A-Pot Korean BBQ restaurant opened this week in Glassboro NJ featuring “cook at your table” Korean BBQ and Hot Pot Soups as well as prepared sushi and other entrees choices… with everything all-you-can-eat buffet style!
The real fun at A-Pot is cooking your own food at the specialized tables… and for me the interesting cool twist to A-Pot is that the ready-to-cook BBQ and Hot Pot ingredients are all part of the buffet.
If you are unfamiliar with Korean BBQ and Hot Pot I will get into that in a second.
A-Pot is located in the Center at DoubleTree on Delsea Drive Glassboro where ALDI and Goodwill are located… A-Pot is to the far left side of the center and sits directly behind the Italian Affair restaurant.
I stopped in yesterday at A-Pot and caught up with restaurant manager Echo who gave me a tour of the all new restaurant. I had actually been in the restaurant twice before as I’ve been stopping in regularly to get updates on their opening. (Initial article Nov 2023)
While the space was previously a hibachi buffet… every single aspect of the restaurant inside is brand new. Well once you understand how the Asian cook-at-your table restaurants work, you realize that it requires all new seating as each table contains its own variety of cooking surfaces.
The restaurant runs wide and you enter in the middle, with the buffet and seating areas directly in the center of the restaurant. The seating is configured on both sides of the buffet tables and the capacity is over 200 guests!
Most tables are configured for parties up to four, but there are few double length tables which can accommodate up to eight people! Two BBQ burner sections and eight hot pot areas.
And again while the fun is in cooking your own unique creation, there are food items available which are already prepared including sushi and crab legs… but also a selection of more Americanized items such as pizza and chicken wings, and of course a selection of fresh fruit and desserts.
A-Pot Korean BBQ and Hot Pot
So if you’re unfamiliar with Korean BBQ and Hot Pot, the fun and interactive twist is you (friends and family) cook your meal right at the table!
The restaurant menu is based on fresh and delicious raw ingredients including steak, chicken, seafood vegetables and more… and using the integrated cooking surfaces at your table you prepare them to your liking.
And there are actually two different dining aspects for each table.
Korean BBQ is a grilling technique utilizing the center burner where a cooking grill bowl is placed. You simply add in the ingredients you chose such as fresh and tender steak with vegetables… and cook it right at your table!
Hot Pot is a soup preparation where for each seating area of the table are flat hot plates where a bowl with broth is placed… and similarly you are making your own special soup with the ingredients that you’ve chosen yourself.
Absolutely there’s going to be that guy on the Internet saying “I’m paying for this meal, why I want to cook it myself?”… but the reality is the experience of friends and family cooking food together at the table really does enhance the fun and conversations.
There will be fun discussions over what the recipe should be. Someone’s going to end up cooking the most delicious thing you’ve had this month. And chances are a friend is going to make a mess of something and there will be some playful “razzing”… but it all leads to fun and interactive moments!
So as I alluded to at the beginning of the article, I have tried Korean BBQ and Hot Pot before and it’s a deliciously fun experience.
But when I’ve had it in the past I had to order my raw ingredients from the server, who would bring over a quantity to the table. It worked completely fine and I had no issues with it.
But with A-Pot in Glassboro they have put the raw ingredients right into the buffet stations, so you could just walk up and take whatever you want… whenever you want.
Which makes a lot of sense when the restaurant is also offering other (prepared) buffet items. If you’re getting up anyway to get a slice of pizza, fried chicken or Philadelphia sushi roll… you might as well also pick up your Korean BBQ ingredients!
During my visit yesterday I did not have time to sit for a meal but my wife and I are planning on stopping back today for lunch… and maybe I’ll put together a video on the experience.
Pricing for A-Pot is $23.99 for lunch and $35.99 for dinner with kids pricing based on age. They also offer 10% discounts for College Students, Military, Police, Firefighters and Senior Citizens.
Links and Location
A-Pot Korean BBQ, Hot Pot and Sushi (Now Open!)
884 Delsea Drive
Glassboro NJ
- Sun-Thurs: 11am to 9:30pm
- Fri & Sat: 11am to 10:00pm
