Sizzling Lunch - Whitlock Farms

New concept of dining style! Order on iPad on table. Tasty food and fun experience!This Sizzling Lunch location opened on Jan 6, 2022. They have 5 locations in California (still expanding), and this is their first location in Georgia. We were there at the end of January and they were still running the grand opening promotion (selected entrees, two for $20).It’s a mix of self and full service restaurant. Employee seats customers; once seated, the employee will explain how ordering works. Customers order all the food and drinks via the iPad mounted on each table, then the food and drinks will be delivered by the employee to the table. Additional food and drinks can be added via the iPad until the customers hit the check out button on the screen. Then customers would need to head to the cashier counter to pay.Most main entrees are around $15. The restaurant name has “Lunch” in it, but this definitely is also a dinner place as well and not just for lunch. Everything is priced reasonably, and they have a decent selection of appetizers and entrees. It makes the meal the most fun if you order one of their sizzling items. The idea is partially pre cooked food ingredients (e.g. rice, food toppings) and partially raw ingredients (e.g. shaved beef) are served on a hot iron plate so customers can finish the cooking/mixing with some sauces available on the table (e.g. Teriyaki) and enjoy the hot meal.A few integration designs that we noticed they didn’t do so well were: The iPads had no built in charger! And they were not plugged in. So I assume each night employees would have to go to each table to ensure all the iPads are plugged in and get fully charged. Otherwise, their dine in ordering system might not work the next day. I have seen many restaurants using this style of ordering system; they would already have the charging cable plugged in and hidden within the mounting arm. This would avoid one repetitive manual step that needs to be performed daily by the employees. Their iPads don’t integrate with a payment system. At the time when we visited, once we clicked on the checkout button on the iPad we still needed to head to the cashier and wait in line to pay. This could be inefficient when the business volume is high. If they can also offer a credit card reader (insert chip reader type), or a QR code to scan on the screen so customers can pay on their mobile phones, it would be a much better experience. We don’t like seeing integration only done halfway.This sizzling concept is quite new here in Georgia. We were there on a Friday around 7pm and we saw a steady amount of business. All the employees we interacted with were very friendly and professional! Hope this place will do well and hope to see them also expand their footprint in Georgia like they are doing in California! I would recommend this place for anyone to try out!

This is another new place In the Gwinnett area at the corner of the busy Pleasant Hill and Satellite Blvd. The concept is different that I would recommend you try. The servers are friendly, knowledgeable and professional. I tried the garlic pepper and rice dish. It's awesome. The serving is big and wonderfully tasty.

This establishment is in a strip plaza with other restaurants and clothing stores. (Tiger K Cupbob, Starbucks, Party City, Marshall’s etc. It’s a great busy area off Pleasant Hill and Satellite. Initially came here on grand opening day for a free meal, but it was so packed by the time we got there…so they gave us free meal vouchers to use by the end of February. We utilized those vouchers last night. Got to the restaurant around 6pm. It wasn’t very busy yet, but parties trickled in throughout our time there.Upon entering, we were greeted and seated in a booth immediately. The ambiance is bright, welcoming, and had a homey feel. Wooden accents along with wooden furniture complimented the plethora of white Japanese lanterns on the ceiling.The workers were very friendly, made sure we understood how to order on the iPads, (one on every table pretty neat, I think every restaurant should have this and explained thoroughly how to cook your meal once it got to the table.We all got the garlic pepper rice dishes with beef and the egg add on. I got the spicy version with the kimchi add on also. Bro got the same minus kimchi, and my niece got the non spicy regular version.Our takoyaki came out first as an appetizer. It was fresh, hot, and crispy. It was buried underneath bonito flakes but that wasn’t an issue, it could have just had a touch more Japanese mayo and takoyaki sauce.Moments later, the main entrees came to our table, sizzling and piping hot on the iron cast plate. You mix the meat up separately to cook a little more, add the sauces, and then mix with the rice and other ingredients. One of the workers said that the sauces are essential. (Teriyaki garlic shoyu sauce They leave the dish plain for us to add the sauces to cater to our own liking. So the food is not bland contrary to popular belief, you have to make it flavorful yourself which is the whole point of this experience. After mixing my plate and dousing it with chili pepper and sauces since I like it extra spicy, I was ready to dig in. It was pretty good, and I enjoyed the crispy rice bits at the bottom of the plate.It’s essentially fried rice, nothing outstanding to be honest, but I still enjoyed the flavor and it was fun to semi cook it yourself. Your meal stays hot the entire time, which I loved. Ordering whatever you want on your own time via the iPad is a plus, the appetizers were reasonably priced, and service was great.

If they still have the $20 for 2 deal, then its worth it for a quick lunch spot. Otherwise I think their normal prices are a little high for the quantity. I thought the service was very good; the first time I came on their grand opening, one of the hosts quickly told us they were booked for the night and gave us coupons to come back next time for a free entree it was fine because then we just went to Tiger K Cupbob next door which is also delicious. The next time I went with a large group and we were able to be seated; it was pretty empty at that time (6:30pm on a weeknight). The food quality is decent but it felt like there wasn't enough meat compared to the rice. They have a variety of sauces and chili powder on the table. I got to try the garlic pepper beef and the kurobuta pork plates, and I liked the kurobuta pork better as it was juicier and more flavorful in my opinion. I really wanted the garlic pepper beef to be super garlicky but I found it and the rice to be lacking flavor. I do like that they came with corn and green onions, and after adding a lot of the garlic sauce I was pretty satisfied. Overall I appreciate that they opened because I don't think there is any similar restaurant in this area so it adds some variety to your lunch or dinner options.

My personal opinion but food was so MID. I was excited to try this place because it mirrors the California establishment Pepper Lunch and sells the exact dishes, but I was throughly disappointed. Customer service is great and prices are decent, they were doing a 2 for $20 bowl special and we ordered the Beef and Garlic (Spicy). HOWEVER, the meat was soooo badddd, no flavor whatsoever and was extremely dry. The garlic (spicy) wasn 't even spicy at all. Everything was just kinda flavorless and I had no urge to finish the plate. The sauces (teriyaki, and one more but I forgot what it was called) on the side made it somewhat more bearable to eat. Love the concept of the dish and looks super aesthetic too.... but could definitely use some improvement with the taste!