Top Highlights/Lowlights 1) authentic cuisine 2) friendly service 3) gluten free friendly A group of four of us dined at Spoon on a Sunday night. We came in about 45 minutes prior to close with no reservation. Oftentimes, coming in close to close can make the staff hurried and short...not at Spoon! Our waiters were incredibly helpful and friendly. They were so accommodating to my gluten free needs. You are served barley tea and our waiter found me a substitute right away. We had bibimbop, kimbop, and pancakes. Everything was great! The food was authentic and the portions were generous especially considering the relatively low prices! Great Korean find if you are in the Berkeley area! read more

Came here after a dance event per recommendation by a friend who is a regular here. This place is probably one of the best - if not the best - Korean places in the Bay. Their food is very reasonably priced and their portions are generous. Things to try when you're here: 1) chicken wings - ok I've had a lot of chicken wings, and I've been on the hunt for good Korean chicken wings ever since I came back from studying abroad in Korea. I haven't been able to find anywhere that's completely satisfied me - both in quality and price. The menu said 5 wings for $6 but we got 6 wings so that was awesome. But the taste. The taste was mind-blowing. It was crispy, flavorful, and just... really really good. Best korean chicken wings I've had in the bay BY FAR. 2) Egg souffle - when they bring it out to you, you will be amazed by the way that it steams. (I know, sounds dumb but you'll get what I mean. Just order it...). I normally don't like eggs or this dish but wow this one was so good too. 3) seafood soondooboo - I hate when I order soondooboo from other places and ask for it to be spicy and it comes out super oily (and not spicy). This place delivered. The closest any restaurant has gotten to my mom's soondooboo. Super delicious. And not salty. 4) dolsot bibimbap - awesome 5) One last thing I noticed was that their pancakes (buchimgae) is ~$8 which I think is still overpriced but is way cheaper than all the places in oakland that charge like $15.... so yeah. We're coming back. You can count on that. read more

The food here is still amazing! The kimchi fried rice we had that had bacon AND beef added to it with extra cost was soooo worth it! Kimbap was fresh and all the bbq'ed meats we have had were made to perfection. Don't get me started on the sides! read more

Ordered the seafood Dolsot Bibimbap and it was alright. The real highlights of this place is the outdoor seating and the sides! read more

Spoon - Dolsot Bibimbap - Seafood - Korean Near Me - Berkeley, California

Spoon Korean Bistro is definitely a unique restaurant. Though the location is not the most convenient (unless you're shopping at Berkeley Bowl West), the bistro (which really is more like a cafe) has a nice, airy, casual atmosphere. It was clean and quite, and the service was friendly. Just a nice place to eat. The food was very good too. You'll definitely have to expand your mind beyond the traditional Korean food we know in America, barbeque. I ordered the spam kimbap because I adore spam as well as the pancake with crabmeat. The pancake was like an omelette cooked with crabmeat and some aromatics (scallions?). There were four or so that came on my plate, so a pretty generous portion. Very fluffy and savory. Kimbap (Korean sushi) was good too. I wish there was a bit more spam...there are five times as many veggies in the filling as there is spam, so you hardly taste it. But the veggies tasted fresh and had a nice crunch. My friend got the soft tofu soup, which I think I would have to order next time. It was rich, complex, hearty, satisfying...but actually still quite light because of the soft tofu. wish they served dinner too! read more

Spoon - Pancakes with crabmeat - Korean Near Me - Berkeley, California

Honestly forgot what I got exactly, but I don't remember it being that good, not memorable. Sorry for lack of information

I HEART Spoon! ..& my Daughter loves it so much she wanted to have her bday dinner here two years in a row! The service is always friendly and attentive. The food is YUM and the price is RIGHT! Not sure if this is true but I heard Spoon is the sister restaurant to Bowl'd but much more affordable. Here are a few of our favorite things to order: *Bacon Rolls- Bacon wrapped around rice. The rice is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside and the bacon is bacon, delicious! *Chicken Wings-The wings are crispy and coated in a sweet almost honey type sauce and topped with crushed almonds..my daughter loves them! Korean BBQ- we usually order either the short ribs or chicken. One order is big enough to feed two adults. These are just some of our faves...we have ordered a bunch of other things and all of them are good. I would definitely recommend Spoon to anyone craving good casual affordable Korean food! read more

The best Korean food!! It is clean and service is excellent! I ordered kimchi kimbab and tofu soup and they are amazing! read more

Spoon - Korean Near Me - Berkeley, California

got an order spicy pork belly for myself--the portion was large enough to split into two meals (always a win for me) + the banchans served with it were really fresh and tasty. I liked the radish kimchi a lot in particular. would get again! #treatyoself read more

Loved every bite. I had the Kimchi stew. Def going back soon, my friends loved their dishes as well. The environment is more modern and dishes are stainless steal with actual clay pots. read more

This place has fantastic service, and food! They currently have outdoor dining with heat lamps.

I never knew Korean porridge was so good until I had it here. Both the mushroom and pine nut porridge didn't contain meat in them, but were surprisingly packed with flavor. The pancakes are nice and thick, perfectly crispy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside. Both mung bean and seafood pancakes were smaller than what some other Korean restaurants serve, but they seemed a lot more generous with the ingredients inside them. I admit that I usually go to another restaurant for soondoobu, but the soondoobu here was hearty and flavorful as well. Now that I know there's excellent porridge and pancake here too, this might just become my go-to spot for Korean comfort food! read more

Got the porridge (vegetarian) and it was very good. Thick and chunky. Comes with the korean side dishes (banchan) - and the fish cake was our fave. Hubby had the kim chi fried rice w beef, topped w an egg. My son had the beef short ribs w rice. Portions were good. Friendly service. Would recommend to friends and will be back. read more

Difficult to get service or refills on side dishes/water. Even if you make eye contact and try to tell them. On top of that, portions are stingy. Glazed Potatoes were not crispy on the outside and they were stingy on the sauce Porridge with toppings was unique for a korean place and easy to eat. however it was not something i'd come back for Flavorless Japchae There are so many other great Korean places in the east bay, i appreciate that this is a small restaurant and i like supporting small businesses, however i do expect a certain level of service and quality when i fork over my money to these establishments read more

Really cute Korean restaurant and out of the way, but somehow always has customers eating there. All the dishes are good and service is friendly. I'll keep coming back here. read more

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Spoon Korean Bistro (SKB) is a convenient option among other Korean restaurants within the area. It's located near the freeway and Berkeley Bowl West. Parking isn't bad as well. Prices are decent and food is great. Opting for the Spicy Pork (Daejigui) Korean BBQ, I was satisfied. I even had leftovers. Great portion size I must say. In my opinion, it's not a place to bring a date. If you are looking to just fill that stomach, it would be a perfect pick. Sometimes simple is better. read more

I think this is a sister restaurant to Bowl'd though it appears to be more casual. I like places that are close to the climbing gym - this one is just a few blocks from Ironworks. Great lunch menu - made it hard to pick what I wanted. I ended up having the mushroom tofu stew which hit the spot! Look forward to going back as a treat if I can make it to the climbing gym! read more

The food was quick and good. I came here on a Friday night with some friends and we had never been here before. The place is small but we were early so it wasn't packed. The portions are much bigger than expected... I don't think any of us finished our food! Everyone seemed satisfied with their dishes and even my very picky roommate tried something new and enjoyed it. We tried so hard to finish our meal but most of us only got halfway through. I got the bulgogi beef (sooo much and good but cooled down quickly) and the Kim chi fried rice. The beef in the fried rice was already bulgogi so I overdid it with the other order but we were able to share everything with the table so it worked out. Roommate got the ramen and liked it. He was very impressed by the spicy pork. I was pleasantly surprised at the spicy pork. Friend got chicken pancake and some type of bowl. I didn't try it but he liked it. read more

Good food Nice service but could have been more attentive :( Parking can be tricky... read more

Stopped in for lunch on a weekday. Food arrived FAST and yet the stew was literally boiling and my spicy pork salad was crispy-cold. The ratio of vegetables to spicy pork was perfect for a main course salad, and all the pickles and condiments enhanced our meals. Quick, friendly service, will return to try the ramen next time. read more

Spoon - Spicy tofu stew, spicy pork salad, plus trimmings. - Korean Near Me - Berkeley, California

Food here was great! Ordered the kimchi fried rice with bacon and Korean miso soup. The rice had a little bit of spice to it, not too much that it overwhelmed the flavor, but just enough that it gave a little kick to it. The egg on top seemed to have been cooked too long as there was not much runny yolk. The miso soup had good flavor a good assortment of seafood. Service was decent. The food came out fairly quickly so we wasted not time digging in. However, the side dishes came with the food, which was frustrating as most Korean restaurants tend to have them out well before the food. read more

Spoon - Kimchi fried rice with bacon - Korean Near Me - Berkeley, California

Servers was fast and very responsive. Food was delicious We ordered sea food soup, kimchi pan cake Chicken wing All great Will be back read more

Spoon - Korean Near Me - Berkeley, California

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Being Korean, I have high expectations for K food. Even more, I was stationed in Korea for 3 years and worked in the food industry for 3 years, so there is a high interest when it comes to food. This place was no different from Bowl. If anything, the menu looked similar, and probably the owners are similar. This is the place to go for no-frills, quick service Korean food. Don't hold your breath for a variety of side dishes (ban-chan) or yummy ones, for that matter. There were 6 different side dishes and none of them are worth mentioning; plus, they were SO SMALL. It was enough for 1 child. Cheap on the bam-chan. Requested numerous times for refills, but never received any. I ordered the spicy chicken, which wasn't too bad in portion. The chicken was too soft; felt like it was a little old. Rating Food: 2 Price: 1 Ambience: 2 Service: 1 Overall: 2 Would not come back to this place. Overly priced. Food was not decent enough to eat thoroughly. Just overall, bad. What a bad experience for K food. Side note: I am one of those guys who is willing to pay more for good quality food. This place, hands down, did not meet that quality. read more

So I get tired of driving to SF for certain cuisines. So next on my list was Korean and this place seemed to look good after checking out the Yelp reviews. We definitely will be coming back. Friendly, nice location and enough space. We order the spicy bbq pork which was amazing and the kimchi fried rice bowl with spicy pork, also amazing. Love how you can have a nice amount of food and never really feel so heavy after being done. Cant wait to try the next entree. read more

Everyone knows that Los Angeles is king when it comes to Korean food but what about Berkeley? The Bay area isn't really known for Korean food but Spoon Korean Bistro is holding their own pretty well. Despite the name, this is a traditional Korean restaurant serving the authentic soups (jjigae) to barbeque short ribs (kalbi). We ordered the spicy beef soup (yookkejang), BBQ short ribs (kalbi), chicken pancake (jeon), and chicken wings and everything was spot on. The spicy beef soup was huge and could easily serve three people. The banchan dishes were limited and fewer than I'm used to but most people wouldn't have noticed judging from the customer base. Not only is the food quality and taste pretty good, the prices are even better. Being in Berkeley which attracts a large college demographic, the prices are really reasonable. One order of kalbi which came with about seven pieces of kalbi was only $13. Much better than the usual $20-25 that I'm used to paying in Chicago. read more

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I came here with some friends on our way back from Six Flags in Vallejo. It was a long day of walking around and we all were hungry for a meal. I've never had Korean food so I have no idea what to expect from it but thankfully my friends were able to help me out on what to order. The place is rather small but it was pretty busy and they had outdoor seating. Given that it was at night, everyone wanted to be inside. Our server had a waitlist ready and put our names on it. We waited about 5-10 min. which wasn't too bad for waiting. The server there was really quick and he did not slow down one bit! I was actually really surprised as to how he would hop from one table to the next to meet with everyone's standards. I really enjoyed the food here! I ordered the Jhap Chae Fried Rice (~$12) which also came with an egg which is what they're known for. One of my friends also ordered a set of wings and they were also really good. The sauce used had a sweet yet spicy taste to it. Definitely would recommend these dishes. Overall, really nice place. Staff there are quick and attentive and the food is delicious! They also sell some snacks like chips and ice cream if you like some. If I'm ever in the area, I would come by to this place for a nice bite. read more

Spoon - Jhap Chae Fried Rice (with tea)(~$12) - Korean Near Me - Berkeley, California

We like to come here not only for the convenience but for the consistent quality. We always come here knowing we will be satisfied. The addition of a few extra dishes like the rice prove ridges makes it a little different so try that out if you feel adventurous and actually want something on the lighter on flavor side! read more

Spoon - Pork belly - Korean Near Me - Berkeley, California

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The decor and service are wonderful. The food was a total hit or miss. THE GOOD Appetizers were really good - had an order of the spicy jap chae tempura and the kimchi pancake. The spicy jap chae tempura was especially delicious! The sauce was awesome. Also was a total fan of the side dishes that came with our meal. THE BAD The spicy pork belly on the rice plate was surprisingly bland, given how much spice was supposedly on it. The pine nut porridge was also really, really bland. My Korean friend informed me that porridge is always served bland, and you're supposed to put a ton of salt in on your own. Perhaps that is so - but if that's the case, then it would have been nice for the staff to offer the salt when the food came out. Overall, I thought this was a really pleasant restaurant to go to on a Sunday afternoon. The staff was super nice, the restaurant is really clean and welcoming, and the food is not bad (depending on what you order). I just wish there was more of that punch of flavor, that homey deliciousness that I've come to expect from Korean restaurants. read more

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My coworkers and I like to come here for lunch. It gets pretty busy at times, and there isn't much space for seating. We usually end up eating outside which can be nice if it's not too windy out. The banchan is awesome! My faves are the tofu soup and the spicy pork wrap. read more

Spoon - Chicken rice plate - Korean Near Me - Berkeley, California

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Me and the bf came here for brunch on a sat after feeling a bit under the weather after sleeping with the AC on. I needed something that was not too heavy and would help me feel better. I read reviews that this place makes good porridge, so we decided to give it a try since it was nearby. The place has a nice cozy, modern korean styled atmosphere. They played soft korean music in the background. It's not too cramped with a nice open patio for eating outside. I went ahead and ordered the corn porridge, seafood pancakes and the bf ordered the bibimbap. The porridge was delicious, I would say this would be good for a hangover. The bibimbap was good too, but I'm not a fan of the vegetables. The seafood pancakes were good. Not a huge portion, but good enough for 2 people. It was lightly crispy, but not the best I've had. Presentation was nice and the side dishes come with seaweed soup. The only thing I found weird on their menu was that they charge for side dishes, which other places offer them for free. However, if u order an entree, the side dishes come with it. Overall, it's a pretty cute place for brunch and good for porridge. read more

Spoon - Bi bim bap, seafood pancake, and corn porridge - Korean Near Me - Berkeley, California

Wow, talk about service! From the moment we were greeted at the door to the end our meal, service was friendly and great. Food here tasted very fresh and it was refreshing to have after being stuck with not so great Korean options near the UC campus. Portions here are very tasty, feel healthy, and also generous for the price. Food might not taste quite as authentic because it's so healthy, but it's still oh so good. The restaurant itself isn't too big, but there's also an outdoor area that can be cozy to sit in. I recommend this place for its excellent service, homey feeling, cleanliness, and tasty healthy Korean food :D read more

If I could give a 3.5, I would. Had a very mixed experience here last weekend. Vibe/ambiance: It's a nice modern place. Looks really nice and big from the outside. The inside is more quaint, but still clean and modern. I liked the Korean/Asian snacks at the front. They even had a freezer full of Korean popsicles, and to pay you just add a dollar to a bin! Grabbed one on my way out after lunch. Food: Mixed reviews! - Bulgogi was great - very tender, good flavor/marinade. - Spicy ramen was good, came out boiling hot. Generous portion size. - Soondubu was a bit disappointing. Mine didn't come out too hot, so the raw egg didn't really cook. The flavor of the broth was good, but I've had better. - Steamed egg souffle unfortunately was completely burnt toward the bottom. It looked delicious, but I couldn't get over the burnt bits at the bottom. :( Service: The servers were all sweet and friendly! But unfortunately not the most attentive. I asked for ice water two or three times and never got it (they serve hot tea). Overall, I had very high hopes because I love my Korean food, but my experience here wasn't too great. It's worth a try though! read more

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Well first I was craving Korean steamed egg and my friend suggested this place because she'd heard great things. I couldn't decide between getting a steamed egg alone or a BBQ plate so when the waitress came over, I said to her, "I'd like to confirm that the BBQ plate comes with the steamed egg." She replied, "Yes." Then I said, "Ok I know what I'll order. I'll get that.." Then I proceeded to ask her if pork belly or spicy pork was more popular. I spoke my selection while also pointing at the menu. Then I inquired about the beverages and she didn't remember all the flavors of San Pellegrino so I walked into the restaurant to see for myself. I thought she'd come back to the table to take my drink order but another waiter brought over our food. So I'm waiting and waiting for this egg and to place my drink order. Finally the gut waiter brings food to another table and started to walk away very fast and I stopped him to ask him for the San Pellegrino and he seemed a bit bothered. When he brought my drink back, I asked if my egg would arrive soon and he says, "No! That's the Korean BBQ!" So now I'm realizing that I got the wrong order and our waitress was probably not coming back until the check which was pretty accurate. She came back with the check and we were never really checked on any time during our meal. Feeling left down since I decided I didn't want to get into a confrontation based on the vibes, I went home with a plate full of food that I didn't order and a steamed egg that was supposed to be the highlight which I never got. At least the spicy pork belly and sides were pretty good but not spicy to me. The vibe and service was a little off so I'm not saying I'm never going back but uh I'm definitely in no hurry. read more

Great Korean place to go to! Back when I was in Berkeley and would crave good Korean food, I would either order delivery or make the trek out there! I got their kimchi kalgooksoo (knife cut noodles?) and loved it! I also love the selection of Korean ice cream (melona bars, anyone??) There's also a small parking lot. read more

This is one of my favorite korean spots! When I want a spicy tofu stew.. this is where I wanna go. And I always over order here.. cuz I want everything. My go to items are usually the soft tofu stew, Kim bop, and egg soufflé. The parking can be horrible. Read the signs around the building. I usually park a little further away from the entrance. read more

After years of dining here with my family, we will no longer be giving them anymore money. Tonight, the server misunderstood our order. We told him that that is not what we wanted. Both him and the other girl just stared at us, and after asking if we can just not have the plate or get the correct item we wanted, they told us no. So here we are, stuck with a plate we didn't want and horrible service. So we asked for the check, paid, asked for boxes because we were ready to go. We posted our review, and the server must've read it right away and said WE LIED. He yelled at my wife, in front of multiple customers, multiple times. As a customer, with our four year old, we were baffled. Never again will we support any of these people's business. EVER. read more

Best short rib bimbaop ever. Used to order it everyday through doordash but now im out of range. Definitely would recommend ordering.

This spot is clean and I always come back for their beef tofu soup. The staff are friendly and I love their selection of soju!

Best doboki ever! Great staff, great food, pleasing ambiance, pleasing place. I will return when I'm in the east bay. read more

This place is around the corner and has a great variety of Korean food. They do have really good vegetarian dishes. I really like spicy ramen and glass noodles. The food is really greasy and hot served with enough quantity and great quality! read more