The Pot’s

My first hot pot experience was a success!
Yes, this place is pricey. On a Saturday, the meal cost $ 25 plus tax and tip, or $ 35 total; I was in a group of 11 people, so the tip was high. So worth it! Felt like I had 2 meals.
The Pot’s has a great selection of food to put in our pot, including beef, seafood, bok choy, chinese donuts, etc etc. There was a variable selection of noodles – from udon to ramen. Aside from the delicious slices of tenderloin, I loved the Chinese donuts and egg custard «bun,» which was more of a custard dumpling. The Chinese donuts came straight from the fryer and was wonderful to dip in the soup. Melt-​in-​your mouth goodness!
Restaurant is a little out of the way. You have to take Muni. Sorry, BART does not traverse the Outer Sunset. However, if you’ve never experienced hot pot, it is well worth it!

I was craving all you can eat hot pot and for that, The Pots does suffice.
They do things differently here than I’ve seen before which I was excited to try– you fill out a paper with all the different toppings/​additions you want. There are over a hundred choices. My friend and I were excited to try a whole array of veggies and meats but we ended up being underwhelmed.
The beef was cut too thick and was chewy. The veggie choices were lacking compared to the other categories. With so many choices I wish they had had carrots or bean sprouts. You could get soup dumplings to add to your broth but they were bland. The spicy broth was good but it is just covered in whole red pepper which I had to fish out of the broth just to be able to cook my meat.
The saving grace was our server who was a complete sweetheart. And also the guy who kept refilling our waters.
Tip: They do not take discover card

Very good, solid AYCE hot pot with a good wide selection. Beware the spicy fire soup base though! I always thought I ate very spicy but this soup almost ruined my experience. It was delicious, but waaaay too spicy. My stomach hurt for next couple days after due to the intense spiciness… I’m still debating if the pain was worth it. :)

We got the pork bone soup, spicy, and spicy miso. the meat was tender. The vegetables where fresh. We also ordered hot sake and a Sapporo. The service was great and everything tastes good. I highly recommend going here if you need a hot pot fix.

Mediocre restaurant. Service was slow beyond comparison and there was only two tables other than us there. The vegetables weren’t even washed, they were still covered in dirt. The quality of the ingredients was very poor and it’s only saving grace really was the broth options.
They open at 5pm and when we asked for our rice at 5:30 they said it would be another 15 minutes because it was still cooking. Who waits 20+ minutes AFTER opening to start cooking your rice. That’s something you do before opening.
When we first got there we had a giant dead mosquito on the table that they didn’t feel was necessary to clean or remove before seating us.
We had to ask the same person about 3 times in average for the same thing in order to ever even receive it from them.
Wouldn’t come back.

My friend told me that this was a Shabu place, Unilocal told me that this is a Hot Pot place and when I called to make a reservations they spoke Cantonese and so I know at that point that it is a definitely Chinese place.
I made reservations because I saw Unilocalers say that they take reservations and I just don’t feel like getting to a place and waiting for a table anymore. I got here around 6 and was promptly seated.
Note: Like most Chinese places, you have to flag down waiters for service, if that’s something that you aren’t used to, that’s how this place operates. You ask and they come to you right away and give you service, it’s standard around Chinese places, so don’t be alarmed and I didn’t take off a star for it because of that reason.
For an all you can eat place, the meat was pretty average, but not bad. Vegetables were fresh and the fish balls, pork balls and beef balls they had was tasty and of the standard fare. Overall, things were pretty fresh and there is a variety of broth to choose from (although it seems like most of them are pretty greasy, so if you are health conscious, might be best to stick with hot water and make your own broth by making the food yourself).
Parking in sunset is hit and miss, the good part is that there is a MUNI Rail station half a block away. (I believe it’s the N Train, or whatever train that’s headed to Ocean Beach).
There is value here in the price, if you are a big eater, or just don’t want to have it nickel and dime you, this isn’t bad. (I’ve been to a per plate place and came out with a $ 100 bill without even knowing). Price on Weekdays are $ 24.99 and weekends are $ 25.99, and i would say that you get what you pay for, it’s not the $ 12 Hot Pot place that gives you crap.
Overall I would come back to this place again for the value and the selection. I would skip the broth next time and just go with water and maybe a couple of chilis if I want something spicy.
For $ 13, you can also get unlimited beers (and the price of an über ride home afterwards).

The Pot’s makes for a fun, delicious meal with friends. It’s all-​you-​can-​eat hot pot. They have so many items, everything from plain and marinated meats (lamb, pork, beef, seafood) to seafood (tilapia, shrimp), and veggies. They also have a wide variety of noodles and dumplings. I wasn’t a fan of the shrimp paste or Shanghai Pork Dumpling (XLB). That kind of dumpling is not meant for hot pot. Come with a group so you can order everything! The portion size of each order is pretty big. You are guaranteed to get food coma.
One negative is that they don’t have many sauces. The hot pot restaurants back home in MD and VA have a full sauce bar allowing you to make your own tasty concoctions. I guess they make up for that with their many soup options. If you get more than one soup base, it’s an additional $ 1 per person. Definitely worth it! We went with the Pork Bone and Spicy Miso.

Overall: Causal/​big place offers traditional hot pot experience. Lots of food options for $ 25.99 AYCE within 1 – 1.5 hrs. (i can’t remember if it is 1 or 1.5) but it was PLENTY of time for our group.
NOTE: There is ‘additional’ charge on the bill for sauce per person. (It wasn’t a lot but not really a fan). If you add some beer, the price/​pp really add up. :)
NOTE: They do take reservation. Call ahead so you don’t have to wait.
Review was based on weekend Saturday dinner with 6:30 Reservation. Street parking only but you will find something since you are all the way out around 33^th.
Services: 4 stars. The servers come check on you very frequently on food request, water, remove dirty plates.
Food/​drinks/​Value:
Soup base: Each pot is divided into 3 sections. You can have 3 soup options.
— Spicy hot pepper was very flavorful and spicy. It is anise star so you might feel a little ‘Ma La’ tingly.
— Satay — I like this one too. Good satay favor on the meat.
— Beef bone — very mild. Good for kids
— Sake — Very light mild with ginger inside.
Hot pot options:
— Kobe Beef — Like other Unilocalers suggested, it is very tasty and soft.
— Wine Beef — Good wine taste but the meat was thicker cut
— Beef Tongue — Delicious if you are a tongue person. :)
— Intestine and Tripe — Both are delicious if you can handle them. I can’t do hot pot without tripe :)
— Fish paste — Not that much place will offer fish paste. There were actually 2 kinds.
— Pork
— Fried Fish cake — OK
— Veggies — so many options. All fresh.
— XLB little dumplings — Skip it. Not good.
Décor: Causal and lots of seating based on SF standard.
Kids friendly: Yes BUT you are paying ½ price for them. For $ 13 each, my kids only had a couple slice of beef and some fish cakes. :) BTW, they go by counter height and not by age. My super petite girls are half price. I think it is best for adult and get the kids a babysitters instead.
Gluten Free/​Sensitivity: Nothing was labeled with GF. Ask the server or use your judgement. I do not believe they use GF soy sauce.

I’ve definitely experienced better hot pot but I think this place deserves two over three stars.
I decided to try a hot pot place in San Francisco that was not Shabu, and something that had AYCE available for less than $ 30/​person.
Limited street parking, but my boyfriend and I got lucky. We snagged a spot less than a block away from the restaurant. The place isn’t spacious so I would expect a crowd on Friday nights or weekends.
A table shares one pot. I’ve read from a previous review that it cost $ 1 extra per person if you want two broths. I think that’s just plain stupid.
My bf and I selected miso broth and ordered imitation crab, fried fish cake, napa, lamb, beef, and a variety of seafood and meat balls. Huge thumbs down for their beef, too chewy! Y
Yes, miso IS salty but I think the broth was TOO salty. Salty to the point that sauce is completely useless.
We requested peanut and ponzu sauce. I think their peanut came straight from a Skippy’s jar but whipped till it was viscous lol .
Overall I wouldn’t come back given that I live closer to another hot pot restaurant that serves similar food at a cheaper price.

Came here for dinner with a friend and BF. This place is not that great. I prefer Ipot more. There is only 4 small plates of which you can make your own sauce. Basically soy sauce and some peanuts and chives. Disappointed by the sauce. The lamb here is better than the lamb at ipot but beef is way better at Ipot. I like that you can order dimsum at ipot but unfortunately you cannot here. I came here as my friend said it was the best place in SF. With some doubt I came here to try it. We ordered two soups– spicy miso and pork bone soup. The meats come i various marinations, and the beef and wine are okay. I recommend getting the regular beef.
It’s $ 25/​person for it and trust me, Ipot is so much better. (I’m sorry I can’t stop comparing this place to ipot. Even boiling in fremont is better too!!) The pot can be two soup but they will charge a dollar each per soup, which adds more to your price. The food is definitely mediocore, and the shrimp paste is better. I highly recommend trying IPOT and comparing it to this place.

As Elsa would say, «The cold never bothered me anyway.»
Uh, no storm can come between me and my hot pot. It was one of those stormy SF nights with heavy rain combined with the disgusting winds. But my friends and I still came to hot pot, and surprisingly HELLA people were ELSA as well. Like, the storm didn’t phase anyone at all.
:FOOD:
AYCE HOT POT $ 25.99
We got the pork bone broth and the miso soup. $ 1 additional added to each person to do the halfsies. You also have the option of 3 soup bases, but its quite pricier.
The pork bone was plain and flavorless but I liked it more than the miso soup. Something about the miso soup threw me off. It was extremely salty where it made the items not as great.
They provided the starter kit for making your sauce with soy sauce, garlic, cilantro, AND SATAY (IM SOORRRY… DONT JUDGE… I FINISHED THE ENTIRE CAN. IT WAS MEEEEEE: p). Satay is the best thing to go with hot pot.
MEAT
Small variety of COMMON meat I have to say. They do have a big selection but it’s stuff I wouldnt order like pork intestine, pork blood, pork ear, beef tongue etc. Super liked the Kobe beef slice though as it was pretty tender. The pork slice was good too.
~fav one: Kobe Beef
MEAT/​SEAFOOD BALLS
Variety like beef tendon ball, fried fish ball, lobster ball (so artificial tasting you find a pic under ARTIFICIAL in the dictionary), pork meat ball, etc.
HAND MADE MEAT & SEAFOOD BALLS
they got stuff like beef or shrimp with cheese filling, fresh shrimp ball, scallop shao mai, cuttlefish ball, fish ball (SUPER good btw, you can actually taste the freshness), shrimp or fish paste
~fav one: fish ball
SEAFOOD
fish fillet (not that fresh tasting), shrimp, imitation crab, cuttle fish, mussel, fried fish cake (pretty good)
~fav one: Fried fish cake
NOODLES& OTHERS
thin rice noodle, ramen noodle (ehh i would skip next time it was hard no matter how long we cooked it), egg noodle, udon (my fav:), thick noodle, instant noodle, flat rice noodle, taro thread, hot dog, chinese donut, rice, hotlink, bean vermicelli
~fav one: UDON
HOME MADE DUMPLING
shrimp wonton, pork & shrimp (not that good, full of veggies and my friends who like veggies did not like it), shang hai pork dumpling, chicken & chives, hot pot taro bun, hot pot red bean bun, hot pot egg yolk bun, spinach dumpling, shrimp dumpling, etc.
~Fav one: Shanghai pork dumpling
VEGETABLES
IF YOU LIKE VEGGIES OR ARE VEGETARIAN, this is probably HEAVEN for you. Not gonna name it all since there’s so many
~Fav one: deep fried tofu
:Service/​Atmosphere/​Parking:
Service was pretty decent. Only one girl who was a bit shorter was SUPER nice to us. The guys there never had much emotion. There were hella people running around so it wasnt too hard to flag down.
Atmosphere super loud and waiters/​waitresses running around like any other hot pot places.
Parking SUCKS. This area has 0 to oh 0 parking. Its always full here for some reason. I had to park maybe 3 blocks in the residential area and my friends parked even further.
Overall, a pretty good place to hot pot. Wish they had more meat selections though for carnivores like me. Other than that, not much to complain about.

Food (⁵⁄₅): Spicy miso broth is really flavorful, and the meats, veggies, etc that you can order are all fresh and good quality. We ordered lamb, kobe beef, napa cabbage, udon, soft tofu, chinese donut (you tiao), golden fried dumplings, and egg york dumplings. They don’t skimp on the portions at all — each item was a good serving for a party of 4. My friend and I hit a wall and it was a struggle from then on, but hot pot is too good haha.
Service (⁴⁄₅): Friendly, fast service. A little slow to fill waters but that’s probably because I chug water like no other when I eat hot pot haha.
Value (⁵⁄₅): We didn’t take full advantage of the AYCE, but for the variety and quantity they offer, $ 30 after tax and tip isn’t too bad of a splurge!

Um why is this place four stars?
Came here for dinner, and there’s plenty of seating. How this AYCE hotpot restaurant works is that you check off the ingredients you want from a list, but don’t worry you can always order more from the list later. 1 soup base is set at a standard price, but if you order a mix of 2 or 3 soup bases, it’ll cost more. There a wide range of different options for ingredients which is a huge plus, and the stove is simple to manage. The price here for AYCE is $ 25/​person, which isn’t a bad deal at all. Service was friendly, and there’s always waiters walking around. Poor ventilation in here though. As I was dining, I felt like I was stuck in a hot box. I mean even the glass windows fogged up.
Got the Spicy Miso and Pork Bone for soup base and tried the Kobe Beef and Lamb.
Both soups tasted nice, but I would prefer the Spicy Miso over the Pork Bone. The kobe beef barely had barely any marbling fat to it. The lamb meat was sliced way too thin that when I tried picking it up, it fell apart into little pieces. The enoki mushrooms and A-​choy didn’t quite taste as fresh as I would like. They sparked my appetite though with the options for Chinese donuts and Egg Yolk Buns.
Hotpot is one of my top things to eat, and this place did not satisfy my taste buds.

My go-​to AYCE hot pot place in San Francisco, this place is your traditional Cantonese hot pot. They have a myriad of soup bases (I like the spicy miso a lot) and a lot of food choices, with the meats available in various marinations. The beef in red wine sauce did get a little too inventive and might not be for everyone though — I recommend getting the regular beef. The lamb is really good as well.
The service is generally pretty good, although they can be a little slow in bringing the food. It’s $ 25/​person for it, which seems pretty standard for AYCE in the area. Variety therefore becomes a big differentiator and The Pot definitely stands out to me with the wide selection of food of food offered.

All you can eat, so come hungry! Really good quality food. They provide spicy and non-​spicy hot pot, so you can bring people who don’t like spicy food with you. But we all know the spicy hot pot is were it’s at! A couple comments of the food:
Kobe beef is really good, can’t get enough of this stuff
Lamb is good as well, can’t go wrong here
Pork blood is okay, somewhat bland flavor, but I like the texture
Fish balls have a texture equivalent to chicken nuggets, flavor was okay
Winter melon was good
Chinese donut is actually pretty good when you dip it into the broth for 3 seconds
Veggies are a must if you’re eating a lot of meat
You have to get all the dumplings, they were very good
Also, make sure the clothes you wear are easy to wash, because your clothes will reek of this place when you leave!
Prices: $ 24.99 (Mon-​Thurs) and $ 25.99 (Fri-​Sun), but it comes out to over $ 30 when you include tax and tip.

The first thing I noticed, as I was about to walk in, were the fogged up windows! They should definitely keep the door open.
Since we had a party of 8, we made a reservation. I believe parties of 6 or more can make reservations. The soup base was alright. I didn’t find it to be particularly tasty or amazing. I love spicy stuff, but the spicy broth did not have that kick that I usually like. However, the spicy broth did give the food more flavor than the non-​spicy broths. There’s a lot to choose from in terms of meats, fish balls (some even have cheese in it!), mushrooms, and vegetables.
Service was lacking here. The whole time I was there, the servers never checked up on us.
Parking is street parking here. It was very difficult.

First time here. It was good. My family & I came on NYE for dinner. It was a cold evening. Perfect for hot pot. We were a party of 7 people and arrived around 5:15pm. We did not make reservations. Waited a few minutes for a table. The menu is printed on one large sheet of paper. There were a variety of items to choose from. You mark how many you want. It’s all you can eat. For $ 25 + tax AYCE, it’s actually not that bad considering the amount they give you.
We had 2 pots with one broth each: regular miso and bone broth. We were going to get 2 split broth in each pot but noticed in small print… they charge $ 1 extra for each person if you split the hot pot. Portion is great. I didn’t care much for the kobe beef slices. I prefer the regular lamb slices over the beef. If you forget the beef and was cooked longer than it should, it becomes tough & chewy. The lamb remained tender even if it’s cooked long. The lamb marinated with beer was like whoa. I can really taste the beer. Definitely, not for kids. The beef marinated with wine was good. Not that bad. Shrimp, swai fish filet, tendons & all types of veggies were good. The dumplings were very filling! I requested hot sauce and was given sriracha only. I was expecting a house-​made spicy chili sauce but none.
Make sure you get all the items ordered. They forgot our egg noodles. By the time we noticed it, we were already full and didn’t bother with it. It would be nice if it was brought out during the beginning of our meal. At the end of our meal, we scooped out some broth into the empty sauce bowl. Drank it and yum! So much flavor & tasty. Warms up the soul. Overall, we enjoyed dinner. By the time we left at 7pm, there was a line out the door. They were busy & packed. I would definitely come back again.

I was visiting from Los Angeles and my friend suggested this place to me as a local favorite. I was skeptical at first because I already have my favorite hot pot spots in LA. However, after eating there, I finally understood why it was a favorite amongst the locals. It’s the best place to be in on a chilly day in SF!
First off, it’s ALL YOU CAN EAT! Nothing to complain about that. There is usually a long wait but it’s pretty worth it if you go with a group. I took off one star because the service was extremely lacking. It was a full house that night and they only had 2 waiters. I didn’t mind the slow service at first, but then I got annoyed when the female waitress continued to ignore my table and not the others.
If you love spicy broth, I recommend ordering it for the whole pot instead of the half/​half option. My group and I agreed the house spicy broth was way better than the regular pork bone soup base.
Don’t forget to ask for satay sauce!

Best place to be in a rainy chilly day! We had a full stomach of food and felt very satisfied after. The three soup bases we tried are all good, and I can’t wait to try more. They have a good variety of meat and vegetables, includes black wood ear mushrooms, tofu vege wraps, and silver ear mushrooms (we didn’t try). They also have dessert items, the salty egg yolk bun is the best!
A few points to improve:
They didn’t have yogurt that night – sadness
Out of the items we ordered off the menu, at least ⁴⁄₅ items didn’t show up to our table. No explanation
The service was kinda of slow, they need more staff, the people working there seemed pretty busy

Loved this hot pot place (compared to socal) for many reasons. Here are a few:
1. Hot tea was served for free. Amazing beverage to have on a very cold San Franciscan night.
2. How many order of items you want is exactly what you get. Ex: we ordered 3 kobe beef so we got 3 giant plates of kobe beef. Places in socal might put 3 orders in one plate and it definitely did not look like 3 orders.
3. Lots of food options available.
4. Lots of soup bases available
5. I asked for satay and they brought out a whole container of it! Socal places will give me a bowl’s worth with more oil than satay itself.
6. Sauces were already on the table for you to mix and match. Didn’t have to get up for anything! Yassss!
7. $ 26 a person for ayce
8. Great service.
I would hope to come back the next time I’m around sf. Parking is a little hard to come by but San Francisco is known for their long walks everywhere so I can’t really complain.