Justin C.
Yelp
Honestly don't know where to start... it was really really really bad.
Wednesday night... came based on yelp rating .... (Just what the actual F is happening here ? )
Entered the restaurant, there was someone doing some kind of setup for music and tiny stage with speakers and Christmas lighting happening.... Ok
Manager or employee, wasn't sure. The guy's voice sounded like he smokes 10 packs a day. He was nice but also didn't seem to know what's going on.
We were sat randomly and then were given a tablet to order... (seems like the systems from the old owners or previous are still in place). I noticed the restaurant seemed alittle messy, alittle dirty, charging the tablets for ordering was taking up an end booth... there were a few others customers it seemed.
We ordered on the tablet... it seemed kinda weird. We hoped for the best. That's when it got weird....
A group of 4 who was already sat there, one of them started a zoom video call... sounded like he was trying to sell something or whatever... his friends (2 ladies) were just chatting on while next to him. His zoom call finished, we continued to wait for our food.
Then, the music audio setup started, and ...this random man starts saying "check check check" for about 4-5 mins, no joke, it kept going.
We received our hot pots, and the guy kept checking the audio.... And 2-3 items from our food order. Someone was prepping lots of vege/lettuce and meat for one of the tables.
The audio setup finished... And then people start filtering in to the restaurant. The people all joined the previous group of 4. They appear to all know each other, and while we tried to eat... they all sat on their phones waiting, maybe 7-9 total now?
The guy serving the food from the kitchen didn't know what any of the food was and was giving us the wrong orders.
We ordered 3 raw eggs for the dipping sauce, they had none and he gave me 1 cooked stew egg. The sliced beef and lamb combo ? .. They gave us cut up beef pot roast meat. By this time we just gave up and cooked what we had and tried to eat.
After 15 mins of eating/cooking we still had no veg, I had to ask again for basic Napa cabbage (at a hot pot place ?) the other prepped food for the other large group was not for us. We were finally given a bowl of Napa. We just wanted to finish the food and leave.
The music system started playing Chinese music, the crowd got more loud, the large group of 9 customers started going into the kitchen and hanging out, helping to prep food ? They proceeded to hang in the staff area but obviously were not staff. It seems like a huge health code violation...
We tried our best to finish and get the check. The "manager" didn't know how to print us a bill, he took a picture of his pay tablet... when he took my card to swipe, he didn't know how to finish the transaction. Just sooooo many red flags.
To summarize:
Who actually works here ? Who's the wait staff ?
The meat was cut at random sizes, the wrong orders given, messy, random people going in and out of kitchen, chaos of customers raiding the kitchen, loud setup of audio, dirty/empty sauce station.
Don't go to this place. If you want hot pot in Arcadia go across the street to "momo paradise"
I would give ZERO stars if I could. I'll be reporting them to the la county health dept.
I'm in shock that place is operating.