After more than two years of permits, construction and one of Hagerstown’s more durable “coming soon” periods, KPOT Korean BBQ & Hot Pot is finally serving. The chain’s official Hagerstown page now marks the restaurant at 17830 Garland Groh Blvd. as “NOW OPEN 9/15,” and KPOT separately announced that the Maryland location had opened its doors.
Hagerstown’s pricing follows KPOT’s all-you-can-eat model. Weekday lunch through 4 p.m. is $21.99 for adults, while dinner, weekends and holidays are $32.99. Diners can choose Korean barbecue or hot pot at those prices, or add both for $5 per person. The entire table must select the same format, and the restaurant posts a two-hour dining limit.
The format is less traditional buffet line than interactive abundance: guests choose meats, seafood, vegetables, noodles and other ingredients, then cook them at tabletop grills or in individual hot-pot setups. KPOT says its hot-pot menu includes eight soup bases, giving the Hagerstown opening the same mix of choose-your-own-adventure cooking and all-you-can-eat economics that has driven the chain’s expansion.
The address comes with its own buffet history. Property records describe the 10,757-square-foot building as “United Buffet (Ryans),” and an April 2024 commercial alteration permit specifically called for converting the vacant former United Buffet into a full-service KPOT restaurant. In other words, all-you-can-eat dining has returned to a familiar building, only now the heat source is much closer to the customer.
That April 5, 2024 permit carried a $300,000 valuation, but the opening would take considerably longer. Hagerstown-area online discussions tracked work at the site through 2025 and into 2026, with signs, construction activity and repeated questions about when the restaurant would actually arrive. By early September, the Sept. 15 grand-opening date was finally circulating. At some point, “coming soon” stopped being a status and became a local era.
The wait happened while KPOT itself was moving in the opposite direction. The company says it opened its first restaurant in 2018, had just three units at the end of 2020, reached 55 by the end of 2023 and stood at 170 locations by August 2026. Hagerstown therefore joins a chain that has grown at a striking pace even as this particular restaurant took the scenic route to opening day.
For Hagerstown diners, the important part is simpler: the grills are on, the hot pots are bubbling and the “coming soon” chapter is finally over.
