Being from LA there are good and cheap KBBQs everywhere. By LA standards i don't think this place would survive very long. The meat quality was decent... pretty much what you would find at your run of the mill AYCE join in LA. The side dishes were not great... like below average. I know it's a different market and given that there is not much competition around they can charge what they want but the prices are a lot higher than what i'm use to. In LA for around 20ish dollars you can get AYCE KBBQ that's better. Here you will probably spend double that. Again, i know it's not necessarily a fair comparison and I guess if you are in the area this is probably one of the better KBBQs? read more

This place was so yummy! I love the lychee soju drink that was on the menu. Highly recommend! We ordered a multitude of meats writhing my favorite seafood pancake. The pancake was nice and crunchy on the outside while being soft and chewy on the inside. The meats are fresh and they tasted great! Our server was extremely nice and helpful. Will recommend this Korean restaurant to all my friends in Boston! read more

Koreana - Seafood Scallion Pancake - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

My husband has classes in Boston every few weeks, so I came here on his first weekend. We were craving Asian food, so decided to try the one Korean restaurant closest to our hotel. I really wanted to like it, but it was...not good. I know we are spoiled with great Korean food options in LA, but even if I am not comparing it, it was still terrible. I may return to try their non KBBQ options like the soups, but if I want a KBBQ fix, I'll wait to come back home for that. read more

Great place for kbbq. Nice vibes. Went here on a Tuesday evening and there was about a thirty minute wait for a party of two. Good service and good food! read more

Koreana - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

Went here with my Korean girl friend with high hopes that were dashed by the mediocrity of the food. Hey , I get it isn't NYC, but this is a major city.....come on, you can do better.....if any of the schools here are playing Rutgers go to Kimchi Hana in Edison...superior Korean cuisine and it isn't NYC....no excuse Boston! read more

*pescatarian review* Had a nice evening with family at Koreana. I had the vegetable tempura, Ddok Bok Gi, Bokembop, and scallop BBQ. All were good, my favorites were the ddok bok gi and bokembop. Scallop was just OK. Ban Chan was very good. Also had a lychee martini which was strong and delicious. Service was fast. I wouldn't mind going again, seems like a nice place for a group, but I think more suitable for meat eaters. read more

Our go-to Korean restaurant for many years, has all the expectations from a Korean menu, including a bias towards table barbecue (frankly, the barbecue from the kitchen is nowhere as good, and pricey to use the table grille). Other places have less selection, so like this place read more

A fun place to go with a large group!! We had some seating troubles despite having a reservation so they sent us over a free Korean scallion pancake, which was kind and very good! The plum wine was fun, and the actual bulgogi was very good. However the prices are high for kbbq and it's not that much food. The service is slow, and you have to proactively flag people to get refills on water or banchan. read more

Koreana - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

So good. Ordered three meats (pork belly, beef tongue, and kalbi), kinchi fried rice, seafood scallion pancake, and tteokbokki for a party of three. One pro is that the employees help you out with the cooking of the meat. However, we had to ask for lettuce refills as there were not enough. Total came out to ~$56 /person w leftovers of the pancake and rice. I would say this is pretty worth it since I was more than full. The banchan was also very tasty and abundant. read more

Koreana - Banchan, Kimchi Fried Rice, Seafood Scallion Pancake - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

Tried for the first time and probably be the last. It's just not a place to go to for authentic korean food. Catered to the American taste, hence why you rarely see koreans eating there. Finally realized why my korean friends told me not to go. Although this place has some pros... such as, Sells soju, good service and pretty good air ventilation for a bbq place. The food was really just bleh. i just hope that people who eat here really doesn't think this is what korean people eat on the norm. For example, the marinated meat dishes were all too salty.. which makes you more thirstier and eat more of the side dishes. The fried spicy shrimp kkangpungi straight up taste like shrimp and ketchup with a hint of spice. read more

Koreana - marinated dishes were all salty - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

Not bad, but nothing super special. Their menu is pretty standard for Korean food but not too extensive. Not many side dishes and you only get side dishes with certain orders. The side dishes were also kind of disappointing--they're usually one of my favorite parts of coming to Korean restaurants but the dishes and the tastes just didn't hit the same. I got the kimchi jjigae and I liked that the pot came with a flame under it to keep the stew hot. The taste was standard but not outstanding. The kimchi used in the stew was ok, wished they cut it a bit more into smaller pieces. I think they could've added some more pork, i only found a few very small pieces. Overall not bad but there are much better places in Allston. read more

Koreana - Kimchi-jjigae - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

Great weekday lunch special. I came here with a friend for lunch and got seated right away. We ordered the shumai as an appetizer and then I got a koreana special A box. The shumai was ok. There wasn't a lot of flavor in the shrimp. The plate came with a cherry so the sweetness did not help. I got the koreana special A box. It was a good mix of everything. I'd come back to try the Korean BBQ. read more

Koreana - Special A Box - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

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*Rating based solely on FOOD* Presentation: 3.5 Texture: 4.5 Flavor: 3 Would return? No Must-try: scallion pancake Overall the food is good and meats are good quality but it could be so much better by fixing some seasoning issues. Bare with me here since this was my first try at Korean BBQ, hence, take my comments with a grain of salt. I heard this place was very authentic in terms of Korean food. I had the BBQ Galbi and Bulgogi and some other appetizers. (In case this is your first time too) the BBQ comes with a ton of little sides (which are all pickled vegetables of some sort, not at all spicy) and sticky rice. - Galbi (which is rib meat off the bone) had a nice flavor but lacked salt in my opinion. After cooked the texture was a little gummy, which is probably due to the way of cooking it. I prefer soft , fall-of-the-bone type texture in my ribs. - Bulgogi was my favorite since it was a much leaner cut of meat seasoned very differently. A little too sweet for my taste but not sure if that is normal. - Tempura chicken appetizer was super crispy (the way tempura should be) but it didn't taste like chicken - it was actually pretty flavorless. It comes with a huge bowl of a sweet thick sauce which I then understood it was to dip the chicken - with the sauce it made sense but again too sweet for me. - The scallion pancake was good, although it didn't have salt and you have to put the soy sauce on it. A crispier crust and some salt would have made a huge difference for the better. Not related to food - the service was good, very attentive but not annoying. Very quite place to carry a conversation. It has a family friendly vibe. Portions are generous! Hope this helps! Z. read more

Koreana - Galbi - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

I tried KBBQ for the first time here and absolutely loved it! The meat was delicious and I thought the quality was awesome - very fresh. We had the beef bulgogi, pork belly, and beef brisket. The beef bulgogi wasn't my favorite, but I absolutely loved the other two. We had good service and they were attentive to when we needed refills on things. read more

One of an employee did not wear mask on Monday 12/13/2021 about 6 pm, when he was in a man room ! That was a bit of scary! read more

Koreana - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

WiFi pwd- koreana158 Absolutely yum! Last minute decision to visit Koreana since we're craving for Korean food and not sure where's the best place in Boston. Really glad we came here and had a extremely decent meal. read more

Koreana - Sam gyup sal - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

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Koreana is a solid but not spectacular Korean restaurant in an area that is kinda devoid of Korean restaurants. This is still more blessing than curse. Koreana's banchan variety is actually better than the norm I feel, and their soon dubu jigae I tried was nice and flavorful. I also appreciated that they served the tofu soup with an egg on the side. I imagine my experience would have been better if I had ordered Korean BBQ (I mean who doesn't like grilling Korean BBQ ). I'll have to try it the next time I'm in the area because it did smell delicious. I think Koreana is a more-than-serviceable option for your Korean food cravings. Just don't expect to be blown away. read more

Koreana - Banchan selection - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

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Loved my meal here! Started with a tuna and cucumber roll that was fresh and tasty. They brought out several fun accoutrements to snack on as well before our entrees came to the table that included fish sticks, sautéed broccoli, kimchi, and a few others. I had the dolsot bibimbap with chicken. I loved it, so simple yet so delicious. The hot stone bowl is awesome and really crisps up the rice nicely. The prices are great, especially for the portions. The service was excellent too! Hidden gem! read more

We ordered a tasty fried-seafood-pancake as an appetizer. Don't remember the name. All the side dishes were great and the rice was excellent. The meat is prepared right in front of you, which is a fun little experience. And then you put the bbq in a lettuce leaf and add a special sauce to make a wrap. Service was very friendly and I got to practice my Korean. read more

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Definitely make a reservation beforehand because they get pretty busy during dinner time, even on a random weekday. We waited for 40 minutes but it so so worth it! We got the pork belly, kalbi, and beef tongue for the kbbq and our staff helped us cook/cut everything. They had a great spread of banchan, rice came with the kbbq, and we got our lettuce basket refilled with no extra charge. read more

Koreana - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

This place isn't AYCE! Trust me and the servers don't know what they are talking about! Better spots else where read more

Koreana - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

I loved the vibes of this place -- authentic. I went as a group of 4 and we got the bbq order of spicy pork bulgogi and brisket as well as 2 extra orders of rice (each order of meat comes with one order of rice). The portion size along with all the included size was great for 4 people. We could've gotten a third order if not for getting the tteokbokki (spicy rice cake). The rice cakes were so good! We got cheese and the dish was not too spicy which was perfect for our group. The service was also great and our waitress helped cook the bbq meat. We will be coming back! And next time I'll take a picture. read more

stale meat, overburnt plate, bad service, and THEY ASK ME FOR MORE TIP. Never come again

Good for Boston Korean food, however that said, the galbi marinade and kimchi pa jeon wasn't great (for the latter this could've also been because it wasn't ripe enough, which isn't a fault on the restaurant). The nangmyeon and doenjjang jigae we're both very good( also I ordered the seafood doenjjang jigae and it came with lots of seafood). read more

We used to go to Koreana all the time in the 1990s, despite the mediocre food, because there were very few Korean options. 20-30 years later, the food has not gotten any better, but there are many better alternatives in Cambridge and Allston. read more

The food was alright a little pricy. I went with a friend and we ordered two plates of meat for the BBQ and the rice cake. It was around $65. When I was wrapping the meat with the lettuce, I found a bug in the lettuce. It wasn't just on the surface it was inside the lettuce. I told the waitress about it she just said sorry and took the lettuce. With this incident, I expected a discount on my meal or get something complementary. However, I didn't receive anything. I wasn't happy about it so I asked the waitress. Surprisingly, the waitress told me the bug showed that the lettuce was fresh and they didn't use pesticide on the lettuce. This is ridiculous! The worst service ever! Hope more people can read this review and share with others. read more

Koreana - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

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

Koreana is consistently a "first-stop-off-the-plane" for me and my colleagues when we are in town for business. The bonchon are varied and good, the meats are high-quality, and the noodle dishes I've ordered are excellent in general (japchae[sp] is a favorite of mine). Can not speak to the sushi but it looks standard and is probably pretty good. Service is always excellent and I've never waited for a table during a weekday evening. The value at this place is unbelievable even with drinks and multiple meats to grill (~$40/person is crazy good for Korean bbq). I've taken my friends in Boston who have never been here and they've been impressed by the quality and value. I'm a huge fan. Keep doing what you're doing. read more

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

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

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

You usually can't go wrong at Korean BBQ's, and this place satisfied my cravings! Just sitting down at the grill excites me. Then I open the menu and it's game time. We started with seafood pancakes. My friend at the table was pretty adamant that he did not want pancakes. He had them before at other places and he didn't care for them. Well, he LOVED these crispy triangle patties filled with calamari and shrimp. He's converted now. He ordered a crispy tempura sushi roll in anticipation of not liking the pancakes. The roll was unexpectedly delicious. I was assuming it would be dry and fishy because we were at a Korean Bbq (can you blame me?). Next came the meats!! Yummy! Jumullok Galbi (beef short ribs), Bulgogi (thinly sliced marinated beef), and Wine Sam Gyup Sal (pork belly in wine with a bean sauce). The waiting and watching as my meat grilled was killing me. I was careful not to fill up on all of the Kimchi "fixin's" around me. Our table of 3 polished off everything we ordered. The meats were so tender and well seasoned, none of the meats needed the sauces it came with, it was really difficult to stop, so we didn't. read more

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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

Do you want to see zero hospitality and the rudest person? Check out the manager/host. She gave attitude to about every customer she was talking to and talked down to them for innocently asking a simple question, checking their place in line, or figuring out their reservations. If you want to be talked to like a dog or a slave, this is the right place. Customer first is not in her vocabulary. She told our group the wait is "20...mm 30 minutes". We waited for an hour. If we were told the wait was for an hour, we would've gone somewhere else. We went up to check our place in line once because it was becoming 45 minutes, and she condescendly with attitude commanded "Did I not TELL YOU I will CALL your phone." I just walked away so shocked for asking a simple question nicely. She seemed to only say this because she didn't even know what place we were in line because she was looking through her notes and could not identify our phone number that was clearly visible. She didn't even ask for our phone number either to identify which party we were which shows she just wants you out and waiting. She did not even let me point to the number that was ours. For us, we were very confused because she said 30 minutes and found it ridiculous we were waiting close to an hour now. Once the hour hit my friend and I went up to her because we've had enough. We felt lied to and also treated so rudely for patiently waiting. I held my ground and told her we waited an hour when she told us 30 minutes. And I asked her what the honest time estimate is because we did not want to wait another 30 minutes on top of this. She went OFF. She started defending herself like crazy commanding "Don't start a fight with me!" "I ALWAYS tell my customers the RIGHT TIME. I NEVER tell them the wrong time. I always tell them the minimum time." It was so unprofessional and ridiculous because all we wanted to know was how much longer we had to wait. What kind of host fights with customers? My intention was not even to start a fight. I just wanted an honest time and not some roundabout lie to keep us waiting. If she said an hour nicely or told us an accurate estimate, we would've been fine. But then LYING about what she even told us to play victim was RIDICULOUS. It really felt like I was watching a theater of a one-woman show. We just needed a number. She started going off about how she's a human (ofc we understand that! It gets busy and no one is perfect!.) and kept saying the same thing in such a harsh tone and droning on about how she's NEVER wrong when all we needed was a one word answer. She was fighting with us. She could never admit she mistold us the time because I'm sure it was just the fact she forgot to say the word "minimum" or "at least", or "an hour". If she just said casually, "oh I forgot to tell you it's 30 minutes minimum. I think it was a miscommunication. Sorry for the wait. Did not mean to give you a false time." Im sure she didn't mean to lie to us. She probably forgot and didn't consider what to tell us. But she went on to give us crazzy atttitude and we had to stand there listening to her tantrum after cutting us off because we didn't want to seem rude. My friend had to completely put on an act of kiss up to the boss and the kind of attitude like "oh everything's fine. It's our fault." to get a table. He had to calm her down so hard. She just ate that up and then gave us a table after my friend apologized for i don't know what for??? She has this ego complex and everyone else are peasants. It would've been simple if she actually checked our place in line when we asked to, even when I pointed out my number to her on the paper and she could only say "shortly". We waited more and more. It was not "shortly". Even if she just said "I think another 20 more minutes. Im not sure when people will be done eating. Thanks for waiting", it is much better than a false expectation. Really, anything than her temper tantrum and pride issue and LYING about what she said would've been fine. I think the real issue is she does not know how to manage a simple waiting list. It's odd she cannot even identify waiting parties and even give you a time estimate. My friend asked for our place in line and she was STRUGGLING to give us an answer. If this restaurant wants to not lose its customers, they should replace the host to someone who knows how to greet customers, give an honest time estimate, and answer simple questions for people checking their place in line. The food was not good. Do not be fooled by the interior. The chadol was fine though. That's the only thing I'd pay for. Everything else was terrible quality and the meat tasted old like it was in the fridge or freezer for a long time. I feel bad for how the servers and workers may be treated by this manager. read more

We were looking for a good korean BBQ place and came across this after the movies. First impressions the dining room is very clean, comfortable, with lots of space between tables and the staff were very friendly. We ordered the chicken and beef bulgogi and the waitress helped us prepare all the foods. She was smiling time! The ban chan was plentiful and very flavorful and refreshing. Definitely recommend the bulgogi and Gabi. The chicken was good too, but not as good as the beef. Chicken was still tender and cooked just right. But you can't ever beat our the korean BBQ beef! Come on... read more

Koreana - Bulgogi - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

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Food is okay. Banchan spread is okay but they are woefully under staffed. We only saw the server 3 times. Once to take the order. Once for another round of drinks. And once for the check. Other than that it really was cook our own. Most Korean places do have the waitstaff cook the food but if we waited for the staff here the meat would have been burnt to a crisp. Unless I was in Cambridge craving Korean BBQ I would skip. 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

I really liked this place! We came here for dinner on a Saturday night ~6pm, and it was pretty full. The host said it would be a 35min wait, but I don't think we actually waited that long. The tables were really big to fit the grill and all the side dishes they give you. They set down quite a few kimchi dishes and sauces once you're seated, and they were all pretty good. This is probably the most side dishes I've seen at Korean restaurants in Boston. We definitely over ordered because it was both our first time here and didn't know the portion sizes. We started with a seafood scallion pancake which was pretty huge... probably 12in in diameter. It was pretty thick and crispy, and there was seafood in every bite. It was just so big... we only ate like 1/4 of it. We also shared a serving of cold noodles, and a bowl of white rice each, which I didn't end up touching because I was so full. For meat, we got the pork and galbi. The galbi was really good and well flavored, but the pork was bland. I don't think the pork was seasoned at all, so I had to rely on the sauces. They gave us giant lettuce pieces to wrap the meat, which made it feel like a healthy balance lol. The waiters were very involved with the grilling. They helped us grill the meat once it came, and someone came by to check on it pretty often, even though we knew how to do it on our own. I guess this is good if you're lazy or never had kbbq before. The only thing about this place was price. The meat was really little, but it was $20-30 per serving. Everything else was okay though. Our meal ended up being about $90 before tip for 2 people, which is pricier for Korean food. I'm okay with that because the food was good, but the meat portions just felt too small. read more

Koreana - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

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I've wanted to try Korean BBQ for a while but where I'm from there's nothing like it anywhere. Our trip to Boston we found Koreana and it was delicious. We chose the pork Bulgogi and the prime beef rib. Both were super tender and flavorful. We both have zero experience with this type of dining but we managed. All of the side dishes that came with our meats were also flavorful and there was plenty of it. Definitely a fun and tasty experience. Will definitely come here again to try more. read more

Koreana - Beef rib. Pork Bulgogi and banchan(sides) - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

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