Top Pot

Top Pot is the perfect name because whether it is their service, quality, variety, soup choices, sauce bar, drinks, location or parking, everything is top-notched! Surprised that I didn't write a review sooner because they had been my favorite hotpot spot ever since they opened up. Unlike me, my partner prefers kbbq instead of hotpot so it's the best of both worlds when we come here. A couple of tables have one pot to share, so if you want your own individual kbbq/hotpot option, you might just have to wait a little because they fill up quick! I don't have any specific recommendations because everything is good. I have been here for over a dozen of times, and I am always 100% satisfied at the end of my meal. Maybe the wait time is the only downside if you come here at prime dinner time since the restaurant is not too big. You can make a reservation for a larger party and they have outdoor seating as well if you want to bring your dog. It is now $38.99 per person for AYCE and the ice cream at the end is the cherry on top!

It was super busy when we came around 5pm on a weekend but we got seated outside and with the heat lamp and hot pot, it was okay sitting outside. I liked that it was individual pots vs a big shared one. You can even order a pot that was half hot pot and half bbq which was fun but a lot of work. The sauce bar is included with the price of AYCE which I appreciate. They have some pretty unique broths like Malaysian Bak Kut Teh (which I got), cilantro and preserved egg and coconut pork bone soup just to name a few. Included was of course meat, seafood, balls, veggies, noodles, and cooked appetizers. Although previous frozen, the meat was pretty good quality. The biang biang noodles were a must get, especially to eat with a flavorful broth!

Hands down the best hotpot/bbq buffet I had for a while. We were in the San Jose Gen BBQ about a month ago for dinner. At about $35/person (I forgot exactly how much), the quality of meat is no way to match here at top pot (somehow the inflation catches up with all the KBBQ restaurants, not only Gen but also Ohgane in Alameda recently had a huge quality declined unless you jump to the over $50 choice)We came as a total of 6 people and not only the quality is superb. They don't skim on the meat. Attentive and super friendly services. Start easy because we ordered too much. Note that the restaurant is small. We made reservation but still take another 15 to 20 minutes to get seated, Regardless, the food total made it up! If you haven't tried and close by, def worth a try!

This is always a must eat at place for when my boyfriend comes up to visit, so we come here often. Originally hear about this place from my cousin, and ever since, it's been my boyfriend's fave. The amount of meat given is more than any other place, the broths choices are delicious (waiting on the day they put sukiyaki), AND they have the option of having both broth and kbbq, which is a great idea with the bowl that they use. Service is very quick, but it will fill up fast so we always tend to go when they open. It's a small, hole in the wall place, but very worth it. They also give ice cream at the end of your vast meal!

This is my favorite hot pot in the bar area! All of the menu items are so good and the portions are big. The best soup is Thai Tom Yum soup!!The sauce bar is also my favorite and everything is very high quality. The staff is super sweet and always accommodating.

Came to Top Pot on a Saturday night with some family and friends to give them a go. We had a party of five and we got there around 6-7PM. The establishment isn't huge so there was a wait for a table. They have indoor seating and outdoor seating. Sitting outdoors would have been a great experience! While the menu shows that there are options of family style hot pot and individual pots, there is really only one or two tables that have the family style set up. So you would most likely end up with your own individual pot, which means you get your own broth. For the individual pots, you are able to choose to do hot pot or a half and half with a grill. Our whole party opted in for just hot pot. I decided to get their salty pork bone broth while my friend went for their Malaysian bak kut teh. I believe all of their broths have the same base soup but the ingredients that it gets boiled with is the difference. In my pot, there were actual pork back or neck bones while the bak kut teh had a bunch of herbs. To be honest, I really liked the bak kut teh because I like the aromatics of the herbs. There is a sauce bar where you can mix your own sauce. I would definitely recommend it since the flavor of the soups aren't intense enough to make much of a difference. We got a bunch of different items: lamb, beef belly, beef tongue, pork belly, pork, ribeye, beef tripe, pork intestine, pork blood, frozen tofu, bean curd sticks, spicy fish fillet, rock cod fish fillet, fish ball with fish roe, napa cabbage, watercress, mushrooms, crystal flat potato noodles, biang biang noodles, etc. The meat quality isn't great but I find that to be pretty normal from my hot pot experiences in the Bay Area. The variety is amazing for the price they charge. Would recommend to come with a fun party so you all can share and try everything!Service was great. They were quick to take away empty plates and to put in any additional orders we had. They explained everything clearly since it was our first time at the establishment.Unsure if I would return since I don't live in the area but I would recommend it if you do live in the area.

Came back recently, and I gotta say Top Pot is near the top of my list for hot pot in the Peninsula.We came on a Saturday night and it was pretty packed. Put our name/number down and they called us when the table was ready. I went with the spicy miso broth and it was good but not very spicy. The meat here is alright, the prime beef rib eye was the easily my favorite. The rest of the offerings were standard. The sauce bar is well stocked and the fact they have unlimited chopped Serano peppers is a win in my book. The prepared items are done really well here. The short ribs, crab Rangoons, donuts with condensed milk, XLBs, were things we had to get multiple orders of. Eating multiple orders of short ribs alone makes the price worth it. We had a dog with us, so we had to wait for an outside table which honestly wasn't bad even though it was cold. The heaters work great. That being said, I appreciate the fact they still have outdoor tables, most hot spot places only had em during the pandemic.

I loved the idea of this spot, individual pots, a good variety of soup bases, the option to do personal half hotpot half barbecue. Got a corner sauce bar with options like fermented tofu too. Topping variety is decent, got biang biang noodles, shrimp paste, a whole column of veggies. And if you care for dimsum or appetizers, they have those options too. I went with the cilantro and preserved egg base. got a few pieces of it in the soup. The flavors aren't too strong, they do have extra cilantro at the sauce bar if I really wanted to amp it up. I went with mainly their beef tongue, pork belly, ribeye, only to find that they do have lamb (my favorite) but was a bit too full for it. Veggies were quite fresh, I would say about half a bunch is given in each order. The portions per order are quite small, which helps prevent over ordering, sort of... my stomach felt full after I sent in the last order.I really want to love this place but doubt I want to come back. The original soup was just right, but when your soup is running low and you get soup refills, their broth is quite salty. I don't recall the last time I needed to drink this much water during hot pot. I had to stop dipping my food in the sauce too just to limit the sodium intake. It was still too late though, I had a fat headache for the rest of the day. If your stomach is as sensitive as mine with salt and MSG, beware. My other friend was also not feeling too well after the meal due to the salt. If your kidney works wonders, go for it.

One of my absolute favorite hot pot + grill spots! The staff here are so so kind and attentive! It makes ordering and asking questions so much easier when the team is eager to help. My favorite base is the Tom Yum... sooo yummy and tangy! The sauce bar is convienent and has good selections. Highly suggest the homemade biang biang noodles! (Outdoor seating isn't that cold thanks to the outdoor heaters!)10/10

The food is fine. Nice variety and ingredients are fresh. I have been twice. My criticism is over customer service on our most recent visit on 3/1/25. We had a party of 8, which was a full table (no empty seats). My partner's hot plate was not working. He informed the staff of the broken hot plate. He didn't have a problem eating food from my hot pot or grill. I asked the staff if they could discount his meal and they refused. Their only suggestion was he could eat a nearby empty table by himself, despite the 7 of us sitting at the original table. There were no other tables to accommodate 8 and even if there was, it would have been a hassle moving everything. I was very disappointed. If they would have charged 50% for his meal only, we would have been satisfied. This experience left a really bad impression of the restaurant. I will not go back.