Athulya N.
Yelp
Today was the first time we tried Shu's Hot Pot and Kbbq. I had seen it on TikTok so thought we'd give it a go.
At first glance, the ambiance is young and vibrant, they have claw machines and fun music playing. The pots they use for the hot pot are nicely decorated. They have a sauce bar, and little appetizers like wings, seaweed salad, and dessert options buffet style.
The broth options also vary. We only tried the Tom yum broth, which tastes really great, not too spicy and perfectly made.
The options for proteins are decently varied, as are the vegetable options. For the price point, it seemed pretty decent.
Some of the things we had issues with include the grill's heating, portion sizes, mix up of orders, and the parchment paper.
The grill heated up quite slowly. And once it got hot, you could tell the grill heated unevenly by the way the parchment paper was burning. The portion sizes are quite small. Even ordering two portions of enoki mushrooms came out way smaller than expected. Beef bulgogi portion was also quite small. Our order also got mixed up one of the times, being provided soft tofu when asking for fried and being served noodles when none were ordered. These are small errors, but a shame when the alternative is to throw it away, especially if we didn't want to consume those mistaken orders. Additionally, there are no ventilation shafts above the food to help with smoke venting, which means you'll leave with a pretty strong smell of food.
The part that brings my review down to a 3 is the parchment paper. They use parchment paper to line the grill. At first glance, it seems like a cool and unique way of keeping the grill clean, a method we haven't seen before. I made the mistake of putting oil directly on the grill, which I am used to in other locations, but by the second or third iteration of paper changes, it shouldn't affect it. During the second iteration, the parchment paper started to tear up and attach itself onto the protein, which renders it inedible. If you're not paying attention and think it's just char, you could be injesting paper.
Ambiance wise, this place would be great to go to for a fun night out. And there seems to be no real issues with the hot pot itself. But with these issues regarding the kbbq, I wouldn't want to eat there at the potential hazard caused by the parchment paper.