Dana F.
Yelp
Being an avid traveler and reviewer, I try my hardest not to compare other restaurants with one another, but rather look at a place as a whole. Sometimes, you get a hit or miss with the food and/or service. Tonight's dinner was a miss for me and my family.
Wish we went to another restaurant for the following reasons:
-Price increase: First, I was surprised to see that the price changed from $22.99 AYCE to $25.99. It must have recently changed as some Yelpers mentioned that it was "still the same price during the pandemic." Of course I can understand being in difficult times of the pandemic.
-Food: The meat was tough, bland, but doable with the serving sauces. Some meats were frozen making it difficult to pull apart. Also, the big cuts for the tripe and intestines made it difficult for the meats to be cooked evenly well. The garlic pork belly and smoked garlic pork belly were marinated poorly. However, I realize I could have been a harsh critic based on my previous experiences, and still tried to look at the more positive side of not comparing restaurants to one another. Out of all the meats, I liked the beef tongue.
-Inconsistency: They seem to have different banchan (side dishes) every day because there was no japchae available. But again, I can understand that.
-Sanitation: I would rate their sanitation practices a 1/5. They sat parties at the booth side-by-side to each other when there were plenty of other tables available in other sections of the restaurant. I found that odd, especially when we should be social distancing. Also, their oil/fat reserve was nearly filled to the brim, meaning THE GRILL WAS NOT CLEANED BEFORE BEING SEATED. That disgusted me but I tried my best not to think about it during my meal.
-Service: We had to try our hardest to get staff's attention. We had no drink refills whatsoever, and we only had 2 soft drinks and 1 water. But I noticed other parties had their refills. After paying the bill, another worker (whom did not serve us) immediately came to our table and grabbed the bill. She studied the bill, gave my brother-in-law a "stink eye", then went to talk to another worker (probably to talk about us). Well, I actually paid the bill and DID give a tip. This made my experience even worse considering that she did not even serve us, but thought to check on our table once she saw us paying the bill.
Overall, if you're looking for a KBBQ joint, I suggest going somewhere else that has better sanitation practices, tastier meats and better customer service. I'll have to look elsewhere for a good mom and pop KBBQ joint. Clean your oil reserves after every party eats!