Manchester Road has seen many restaurants come and go, but this year, there is a new addition unlike anything you’ve seen before. 

KPOT Korean BBQ & Hot Pot opened on Manchester Road. It opened in September 2025, and its address is 14007 Manchester Road, and it sits outside of a strip mall with the thrift store ½ and ½ (half & half). It is a Korean BBQ and Hot Pot experience that is unforgettable. 

Even though I’m not the best about trying new foods, KPOT offers a friendly environment to people who are new to the experience by creating a judgment-free zone. Eating here was a little tricky at first, but I was quickly able to learn how everything worked to have a great experience.

My first note of the experience was not inside with the food or the service, but with parking. KPOT is a very new restaurant. That being said, it was really busy, so a lot of the parking spaces closer to the building were already occupied. Luckily for me, there were many parking spaces open further away from the building, so if you plan to go on a day that’s raining, make sure to bring an umbrella. 

Walking inside was crazy to say the least. The restaurant is decorated with blue LED lights everywhere, posters, and signage, and you can see smoke everywhere coming from people’s tables. I walked in and asked the hostess if I could have a table, and she said it would be a 20-minute wait before I could be seated with my mom. The hostess took down my phone number for a text indicator for when my table was ready, which was surprising to me since they were pretty busy whenever I walked in. 

While I was waiting to be seated, I decided to sit at their bar and try a virgin Pina Colada out of pure curiosity. It was kind of a mixture of a liquid and sorbet of a pina colada. It wasn’t the most jaw-dropping drink I’ve ever had, but it sure wasn’t a sleeper. 

After it was my time to sit down, I walked over to our table, and I saw that my table had a big circular grill in the middle with 4 small stoves–two on each side of the table. After five minutes of waiting, our server came over and asked if we had ever been here before, to which we said no. He explained to us that you use the iPad at the table to order what you would like brought to the table, and a cart will bring it. Any cuts of meat, any soups, vegetables, and other things like squid and sauces can be brought to the table.

The waiter then told us the table had a decision to make, which was that everyone had to decide between 3 options: only BBQ, only soups, or both. Since the whole table was ordering off of one iPad, you wouldn’t be able to restrict someone from ordering both soups and BBQ if they only paid for one, so everyone has to decide on one option. Only soup, or only BBQ, costs $32 per person at the table, but for both it was $36 per person. It wasn’t a big difference between prices, but it might put a big dent in a teen’s pocket.

Although you order all of the main ingredients from the iPad, you can also walk up to their sauce and sides buffet-style counter to add to your meal. If you’re not eating pre-sauced cuts of meat, then I suggest you try some sauces to give the meat some flavor. 

While I was there for dinner, I tried three different cuts of meat along with miso soup.. The first cut of meat was the BBQ brisket. It was sliced thin, and it cooked really quickly on the grill. This cut did not come pre-sauced, so I made sure to add sauce to prevent any bland or dry bites. The brisket was just okay. It was really chewy and didn’t have much going for it without sauce. My score for it is 4/10. Next was the BBQ hanger steak. This cut was much thicker and wasn’t as chewy as the brisket. It took longer to cook, but it wasn’t bad at all. My score for this one is 6/10.

The last cut of meat I tried was the BBQ spicy beef bulgogi, and it was so good. Bulgogi is a classic Korean dish of thinly sliced beef marinated in a savory-sweet sauce. It took a long time to cook since it’s hard to tell when a bright orange mixture is cooked, but once it was done, it was delicious. It already came out pre-sauced, so it wasn’t necessary to add any more since it was already good by itself. I gave the bulgogi a solid 9/10. Lastly, the miso soup. I ordered it to allow myself to have the full experience, but I am not the biggest soup fan, so I didn’t have the best experience. The soup was a 3/10.

My overall bill was around 76$ I really do recommend this place for teens to try for the experience of a non-traditional dining experience, as long as you have the money to try it. It took around an hour to wait for a table, learn how everything works, eat your meal, and then pay. KPOT is open from 12 PM to 10:30 PM Sunday through Thursday, and until 11:30 PM on Fridays and Saturdays. KPOT is also a very safe place to eat if you have certain things you can’t eat.

My mom is a vegetarian, and she was able to have a great meal. KPOT was a great experience overall. If I had to change anything about it, it would be the way you could pay for food, maybe add a pay-by-time version of the experience, where you can only pay for the time you spent eating, and maybe the iPad could keep track of the food you ordered and split the check evenly. It was a fun and exciting place to visit and try. I highly recommend that you try it with friends and try a little of everything.