99 Cafe Sushi & Hot Pot

99 Café Sushi & Hot Pot was an unlimited, all-​you-​can-​eat (AYCE), Chinese hot pot and Japanese sushi restaurant that opened May 2015 on Pleasant Hill Road in Duluth. Unfortunately, it closed a mere five months later. It was located in the same shopping center as Toys «R» Us near Rooms To Go.
The restaurant opened in an area filled with Asian hot pot competitors including 89 Hot Pot (opened February 2015) and J’s Mini Hot Pot (formerly Mini Hot Pot 2) across the street; and Shabu & Shabu and Shabu Shabu Plus just a mile up the road near Super H Mart. Additionally, Gom Shabu Shabu was less than a half-​mile away on Satellite. At the time, six hot pot places coexisted within an approximate, seemingly saturated, one-​mile radius.
99 Café Sushi & Hot Pot differentiated itself from the other hot pot places by offering unlimited sushi, snow crab legs, and raw oysters in addition to hot pot. Ambitious! And it was overkill because unlimited hot pot *or* unlimited sushi, snow crab legs, and raw oysters alone was enough food to satisfy one’s belly.
Here was the pricing breakdown:
$ 22.99 — unlimited hot pot
$ 25.99 — unlimited sushi, crab legs, oysters
$ 28.99 — unlimited hot pot + sushi, crab legs, oysters
Everyone at the table had to order the same thing, presumably to prevent unauthorized sharing. Customers who ordered way more than they could eat were charged $ 10.99 per pound of excessively wasted food. You’re weren’t allowed to take home leftovers. Like other hot pot restaurants, there was a time limit (2 hours).
The restaurant took over the old Fisherman’s Bucket space. The interior felt fresh and clean. It was sort of odd-​looking due to a mish-​mash of styles that seem to have been randomly thrown together. Lots of booth seating, both wooden and cushioned. There was table seating as well, a sushi bar in the back, and an outdoor patio too.
Inside, every table was outfitted with cooktop stoves, one stove for each person. There was a set of controls for each stove, allowing you to turn on/​off the stove and vary the heat level with a dial. Everything was ordered off a paper menu form which you filled out specifying the quantity of each item you wanted.
When it came to hot pot, 99 Café offered 4 different soup bases (Chinese herb, spicy, original, and seafood); 15+ meats and meatballs including beef, lamb, pork, chicken, sausage, eggs (both chicken and quail), fish balls, squid balls, and shrimp balls; 6+ noodles/​carbs including Japanese udon, Vietnamese noodles, vermicelli, and even rice cakes (Korean tteok); 10+ seafood options including fish fillets, crab meat, squid, mussels, clams, and scallops; and 25+ veggie or vegetarian options including various leafy greens, Chinese vegetables, assorted mushrooms, different types of tofu, seaweed, and kimchi.
In general, I thought the hot pot was good. All of the ingredients seemed fresh, particularly the veggies. A lot of the meats were thinly sliced and therefore cooked fast. I tried the Chinese herb, spicy, and original broths. All were A-​OK. I liked the spicy broth the best because it was the most flavorful (and I like spicy food). There were some red chilis and a bit of chili oil in the spicy broth, making it slightly richer and oilier than the other broths.
Aside from the popular meats (beef, pork, lamb), ingredients I liked included beef tripe (stomach), meatballs, udon noodles, fish fillets, watercress, «Chinese vegetable» (bok choy), tong ho, fried tofu skin, all the mushrooms (enoki, shiitake, king oyster), and seaweed knots. One of the more interesting menu items was the «duck web.» It was pretty much duck feet. Unfortunately, as a big fan of chicken feet, I cannot say I was a fan of the duck feet here. It was tasteless and tough.
99 Café’s sauce station was well stocked and many items had been doubled up to alleviate traffic congestion. Sauces included peanut, sesame, soy, and ginger. There was also chili oil, minced garlic, chopped cilantro, green onion, and jalapeño, and various bottled condiments such as Sriracha, Vietnamese nuoc mam (fish sauce), and Mexican hot sauces like Valentina.
As for the sushi, it was alright for the price you paid. Sushi at just about any low-​to-​mid tier priced AYCE sushi restaurant is going to suffer from some degradation in quality. It was passable here. What I liked about the sushi at 99 Café is the sushi chefs actually made a decent effort to prepare and present the sushi nicely. Also, it was great that sashimi was an option. They offered over 15 different types of nigiri and sashimi. When ordering rolls, you had to specify whether you wanted sushi rolls or hand rolls (hand rolls were bigger).
The oysters were the only thing I found to be disappointing about this place. They were just watery and bland.
Service was good. The servers were attentive and the food came out quick.
In the end, I give 99 Café Sushi & Hot Pot 3.5 stars rounded up to 4. They got a bump up for offering sushi, crab legs, and oysters.
R.I.P.

I am sad that this place close down! This was my husband and my recent favorite sushi & hotpot place! We have been there a couple of times and plan to bring our family there. Their sushi and sashimi were amazingly fresh and tasty.

To shame they close down. Came yesterday night. The restaurant was close.
Where can u get $ 28,99 get hotpot and sashimi all u can eat.
For sashimi, snow crab, oyster…
All restaurant always have bad review. Bad review it doesnt mean all the customer have the same experience. I went there since their open. Busy on the weekend. Better than 89. The waiter was ok. If u Ask them. They will be happy to explain to u. We ask waiter how to order. They explain everything. How to order sushi, hotpot. They warn u about sushi roll About left over. We ate and we have some 3 – 4 pcs rolls left. But They didn’t charge for left over. But if u left 8 pcs which is 1 order. That i agree that they have to charge us. Don’t be selfish adn greedy. Take what u can consume.

As much as I enjoyed my first time my second time here was horrible. I came here on October 3 for lunch with my friend and we should had left the moment we walked in. The whole time we were there we felt ignored. When our server bought out the hot pot he didn’t even bother to turn on the little stove for us. That to me was fine because I had been here before so I had some kind of idea but for my friend it was the first time so he didn’t know what to do.
Anyway after the bad service we received it only got worse when we were ready to check out. At the place there is a «Zero Waste» policy which if the guests had left over the food will be weighted for $ 10.99 PER POUND. We were fine with it because we thought what we had left wasn’t going to cost $ 10 but we were wrong. I understand it is a business they need to make profit but keep up poor customer service and over charge them for the left over and I don’t think they will be in business for long.
It was such a shame I wasted gas, money, and most importantly time to come here thinking it’ll be another great dinning experience. Never coming back and I suggest everyone to look elsewhere.

They charged me $ 10 for leaving extra food. They said they charge $ 10 for one lb, and this is not 1lb in any mean! First and last time ever!
/​—
make sure you only left 4 or less rolls, because according to the people who work there and give fake review to boost them up. 8 is greedy and you should be charged, but 4 is ok. you know 4 pieces are a hugggggeeeee difference
And the person who fake review and give themselves 5 stars, please message and threaten me just like you did to my friend. She may be too nice, but I’m not, you messed with the wrong one gentlement. I will. Make. Sure.That.The.Whole.Asian.Community.Know.About.This

So this place was relatively new and we decided to give it a try. I’ve never been to a place that had mini personal hot pots, but I guess it worked cause you could fine tune the flavor to how you like it. They had a bar of tons of condiments and sauces that can literally be used for anything.
We went the full way, all you can eat hotpot, sushi, snow crab legs, and oysters. Hotpot was fine, only complaint is that once the broth boiled away they didn’t come around to refill it. Meats and veggies were fresh. Sushi was pretty good, nice slices of salmon and eel. Snow crabs were meaty and quite delicious, although they came out cold. Oysters, meh. Definitely not fresh and tasted a little too fishy.
For the price this can be very worth it. Personally I may just do sushi next time or just hot pot, because you can easily get your money’s worth with one or the other.
They had this «challenge» where if you finished everything on the table (like literally everything), they gave a 10% off coupon for future dining. During the early hours of the weekdays though.

Checked out 99 after hearing great things about them. Seriously, where else can you get sushi and hot pot? I know this can sound like a hot mess because what if you accidentally cook your own sashimi in your hot pot? Trust me, not likely to happen.
It’s $ 28.99 per person, no matter what time, no matter if you want sushi and/​or hot pot. Note: Local Chinese newspapers advertise that there are two separate prices for sushi only or hotpot-​only, but we came to find out that this no longer exists. You want sushi? $ 28.99. You want hot pot? $ 28.99. You want both? $ 28.99.
The sushi, surprisingly, is fresh. It’s not going to be high quality like you would find at finer establishments like Sushi House Hayakawa or Umi, BUT it’s going to be better than some cheapy establishments that I will not name here. The slices were a bit on the small side, but hey, you can order again and again. They also have a list of rolls and hand rolls. These were nearly comparable to Nori Nori’s offerings. Plus, they bring this stuff to you so you don’t even have to get up. Utter gluttony.
The hot pot was decent where you have choices of what broth you would like. I chose the original broth which was decent. I’m not sure if it was pre-​salted (it didn’t taste too salty at first) or if they might be sprinkling salt on their raw meats, but it eventually got salty enough that I didn’t really need to use the sauce I had mixed at their sauce bar. Yes, they have a sauce bar with lots of things you can mix yourself. I thought the size of the hot pot was just right and the tables are induction cooktops. No worries about getting burned because the stove will only heat on metal contact. Also, I like that there are personal settings for your stovetop. Quality of meats, veggies, etc were pretty good quality. You’re given a menu and you can list how many orders of each item you would like. Although it’s one serving, I want to mention that some of these portions are easily shareable. Again, it’s all you can eat and you can always order more, but it’s easy to go overboard on the ordering and ending up with too much food.
Service is ok. If you get sushi, please note you may need to wait for everything to be prepared. Meanwhile, they will serve miso soup if requested, BUT I’d recommend going ahead with hot pot so you can eat hot pot while waiting for sushi. There’s supposed to be a 2 hour time limit and while a limit may seem ridiculous, it’s just about right: we were stuffed right near the 2-​hour mark. The only reason I’m giving this place 4 stars is because I just can’t handle all the salt. I’m not a fan of being thirsty for the rest of the day. If there’s anything I’m particularly looking forward to again, it’s the sushi.

All you can eat hot pot, sushi, and seafood for $ 30. It’s a good deal– I personally think it’s worth it. First, our table feasted on all kinds of meat and seafood for our hot pot meal. Pretty cool that they have individual electric stoves instead of sharing a big pot so everyone could pick their own broth & ingredients. My favorites were the beef, pork, quail eggs, and shrimp. They have a sauce bar where you can mix and match your perfect dipping sauce. They had quite a few choices so I just threw some stuff together and called it a day.
Next was the sushi, we ordered a few sushi rolls but mainly went straight for the sashimi– salmon, tuna, eel, red clam, squid, white tuna, yellowtail. Unlike some AYCE restaurants, the sushi tasted fresh and high quality. We also had the kani salad, seaweed salad, and tuna tartar. Then what makes it really worth it– snow crab legs, blue crab, and oysters, which were pretty big. Needless to say we left full and satisfied, but of course still had to stop for a dessert at Sweet Hut around the corner.

We were greeted with a warm welcome and seated promptly. The atmosphere is pretty nice. It was sorta dim but they had a cool vibe that didn’t scream ayce sushi. They serve the dishes at your table unlike buffets such as Nori Nori. Also, it’s pretty nice that you don’t have to grab from the same plate as a bunch of other people.
The service, once we got seated, was slightly slow, but was made up by the fact that our food tasted awesome. We didn’t get to try their hot pot, but we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of sushi. The rice to fish ratio tend to suck at other sushi restaurants where they tend to put way too much rice to fish, but the portions here were just right.
My husband and I got a few rolls and an array of sashimi and sushi. We we were extremely impressed with the raw oysters also!
This is my new favorite sushi restaurant and we can’t wait to be back.

Multiple sauces! This restaurant was love at first sight. I love sauces… lol. got the spicy yellowtail roll, lobster roll and pleasant hill roll.
Lobster roll was the winner! Followed closely by the spicy yellowtail. Pleasant hill roll (lobster, eel, salmon and tuna) was ok… just too much.
Did I mention they have a sauce station?

A friend of mine took me to this awesome place. I was totally amazed by the variety of food and sauces that I can order with $ 22.99. Looks like All-​You-​Can-​Eat hot pot is now the trend.
I know, it was totally unhealthy to eat hot pot in 10pm. But my friends had this crush, and what can I do with a feast at a Friday night?
Anyway, when we walked inside, we immediately liked the ambiance. it was newly renovated clean and bright. The service was okay, considering not so many waiters around.
Then we looked at the form to order food. Lots of Lots of meat, seafood and vegetable selection. I even found oysters and crabs in the menu.
We ordered three kinds of soup base, but they were not that different, especially when you got the refill from the same teapot. Another essence of hot pot is sauce. They provided almost every sauce I could name. For that, I would simply add one star.
Now let’s talk about the materials for hot pots. While the variety of materials could be rates as 5, the quality is 3.5. As a seafood lover, their oysters and fish was totally from frozen, and somewhat cheap. To the contrary, slices beef and lamb were nicely balanced with fat and lean meat. I also enjoyed their vegetables. They have been washed them clean.
All in all, it was a good experience. The best selection of food for hot pot you can get.

Second time here… Apparently… A lot of items are not as good as first time… the quality of snow crab went down so as oyster… slightly disappointed

good food！Type very much!
Very fresh!
Very nice place！

WOW, Sushi and HOT POT on the same table??? Yes, it’s definitely no joke here… there’s a sheet for Sushi (Sashimi, Nigiri, Rolls etc…) and a sheet for Hot Pot. I like that you can check off what you want, rather than having them write down your orders.
The entrance is confusing because you have to walk to the end near the sushi bar to be seated near the entrance… (scratches head). But that’s also where the sauce station is…
Once seated, you pick your sushi and hot pot choices, but don’t be greedy. It’s $ 10.99 a lb. for any food not eaten so make sure you only order enough to eat. You can always order more as you go… I haven’t seen anyone having to pay their dues for wasting food yet… I know I haven’t. :)
The sushi is surprisingly very fresh and tasty. I’ve ordered tuna, salmon, calamari, sashimi and a few of their rolls (tuna, salmon, spicy tuna, eel etc.). The rolls are pretty big and it’ll fill you up before you know it…
The hot pot comes with the usual selection of meat (beef, lamb, chicken), seafood (squid, shrimps, blue crabs, imitation crabs) and variety of vegetables. And if you’ve been to a hot pot restaurant, you get to make your own sauces to your liking.
For $ 29.99 it’s an AYCE of hot pot and sushi… but the catch is, you can only eat for 2 hours. Which I think is plenty of time to be sitting at any restaurant…
Service is decent. So far this is my favorite hot pot!

«If your reviews are sounding like essays, start a blog. I can’t read your life story on my phone before ordering from the menu.»
[Time & Date of visit]: Tuesday night, 7ish
[Party Size]: 12
[Location/​Ambiance]:
Getting there /​directions–
Located in the barren plaza that once had Old Navy and Barnes and Nobles, 99 Café (for short) is located at the corner, right next to America’s Best eyeware. Careful googling just «99 café» as the first entry brought us to 98 Café hotpot for some reason, which is the same plaza as The Coffee by Hand. Dam, dyslexia wins again.
For those coming from the south, exit off Steve Reynolds Blvd, turn left. Continue straight, pass Satellite Blvd, then turn right at the next stop light intersection. Continue straight down the road until approaching the medians with trees, turn left. 99 café is at the corner on your right.
Parking — Plentiful.
Inside–
A few of the girls got confused after entering the front door. The small hallway has decorations adorned on the mid wall that is also a part of the 2^nd door. Just stick to the right.
The décor is a mixture of things. I don’t recall a hostess station. The middle dining room has wooden bench type booths with hot pot burners. To the left are smaller booths once you pass the sauce station. After that is a private room that fits two tables of 6. Followed along with a lounge like décor of more casual booths. Following to the end of the restaurant which leads to the kitchen and bathroom and sushi bar. Patrons dining solo can opt to sit at the sushi bar if not picking hot pot.
Also an outdoor patio but it looks like it wasn’t ready.
Restroom — Located in the rear, left of the kitchen entrance. Opposite of the sushi bar. The men’s room has two sit down toilet stalls with one standing stall.
[Service]:
Similar to KBBQ, everyone at your table has to order the exact dining option:
For dinner:
$ 23 for just AYCE hot pot.
$ 26 for just AYCE sushi which includes oysters and crab legs.
$ 29 for both options. Though all options limit your table for 2 hours. No camping out here.
I think they are still working out some kinks or did not expect a large group like ours for a Tuesday night. Customers were pretty spread out, more along near the sauce station and a few in the lounge like area booths. Our server was pretty accommodating. Didn’t get an introduction for his name, but he’s rocking a mullet.
Water refills kept coming as they serve it in what looks like a skinny Tom Collins glass as it didn’t hold much, so he left us a plastic pitcher of water and ice to take care of the one off food orders.
Aside from the sushi and hot pot items, there’s no place to mark for the raw oysters and crab legs. So you’ll have to verbally order them. 1 order of oysters equals a dozen I believe. And 1 order of crab legs is a one cluster. Be mindful when you say how many you want.
Hot pot broth refills were spot on when some of us were running low. Our server preferred to have both menu’s checked off for all of our selections before entering them in. Also, it seemed a little backwards, but the sushi came out first, then the crab legs and oysters, and after followed by our hot pot items.
[Food Highlights]:
No alchy-​hol as they are still trying to get their liquor license as of ⁶⁄₂₃.
Raw oysters — various sizes of medium to large. Cleaned well, and tasted fresh.
Crab legs — Not very much seasoned, just simply steamed in regular water. But hey it’s AYCE.
Sashimi — Not the freshest cuts, as some salmon tasted like it was frozen for a bit.
Sushi — For AYCE, and not a Vegas buffet, I would like to say these are pretty good. Nothing mind blowing, but better than Rusan’s and Sushi Kiku.
Hot pot items — a pretty vast selection with no extra charges for any choices. That right there blows Little Sheep hot pot off Buford hwy out the (boiling) water. I picked the seafood base, but didn’t really taste anything extra.
Just remember these come out on trays as community table items and literally some items are just one or two pieces per order. Such as blue crab, quail egg, scallop, fish tofu, etc.
Bill — 18% gratuity was added for tables of 6 or larger.
Paying — It seems that they don’t have their POS system set for equally dividing when other drink orders are ordered (Coke, hot tea, etc). Just a dollar for each, but each person should remember their tab when closing it out.
{Summary}:
I’m not a big fan of going out to a restaurant for Hot Pot, so it’s more meh to me on that end. I’m simple with just meatballs, beef, and fish tofu cakes. Which tasted just as expected. I came more for the crab legs and sushi which I did enjoy, but my expectations were that of when you get them at a buffet. So for the value, I think it’s pretty good for the price they are charging. Would recommend especially for large groups.

Delicious! Good quality sushi and seafood. I haven’t tried the hot pot yet but from what everyone is ordering, hot pot is a hit too. Definitely a must go. The reason why I’m giving a four star is before they allow two larger party after us to be seated first.

I ended up here for my birthday dinner last Wednesday. This is an all you can eat hot pot and/​or sushi place. You can get the hot pot, sushi, or combo option. For the hot pot option, it’s $ 22.99. For sushi, it’s $ 25.99. For a couple more dollars, you can get both for $ 28.99. Remember that sushi does fill you up quickly so I would reserve that for last. You can also order snow crab legs, blue crab, and raw oysters here too so I guess you can call this place a hot pot seafood restaurant.
My hot pot lover friend said this place was okay. The sauces weren’t awesome as she tried mixing different sauces together and ending up giving up altogether. She seemed to still be hungry after our feast too. :/​
Service was spectacular as the staff was super friendly and checked on us often. The food was somewhat off as we were brought out food items our group didn’t order. Just be sure of what was ordered since this place does charge you extra if you have an excess amount of food leftover.
The staff was sweet as they sang happy birthday to me when they brought out the cake. :/​And I believe they gave me an additional discount for the group since I asked for a birthday discount. :) Since 99 Café Sushi & Hotpot is new, they have their 10% off with a Facebook or Unilocal group pic upload as well.
Parking was plentiful since this complex was pretty empty.

My review is only for the 22.99 $ AYCE hot pot with Blue crabs and Scallops. No sushi or crab legs.
Me and the mister decided to grab dinner on a friday night here since it just opened up and I can’t resist a new hot pot place. I have turned into a hot pot maniac lately and so I have to try this place.
So at 99 Café Sushi & Hotpot there are two options, either a 22.99 $ AYCE hotpot or a 28.99 $ Hotpot with crab legs and sushi. Since hotpot is already very fullfilling, we decided on just the hotpot and no crab legs or sushi. With the 22.99 $ options, you can have everything (Beef, Lamb, Chicken, Fish) and also blue crab and scallops, and also imitation crab meat. I choosed the chinese herbal soup, and the mister choose the seafood soup… and because of that… we got two small pots. I believed if we only choose one soup base, then they would bring out a big pot for you to share. I kinda like that better… but next time.
Anyways, 99 Hotpot’s sauce station is very comparable to J’s Mini Hotpot. They don’t have the exact same sauce, but compared to other hot pot place in Georgia right now (Shabu shabu, Shabu Shabu+, 89 Hotpot, and Little Sheep Mongolian hot pot), 99 offers just as much options as J’s. They even have yummy sauce for you, and I really liked that! I like to dipped my seafoods in that sauce. So more points in my opinion.
So…to take everything in consideration… I would recommend 99. I think its worth it for the price and I’ll probably come back to try the sushi and crab legs option.

Foodie paradise. The service was excellent when we came here during opening month. The staff was friendly. They answered all of our questions on how to order this buffet style all-​you-​can-​eat mini hot pot and sushi.
I was overwhelmed when I sat down because the ordering process was confusing. You get two menus. One hot pot and one seafood/​sushi menu. It costs about $ 29 a person to have both unlimited hot pot and sushi but everyone at the table must participate. You check off the number of items you want on that checklist. The portions are large so keep that in mind when you go through and check off everything you see. They charge a food waste fee if you order more than you can eat. That, I get and support. Just because it’s unlimited doesn’t mean food should go to waste.
The hot pot has four soup base options. The table has a built in infrared stove to heat your broth. There is a self serve sauce bar for people who likes to dip sauces when eating hot pot. The meats, seafood and veggie selections are plentiful.
The sushi menu is pretty extensive. There’s just about every sushi you can think of. Again, check off what you want but don’t over do it. Sushi can be filling. I had a few rolls to share with my family.
Here’s what I had and my feedback on these items. First of all, the crab legs are amazing. Not to salty, steamed and easy to break in. The oysters on the half shell are huge and perfect. These are must-​have items because it’s totally worth the $ 29 per person. My hot pot broth was the seafood broth and I’m not crazy about it. However, the spicy broth was good. The tuna tartare and spicy tuna hand roll seems to be the same thing and I’m not a fan of it here. Tuna was mushy and not flavored. Although the service was great, our server could not keep track of what we ordered. Things came to our table that we did not ordered and some items that we ordered never showed up. The server was good at bringing it after we reminded him.
This place is new so they have not gotten their liquor license yet. The price is good for the amount and quality of food. I would definitely come back again.

Omg… this place is amazing. We came with a party of 14 ppl and everyone loved it. Fresh sashimi and seafood!!! I can’t wait to take my boyfriend here. The servers are extremely attentive. Love eating at the patio. Highly recommended it. It’s worth every penny. Every plate is nicely prepared like an upscale restaurant.
They have fresh sushi and sashimi, snow crabs, conch, fresh beef and lamb meat, veggies, and so much more. Lots and lots of options to choose from. Make sure you come with an empty stomach.
It’s an AYE restaurant but they serve you at the table. You don’t need to get up for anything other than making your own source for the hot pot. That’s why I love it here!!! My peeps will be coming here very often.