Dongnae

Wowzers, what a place! Friendly staff who explained the menu and dishes and were attentive without intruding. Truly excellent food, we went at lunchtime and took advantage of the lunchtime deal and had a couple of drinks. Can't recommend this place enough, would be great for a casual catch up, dates, any occasion really.

Good Korean food with a touch of British style. Overall, if you know what to order, it’s a great restaurant. Just a little feedback on the menu it’s a bit too complicated. It would be better if there were short descriptions under each dish explaining what kind of meat is used, what’s included, and how it’s cooked. The prices are on the higher side, so don’t expect “Wok to Walk” prices. But it’s a good experience overall great customer service, nice drinks, and the cold brew tea smelled really nice and sweet. The table was a bit small, but the dishes came out in good order, one by one, straight from the kitchen. The sashimi was good, the meat was great, and the pork was excellent. I’ll definitely come back again. If you’re willing to pay a bit more, you’ll have a very good dining experience here.

I was really excited about trying Dongnae after enjoying the sister restaurant and reading about this one. The waitress did a great job explaining the menu. Overall we thought the food was a bit flat. We enjoy the pickled bits that came n the side of the pork, but everything else need something more (chili paste, soy sauce, vinager, etc) for our palette. I dont have much experience with Korean food so it may just not be for me.

Wasn’t sure what to expect at this Korean restaurant but found it an amazing experience because the food and service are exceptional. Such unusual flavours and cooking methods. You can’t go back to eating chicken wings anywhere else. The Wagu beef is melt in the mouth and the bbq pork belly is served on hot coals. I had Matcha Terrine with Mescal Cream for a desert for another mesmerising flavour shout. Then the Negroni cocktails which were so carefully mixed and served made the whole experience even better. Service reflected staff of a high calibre who knew how to put you at ease and help you to make choices to suit your tastes without being too pushy. Go to Dongae if you want to try new tastes, flavours and relaxed atmosphere.

Very nice place! Would definitely recommend. Went with my wife and parents none of us experts of Korean cuisine but we all loved it. Good and attentive, friendly service. Really helpful with explaining menu. Nice lunch menu. We took couple of starters plus each one of us took lunch menu. Good sized portions. Wings were lovely, spicy but not too spicy. And mackerel and pork collar was top quality and really strong barbecue flavor. Cucumber soup was really fresh and delicious. The biggest surprise was mezcal and matcha dessert! Top quality. Design is nice but really simple but I guess that’s what they want.

I would give 5/5 if the service is better. Came for just a casual lunch. Good bits- Food is really good. Asian tastebuds would give it 9/10. We ordered 2x lunch sets one with grilled pork and one with soya milk noodle. Grill pork is just as I expected, nicely grilled, tender inside. Soy milk noodle is just right for a summer day so refreshing but the flavour is also rich. Banchan is 10/10 I got no complaints (btw kimchi is goooood) the soup of the day is a spicy shrimp soup quite a surprise choice using seafood but really really rich i like it. The restaurant sits in a quiet street atmosphere is airy✨ Not so good bits- Service was disappointing We booked a table in advance and when we arrived it is 2 minutes before the booking time. I first open the door and wait inside the restaurant. However there is no one greeting us or simply just acknowledge our existence. I am pretty sure some staff must have noticed me but kitchen staff just continue their cooking, waitress placing order from one table to another table and walking back and forth but no one even have any eye contact with us. I mean, just to let me know - should I wait inside or what? A few customers noticed us (but not even one staff) and then after at least 3 minutes I decided to step out of the restaurant. I thought- may be I should have waited outside. Then I waited another at least 5 minutes outside, watching one staff laying menus on bar tables and onto the tables right in front of the windows where we stood, and also watching another staff near the bar keep peeking at us like we were strange people but still no one bothered to ask us to come in. I mean if someone waiting just outside the door for a long while keeps looking, I suppose at least some people should come out and ask ‘ is there anything to help?’ But obviously no. After a long while maybe another 5 minutes I finally got noticed after needing to wave my hands to one of the staff and she asked us in, saying ‘sorry I didn’t know you are waiting you should have came in!’ Excuse me, did I not? What a good start. And when we finish our drink one staff came to take away the empty cans. I thought they would just remove it hut instead they put it on another table lol empty tables no one clean up the tables until like half an hour after customers left🙂‍↔️ And after all these moments I was charged 12.5% service charge which is absurd, considering the service is below average. But still, no complaints on food. Food is great.

I think if you’ve never had Korean food and don’t mind spending a lot of money to tell your friends you went for an “adventurous” meal, this might be for you. For anyone else, this is probably the most disappointing “Korean” food I’ve had in the UK given the price. I think someone else summed it up perfectly on here “modern mediocrity”. While the food bar the jjigae was enjoyable, even tasty, the portion size really stretched the term small plates. More like snack sizes for main meal prices and even with the cost for hospitality going up, this place offers incredibly poor value for money. We also got unlucky with the wait staff who was awkwardly rude and told us to order more. When we said we’d wait and see they simply said “it might take a while for additional dishes to come out and we need the table back by x time”. Sure, this might all be something they had to think about operationally but not the best start to our dinner and there are better, maybe warmer ways to phrase it. We felt like we were a burden rather than guests. Left broke, hungry and disappointed. Don’t do it folks, there are plenty of far better Korean places in Bristol which also offers a better dining experience (crammed and drafty doesn’t make for a great setting especially when spending this much money).

We went at lunch, and had the mushroom sotbap and John Dory sets. Staff were great at explaining all the different dishes that came at part of the set. I discovered ssamjang for the first time, which was lovely. One word of warning to vegetarians - make sure you tell the staff. The mushroom sotbap looks vegetarian at first glance, but contains wagyu fat, which isn't listed on the menu, though they'll happily omit this. The soup also contains clams. It would be better if the menu was clearer about this, as it would be so so so easy to get caught out.