Korean BBQ, Hot Pot, and Sushi Under One Roof: Inside Top Pot & K BBQ in South Salt Lake

The first thing you notice when you walk through the door at 3540 S State Street is the heat. Not the temperature — the smell. Charcoal-edged short rib, fish sauce, fermented chili, the salt-cracked steam of pork broth rising off twenty different tables. Top Pot & K BBQ is the only spot in Utah where you can sit down to all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ, Chinese hot pot, and sushi at the same table, on the same check, for under thirty-six bucks. That's the pitch. The reality is louder, weirder, and better than the pitch suggests.

"This spot was incredible and the flavors were amazing," wrote a local food account after a recent visit. "You can do all 3 in all you can eat for under 36 bucks." That's the part everyone leads with. What gets left out: the way the booth seating fills up with three generations on a Friday night, the way the herb broth tastes like somebody's grandmother spent eight hours on it, the way the marinated bulgogi hits the grill and goes from raw to caramel in under ninety seconds. This is the kind of place that doesn't fit a single category — and that's exactly why it works on State Street.

A Franchise With a Foothold on Utah's State Street Food Corridor

The Top Pot brand traces its founding back to 2010, expanding to more than ten locations nationwide before landing in South Salt Lake. The local operator hasn't put their name on the door publicly, but they've planted themselves firmly in one of Utah's most quietly important food zones: the stretch of State Street between 3300 South and 3900 South, where Chengdu Hotpot, OMBU Hotpot, and a half-dozen Korean BBQ rooms have turned a few unremarkable strip mall blocks into Utah's de facto Asian buffet corridor.

What makes Top Pot stand out from its neighbors isn't the marinade recipe or the broth list — those are good, but they're not unique. It's the format. Most spots make you pick a lane: Korean BBQ here, hot pot there, sushi conveyor belt across town. Top Pot collapses all three into one ticket, with a 25% discount before 3 p.m. that turns lunch into the locals' move. The brand's three stated values — quality, service, affordability — translate to a kitchen that takes the trifecta seriously rather than treating any one cuisine as the afterthought. You can tell the moment the meat trays land.

The Experience: Three Cuisines, One Grill, Zero Regrets

Here's how a normal Friday goes. You sit down, the server hands you a tablet, you start ordering — and the food doesn't stop coming. The grill at your table is a recessed gas burner, hot enough to render fat off pork belly in seconds. On the other side, the hot pot bubbles away — herb broth on one side, tomato or spicy mala on the other if you split it.

The marinated meats are the move. Multiple recent reviewers have flagged them: "Definitely don't skip on the marinated meats or the shrimp when it comes to the kbbq — they were absolutely fantastic." Bulgogi, galbi-style short rib, chicken bulgogi — they arrive already coated in soy, garlic, sugar, sesame. Drop them on the grill, watch the sugars caramelize, eat them straight off the tongs. The brisket — sliced thin enough to cook in the boiling broth in under sixty seconds — works equally well swimming through hot pot or seared on the grill side. The pork belly is the sleeper pick. Don't skip the shrimp head-on, either; it crackles on the flat top in a way that you don't get with the peeled versions.

The hot pot side rewards patience. Drop the cilantro stems and bok choy in early, let the cellophane noodles bloom in the broth toward the end of the meal so they soak up everything the meat let go. One reviewer captured the broth situation succinctly: "It's truly phenomenal, rich, flavorful, and perfectly seasoned." The herb broth in particular has become a quiet cult favorite — green, vegetal, faintly medicinal in the best Chinese-kitchen sense.

The sushi shouldn't work in an AYCE setting, but it mostly does. The rolls aren't going to challenge anything you'd find at a dedicated sushi bar in the Avenues, but they pair with the heavier proteins better than you'd expect. Think of the sushi as palate cleanser more than the main event. As one local food writer put it: "We enjoyed the sushi options but felt that it's not the most unique rolls — but they are still solid and pair so well with the hot pot & kbbq."

The drink situation deserves its own paragraph. There's a dedicated fridge running the length of one wall, stocked with Korean rice drinks, aloe juice, Calpico, milk tea, Yakult, Pocari Sweat, and a rotating cast of imports that change depending on what the distributor had that week. Included in the AYCE price. Walking past that fridge is the moment most first-timers realize they're getting their money's worth.

State Street Asian Food Corridor: Why Top Pot Fits the Neighborhood

South Salt Lake's stretch of State Street has quietly become Utah's most interesting Asian-cuisine ZIP code over the last five years. Drive ten blocks in either direction from Top Pot and you'll hit Vietnamese pho counters, Filipino food trucks, Mongolian grills, late-night Korean fried chicken, and at least four other hot pot rooms. None of them advertise much. Most of them are packed on weeknights with families, restaurant industry workers off-shift, and college kids from Westminster and the U.

Top Pot fits this neighborhood the way it should: by leaning into the format, not the flash. The dining room is loud, the lighting goes moody after sundown, and the staff move fast without being short with you. It's a Wasatch Front locals' room more than a tourist destination — which is exactly why it works. The 25%-off lunch deal turns it into one of the better cheap meals in Salt Lake County if you can grab a 1 p.m. slot and have nowhere to be afterward.

The community piece is real. Search the South Salt Lake food groups on Facebook and you'll see Top Pot pop up regularly in the "where do I take out-of-town friends who want something Utah doesn't usually have" threads. For a state that gets stereotyped as a fry sauce wasteland, having a packed AYCE Korean BBQ-hot-pot-sushi room on State Street is the kind of thing that quietly changes the conversation about what Utah eats.

Planning Your Visit to Top Pot & K BBQ

Address: 3540 S State St, South Salt Lake, UT 84115

Phone: (385) 557-8888

Website: toppotbbq.com

Hours: Daily, 12 p.m. – 11 p.m.

Price: $35.99 for all three (Korean BBQ + hot pot + sushi), $29.99 for two. 25% off before 3 p.m.

What to order: Marinated short rib, bulgogi, pork belly, head-on shrimp, herb broth for the hot pot side, plus a few rounds of nigiri for variety. Don't sleep on the drink fridge.

Best times to visit: Weekday lunch before 3 p.m. for the discount. Weekend dinner is a scene — fun, but expect a wait.

Parking: Decent-sized lot. State Street parking is otherwise miserable, so plan to use the building's spaces.

Atmosphere: Bright and family-friendly at lunch, moody and date-night appropriate after dark.

Why Top Pot & K BBQ Matters to Utah's Food Scene

For a long time, the all-you-can-eat conversation in Utah meant pizza buffets and Chinese-American steam tables. Top Pot & K BBQ rewrote what AYCE can mean — three full cuisines, fresh-marinated proteins, a real broth program — and stuck the landing on a stretch of State Street that's becoming one of the most exciting eating zones in Salt Lake County. Worth checking out, especially if you've been curious about hot pot but didn't want to commit to the full ritual at a dedicated spot. Bring people who like to graze. Bring people who like to talk. Don't bring anyone in a hurry. The marinated short rib, the herb broth, and that absurd drink fridge are why this place keeps the booths full seven days a week.