kPot Columbus
Happy Wednesday, all! Back to the food this week as we visited K-Pot on Bethel Road to stuff ourselves with all-you-can-eat. One of our friends frequents this spot and has recommended it with flying colors. After seeing pictures about it in her posts, we knew we had to try it as it’s not just a dinner but an experience!
K-Pot has thirteen locations around the country and has been growing steadily for five years after opening its first location in New York. Four friends of different backgrounds decided to create a restaurant centered around the experience of sharing a meal with friends. They combined Asian hot pots and Korean BBQ to create a unique dining experience. The Bethel Road location opened earlier this year in the late winter months, just in time to warm us up for spring. Nestled into the corner of the Bethel Center Mall, the spot has plenty of parking to accommodate the massive amount of seats inside.
A modern industrial interior surrounds the many tables that all seat parties of six. Built into each table are burners in front of each seat for hot pots and a central grilling station. This is where the food concept comes into play. When ordering from K-Pot, each person pays $30 for an all-you-can-eat dinner. However, you choose your dining experience as a table. As a table, you can grill various meats and vegetables, sharing them between you. The other option is to choose a hot pot and again share the ingredients between the table while having your own broth pot. If you cannot decide between a hot pot and grilling, you pay $5 more per person to experience both options. In addition to all these choices, there are even more with a bar of sauces up front to create dipping sauces for your grilled meats or add to your soup.
We did the experimenting for you and went for both options. They have so many options for both the grilling and the soup that it was difficult to decide, but thankfully, our waitress was full of recommendations and gave us small enough portions to try many of them. For the grilling, we loved the spicy pork bulgogi and smoked garlic pork belly. We weren’t huge calamari fans, mainly because we overcooked it. Now that we know it cooks quickly, I wouldn’t oppose trying it again. They have cooking times posted at each table, which is helpful, but keep an eye on the meats! Don’t worry if your grill gets dirty; the waitress changes the top of it often. Pro tip: take full advantage of the cooking oil up front to help with this and sticking!
Regarding the hot pot, you start by choosing a base to share and then choose from the meats, tofu, vegetables, and noodles. Again, you are sharing these with the table. The only thing you can differentiate on is the noodles; you can have a different choice than your friends. Once the broth starts to boil, add in your meats and veggies to cook, and turn down the heat to enjoy! Our meats and veggies cooked so quickly that we overcooked our mussels. Again, keep an eye out! We chose the Szechuan beef base, which packs the heat; our sinuses were cleared afterward.
We both left stuffed and barely able to walk. When talking about the experience, we agreed that next time, we want to try more of the sauces and less spicy meats. Be careful with your ordering; you can get a surcharge if you leave too much uneaten food! It wasn’t one of our more inexpensive dinners, but if you take advantage of the all-you-can-eat experience, it’s not bad for the quality and amount of possible food!
