sure every table was all right. They had a good amount of employees, especially since dinner time was just around the corner. The whole experience of our dinner was great, only a few hiccups with the servers forgetting some of our stuff but I try not to be so hard on the servers since the restaurant had opened not too long ago, so it wasn't their fault that they were still getting used to the whole system of the restaurant. Food: As previously said, we choose the all you can eat set A with two different broths, the House Special and the Kimchi soup. The taste wasn't too strong which is what I prefer, and when the food came out it was just a matter of cooking our food. I really enjoyed the sliced beef and the different assortment of meatballs and really have no complaint about the food. I mean, how wrong can you go with cooking your own food right? Good food (does this mean i'm saying that I am a good cook?), good service. I mean really what more can I ask for right? 222 S Citrus St West Covina, CA 91791 (626) 800-8470 youtube.com/watch?v=C2vv… 8here8there.blogspot.com…
(4)JennMoss z.
Came here for their buy one get one free promotion. I don't understand why the reviews were so bad for this restaurant. Both the food and service were great.
(5)Carol L.
Food: we tried their buy one get one hot pot. Soup base were tomato soup and Japanese curry soup. They were delicious. We preferred chicken to beef. Food is plenty. Service: very slow! There were ONLY three tables including us. One table was party of 5, one was party of 2, and we were party of 4. Two non-Asian waitress worked there. They did not know what they were doing! My daughter asked for Satay sauce because it was gone. Instead of getting more, the waitress scraped the container and poured the last drop of it into my daughter's sauce dish. She came back with the dish filled with oil. We ordered two milk tea with jelly. Later I noted that we were not even charged. Good for us but bad for the business. We left extra money to cover the drinks. One table asked for the check and the check never came. She had to ask again. The table with party of 2 started to flirt with the waitresses. And they seemed to enjoy it. Not professional at all.
(3)Ja'Lisa W.
Pat on the back to whoever thought of AYCE hot pot! I'm sold! It was a cold night in November, and I was craving some hot soup and I was HOUNGRRRRYYYY (like hella hungry) Me and a friend stumbled across this place, it looked clean so we decided to take a chance on it. We sat down and asked what kind of broth we wanted, I ordered the herbal broth; it was really light not too overpowering. ( TIP: once you pick a broth, you have to keep that same flavored broth the whole time of your meal.) Next they ask what kind of meat & veggies you want, you order from a pre selected menu of meats/veggies based on the amount of money you're willing to pay. They also let you know that you can choose spices from the spice bar they have towards the rear of the restaurant. I like the spice bar option because I get to flavor my soup just the way I like it. Overall food was really good, flavorful, and the atmosphere was great too. They have beer and other alcohol if you wanna drink. A definite good place if you're down to get chocolate wasted off soup. Service was whatever, nothing super spectacular. And the price was fair, I didn't spend more that 15$ #collegestudentbudget
(4)Aurora N.
Being from San Diego this place was so UGH! Sad faces all around & so frustrating. The food was mediocre at best and the service here was really bad and I mean really bad! My cousins and I came around 9ish and there were only two other parties in the restaurant. So how can the service be so slow? They weren't very attentive, it took forever to receive anything or for them to come to our table to even offer water. There was 4 of us so obviously we went through everything quickly, by the time we were done eating our first set of veggies and meats, it had taken them 20 minutes to bring out the next. Throughout the night we asked for a fork and never received one. A fork! One fork! How difficult is that? My party was more than upset that we didn't receive the service that we needed. Nor did we get to enjoy the supposed AYCE they offered.
(1)Karla K.
Very eh. Went here with the groupon deal this Valentines Day and... nobody in my party was impressed by food we got for the price. We had the Groupon deal and on the menu it said there was a cheaper price if we paid in cash. We were pretty excited to be paying less in cash and getting the deal, only to be told that you can't do both. We had to pick one, and the waitress said the Groupon deal would get us a bigger discount. It was a lie. It would have been cheaper to pay in cash so that was a shady practice right there. Service - Servers are very sweet, but it takes FOREVER to get service. We were fortunate enough to be seated right by where the food came out so it wasn't that bad getting their attention for more orders. However, we spent most of our time at the restaurant watching the broth boil and twiddling our thumbs while waiting for the food to come out. Price - Pretty expensive from my experience with Hot Pot places. Food - Okaaaaay. Nothing to write home about. Just go to Jazz Cat for Hot Pot. Way better service and system.
(2)Jess L.
Came here for the first time two weeks ago. It was a cold night & I was craving for hot pot so we decided to try this place. It was ayce but I don't think it was worth it. They didn't have a lot of sides and the service was super slow.
(2)Josh R.
Excellent place to have hot pot at reasonable prices. The all you can eat options are the best and the basic one works for me. Also it's cheaper for lunch than 14.99 vs 17.99 dinner starting prices. The broth selections are great and have something for everyone. They also have a wide selection of dipping sauces in the self serve sauce bar. Service was great with many people checking on our table. Ingredients were great and the meat quality for the basic level was also good. Check this place out.
(4)Yvonne C.
I went with my friend when they 1st opened, and i would love it to be GOOD since it is just right down the street by where I live! and I can seriously eat shabu EVERYDAY! But all I can say is this place sucks.. The service was good, but all the items we ordered were either frozen or stale. We did get a 10% off since we checked in on Yelp or facebook (I forgot, either one of them). I don't think I will go back again, I still think AB Shabu is the only descent shabu place around RH & City of Industry. For good shabu, we just have to go to Little Tokyo or LA... :((
(1)Richard L.
Not the best AYCE hot pot place, but definitely the closest to where I live. The soup base was pretty good and they let you select up to 2 flavors with no additional charge. I think you can go as crazy as 4 soup bases if you really wanted to. The meats were alright, with the pork being the best one that I can remember. They also have a sauce bar with some small cold dishes for you to much on. I would only come back here if I didn't want to make the journey out to Rowland heights to get Jazzcat or Little Fat Sheep.
(3)Miranda Y.
Very messy service. All the staff are in the kitchen at all time. No one stand and greet customers at the reception area. They don't even lift up their head to see if guests in need of anything. They need to have more people working and walking around the tables to see if customers need anything. Now it's back to regular price. $19.99 per person with $3.99 per pot.
(2)Christina Y.
I went to this place recently and wasn't happy, the service was terrible and the food bar didn't have that many options never coming back again
(1)Tracy T.
The food was delish!! loved the healthy broth.. though it doesn't sound exciting, it was definitely yummy. I would give this place 5 stars except... they aren't good about keeping their posted hours. Though it makes sense to close up shop if you don't have customers, its disappointing to the customers who look up the location and find that they are already closed (almost two hours before the listed times) we happened to walk in right when they were closing... and since we were already there they didn't turn us away... so for me SCORE! but as we finished another couple walked in and were turned away.. bummer! regardless.. i'd go back.. loved the sauce bar (walk up and make your own delicious creations). the service was great (our waitress was Rosa), and the portions was wow! like.. seriously living up to AYCE. and its not super packed like other hot pot places. I'm actually wishing i was back there right now... hm.. hot pot..
(4)Mark W.
I gave this spot 3 stars because of the service. The waitresses never check on you after they drop off the hot pot. have to really try to get their attention.... and the place was empty. And they forgot my order (I hade to remind them of my order a couple times.) Other than that .... The food was great, so much to choose from.
(3)Liza And Nick B.
We went the day after thanksgiving and I suppose they weren't expecting much business. There was only one waiter when we walked in and it took FOREVER to get drinks, order, and such. Not soon after he completely took off without saying anything. I guess his shift ended? We were very confused for a while and then a new waitress popped up randomly. She seemed much friendly and was much more eager to wait on us. I felt pretty bad actually; she was literally running from table to table and was breaking a sweat. Food was ok. They seemed to forget a lot of items that we ordered and didn't give out large amounts at a time. Normally I guess this would be ok but since the staff was so busy we were often left to sit and twittle our thumbs in between rounds. Not the best experience but I'd like to give it another shot on a better day.
(2)Des R.
The only reason why I am giving 3 stars is because the new guy.. Milot (sorry if I butchered your name). He totally saved the day! The only reason why we didn't walk out and say f*ck you to this place is because of him!! Even though it was his first day he was super nice and helped us out a lot! Service here otherwise is complete crap. Horrible horrible service!! Food is good.
(3)Mr. B.
service is OK but slow. Food so so. even the meat ball they cut it half. Very little for each time.
(2)Kezia H.
First of all the place is decent typical hot pot not bad..services are not bad as well..the problem is paying for the meal..There are about 15 of us ready to pay..we have 2 tables so it should be fairly easy to just split the table in two but no its one fat check -.-..thats fine we made it easy and have 3 cards ready to use but no they only wanted 1 card for everything..we had to get the manager involve to agree to 2 cards..really 2!!!! Great place but ill think twice in coming in with a big group
(2)Kimberly N.
I came here because I had a Groupon. First off they don't take credit cards under $20, so in order to pay tax and tip, I had to run over to the 7-11 to withdraw some money. So my second tip is medium is really spicy!!!! The sauces/ cooking juices were really good. The meat cooks really fast. I had the lamb which was great. I also got the premium beef but there was a lot of fat on it. So the waitress Patricia who was fantastic by the way, got rid of the fatty meat and brought me some good meat! I am definitely glad I had a groupon because this place is really expensive. All in all I enjoyed it. It's not really close to me so I am not sure if I would go back, but if I was in the area it is definitely an option. Oh yeah my one complaint... I'm tall and my family is tall and there is not space between the chairs and tables so I had to sit with my legs spread wide open -very lady like ;) so I wouldn't wear a dress there and not sure how my family would fit under the tables.
(4)NADINA S.
the food is really good. The service is great. Nothing is served in small portions. Tastey. They need more waitresses.
(4)Quan N.
Ate here twice, the foods are awesome, a little pricy but worth it. Good services depend on your server, on my first time the service was just whatever, but the second time was great. The only downside os tge restaurant deco.... Red and so dark.... I can't even see my food lol.
(4)Dawn W.
Not a big fan. The broth was tasteless and the staff didn't know how to translate the names of some of the Asian veggies on the menu. We ordered the more expensive hot pot meal but only ended up eating veggies. It was super expensive for just veggies. The spicy broth, which they said was not that spicy, really was so we could only eat 1/2 the broth. I wish it was better because we go to 85degrees in the same shopping center often but it was not. Bummer.
(1)Angel Z.
3.5 stars actually. This location is new, and I really like their decoration :) such a cute place to hang out with friends and u can grab a 85 drink in the same plaza after a decent hot pot meal ;) there's another one in San Gabriel but I like this one more cuz it seems more clean and the environment is just way better. They offered different types of ayce that u can choose from, the prices reflected the type of food and amount of choices u get. Their sauce bar is a big plus, customers can mix the sauces and have as many as they can! We can totally customize our own flavors and roll our way! I usually get "B", which already includes most of the items I'm interested in. There's lamb, beef , pork as for meat we can pick from. They suggest ppl to order plate by plate in case if we cant finish it. That means the waiters need to be more attentive bcuz we would keep asking for more food instead of a one time order. (One think I don't like about their meat is that they cut it into some very small pieces sometimes, trying to fool ppl that it seems like a lot but when we boil them there's nth cuz there r too many broken pieces... But it varies each time bcuz some chef cut it more nicely? No idea). Other than that, I really like the various choice of food, especially their house noodle (handmade) and veggies r pretty fresh. There r also many broth to pick from so there must be one that u will like! If u pay cash, free soda! And they also have tons of drinks on their drink menu but I never try it. Price is pretty reasonable, plenty of parking, and above average customer services.
(3)Jo C.
All you can eat hot pot! YES! the place is clean; food is average; staff are nice. I ordered their japanese curry broth, which was kinda spicy unexpectedly. Here comes the confusion if you are gonna use your living social coupon. After asking for the check and showing them our living social coupon, the waiter came back with a receipt asking us to sign without any explanation. It looked just like the credit card receipt without the tip part so we were all confused like " huh?! How did they charge us without having our card?" And it turned out that "receipt" was just to show the detail and deduction. Had to ask for the REAL receipt. sigh~ why double the work? Almost walked out without paying tho... haha
(4)Rachel Y.
We went there because we had a $11 for $18 Groupon deal. We walked in the store and found out there was a cheaper price for $9.99. Unprofessional waitresses and unorganized environment.
(3)Digits S.
Came here with great friends that just drove in from Vegas and had dinner. Sceptical about what this place was all about but after we sat down an saw what the deal was, I knew it was like Shabu Shabu but better. The food was great, adding all the side dishes and made it way better on one soup with a little help from my friend Chelle and her secret ( ingredient add-on ).. Place is really cool with all the decor & music.. Could've been 5 stars but the place was under staff and there was only one person of ALL of them made our experience wonderful. Thank you Amy for treating us with the utmost professional service. I just can't believe 3 chefs can't function fast enough for a small restaurant. Understandable that they were REALLY understaffed but AMY had her game face on and provided great customer service. Next visit we will ask for Amy and so should you.!!
(4)Aleshia L.
I was in the area and was craving some Hot Pot so I decided on this place cause it was the closes. When I walked in with my friend the store had just opened. Just based of the physical appearance, it didn't seem that bad. I took a look at their menu and it was $19.99 a person & an additional $3.99 for your soup base....I felt like that was ridiculous. Never have I been to a Hot Pot place that charges for their soup base! My friend and I said "screw it." We're hungry and we were already here. Our waitress was very nice...attentive & polite. My friend and I ordered half soup (Half Spicy & Half Tomato). For our meat selection, we got beef & lamb. While the waitress was fetching our food for us, we decided to go over to the sauce bar. It was....subpar at best but we made do with what they had. The bar also contained a couple of other food items there, like: french fries (stale), pan fried dumplings (burnt actually & it was cold), some vegetables and tofu (which had hair in it). My friend and I got our sauces and walked back to our table. When the food came I smelled a really weird sour like oder from the meat. I asked the waitress if it had gone bad and she said "oh I don't know...let me go check for you, ok?" And im sitting here thinking..."what the f**k". I was very skeptical about continuing to stay and finishing the food but my friend insisted cause he was starving. They waitress switched our meat out and gave us new plates. We started to put the meat in the pot and start eating. I sipped the Spicy broth and I drank nothing but oil and herbs. It was flavorless and not even spicy. The tomatoe soup was decent but we've had better. We asked for the check when we finished and the total had came out to a whopping $52.65 ...In my opinion, this place was really not worth it. They get a 1 out of 5 for cleanliness. A 3 out of 5 for attentiveness. & A 1 out of 5 for their food because they gave us bad meat. Overall, my friend and I will definitely not be coming back.
(2)Rob C.
I don't understand the negative reviews, because this place kicks boiling points butt! The sauce bar is well stocked and the fruits are a nice touch. You're always going to get haters, but some people are just mean. I feel the food is fresh, people are super nice, and it has a hip atmosphere. The price is good for all you can eat. I came back for the lunch to try the single serve pot and that was seriously more than enough. Try it out with an open mind!
(5)Becky L.
This was my first experience with hot pot and I loved it!! The meats were fresh, veggies as well. The drinks were delicious. The reason I took off one star is because the service was a little slow but the servers were kind.
(4)Sg K.
We came here because there was a sign on the door that said buy 1 get 1 free, when paid in cash, to celebrate the restaurant's birthday. So, we figured that since they've been here for a year that the food should be good. Needless to say we were in for a surprise. First, the host says that the wait is 20 minutes so we wait, as we were the only party waiting to be seated. After waiting for about an hour they seat another Chinese speaking family before us. Also, there was a lady who came to the restaurant hoping to be seated, and she left because no one came to assist her. After being seated after the hour's wait we put in our order and did not receive the correct order. We had to order several times to get couple of the items we ordered. In fact, we are now done and still waiting for the ordered items. It was not until we complained to the senior server, Amy, that we got some of the ordered items. As we observed the service while waiting for our order, we noticed that Amy was the only server working really hard. Keep in mind that Amy seems to be the only server who does not speak Chinese in the restaurant. One of the saving graces for the restaurant was that the taste is decent and it is supposedly all you can eat. However, when I received my rice it was extremely cold. I don't understand how an Asian restaurant can serve ice cold, rock hard rice. I need to add that my wife came here once before and seemed to get sick from the food. It was because I pushed her to go here that we decided to dine here. We planned on having a quick dinner since it is cook it yourself. But, we got to the restaurant at 7pm, and left at 10pm making it a 3 hour dining experience. First time I felt discriminated against in an Asian restaurant, and I'm of Asian decent. Unless you're Chinese speaking you will not be seated right away or get your order right. Thank you Amy for trying to make a bad service right. I'm giving this restaurant 1 star for Amy and the taste of the food. Everything else was awful.
(1)Lauren O.
Medium is spicy as heck, and this is coming from a person who loves spicy food. Go for mild instead, if you want to enjoy your broth. Also, bring cash if you want a $2 discount on your meal.
(3)Andrew B.
I love the food here. This place would get 5 stars if the service was better and if they didn't close early all the time. This was the third time I dove to eat here and they closed an hour early. Why would you have a sign outside saying you're open until 11pm and turn guest away before 10pm? I understand that you lose money if it's slow, but you're losing more money by not being consistent. Now if it's anywhere near 9 or 10, I won't even waste my time driving over there hoping that you're still open. I guarantee I'm not the only one who feels that way either. So once again, you lose my business and I'll go to Guppy House.
(3)cathy k.
Bought a groupon for their boba and came at 10 pm to redeem it. They told me their last call is at 10 pm even though their official hours are from 12 pm to 11pm. And because it's the last day for the groupon, it will now expire. You just lost my business. Never coming back.
(1)Amanda P.
Excellent all you can eat hot pot. Vast selection of vegetables, meats, seafood, etc! Great summer time deal $9.95 per person - limited time offer!
(5)Will L.
Honestly, the food looked good when it came out, but after a while, everything just started tasting really bland. AYCE hot pot sounded like a bomb ass idea, but after just a few bites, we were already tired of this place. There's just something about the broth, the sauces, and the quality of food here that just doesn't quite compare to other shabu and hot pot places. I guess you do expect a certain drop off in quality whenever you choose AYCE. However, this meal was so unspectacular because of it, that I could safely say that I will never come back here again. There's just too many other good options like Ichi Ichi, Jazz Cat, Kingswood, etc. Furthermore, the whole set-up inside of A&J is extremely tacky and uncomfortable. I think they were trying to be trendy and unorthodox with their weirdly shaped chairs and bright red decor. Talk about backfire. The plastic chairs were extremely stiff and uncomfortable and I got a headache just sitting inside the restaurant. For the food, the first bite was actually promising. I honestly thought I was in for a good meal. After about two or three more bites, you could really tell the meat was of bad quality, while the soup just kept getting blander and blander. Even though they had a sauce bar, it literally felt like everything was of the cheapest quality, cause not even the sauce could save the food. The really shitty part is that they charge you for leftover food (which is expected of AYCE places), but we had no idea the food would taste so bland.
(2)Lorenzo A.
There's a lot of things to talk about this place, so I'll get down to it. Time: Depending on the time, afternoon is not so busy so I go there to eat because I don't want to listen to too much people noise. Introduction: As soon as I opened the doors, they greeted me with a Chinese saying that means "Hello! Welcome to our place!" They seat you where they tell you. Sometimes when it is not busy, they allow you to sit on a table you prefer. They then give you some water to drink and a menu to look upon. If you are a first timer, they will explain to you in the most simplest manner. Do not worry, they are patient. The menu is mostly on All You Can Eat and in the back of the menu features a drink menu that has more options than the all you can eat menu itself! They also hand out a smaller menu which has the soup bases and in the back is the individual hot pots. Individual hot pots are from 12-4 and on Weekdays so keep that in mind. Ordering: After looking into the menu, you can choose only ONE combo. Whether you are alone or with friends, only ONE combo is allowed per table. Which means you have to negotiate to pick a combo because they will give you a combo sheet. Now I am eating alone so I end up choosing combo A. If you aren't hungry as much you have the option to have A la Carte or Single Item. The prices will be on the top right corner of each section, while the prices for All You Can Eat are on the very top of the combo sheet. If you ask for any extra orders, you do not get charged UNLESS: 1.You order something that is not from your combo(ex. ordering Lamb from combo B, even though you ordered everything from Combo A) 2.You leave leftovers in your hot pot (They don't want you to waste, keep in mind the limit of your stomach and the resources they have to provide such food). 3. You chose single item and want to order more. (If you choose single item, they charge you for sauces as well so keep that in mind). Food: Now they present the food with vegetables at the bottom and layered with whatever the rest of the options you ordered (ex. beef tripe, shrimp and some mushrooms are sometimes in the vegetable bowls that you ordered). The meats come in different colored plates and bowls to help them and customers know the difference in meats. Service: They are very friendly and are there when you need them. Give them time when they are busy and always raise your hand so they can approach you if you need assistance. If you ask for extra orders they usually give it to you as soon as possible. If it is not, then there's usually either a lag from the kitchen if there's a lot of orders going around or a miscommunication from the servers. There's not much kitchen staff from the way I see it on their window because the kitchen is small. Therefore, if you are waiting 30 minutes later, it is because of small kitchen staff taking in a lot of orders or a server had forgotten your order so remind them and they will apologize. Ending: Towards the end when they ask you for the bill, they have another saying that means "Check Please!" and then ask whether you are paying with cash or credit. Discounts are offered by: 1. Doing a Yelp! review and check-in (For parties, One person do a review and rest do a check-in) 2. Student I.D. (please show them) 3. LivingSocial Coupons (If you bought them while they were available) Discounts are never stacked, unless they are LivingSocial coupons. So you can't have a Yelp! review AND a Student I.D. You get one or the other. For LivingSocial coupons, you can only use those coupons and you CANNOT use Student I.D. or Yelp! discount. If you pay with cash, it means the soda for all you can eat option is free! If you pay with credit, you can only pay with ONE card and they only accept VISA or MASTERCARD, just a heads up. After all the payments are done and as you head out towards the exit, they have one last saying to you which means that they hope to welcome you again! Overall: I believe if you come at night time, it is the best time because the staff are great and make you feel comfortable.
(4)Cassie Y.
Service was slow. I don't understand, the waiters are technically not "serving" the customers, why does it take so long to attend to our table? Like it took 10 minutes for the waiter to come our table just to pick up our order sheet. The food was good, though. I like hotpot and they had a good variety of veggies and meat for the hotpot.
(3)Sandi S.
First time here and they have a Nice selection of items to choose from, everything was very fresh. It would be helpful if they had instructions for newbies!
(4)Sunny E.
Buy one get one free combo special is cash only. No exceptions, no splitting the check. Not worried about return customers I guess.
(1)Akemi D.
What many of others were saying was exactly what we experienced. Food and service are great but we had to wait for Loooooooong time to get food .
(3)Ami H.
Good soup bases fresh meat & shrimp. good service but it would be much better if I can use groupon this time.
(4)teresa t.
I thought it's All You Can Eat , but run out of shrimps for today(Lunch time) ! Becoz we ate much?! No more shrimps! Waitress don't clean the tables, only if we ask! Waitress don't give the ice water only we go ask for it! ,refill too... And the worse thing is , they calculate tips for us and charge the credit without telling us.then there is blank spot for another tips. So that makes customer pay for tips twice....according waitress said, store policy ! We never want to go again !!!
(1)Ruben G.
I love this place ...the lamb is so delicious ...ask for the tomatoe soup its the best one
(5)Eddie F.
What a experience!!! Five stars for the service, food, beer selection, and being able to watch football. Shout out to Enzo for the great advise and service as well. Most de. Coming back soon!!!!
(5)Peter Y.
Ok so I pass by this place practically every single day and the wifey decided she wants some Hot Pot so guess what... Hot Pot we got. This strip mall was a dump but I must say, they've stepped it up for reals. A & J is pretty legit. I got the Mongolian herb soup base on our combo A. AYCE hot pot is a pretty good idea. I'm not a big eater anymore so I couldn't take advantage of it but the portion that they bring out first is well enough to fill u up. I couldn't ask for 2nds but if my tummy had room I wouldn't hesitate. Oh the soup base... Yummy. Not salty at all. Just the right amount of herbs. Oh... Got to go. Will continue when I get home.
(5)Chloe C.
The service was terrible! There seems to be a lack of organization between the servers. Our party had to ask for our orders multiple times before they actually arrived. Our soup even boiled out before we received any meat. The meat was low quality and fatty, which did not justify the price, despite using a groupon deal. Also, we saw the bartender drink the remnants of a slush drink directly out of the blender. I would definitely not come back.
(1)Emily L.
Decent ayce hot pot for the price. The meats are pretty good, I do like my hot pot meats fatty, they come out better after being cooked. They do have a good selection on their veggies and other items you can cook in your pot. The soup base isn't bad either. We got the Mongolian and their curry. I love the curry, the Mongolian isn't bad it's just less flavorful compared to little fat sheep. Their drinks are pretty delicious as well. It took a looooonnng time to get our drinks, but it was kinda worth it. The down side of this restaurant is the slow customer service and the tables. Our feet kept hitting the metal center of the table. Kinda uncomfortable. Overall, it was a good meal. We may be back soon.
(4)Stephanie B.
I've been to other very authentic hot pot joints (San Fran). This place is pretty good in comparison. We ordered "B" AYCE and it had a huge selection. Our waiter Enzo was awesome. He was quick and made sure we had whatever we wanted. Excellent service and will definitely be back soon with friends to get more punches in my stamp card.
(5)Josh And Jenn H.
We went here on a Friday night around 630pm and were seated immediately. The service started out really good, but as the night got busier it was harder to get service as quickly. Food - great variety of choices for the soup base and lots of variety for meat and veggies. I would recommend the Kim Chi or Coconut curry base. Try the lamb meat and their thick rice noddle. Don't get the rice! Ours came out cold and looked like it was scrapped off the bottom of the pot. Service - Overall it was good. Our server, PATTY, was excellent though! She was super friendly, went through the menu with us, and consistently came back to check on us to make sure our items came out. Patty really made our dinner even more enjoyable. Thanks so much Patty! =)
(4)Crystal J.
I will NOT be coming here again and I definitely don't recommend it. I did not care for the food and the service was horrible. Two waitresses for two tables and we still didn't even get water.
(1)Amy P.
I've always come here with my friends even though the food is really whatever's but this time would be the very last time!!! We had 5 people and would like to sit at the round table but the rule is 6 or more or there's an extra charge. Ok fine, since we were really smushed together at the other table. Making things worse, they never came by to even give us the menu. Not to mention there was 2 waitress serving 3 tables!!! DONT COME HERE!
(1)Austen L.
Came here for lunch today with my friends. We order half and half pot. The sauce bar is amazing and there are more option for the food. They also serve egg rolls, fried rice and chow mein. Everything is better than before and we can pick the veggie,tofu, noodle also the seafood ourselves. The waitress is very nice to us. The soup is tasty. The meat is good quality. Good service good food. Also like their drinks. We order the mint chocolate smoothie, taro milk tea and mango smoothie. Will come next time!
(5)Ted_Wiggle D.
The soup kinda too much oil & no flavor.. Service 3 stars The stupid thing is : they let us use only 1 groupon per a table , how stupid is that .. WHO THE F**K GOTTA GO EAT HOT POT BY YOURSELF ? And outside the door say : buy 1 drink get the second one 50% off .. That f**king bullshit , we order 2 drinks & end up pay full price just because we ask for a togo for a drink.. No wonder this place dying slowly ..
(1)Emilyee N.
Their service is really bad. Everything seems disorganized. We waited 10 minutes to get our table...and the place was empty. We had to ask 3-4 times for a high chair. And the waitress showed us to the wrong table that already belonged to someone else (I don't know how that's possible). We had to repeat our orders 3 times.
(2)Michelle N.
Honestly, the service was lacking, NOT because the servers are rude but because they are understaffed. I still give it a 5 stars because you can't beat the price for the quality and quantity of the food you get! I have been there 5 times and I always had to wait 45 mins but it was well worth the wait! I met the owner last night and she was extremely friendly! They had changed it to open bar for the food, so we can now serve ourselves...but remember not to get more than you can eat, because there is an extra charge for leftovers. Which is understandably so.... most people I saw were getting a lot of food and not eating it. It is a sin to waste food like that. ;/ There is a house broth that has no taste, but I usuallly get that and add my own spice, since the spicy one is waaaay beyond spicy! Even if you order it mild...and I can eat very spicy foods.
(5)Lin L.
I like the food , supper fresh. Good service, and the environment is great. It is a good option for hot pot. ..! They have small hot pot and ayce
(4)Alan S.
Food is good. Price is fair for the selection of food. But the service is not there here is why: 1. There were 4 waiters around and the place was half empty. But only 1 on the floor working for most of the time. The others are either missing or chatting to one another. Extremely hard to get their attention. Very very frustrating experience having to constantly beg for their attention. 2. Had to request three times in order to get the order sheet so we can order our food. Which makes it extremely frustrated due to the fact that it took a while in order to get a person to come help us. 3. No one care if we had anything to drink. Again had to try a few times to get them to come help us. And when we ordered tea for the table, the waiter only brought two cups and left the rest of the table nothing to drink tea or anything with. It just shows that the place didn't care about training or no one manage the quality of their service. 4. When we did actually get their attention, they are very nice and actually listened to what we need. But the problem is they always forgot to come back to give us what we asked for. And when they did come back it's usually 20 minutes later, ie bringing a glass of water. Considering the fact that the place is half empty, I really don't see them being busy at all. 5. Slow slow slow and slow. Really really slow especially when they are not even busy.
(2)Joyce Y.
Meat quality is great and we had kimchi and Mongolian soup base we like them both. I will suggest to order option B which includes lamb meatball it's soooo good!
(5)Gray M.
Bomb AYCE im not an easy person to please, but that is why i like AJ's they take care of everything for you... All you have to do is show up, order, and eat! (Applause)
(5)Momma B.
This place STINKS! everyone was 2 busy 2 help us at every point during our meal. The ONLY person who was nice & smiled and actually helped us was the waitress Julie. The owner/manager lady walked passed me MULTIPLE times as my hand was n the air. We only saw our waitress chelsi like 3 times. She took my drink order & came back 23 minutes later to inform me it was unavailable at that point I asked for water and I didnt get that until we finished our second round of food! I asked for rice before our food came and had to ask for it at three different times before i actual got it during the second round intol our meal. In an establishment where the customers do their own cooking customer service is key and this place gets an "F MINUS"! Plus customera should NEVER SEE THEIR WAIT STAFF ROLLING THEIR EYES IN DISBELIEF OR UPSET AT A CUSTOMER. thats just rude at every angle and shows me u didnt want my time or my money.
(1)Kay W.
Hmmm where do I start? It was an absolute nightmare of a dinner...the experience was horrendous! 1. Servers ask whether you'll be having hot pot or shabu before even being seated. Ummm I haven't even seen the menu and what the eff does it matter you sit at the same table. 2. Not properly trained staff. E.g. There is one person cleaning the empty tables when there weren't even enough waiters taking order. Waiters were clueless about the menu. I asked for fish and got two orders of fish balls for the AYCE. I had to get my own utensils. I had to keep flagging the waiter to get my food that was sitting at the counter. I wasn't asked what I'd like to drink when it was supposed to be free. I was charged for 3 orders when it should've been two and the bill took 15 minutes to correct. Waiters were all clueless and clearly overwhelmed. It was just terrible. 3. Free drinks is BS! Only drinks available was V8. Really? WTF? Was told that they need to stock up. There is a Walmart across the street. Someone could've picked some up. I will never step foot in here again as I've also witnessed several people walk out before their food was brought out. Please save your appetite for somewhere else.
(1)Victor R.
this is the second time here a nd i uave to say pretty good hot pot place some of their items are ok but so far really good specialy their selection of tofu and their mushrooms yummmm i recomend this place
(5)Hong R.
I bought a living social coupon and thought I would try it. It's definitely a place I would go to again. We had excellent service. The waiters were very attentive and helpful. The the food was definitely worth the price. It is an all you can eat. The broths are very flavorful. (Not for the weak ones). I ordered mild spice and it was slightly spicier than mild so be careful
(5)Annie C.
Expensive food. This place has shabu shabu type meat where you cook it on its own. The sauces aren't that great neither is the broth which is a horrible money waste of 23 bucks per person! I rather have bought all you can eat at a Korean bbq. Worst of all you can't even split the check wtf.. worst place ever and so disappointed
(1)Elva R.
Great service. Fresh meat and vegetables. They play good mucic too!! The interior design is also very chill! I like it!
(4)Ernie F.
Delicious hot pot!! Lots of yummy choices, awesome service, and reasonable prices! Highly recommended!!!
(5)T K.
"SHABUMARE" Eating at A & J West Covina is very stressful and emotionally drained like you just had a nightmare. I have been to many hot pot & shabu joints and this one is the most unorganized and most understaffed. It took them forever for set up the table, forever to get your food & drinks, forever to get attention of the server and forever to get a check. The sauce bar was so messy. Utensils ran out but nobody noticed. The kitchen seems don't care. Some items we ordered were missing and there's no explanation until we asked. They basically missed our ENTIRE second round order. Our server never came by to check on us. We waited like 20 minutes for our food and then brought it to the owner's attention. I have figured that's the only way you can get what you want at A & J, but do we need to call the owner up every single time we need something? Life is too short for that! Save your time & money & energy and go somewhere else!
(1)Jenn C.
Meh.. If there's one type of restaurant I would like to go to every day..You better believe it's a shabu shabu/hot pot restaurant. I absolutely love "hot potting" and while it is quite impossible to screw up something so utterly delicious...A&J unfortunately has missed the mark. How? To sum up my dining experience here with one word, I would say it was simply "unorganized". The food itself was alright. I liked the fact that they had several price points for their ayce menu. I also thought the server was friendly... but I really can't think of anything else better to say about this spot beyond what I've already said. First of all, this place seems like it's being run with amateurs. The water cups are all different in sizes and shapes..and I'm pretty sure that's not by design. Secondly, the area where they make drinks and prep the food is open to where the public can see. But dear owners, maybe it's not a good idea to mark your JUGS of artificial flavors and have them facing your customers? Restaurant 101... Don't show your customers the drinks they just ordered came with artificial syrups. I'm pretty sure people know when they order a lychee green tea that the "lychee" juice did not come from an actual lychee fruit, but no need to remind them? Additionally, the table placements are really close to each other, so if I'm sitting down and there's someone sitting directly behind me, there's literally no walking room behind me. My husband and I were seated at a table facing the aisle and there's a table behind us and to our left. I had to physically get up from my chair every time the table next to me needed to get their sauce or use the restroom. Talk about annoying! This is not that table's fault but the owner's. The tables are mounted to the floor and not movable. It seems to me like the owner would rather fit more tables in than consider the dining experience of their guests.... Finally, the reason why this review is only a 2-star: it took forever for us to get our food. Each time we placed an order, we had to wait at least 20 minutes. Seriously? The place wasn't even that busy!! How long does it take to serve raw food?? Ridiculous! Thanks but no thanks. We won't be back. If you want a decent ayce hot pot place in the area, try World Hot Pot! Same price, same selections and way more organized!
(2)Bernard A.
Only got about half of the meat varieties we ordered. Poor service all around
(2)Laysa C.
The food was great and the servers were very friendly it feels like we got to know the whole crew. They were very attentive towards us and helpful with the cooking. The food was fantastic, and if you enjoy spicy, they have it! I have high tolerance for it and this place is good for those people who enjoy spicy. The seafood was great and so was the lamb! Coming back for sure! They also attend to the less spicy. :) Oh and the Oolong tea is fantastic. :D
(5)Eric M.
Broth tasted like I was putting oil in my mouth. Not good at all. I will not be coming back.
(1)Bryan P.
I'm not sure why there were so many bad reviews. Aside from the 10% off when you write a review, we had a pretty good experience. The wait staff was friendly, helpful and attentive, if not slightly forgetful. The food wasn't amazing but it was above average for us. There's a lot of choices as far as meats and veggies go and everything seems seasoned pretty well. We did not have the issue of an overly salty soup base. We did have an issue, however, with our check being incorrect. Long story short, you should probably double check that thing. I would probably come back here. Nothing to write home about but also doesn't bite the bullet. I'd like to try the Japanese Coconut soup base. Ordered: House special/Spicy Hot Pot with beef, pork and spam.
(3)Herbie H.
I was very hesitant to come here based on what other Yelpers had to say. But I'm sure glad I came to try this place for myself! The soup base is very good. Not too salty or medicine-tasting. The meat quality is good, but they could do a neater job of cutting the meats and maybe leaner cuts of meat. They have quail eggs...my favorite! The veggies and other stuff is pretty standard fare. Oh...they have this Japanese sweet yam...awesome! Sauces are good, too. The service was great! The servers had great attitudes, and they were very attentive. They weren't perfect, but they always made up for their deficiencies with awesome attitudes...the staff really made the dining experience a good one. There's room for improvement. AYC drink soda would be great...a soda fountain is a must! They have lots of drinks, but it's hot pot, and something with free refills is a must. Some of the processes could be tightened up, but there is great potential for this place to be awesome and 5 stars! I'll definitely be back, and I'll bring friends! They have some gimmicky promotions right now...a free can of soda if you pay with cash and 10% off if you write a Yelp review and check in. I could do without both promotions...I'd do the Yelp review regardless of the 10% off!
(4)Maple K.
One of those places that make you wonder if they ever tried the food they served.. Hot pot soup base is too salty and the ingredients weren't good. Overall not a good experience. There is also a choice of rice or beancurd - but when it came, we found out that the beancurd was actually clear noodles. We brought this up to the waitress, who said that the chef told them to say beancurd so she just said beancurd. And she said that she actually isn't sure what they serve, she just said what the chef told her to say. If you work at a restaurant, shouldn't you at least know what your restaurant serves? Not impressed..
(2)N G.
Interesting concept . A lot of fresh ingredients to add to the soup. Creative decor
(4)Jack W.
Be prepared to check the bill carefully and question the owner/manger if the amount is not right. Our party of 8 ordered dinner B, cash price should be $16.99 for 2(buy 1 get 1 free promotion). My guest secretly paid the bill and later said he paid $107. We did not order any drinks, everyone had water. We did not order anything outside the menu. The bill including tax should be no more than $75, but we were overcharged by more than $32. Will this restaurant survive another year? I doubt it.
(1)Edward Y.
Great service great food, we will definitely come back! The curry pot is Good!!!
(5)redieaf y.
you get what you pay for. buffet area is kinda messy, vegi was not fresh. soup base was light in flavor. cooked food such as fried rice/hot wings were either over cooked or left out for too long, very dry.
(2)Mary I.
Bad customer service from the moment we walked in the door. We stood there like idiots for a good 10 minutes waiting to be seated. No host was standing by the front door. When we were seated we found out they don't have a set menu for one type of soup like Boiling Point and Jazz Cat has. Only for lunch they do but for dinner it's all you can eat and each piece of meat or vegetable was $3-$4 each and the total adds up quick. The portions are small. The kimchi soup base was full of flavor and spicy. Their healthy house soup base was so bland. It just tasted like water with herbs. The waiters seem like high school kids with no prior work experience. They forgot our serving spoons, forgot our order of meats, forgot to refill our waters, and forgot to put my milk tea in a to-go cup and they put it in a beer jug. Plus, they ran out of boba! I didn't like how we had to get up from our seats and walk over to the other side of the restaurant to get our sauces at their sauce bar. The sauces were running low and we got whatever was at the bottom. When we asked for utensils the waiter told us to ask the people in the back for it. What kind of service is this?! You eat at a restaurant and you pay to be served. It was so difficult to grab their attention to even pay for the check so we got up and went to the register. The girls working there were so busy chit-chatting in Spanish while it was obvious that we were waiting in front of them. I don't know why we bothered leaving them a tip after that bad experience. Etiquette maybe.
(1)Chloe W.
Awesome service and food! Will recommend to friends and family for sure. New favorite ayce hot pot place.
(5)Saul A.
This place is awful. First off, the food is always coming out practically frozen and to add insult to injury they denied to serve us because they wanted close almost an hour early. Sheer laziness, on their part, and then they wonder why they have trouble paying the rent!!!
(1)Jade W.
Food was fresh and good. But was not satisfy with the meat. Had greater expectation. Great service though. Terrell was our server and he was polite, helpful, sweet, and just great overall!
(4)Martha D.
It was a great experience with fresh and good food plus the service was great. If you life soup and Japanese food this is definitely a place to try
(4)Brian B.
Food is really good, ingredients fresh and great atmosphere. I like that they play hip hop as background music (not loud). Ordering can be confusing but their staff is really helpful and courteous. My gf and I are regulars here. Highly recommend.
(4)Monica A.
This place was poppin, good customer service. Good oysters, yummy boba, and I love atmosphere. Overall it's worth checking out.
(4)Tangtang w.
Tried this place for dinner tonight, it was just ok. Tried their mini hot pot (beef & meatballs) and popcorn chicken. Hot pot soup base was like blah... Kinda tasteless. Popcorn chicken was ok, personal I'd like to add some spicy to it. Location is convenient, right off freeway with a lot of parking spaces.
(3)Czar V.
Excellent food! Great variety of meats and veggies. Service is great. Highly recommended. Will come back for sure!
(5)Abhishek J.
The soup base was little spicy for me but over all flavorful. The veggies and meat was great. Definitely a come back.
(4)Mark F.
Just ate here with my wife for the first time. It was amazing! My first experience with hot pot. We will def be back. We had the vegetarian tomato soup and all the veggies. The milk teas are delicious also and come in huge mugs! Service was great as well. Can't wait to come back!
(5)becky c.
Everything was great EXCEPT the beef. The first beef order was good....don't know why everytime I go when it comes the second and third order the quality of the beef are just different than the first.
(3)Xiaoke H.
Good condition nice servers very tasty
(5)Linny H.
I came here with my husband and 22 month old son on Valentines Day. It was a horrible experience. They did not have any spare high chairs, so we had to carry our fidgeting son while we cooked raw food into a boiling hot pot. We came early before the crowd started filling up the place and somehow they felt that they should put us in the back of the room in this gazebo with Christmas lights all over. I had to walk over a bunch of loose wires on the floor, which I'm quite sure is a hazard. Luckily I'm careful or I could have tripped many times while carrying my son. And the air conditioning wasn't very good or maybe it's because we're eating hot pot in a gazebo filled with Christmas lights all around us. The service was slow because they were understaffed on Valentines Day. The food was ok. Not the best, but edible. The portions were small, so we weren't full when we left. We were tired of waiting for the waitress to come around and our son was getting very upset and my husband was tired of walking outside back and forth to sooth our son. Their sauces are in a self-serve counter, but their sauce isn't special compared to other places. So and so, we don't mind coming back when they are not as busy and when they have more high chairs. I'm quite sure all the other parents who had to hold their child while eating that night feels the same way.
(2)Stephany S.
Service is okay. The waitress was really nice. Don't get the lunch special 8.99. They only give you 5 pieces of meat and you cant switch to all you can eat. The food was mediocre. Sauce is good and very traditional.
(3)Lisa L.
i am not being harsh but to be honest their soup base is bad and the quality of their food is bad. the beef taste very rough and dry and thick。i had eat a tons of hot pot before but this one really disappointed me. there interior design n service is good。
(2)Nancy C.
First time here & learned to cook our soup with the help of the great & friendly staff! Soup was delicious!
(5)ra l.
Friendly staff, good selection, plenty of veggies n meats. Try this place
(4)Luis C.
My friend brought me here to have some tea. I was greeted by a very wonderful Rosa. The menu has a great variety of choices. Had myself a strawberry black /green tea. Very delicious. Didn't get a chance to try the hot pot. I'll definitely be coming back to try the hot pot and another one of their amazing teas.
(5)Ivy L.
Very good place for ayce shabu! Friendly staff and delicious broths. They are located right next to the 10 freeway making them easy to find. Even better!
(5)Ruby L.
First time here, they have a variety of soup base to choose from. We Had the Japanese coconut curry soup - it was tasty. Definitely worth it for AYCE. Will definitely come back again.
(4)Kevin Y.
I can't believe of all places, this is the place that made me spiteful enough to start writing on Yelp. A & J is an AYCE All You Can Eat Chinese Hot Pot restaurant. We went there on a not so busy Wednesday night. It was about 60% full. About 8 waiters/waitress working the front and maybe 4 people working the kitchen. There were 5 large tables and a few other small tables open when we got there. The waiter tried to sit us in the back corner where someone is already sitting to share a table. This table is very awkwardly positioned that the other customer would have to get up out of their chairs just so we can get to our seat (think of it as a 6 person booth, while 2 other customers are already sitting on the outside they tried sitting me and my party of 3 on the inside). We asked to not sit there because of the positioning and they put us at another table next to another party that was still a bit tight, but somewhat better. Sure, they recently opened and all the workers might still be getting the hang of how the business flows, but really the things that occurred really shouldn't happen even at a soft or grand opening. 1) You write your order on a menu form and give it to the waiter. They took forever to pick up our order even after waving to a few waiters. No problem, many Asian places do this I'm used to it. 2) Food took about 30 minutes to come out (the people next to us ordered before us and their food didn't even make it out they left about 10 minutes after we got our food). How long does it take to cut slices of meat and veggies? 3) Our food came out missing many of the item's we ordered. (It's okay we'll order it next round) 4) Asked waitress for another form to reorder. She said okay but never came back. After 10 minutes of waiting, I had to wave down another waiter to get a form. Finally got the menu ordering form from the waiter after a 5 minute wait. Took about 5 minutes of me waving my hand for a waiter/waitress to acknowledge me needing to order. 5) 20 minutes later they brought us out some food. Which was totally not what we ordered. So we advised them this was not what we ordered. They then dropped it off at the table next to us. 6) 10 minutes later brought our order. But only half. Missing the meat. Had to wave a waiter down to let them know that we still need the meat order. I then see the waiter going to the food workers and complaining to them with our order menu. 7) We finally got the meat after losing our appetite from waiting. Summary: The whole experience took an unnecessary 2 and 1/2 hours eating here. The employees are very inexperienced at what they do. There seems to be 0 communication at this place. Whoever is managing the team is doing a terrible job. I would never eat here again nor recommend it to anyone I care about. Saw many people in the restaurant walk out or looked very dissatisfied with the service they received. Service: Horrible Food: Meh, at 17.99 per person starting AYCE I'd rather eat somewhere else. Sauces and broth were a little on the salty side. We got kimchi and house special.
(1)Malsea V.
Omg I love this place!!! My boyfriend and I decided to try it out and it was amazing!!! The servers were super nice and helpful! We're definitely coming back soon!
(5)Eric S.
This is my second time and I like this place. It's something different in the area. I was full but because everything is cooked in broth, I didn't feel heavy after my meal. I love the Korean Kimchi broth!
(4)Shirley L.
this place sucks so much , First when we got in, my husband order the spicy pot and combo B , but wait for half hour, have to start yell to get a server then they totally forget what we ordered , so we have to reorder, the pot finally got here the heater was unplugged we have to move the table our self to get the plug working , later the order was slow like hell and they only serve the food they want to give to you , vegetable have bug and bad leaf , by the time to add water , ONCE AGAIN we have to do it our-self, last but not least when we pay my bill was way TOO MUCH than we plan , the Service suck and they charge my 15% service fee, we only have five adult , and one 5 years old , they did not even let us know the paid cash will get the $2 different . they are terrible.
(1)Christopher T.
THIS PLACE MAKES NO SENSE! It's not all-you-can-eat its all-you-can-get-charged-for. There's a charge for extra broths, there's a party surcharge,there's a charge items off of different menus, etc. we didn't even end up eating here. By far, the worse hot pot Restaraunt.
(1)david p.
Bad service, unorganized, a bad setup of their tables and it seemed like chickens without their heads running the joint. I saw more than 3 tables get up and leave while i was waiting to be served. Man this place sucks
(1)a l.
If I could, then I'd give this place no stars. This place is terrible. The staff were rude and unaccommodating to their customers. There were only 3 of us here, but 2 of us were eating. Just trying to get "our" waitress, Chelsea, to come get our order took way too long. After she took our order, she didn't even bother asking us what we would like to drink. So, it took another 10 minutes to get that. When I finally flagged down Chelsea again, we asked for a well blended slushie for my nephew, lemonade (since she said they didn't offer soda), and water. My water came after we got our food and we never saw the lemonade. Towards the end of our first round and me asking another employee, the manager/owner, and Chelsea again, she told us they don't have lemonade. So, my friend asked for a water which took 10 minutes. The only employee that was great is Julie; so we personally gave her the tip. To add the cherry on top of this awful experience, it took over 15 minutes to get our bill. Combine this with the other waitress giving us attitude every time I asked for something multiple times, the manager/owner ignoring my friend trying to wave her down, and Chelsea rolling her eyes at the customers, I'll never go to this place again. If u want a good hot pot place, then go to ten ten shabu a few exits down.
(1)John Anthony C.
Great place. Staff was very respectful in explaining the menu.
(5)John D.
Went there with friends for the grand opening buy-2-get-1-free deal, which means mini hot pots and not AYCE shabu. A few things I noticed: * Their tables have this knee-high, metal platform that sticks out, which means for a tall person like me I can't put my legs all the way in and I had to hunch forward in the chair just to eat. Try to hold that pose for an hour. * They give you 3 types of veggies (which is good), with 2 types already in the mini pot when they bring it to your table. Once I digged down into the pile, I found a bunch of wilted, yellowing lettuce bits with brown edges. That turned me off big time and I had to hunt down every last piece and toss them to the side. * As others have noted before, the meat slices are toilet paper thin and doesn't do much to fill you up. * Instead of fish balls, they give you quartered meat ball chunks that tasted funny. There's also mini Spam slices that have no texture and tasted like spoiled pork fat. * The Mongolian lamb broth I ordered was actually pretty good with all the herbs they've put in there. * The steamed rice was mushy, and refills will cost you. If this is what A&J offers to draw customers in, they've failed miserably. First impression is everything, and based on what I had, I would tell all of my friends to stay away from this place.
(1)Anthony F.
This place struggled during Grand Opening with new employees but when we recently visited service and food was much better. Im happy they've figured things out and Would definitely recommend this place to someone wanting a good local hot pot or AYCE. They bring plenty of meat and you have to ask for smaller portions second rounds or else you're in for it (definitely not a bad thing)
(4)KK L.
"Hot pot is pretty good, need a bit more variety in food and more competitive prices. Free can of soda if you pay cash. Everything else great so far."
(4)Cindy C.
Great service, and great food! Our server was Khala and she was adorable and so patient with our table..5 stars solely based on service! I really hope I spelled her name correctly. The food was also pretty good, and they even have the traditional mongolian style soup comparable to little sheep. If you're like my friend who loves watermelon, you're in a for a treat because it's complimentary at the sauce bar. I will definitely come back. Just one thing-- I wish they had ponzu sauce :(
(5)jonathon d.
Tasty! I was driving through West Covina on my way to Palm Springs for a scandalous weekend full of debauchery, wondering how I could best mentally and physically prepare myself for the intrigue that awaits, when I happened upon this charming oasis. While, I must admit, that perhaps my choice of dish may not be the most pleasing to any of the few-to-many potential consorts with whom I may or may not be associating with this evening, I personally rather enjoyed it.
(4)Chris S.
I came here on a Sunday night it was not too busy so we did not have to wait. The service was good. The food was pretty good especially for AYCE place. There is a good selection of food. Although its not as good as Jazz Cat its a great option especially if you do not want to wait or if u live around West Covina
(4)corey w.
Went here and got awesome! The food was good and my fiancée and I would come back here again. So stuffed from all u can eat.
(4)MacGyver N.
My family and I wanted to try this new hot pot place..we have been to all the good shabu/hot pot places in Rowland Heights and Chino Hills.. this place needs a lot of work. The server(Asian dude with glasses) was excellent..he was very patient and explained things very well. We all liked him very much! The menu and AYCE shabu idea was VERY confusing the way the place has it set up.. gave me a headache trying to figure out how to order stuff here.. the meat was cheap!!! low quality cheap meat. The sesame sauce was the worst I have tasted out of all the shabu places. My friend needed a fork to eat something and one of the workers there said there were no forks at the restaurant! wth??!! what about the gringos that go who don't know how to use chopsticks..this is West Covina where a lot of white people still live..this ain't Rowland Heights where everyone knows how to use a chopstick! Getting all the uncooked food to the table took a very long time too.. definitely no plans on going back to this place. I will stick to my spots in Rowland Hts..
(2)