Very dissapointing, this is the kind of place that people who don't really know Korean barbecue go to.
I lived in Seoul for 3 years and I've been to innumerable Korean BBQ restaurants. I like to think I know a thing or two about authentic KBBQ... and this place ain't it. I was waiting for this place to open for a long time and I wish I had saved my money.
The samgyupsal (aka pork belly) is the main dish at almost all KBBQ restaurants you'll ever go to, and ours came rolled up in a giant spiral twist, frozen. Now, it's okay for it to be frozen, I understand and that's normal, but even the laziest Korean restaurants (even in Korea) will still have their meat pre-cut up before giving it to you. I prefer to cook my KBBQ myself and so it was a hassle to use scissors to unravel the twisted roll and cut it up over the grill. I guess they think it looks presentable or something but it really was more annoying than anything else. The grill either cooked too hot or too cold and my meat ended up drying out way too much on the grill, even after I moved it to a cooler area on the edge.
Oh good lord, I almost forgot the worst part: TERRIBLE, watery, obviously store-bought kimchi! GROSS! You can tell if a Korean restaurant is good or bad based solely on the kimchi, and this place had some of the worst I've tasted in my life - no joking. Extremely watery, no garlic flavor, sour and soggy instead of crunchy. It's possible that I got a bad batch but YIKES. That was a bad sign when I got my banchan side dishes and I recoiled when tasting the kimchi. The best part of my meal, was (sadly) the samjang sauce... which I've since learned is actually store-bought.
My wife ordered the soondubu and was disappointed with it - I tried it and it generally lacked flavor and was way too spicy, even for me - and I love spicy stuff. The tofu in it was extremely bland and the spice made it almost inedible. It's supposed to be more beef or bone broth-y but I couldn't even taste anything else except chili.
The restaurant itself doesn't really feel Korean at all, except for the ventilation tubes above the grill. There's weird, harsh lighting and the TVs are constantly playing KPOP videos that randomly stop because the stream they're using dies or gets to the end of a playlist, leading to some weird prolonged silences.
The staff seemed very confused about the menu and couldn't answer simple questions. I understand that this place is new and many of the staff are just training and trying to learn, it was even written on the wall that the place isn't 100% yet. But come on, not knowing what comes with the basic samgyupsal set? I was naming off things that any random KBBQ place in Korea would have (Does it garlic? Onion? Samjang?) and they were going "oh, uh, yeah, that's right it does". In fact, they didn't even know what samjang was - a truly criminal thing if you work at a KBBQ joint. Again, new and unexperienced staff. I can forgive them and the service, while not BAD, was simply whatever. I asked if I could order a single All-You-Can-Eat (even though I only had one serving anyways since I wasn't happy) and the staff said timidly "My boss would get super mad if he knew I was doing this but since he's not here I'll do it". I tipped the guy well for doing that but it was disheartening.
The prices were also probably the highest I've seen in Eugene for this kind of meal.
A couple of Korean U of O exchange students were sitting at the booth next to ours and I could eavesdrop and I heard several negative or joking comments about the food - they were also not enjoying their meal.
The owner of this restaurant has supposedly gone to other local KBBQ places and told them some pretty nasty things - he's going to put them out of business, how his place is better, how they're not really Korean, etc. Very, very poor form to do something like that, and adding to the idea that the boss of this place might be a megalomaniac of some kind.
Overall, I can say it's probably the worst KBBQ I've had, and it's hard to screw up KBBQ.
I won't be back. read more