I've been here before with my friends and I wasn't impressed then. Their food is mediocre and the only reason why it's popular is because it's the only Korean BBQ place in Cambridge. Ktown has great Korean restaurants. My classmates wanted to do Korean bbq, and yes, because of its location, we decided to come here. A long story short, their service is subpar. Koreans that work there lack customer service. One guy that seem to be the "host" was on his phone the entire time, laughing at whatever video he was watching. The Korean lady waitress seemed like she was too busy to get our orders and hardly ever came back to check in. Gratuity is included which is understandable since we had a larger group but service sucked. Korean bbq itself was pretty decent. I will not be coming here again. I rather support small, family oriented restaurants across the river in Ktown. They are much nicer and the food is much better. read more

Very poor service and food's portion is getting smaller and smaller. Nothing fancy about the restaurant!

I used to live in K-town in L.A. I get cravings still for my favorite meals. This place scratches the itch, although it does not quite satisfy. It's a bit on the pricy side, especially for items that aren't a big mountain of meat. Their stone pot bibimpots are ok, although I find them a bit small - extra rice please! read more

Great KBBQ and all the sides are delish, however the servers just brought it over and kinda left it to us. Maybe I am spoiled/used to more service, but I am fairly new to KBBQ and would have liked a bit more assistance. read more

Went with a few friends. Seems pretty good for the GBA area--the bulgogi was great, the banchan were alright tasting and there were a good 6 types rather than the 1-2 I've run into at other local Korean places. The pajeon wasn't the thin, crispy style I love, but it was good. Warning, as with most KBBQ places, this place isn't cheap. read more

See all

Food was Absolutely awesome. can't wait to go back again. service was so helpful. Ambience was lively and full of families and friends.

We came here on Friday, worst experience ever. 1. The server's attitude like I own them money. The way they serve food is like dumb garbage bag to the sidewalk. 2. After I paid and grab the box form front, the server already take my food in to the waste container including the meal I haven't touch yet. read more

The food was alright. Gaibi is nice but the pork was not fresh, the way they helped us cook it was also wrong. You should bring out the fat in pork as much as possible and wait for it to be golden on the outside. The lettuce and side dishes are charged if you want a refill which is really wired for a Korean bbq place. We added extra five pieces of lettuce for 5 dollars. The most outrageous thing happened to us was the waitress checked our tip and asked us if there's anything wrong? We said everything was fine out of politeness and she asked us to tip more. Never coming to this place again I guess. The price is already too high for regular bbq so if the boss can't pay the servers it's not our problem. Service is terrible anyways. read more

Service is great! And we love Korean barbecue. Price is good for the quality. My husband loves the big soup that has everything. Why not 5 stars- many issues with parking+ they don't have a full bar. (They sell beer, wine, sake and cocktails with soju/sake) other than that this place is great, read more

I have come a number of times in large and small groups. This is the only Korean BBQ that I know of in Boston so I don't have much to compare it too but I am well versed with all of the ones in K-town, NYC. The meats are pretty decent and the prices good for what they offer. They offer a good variety too which is very nice. The Ban-Chon is excellent and though the waiters don't offer you the refills as they should, they are quick to bring you the refills if you ask. The waiters work hard, don't chat us up and cook efficiently; it's perfect. I believe you can't make a reservation unless you have a large group but it is a fairly large restaurant so as long as you aren't going in the middle of peak time, the wait time shouldn't be bad. I think they also do sushi but I do NOT go there for sushi. I highly recommend this place and hope they stay in business! read more

Arrived at 7pm for a table of 4 and the wait was about 20 minutes on a Friday night, which isn't too bad as I have seen lines go out the door before for this place. Koreana has such a nice vibe to it with roses on every table and is quite spacious (good for groups but make reservations) DEFINITELY ORDER: - JAP CHAE noodles, absolutely delicious! Portion size was nice as well - SEAFOOD PANCAKE: this was a favorite at our table! Lots of seafood and the soy sauce that they pair it with complements the dish perfectly! MEAT WISE: - Spicy Chicken (not overly spicy) but very juicy and tender - Bulgogi We weren't sure how much food to order due to the portion size of meats but this was enough food for four people. Also don't forget to get a pot of soju as well! Everything we got was spot on and I have no complaints about this place at all. Price is cheaper than most kBBQs, they don't skimp out on portions, great service and great vibes. Will definitely be coming back again. read more

Koreana - Jap Chae noodles with beef: this is a must get!!! - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

See all

The food is good but the Korean lady server has really bad attitude. She asked us to move to another table but same sizes twice and said we wanted to move and argue with me. When she found we are mad, she said what the fuck is going on which is really unprofessional read more

The rudest service I have ever seen. Guests are treated as slaves. I would really appreciate any advice on how I can make my voice heard more broadly, and will do my best to help more people avoid this restaurant. Here I share our recent experience yesterday in detail. When we walked in, they ordered us to wait outside the restaurant until all parties are there. It was very cold outside and they said this without any apologies. They just pointed to the door and shouted at us "You must wait outside! This is our rule!" After all our parties arrived we tried to add chairs to the existing table. The chairs were from another table we reserved. They said you shouldn't be able to order two tables. BUT in your book, I have reserved two tables and you are telling me I can't right now. Why didn't you tell us earlier? In that case, we would avoid this terrible restaurant altogether. Really no service, no explanation, just commanding. I don't know if the servers are trained as squid games crew. Worse than that we are paying them for the stupidity of everything we've been through. Also, it was my birthday that day, and we brought a birthday cake. They dismissed our request to help store our cake. This might be understandable under Covid. But their attitude is unapologetic, unkind, and unwelcoming. Throughout the whole dinner, they are denying our demand, be it small or large. One of us really enjoyed barbecuing (cooking the food), the server said she was not cooking the right way and just snatched away the tools and cooked. In the server's eyes, they are seeing us as hungry refugees just coming here to serve food. The experience is full of denial of demands and no enjoyable or pleasant experience at all. Every time they come at our table they are not here to serve, but here to ruin our mood. We didn't have any luck near the end. Servers (1) took away our plates before we've finished. (2) packed the wrong food for take-away. (3) forced us to pay for 18% gratuity (4) asked us to leave the table shortly after our reservation time frame is passed. Okay looking back, this is really military training instead of dinner serving. I cannot understand why we paid hundreds for this service. Please avoid this store if you are lucky to see this review, also I'd really appreciate how to spread this word more broadly. My birthday was ruined by them and can't bear to see them just walk away from their terrible service like that. Any related advice on spreading the words is highly appreciated! read more

Came here with friends for the first time and enjoyed it. I got the chicken japchae which was excellent and had some yellowtail and tuna sashimi. Large pieces and very fresh. My friends come here a lot and were telling me about it, so we decided to pick a date to go over together. The service was very friendly. I had leftovers to take home too which was a nice treat. This is near my house, so it's super easy for me to bike over. I'd like to come back sometime to try other dishes. They do a nice job! I think this would make a great spot for celebrating a birthday or other special occasion with friends/family. Very nice vibe! read more

This is not Korean food! Let me repeat! It is not. I ordered pretty basic dishes and yes they were in the ball park but it was someone's interpretation of Korean. I've never tasted mandoo or pajun that tasted like this. I couldn't finish tbh. For those not in the know, you will be satiated. Koreans beware! read more

We came here for my birthday with a group of 6-7 at 8:30pm they didn't turn us away or make us feel like a burden since they closed at 9:30. I say this because some places will do this but not here. The server was amazing and courteous she even picked up my babies toy when she threw it, and spoke to her often. Towards the end of the meal they surprised me with a sweet treat and sang happy birthday with my friends family. Thank you for a great dinner and the food was amazing I think we had almost everything. The best was the short ribs and yummy soups oh and the raspberry wine was great!!! read more

Away from Allston, this seems to be the most popular or ONLY real Korean bbq place in Cambridge, which most likely means it's not the best one ;) have been here a couple of times in the past two years but none of the visits left me with amazing impressions, more like a "meh, ok" place. Glad my most recent visit with friends was nice and had some pretty tasty bbq meat. Chadol Baegi - this thinly sliced beef brisket bbq is my favorite from this visit! Very lightly sautéed beef with certain fatty portions brought out the very natural and fresh taste of the meat! Love it with soybean paste sauce and lettuce! Beef Bulgogi - Thinly sliced beef rib eye being pre-marinated with a sweet and mild taste Pork Bulgogi - Sliced pork, in a sweet and spicy soy sauce and chili paste marinade. Yummy! Vegetable Barbecue - a mix of mushrooms, sweet potatoes, onions, squash, zucchini, etc. A perfect combination with bbq meat! Kimchee Pancake - crispy outside with soft inside, a large portion and pretty yummy. Can't really taste the kimchee though. Overall it's a typical Korean bbq place, affordable as well but nothing really amazing. Actually a 3.5-star. One thing I don't like is that they have a very STRICT policy of "all members of the party have to be here to be seated". As my observation I don't think this made things more efficient, rather the other way around. We have a party of 6 but not everyone was here at the same time. Then a party of 2 in front of us took a table for 6 when there's table for 2 available (and the waitress didn't stop that). When my party arrived 5 min later we have to wait another 20 min to get a table, which is super low efficient. I don't understand. I probably will come back again upon low hours. read more

Koreana - Chadol Baegi - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

Our first time at this restaurant! And it was worth every penny. This is THE best Korean restaurant I've ever been to. I only wish I lived nearby. I would go there once a week. So I'm going to stick once a month instead. Food is fresh and delicious and plentiful! Our waitstaff is wonderful and pleasant. The restaurant is very clean and nicely decorated. read more

Koreana - Vegetable Gyoza , Scallion Pancake, Vegetable Barbeque & Pork Bulgogi - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

Me and my husband walked into this place after seeing a WeChat push recommending their hotpot. We ordered the Spicy Monkfish Tang, Spicy Codfish Tang and a short rib bbq to share. We waited and waited and after a century everything arrived together (why not bringing the appetizer dishes first just like any Korean restaurant would do so we don't have to wait in hunger?). And what can I say... the short rib and monkfish taste like marinated rubber, and the codfish smells like it's been in the fridge forever. The worst part is that the second I walked out the restaurant I was hit by a terrible stomachache and end up spending the next hour in the restroom. I had no one to blame but myself that I would be foolish enough to trust their advertisement. read more

Always busy here for a reason. The meat is spectacularly cut and cooked every time and it nourishes the soul. Must try

Food is fair. Price is high. Waitress is extremely ignorant and tried to charge 3 dollars more for water. Worst attitude ever. Will not visit again. read more

Nice Korean bbq but a little pricey. I wish larger portion: Rib bbq is very little and pork belly is more reasonable. Pancake and dolsot bimbap tasted good too. read more

DINNER REVIEW Came here with my girlfriend on a Friday night around 8 PM and were seated immediately. The place was busy but not packed, which I found to be the perfect balance. I am giving this place 5 stars not because it is fine dining but because it is great in the context of what it is: korean bbq. We were seated in front of this circular grill which we understood would be used to cook the meat in front of us. FOOD: We ordered the veggie gyoza to start which were very large and came with a great sweet and spicy dipping sauce. And then we each ordered our own meats which we then shared...I had the bulgogi and my girlfriend had the spicy chicken gui. They cook the meat right in front of you but you don't have to cook it yourself. The meat is well-marinated and delicious. My favorite part of all is all the sides that come with it like kimchi, bean sprouts, and other pickled concoctions. They are great to snack on while you wait for your meat to be ready. SERVICE: Good, not great. I read some really negative reviews on here about the service but I didn't find it to be bad. They cook your meat for you. They addressed every question and every extra ask we had. My only complaint is that it's on the pricy side for how much meat you get in my opinion. read more

Koreana - Vegetable Gyoza - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

See all

We have only heard amazing food experiences from eating at Koreana. This was our first time ever having Korean BBQ and it wasn't disappointing. The menu can be overwhelming, especially since we had no clue what or how to order. Thankfully our friends had ate there before and ordered for our table. Tip: come with an empty stomach because there be SO much food you will want to try. They cook your BBQ meat choice right in front of you and bring a lot of sides to fill your lettuce wrap with. We had such a fun experience and will definitely be back with more friends! read more

Koreana - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

Food: delicious authentic Korean food with nice small dishes Ambience: classy, modern feel with loads of seating, but LONG lines if you come during a rush day and hour Service: okay, not particularly attentive or professional read more

Koreana - Cold noodles - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

Incredibly rude manager! After finishing up my meal with my girlfriend, we received a bill with an included 18% gratuity even though it was only 2 of us. We were surprised by this since when we had never seen this before. We normally come once a month, and we always tip generously the waiters. So we inquired to the manager why our bill had included gratuity. The way she answered left us in shock and angered us so much. In a nutshell she said no waitress wanted to serve us when we came in, because they remembered us not tipping well, and so to encourage serving us, an 18% gratuity was automatically included. What the hell!!? that was so incredibly rude! Firstly, for telling us straight to our face that we do not tip well. This angered us immensely since my girlfriend had once been a waitress herself and hence we are incredibly mindful with tipping. Secondly, you can not judge every customer and say oh we remember them for not tipping well. I'm sorry, but there is no way you remember our faces if we come in once every month or two. There is just no freaking way. We left Koreana with such a taste of disgust, disrespect and anger. We are never coming back. read more

We had dinner at this restaurant tonight. I have to go ahead and give it 5 stars. The food was great and so was the service. He had two entrees at the barbecue grill and the tempura shrimp. The server cooked for us, although I think they would have let us cook for ourselves. Agains, 5e food was excellent. The prices were reasonable as well. I might add that the restaurant was modern and clean. Don't be afraid to try this place. We travel to Cambridge pretty frequently and will be adding this restaurant to our list of "go-to" places. The lunch specials listed on the menu were reasonable priced. We will thy lunch there during one of our future trips. read more

Koreana - Pork - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

Pricey but so far this is the best korean restaurant around Boston area with that wide selection of food for korean cuisine. For grill, the server will grill it for you which I feel inconvenient when group of people is talking. But for Korean bbq, grilling is server's job too. Kalbi is the best which I believe is the most expensive meat item on the menu but definitely worth the price. read more

The the best kbbq place, but think this is the most decent kbbq place within Boston! The bulgogi was a little too sweet. Yet, other dishes were delicious! Enjoyed the pork belly and japchae :) read more

Food is amazing but the service is HORRIBLE! If you do not what to order, the servers won't take the time to help you out. They are always running from one table to another. I think the worst for me was: - Wait time with a reservation was around 40 min. - We had a table of about 5 people and we left a decent tip but not too high because the service was bad. The server came to us and said that the tip should be at least 18% and if we could redo the payment to add more tip! We were pretty upset. Tip is discretionary and you can't ask customers to tip you more. - You can only be on your table for two hours. I visited the restaurant before with some friends and they asked us to leave the table once the two hours were completed. We were planning to eat more but decided to leave because of their rudeness. read more

I used to love this place and have visited over 10 times. It was an above average Korean restaurant, that had better flavors compared to other places in Boston. I was very sad to find that the food flavor had changed the last time I visited earlier this year. I don't know what happened. Did the chef have a rough day? Did someone accidentally spill a bag of sugar somewhere? Food: - Everything I ordered was very very sweet, which very much overpowered the other flavors. The side dishes (ban-chan) was ok, pretty standard compared to other Korean places. - SEAFOOD SCALLION PANCAKE ($13): this was the one dish that was not sweet. It is quite thick, so that the outside is crunch and the inside is more chewy. It is surprisingly filling due to the oil and carbs involved. I did think that this dish did meet my expectations. I would say this is definitely a dish to be shared (it's pretty large and comes cut like a pizza) because it is too heavy for one person to eat as a meal by itself. - BARBECUE (SPICY CHICKEN GUI ($26), PORK BULGOGI ($25)): there are grills at the middle of the table and you order the meats you want to cook. Comparing the price, freshness of the meat, and the taste I think this part is very overpriced. The portions of the meat were small for how much it cost, and for some reason the marinate was overwhelmingly sweet and salty. It felt as if a bottle of store bought marinade had been dumped over some meat. I tried to balance it out by making a wrap with the lettuce, perilla leaf, and rice (my favorite way to eat Korean BBQ) but it was still not the flavor I remembered during my previous visit. - GOPCHANG BOKUM ($20): it is a dish made of beef intestine, with stir fried vegetables. I can tell that the gopchang was not well prepared, because beef intestines have a special smell that lingers if not cleaned well. As soon as I had the first bite, I could immediately smell the intestines. - TOFU KIMCHEE JAEYUK BOKUM ($24): it is a mound of stir fried kimchee with pork, surrounded by triangles of tofu. For one thing, I don't think the ratio of tofu to pork/kimchee is correct. Normally you're supposed to eat a small square of tofu with a small mound of pork and kimchi. This dish only comes with 5-6 small triangles of tofu :( Also it was the silky tofu, which isn't normally used in these dishes. When you try to pick up the tofu it falls apart. Normally you would use a stiffer tofu for cases like this. Also, the dish advertises sliced rice cake in it, but I found maybe 2-3 pieces in the entire dish. For the price ($24) I really expected more. - BIBIM NAENG MYUN: I don't think I've ever had a naeng myun this bad. I ate one bite, and didn't even attempt more. Again, the sauce was overwhelmingly sweet. - DDOK BOK GI ($13): it's ok, but something about the flavor is 2% off for me so it doesn't really scratch the itch if you are craving ddok bok gi. I don't think there is a proper balance especially in the sauce. - FISH ROE TANG ($18): presentation is cool, it comes with a mini portable burner. There is a crystal thing that acts as a fuel, and it will burn itself out when the fuel is gone. This dish was thankfully consistent in quality compared to my previous visits. The broth is slightly spicy, slightly sweet. An average fish roe tang, but one that I did enjoy at least. Atmosphere: - It gets PACKED during peak hours. I tried to go one weekend evening and they said the wait time would be 2 hours. Plan accordingly. - Note, it is hard to find parking in this neighborhood. According to the staff, you can park at the gas station across the street if it is not open (not sure what their hours are) but that's what we did the most recent time I visited. Service: - It's ok. Most of the staff speak both Korean and English. It is hard to get their attention in the middle of your meal especially when it gets busier. But eh, I would say that's pretty standard service for an Asian restaurant. Overall: - What happened to the food? :( Especially comparing the flavor to the price (which is not really cheap, a bit on the higher side) I was severely disappointed and will not be coming back. - 2 stars (vs. 1) because there were some passable dishes, and in the past it used to be good. read more

We met some friends here after her daughter's graduation and had all the BBQ items on the menu. We didn't get to really enjoy the food because everything was a rush so it was just ok. Nothing spectacular. read more

I went there last Thursday for my friend's birthday. After 40mins waiting, someone guided us to the table, but no one came and served us. Ten more mins, a waiter came and asked us "ready to order?" At that time, we don't even have a cup of water. We ordered BBQ, but we served ourselves for the first meal because no one came and take care us. Well, even I didn't get the good service, I still gave 15-16% tips and wrote down that "maybe I would have a better service next time." However, I checked my account today. I found that Koreana this restaurant charged me almost 25% tips. (I remembered that is $44.41, and I wrote down 51$or 52$ in total. I found it's 55.39charged from Koreana) read more

Koreana - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

Ah I feel like there aren't any korean bbq places in the area. There is like gyu kaku but it's Japanese bbq. Today we got the Kimchi pancake, beef soondubu, sam gyup Sal, bulgogi, galbi! I miss korean bbq and was very happy. Service was good! Always had refills and helped with cooking the meat read more

Koreana - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

See all

This was my first experience at a Korean BBQ place! The food was good but the staff made no effort in explaining how to go about the whole experience. They didn't explain what all was what so we were just figuring things out as we went. Pretty good taste. Not good as leftovers read more

Koreana - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

This place was alright, a little pricey in my opinion. You can get a lot more food going to gyu kaku in Harvard square which is just a stop away. I mean this is Korean bbq and you can hot pot too. The down side is that since we wanted to do both(bbq&hot pot), bbq was cooked first by our server and then the hot pot came out. It's a pro and con since you can chat away with friends since the workers are grilling the meats for you. BUT since they are doing that, all the meats are grilled at once and can get cold pretty fast versus you doing the grilling yourself (self pace). It's good to say I tried it and experienced it but nothing mind blowing. read more

Koreana - Pork Belly on the grill. - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

See all

Came here for dinner with a few friends and they don't seat you until your entire party is there. We ordered tteokbokki, pork belly and bulgulgi for bbq, and kimchi dumpling stew. The tteokbokki was standard, chewy and tasty. Unlike Gyukakyu, the servers here cook your bbq for you, so you don't have to worry about undercooking or overcooking your meat! The stew was good, but I wasn't a fan of the dumplings. This place has a good atmosphere where you can sit, eat, and talk with your friends to catch up. They have lunch specials, which would be great to try if you work in the area! read more

See all

I love Koreana and have been here many times. But if you're a vegetatarian, be careful! The veggie bi him bap is great, but it comes with non-veg miso soup (fish broth), non-veg hot sauce, and can come with non-veg sides. Make sure to tell them no miso soup with your order, all vegetarian sides, completely vegetarian. They won't warn you about the non-veg soup, sides, or sauce; you need to make it clear. They also don't have any vegetarian hot sauce, so if you order completely vegetarian bi bim bap it'll come with soy sauce. (I also ask for sesame oil.) I wish they'd at least keep a bottle of sriracha in the back, but everything is very homemade and I appreciate that. All that said, the bi bim bap is excellent, as is the dolsot bi bim bap, and I've never had a bad side here -- they're very fresh and flavorful. Also, the atmosphere is very nice. I've also never tried any other vegetarian dishes here because I can't stop ordering the bi bim bap! But you probably want to check how vegetarian those dishes are, too. read more

Came here for dinner with couple friends around 8.30pm on Saturday. A little wait time around 15 minutes. Very fast serviCe. All the staffs here very nice and attentive. We start with shumai and dok bokki. And then having individual hot-pot. The Foods is great if you like it in lighter way. A little bit thirsty after taste! They provide dessert tea after your meal. Overall is good. We will come back to try BBQ. read more

See all

The BBQ at Koreana is fantastic; food is amazing. If there is any complaint, the background music can be too loud. Really difficult to hear what the waitress was saying. read more