The food is alright. Nothing particularly special and great about it. It’s not bad and it’s not good it’s sort of just«meh.» If you’re craving hot pot and you’ve got the money to blow, then I’d consider going here but otherwise, save your money on something better.
Mechie L.
Place rating: 1 Quincy, MA
UPDATE!!! Both hubby and I have belly ache the next morning… STAYAWAYFROMTHISPLACE! — — — — — — — — — — — — — - My friends and I had sushi buffet today… I’m a huge fan of sushi and been to many sushi restaurants. If you don’t have time to read my entire review… In short. They don’t care about quality… but they got quantity! Let’s talk about the pro first Pro: 1) Amazing décor… Modern Chinese décor 2) Easy to find parking(share same lot as Petco) That’s about it… Con: 1) The food was horrible… I mean. what’s the most important thing about sushi? Freshness… their fish was stale(the white tuna been sitting around too long, it has a sandy taste to it… the salmon is old, slimy… Inari, they cut the tofu skin in half and pack twice the rice into each half piece…) To top it off, they PACK each and every piece of sushi with TONS of rice, to make matters worse… it’s not even good sushi rice! The wasabi is powdered mix, the ginger is yuck… sitting around for too long. Did I mention they didn’t even give me the food that I order? They swapped out handrolls and few other pieces with rice dense maki. Everything was PACK with rice… I mean the kind where you squeeze it tight just so you can pack more on top? 2) People that works there are rude… don’t expect even a smile 3) Not from my experience. but known friends that went there and they refuse to split check that’s more than 2 credit cards(they did not mention it anywhere… when told wait here, will come back with cash… THEN they can split the bills between 3 credit cards) In conclusion… I won’t be going back there. Their price is not even that great. For $ 23/person, I can order some really good sushi from Fuji(the one next to gas station) or Ichiban in Braintree. Lastly…if you want a place that have good hot pot AND all you can sushi for $ 20. Try Ichiban in Braintree(check my other review)…their food is FRESH, both hot pot and sushi. People that works there are always friendly~~~ Their décor is meh… but I’m there for the food and service so who cares. Don’t waste your time @ Royal… unless you just want to check out their décor. There are better sushi places in Quincy/Braintree for this price.
Lille D.
Place rating: 4 Boston, MA
High quality sushi at a great price. They have a great all you can eat sushi special everyday. Great place to go with a big group for a casual fun night out.
Ben T.
Place rating: 3 Brighton, MA
Royal Hot Pot is a great place to have fun with a group, or to gorge yourself on the all you can eat menu. Other than that, if you want better sushi, there are other spots like Koi. If you love all you can eat sushi, head into Boston and go to Yamoto on Boylston or in Brighton Comm Ave. Service here… iffy. Big problem with the sushi bar getting orders right. We’ve gone twice and the sushi takes a long time to come, then the order is messed up, and you are sitting waiting even longer. We had the same thing brought to us three times and each time it was the wrong order and we gave up. I will go here again for sure because it has a party-like atmosphere and would be good for a group. Date night— head to Koi.
Wilson L.
Place rating: 5 Quincy, MA
Their aren’t a lot of places around the Quincy area that offer sushi AND hot pot buffet, so when I heard this place opened a few months ago I wanted to give a try. I’m a sucker for any restaurant that has parking and luckily Royal has a big lot. The first thing you’ll notice when you walk is the sleek décor. It’s looks very modern but with Asian accents. The private rooms are also really nice and they each have a TV inside! The hot pot and sushi was really good. Our server Annie was very attentive. For hot pot, I definitely recommend the Mongolian broth. It was sweet but also savory and made a great compliment for the meet and seafood. For sushi, I recommend the sushi sandwich, the crazy dragon, and anything with eel on it. Getting the buffet was worth it. It was a great meal, definitely coming back.
Maliza H.
Place rating: 2 Attleboro, MA
2 stars for the décor, and 0 star for the taste. Two words that I can describe this restaurant, salty and plain. I was so impressed when I first walking in to this restaurant. We came in a group of 14 people, we were all agreed that their foods is terrible. The price is kind of pricy as well. We had foods poising after we got home. What a terrible experience, I will never forget this.
Alyssa W.
Place rating: 4 Brookline, MA
wait. i’ve been here how many times and haven’t written a review yet??? So, of all the hot pot buffets I’ve been to, this one reigns supreme! I love the interior décor and the staff is pretty good. I only had one bad experience in the 10+ times I’ve been here. Food is really fresh, sometimes it can take them a REALLYLONG time to bring it out and they tend to forget one or two items, but thats ok, because the table gets too full. I have not had the sushi here before, but I don’t think i’d mix cold and hot food anyways. Definitely recommend this place. They have parking, it’s clean and the prices are fair.
Khanh P.
Place rating: 3 Boston, MA
Can’t complain about having a sushi/hotpot buffet in the quincy area plus parking(if its available) is a nice convenience. Décor for the establishment is niceeee, it’s pretty fancy if you ask me especially if you’ve been to many hotpot buffets. This is a big factor that sets them apart. We decided to do hotpot buffet and this was a Thursday evening. Plenty of space and plenty of seating for big and small groups. Ordering is pretty standard: checklists for you to check off what you would like to order. We ordered the mongolian and chinese herbal broth options. The quality for all of the food options were as fresh as they could come for the price that we pay(Meats and fish were still the color they should maintain). The only disappointment was the broth which was so bland and really ruined the entire dining experience. Portions were just right and plentiful as well(ordered crab and they gave me an entire crab). For $ 28 per person a weekday evening, I wouldn’t quite come back for the hotpot option. Unless they add a little more msg to their broths, I would opt for another hotpot buffet option. I would like to return to eat the sushi there.
Yvonne K.
Place rating: 5 Boston, MA
Great fresh food, delicious broth, great service and a very clean place! Definitely going back again for more. This place has a parking lot and has a great selection of food and broth for hot pot! Definitely one of the better hot pot places you can find in the Boston area. I would highly recommend this place for all you foodies out there!
Kevin L.
Place rating: 3 Quincy, MA
Royal Hotpot Sushi & Bar has drastically improved their service since their disastrous grand opening month. I think management did a good job taking in the negative feedback to help them bounce back. Bravo. During this visit, we booked a private room for a group of 10. I highly recommend that you do this if you have a large group. It’s not nearly as loud so you can actually hear everyone talk, and you get your own TV. The food was pretty good. It was your typical hot pot and sushi place. Not much to complain about. Although I would stay away from the fish paste and any of the slushes on their menu. Our waitress was attentive and checked in on us quite often. Might start coming here for convenience. It’s decent food and there’s free parking!
Cuiling Z.
Place rating: 5 Quincy, MA
I went to many place for hot pot AYCE, Royal have the best broth than other place. And they have many choice from the AYCE menu. All the seafood or the vege is fresh. Also their sushi is pretty good.
Norina N.
Place rating: 4 MA, MA
Good place for a hotpot craving. Meats quality is delicious, but thin slices, veggies are fresh and clean. Broths need more flavor. I had mangolian and herbal broth, it was bland, they need to add more seasoning to it. Staff are attentive and friendly, even though they forgot to bring a couple items, but when reminded, they brought it out quick. The interior design is beautiful and modern. I was satisfied with my visit and I see myself coming back again and again.
Nguyen B.
Place rating: 1 Brighton, MA
I’ve been here 3 more times since my last review. Let’s say the fluent English speaking waitresses are super friendly and got us everything we wanted. The not so good speaking waitresses are rude and reluctant to serve us. I asked for two different soups and wanted them separated, her response was, «oh uhhhh I don’t know I can’t change it for you». I’m like what? Why not? We didn’t even touch the broth yet and no food was brought out yet. She then said, «ok fine if you want to pay more fine I change». She then never brought out the things I specifically asked for ex: more napkins, extra BBQ sauce, hotpot sauce… Ok lady I get it it’s extra I don’t care! I’ll pay for it!!! There was two of us last night hotpot buffet only and 2 small sakes total was $ 100+$ 18 tips I’m the type of person I don’t care about the price but if you do the math it’s really not right. For hotpot buffet is $ 25.95/person and I don’t even know how much 2 small sakes are but all the extra condiments are already $ 30. Food was not fresh and our broths were so low it was going to burn… We only had 3 plates of beef, one plate veggies, udon, and plate of salmon and shrimp, one crab and 2 sakes. We didn’t go for round two because our waitress was so annoyed! So yes expensive dinner for very little food. The service last night was unacceptable… Need to retrain your staff and get fresher food then maybe I’ll bring business here again. And again the hostess never said hi or smile.
A C.
Place rating: 5 Boston, MA
Update! Royal has really listened to its customers’ opinions and addressed the issues! First, I feel management has gotten their sh*t together and worked out the kinks in service. When I walked in, there was a hostess that greeted me and took me to a table right away. My table’s waitress greeted us within a couple of minutes to see if we had any questions and took our drink order. The next big change I noticed were that the TABLESCHANGED! There is now PLENTYOFKNEEROOM, no more uncomfortable seating position!(Yay for solving 1st world issues!) I posted a couple of photos addressing this improvement. Here’s the most important part: the food. The kitchen addressed their problem of serving the food quantity to person ratio. I came here with a party of four people and when we ordered, the portions were generous. Hotpot items usually come frozen, minus the fresh vegetables, etc. In my experiences with Hotpot in the United States of ‘Murica, food regulation administrations require the food to be frozen at a certain temperature. While I prefer the food to be somewhat defrosted upon arriving at the table, I don’t mind the fishballs being frozen. You’ll be cooking the items anyway. The meats are good quality for an AYCE restaurant, but don’t expect wagyu or kobe beef stuff here, this isn’t what they’re trying to sell you. The last time I came here I felt that the hotpot broths were too salty. The broths I had this time were much more flavorful and less salty. Hotpot here is «Chinese style,» not traditional Japanese«Shabu Shabu.” — which means, Chinese style broths usually have more herbal and fragrant flavors. Chinese style hotpot usually have more salty and flavorful broths because its purpose is to give the boiled food more flavor, while not emphasizing the soup as a drinkable broth. Thus, reducing the need to have a side dipping sauce. The sushi — other reviews have complained about the sushi rice being too mushy or the sashimi slices being too thin, but I never really thought this was an issue. The sushi served here is pretty standard across other sushi restaurants in the Boston area. Most of these«Japanese» restaurants in Boston are Chinese owned anyways. Take a look at the rolls /sushi pics I uploaded to see for yourself. Don’t expect the sushi to be of the the best cut of fish flown in overnight from Japan to be the likes of «Jiro Dreams of Sushi,» Sasabune, or Nakazawa. I found that the«size» of the maki rolls to be perfect, they don’t stuff them with extra loads of rice; likewise, same for the sushi pieces. I did notice a placard placed at the end of the table listing the«rules.» I guess it serves as a fine print for people who like to take advantage or abuse the restaurant’s all you can eat(AYCE) privileges. I’ve seen these typical AYCE rules before and they seem reasonable. It basically holds you accountable for what you order. Here’s a few of the rules(not all) that I remember off the top of my head: consume all the food you order, no left over take aways, otherwise there will be a penalty charge. There’s a included service charge for parties of 6 or more.
Jessica N.
Place rating: 1 Quincy, MA
Okay, decided to give this place another shot so I went with my sister and again, I was disappointed. We came in for both the hotspot and sushi. Royal seriously isn’t doing well for me. Its not redeeming the bad experiences I’ve had here at all. Service: I forgot our waitresses name because she never introduced herself, but the bartender, Kat, was serving us here and there so we got confused as well. They are so slow with this, I mean how hard is it to prepare hotspot items? They’re basically frozen. Sushi is another thing because it is more time consuming. The service was horrible as they didn’t show us how the menu runs, just in case we didn’t know or it was our first time, but we did. Also took forever to get our drinks and a simple ladle for the broths. Food: broths are bland and flavorless. They give so little broth at a time that it boils off too quickly and becomes extremely salty when they add more refill broth. Hot pot items are frozen, so that’s typical, they have a large selection of items, but nothing special. Sushi was, excuse my language, horrible. The sashimi we ordered came out still a bit frozen, but it’s okay off too hot pot my salmon sashimi dove in. Rolls are extremely not proportional. There is so much rice in everything, I hate that they have the rules on the table. It’s a given that there’s a 2 hour limit and that there’s usually 18% tip added when given more than 5 or 6 people. No need to write it. And honestly, the pricing on the table makes everyone more judgey, if it seems expensive we’re more likely going to be harsher in terms of judging our experience. Not my first choice in coming back, but meh. Unless my randomized app chooses it, I’m going to avoid royal.
Song L.
Place rating: 2 Malden, MA
I came here with a friend on a Friday night around 10ish. Pretty dead at this time. Inside the restaurant the interor has an elegant appearance, upscale, modern look. The booth seats wasn’t that bad. Request the booth if you need more legs room. We both had the Hot pot and Sushi buffet. Sashimi is passible, the size cut is not too thick. The Nigiri is very bad it look like the person just become a sushi chef. The fish is very thin cut on the top and the rice is HUGE. The Maki is the worst(check out the picture) it look like a huge california roll with a lot of rice. Hot Pot: We got watercress, clams, beef, fish paste, Fu Zhou meatball, Beef meatball, angus prime rib, angus sirion. The meat quality is very bad. The beef meatball is very toxic with baking powder. I just have one bite on the beef meatball and i have spit it out because it taste like baking powder. I dont think i will ever come back… Unless for their lounge/bar. I give extra star because of their lounge/bar. Last but not least. The host did greeted as we walked in and also greet us Good bye when we walked out.
Bryan M.
Place rating: 2 Quincy, MA
I had some high hopes for this place, driving by this establishment at least a few times a week prior to the grand opening. First impressions were very good as the décor was very well presented but it got me thinking, why does this place have the look of a lounge/club when its really just a restaurant. You can tell the owners spent a pretty penny remodeling the the entire restaurant as the prior occupant was Outback steak house. It went all downhill after getting seated. Seating is uncomfortable especially if you have longer legs, you will be constantly hitting your knees on the center table. It took 20 minutes before my friends and I started to get annoyed with the lack of service. We had to flag down a random waiter and ask to get helped with. Even after asking the gentlemen for help, he seemed rather hesitant whether or not he should help us. After taking our drink order, we noticed that we never received a pen to mark down our order on the provided paper. It took another 15 minutes just for that. At this point, I was getting aggravated and wanted to walk out but I said I’m already here so hopefully the food will make up for the lack of service. It wasn’t just our table that has issues with services as you can hear the people around us complaining as well. Table to our left waited 30 minutes before getting fed up and going to the front counter to ask for some service. The hotpot menu had a good variety but the sushi list was rather small and limited on selection. Ordered a watermelon smoothie that cost $ 4.95! and lets just say it tasted like shaved ice with a hint of watermelon flavor. No sweetness whatsoever so you know they either didn’t add sugar or added a minuscule amount. The hotpot food was ok but the broth that we got Tom yum and Royal special broth which had additional charges. I’ve never seen a hot pot restaurant charge extra money for their house broth, seems a little odd to me. Tom yum broth didn’t taste authentic and tasted just like sour water. The sushi was good tasting but at this point I was ready to leave and grab food somewhere else. The waitstaff needs some serious training and the front of the house need some leadership and a better system of how to distribute tables to their wait staff. It looked like it was a free for all on who wanted to deal with what table. Such a shame that all this money spent into the looks of the restaurant, they couldn’t hire some competent wait staff to seal the deal. I won’t be returning to this restaurant until I hear some positive feedback from family and friends on future visits. Save the aggravation and go to Taiyou located in the Kam Man lot only 5 more minutes down the street.
Garrett Y.
Place rating: 3 Milton, MA
Overall a good place to have some shabu. This is a good place for groups. The ambiance is nice. Service was a little slow. Perhaps it was because we went on a Tuesday night and there was minimal staffing. We were four in our party and so we got the buffet option(all you can eat). Portions were small but that is fine. The sushi was really good. You can only order six sushi items at a time. For the hotpot, broth is not free. There is no house broth even. This was odd because I feel most places have a house broth, and if you want something different or better then you would upgrade. Parking is a bit strange. There is a lot, but is shared by various businesses. There is signage that states which business has which spot. There is off street parking as well.
Christina L.
Place rating: 4 Braintree, MA
Parking: 3 stars Décor: 5 stars Hot pot quality: 4 stars Sushi quality: 4 stars AYCE selectiom: 3 stars Server: 5 stars(Kat) Parking is limited and assigned to each surrounding bisiness with a few for Royal in front of the restaurant. Once those spots are taken up, you have to park at the back of the lot. We were greeted by a hostess who took us to our table. We were given one menu for reference purposes and 2 slips, a sushi and a hot pot slip. But no writing utensils… Like many people stated, the tables are not that great, there is not a lot of leg room due to the large unit below the hot plate. Also the table top, which seems like it’s either granite or marble can be moved. It does not seem like it’s attached, because we thought we can move the unit for more leg room, but no. A woman came by and gave us more plate settings as we were a party of 5, and the table was set for 2. Before she walked away, my mom asked for another set of slips so we can see the list instead of hovering over 1. She walked away without saying anything. My mom called her again, and she said she needs to ask the waitress. The woman apparently was not our waitress, but she could have said hold on instead of waking off without saying anything. Our waitress, Kat, came by and she seems very friendly. She introduced herself, but I missed it. So I asked, she said it was Kat. My dad asked, why there are no name tags? She joked, «does this look like a dennys, name tags… haha, maybe I should have a paper hat too» She took our drink orders, and walked away. When she came back, she had a paper hat on with her name written on it. She even got one for my dad. Before the food came out, we went on a walking tour of the place, the bar area is very nice and looks like a good place to lounge and have a drink. There is a water bubble wall that separates the bar from dining area. There are 2 private rooms where each guest has their own hot pot. Kat states that you can reserve or can walk in with 8−10+ people and be placed in the rooms. The ladies room looked nice and clean with 3 stalls. The décor is very Asian themed. The waiting area has 2 large Asian style seating. The ceiling is of metal Asian style lattice to cover the duct work. The lights are Asian lantern styled. Safe to say, the restaurant is very heavily Asian themed, but very tasteful, in my opinion. There was one party of 3 that sat at the table next to us and left after 5 min. I’m not sure why, maybe they were not immediately attended to, or was not what they expected and left. The hot pot pot was brought out and placed on hot plate. However once placed down, like many here mentioned, it was very deep and was a bit difficult compared to other hot pot places. The food came out fairly quickly. The sushi arrived within 20 min of ordering. The woman that was not our waitress spoke mandarin, assuming we spoke it. 3 out of 2 of our party did not speak it. So thank goodness for my dad and mom, otherwise there would be a language barrier. Kat was very attentive. Our whole table loves her!!! We had a lot of laughs and she made our dinner quite memorable. When we come back, we will definitely request to be in Kat’s section. Cannot express how much we enjoyed Kat as our server.
Sylvia C.
Place rating: 4 Quincy, MA
Quincy welcomes Royal to the dining scene. They definitely brought their A-game in terms of décor, food quality and service. They pushed the wallet boundaries by charging $ 32(weekend dinner) and people are willing to give it a shot. Great crowd turnout for their soft opening week. The sushi AYCE options are decent — sashimi, sushi, traditional makis and several fancy makis. The hotpot ACYE option is more extensive(tons of meat, seafood, veggies and vegan Chinese meats). The base broth starts $ 1.50(they have 5 – 6 options). The sushi and hotpot items came out fairly quickly, decent portions and pretty good quality. Our server, Cindy, was friendly and attentive. She checked back frequently to see if we needed anything else. They have several dining room areas(open room, booths and private rooms). Their bar and lounge looks super chill. I wouldn’t mind hanging out there for drinks.