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Seoul Garden Korean and Japanese

MY REVIEW: Food was very good, only if you waitress have time too take your order.way too under staff, have to repeat asking for items. Water was never refill even in plain sight.get a dirty look after only leave ten percent for tips. Would I drive twenty miles one way just to dine here? Probably no.

NAME: Stephent
SUBMITTED: 9/5/2010   LAST VISIT WAS: September 5, 2010
FREQUENCY: Visited once

MY REVIEW: Upon driving to the restaurant, the neighbourhood is pretty rough looking...we parked our car next to a spot which had clearly had a break in the previous night evident from the smashed glass on the concrete. There was also a cop wondering about in the car park.

With this said, stepping into the restaurant was a totally different story, it was wonderfully designed, clean and the customers/staff were all very nice.

We mostly stuck to the BBQ dishes which were nice. My friends like Korean food, and they were very happy with their meals...I guess I am not a huge Korean food fan, so personally I wouldn't choose to go back out of choice, but if someone asked me for a suggestion of a Korean restaurant I'd have no problems recomending this one (with a caviat of mentioning the scary neighbourhood outside).

A meal for 4 (3 bbq dishes + one entre), cokes, 2glass of wine and beer = $110. Pretty reasonable! and more than enough food.

NAME: lovegoodfood
SUBMITTED: 9/15/2007   LAST VISIT WAS: September 2007
FREQUENCY: Visited once

MY REVIEW: i'm korean and have lived in 'korea town' on the east coast where there are many good authentic and specialty korean restuarants. believe me, the food at seoul garden is excellent. i love going to this place! you gotta eat the hae-do-bop (rice w/ raw fish w/ spicy sause). they give huge portions and it's the best i've had anywhere. the duk-mandu-gook is fantastic! the sushi/sashimi is a hidden surprise here. it's reasonable and very, very good. it may not have all that decorative stuff that you get at these high priced jap rests, but the sushi/sashimi is very tasty and fresh. their kalbi w/ the 'salad' is awesome. you won't find the same salad at any other korean place. all my friends love it. the other places in houston simply don't match up. kimchee soup is very good with lots of tofu and pork. Yum! the kimchee tofu bokum is excellent too!

i go there often for lunch and get their #1 bento box (sushi). i highly recommend it.

NAME: ktown boy
SUBMITTED: 6/12/2007   LAST VISIT WAS: June 2007
FREQUENCY: Everybody here knows my name...

MY REVIEW: We recently returned to Seoul Garden after a two-year gap, and the dining experience was so nice I wanted to share it with everyone here. It seems that perhaps SG has heard some customer feedback and made a great effort to improve certain aspects of their restaurant.

Our party of 3 arrived at 8pm on a Friday night and right away I noticed the parking lot near the restaurant has been repaved since our last visit. That is nice because I remember there used to be pot-holes in it.

Upon entry, we were greeted promptly by a hostess who informed us it would be a 10 minute wait for a table. She was polite and spoke good English.

We were seated less than 10 minutes later. We were given new menus that have pictures of many of the dishes in them. The photo pictures are definitely a nice new touch. We were served water promptly and told to push the button when we were ready to order. Button? What button? Then I noticed the button on the wall at our table.

This "button ordering" is a great new procedure they have installed since our last visit. When we had decided what we wanted, I pressed the button and within a minute a waitress had arrived to take our order. We ordered bulgogi, chicken tempura, soft-shell crab, and 2 beers. To our delight the food was delivered in less than 10 minutes.

The beef and chicken were good and we always enjoy cooking it right at our table. All the side dishes were good too, especially the kimchee. The tempura and soft-shell crab was passable, but it didn't blow us away.

During our meal, we just pressed the button when we needed something and a waitress attended us promptly.

When we were ready to leave I pressed the button again and our bill was brought very promptly.

I LOVE this button they have installed at the tables. This has improved their service-level immensely over what I remember from previous visits. We will definitely be going back. It's good to see an established restaurant like SG make improvements.

NAME: Tim & Wendy
SUBMITTED: 5/28/2007   LAST VISIT WAS: May 2007
FREQUENCY: Visited 4-6 times

MY REVIEW: The BBQ here is delicious. This is one of my favorite resturants and places to get sushi when they still had their sushi bar. I dont know if they have re opened the sushi bar yet, but I have yet to ever had better sushi than here, even better than m*iyakos.

The atmosphere is very nice and welcoming but a bit worn. There is a lovely bridge walk over with a water fall feature in the entrance. For parties there are seperate paper panneled rooms for privacy. Though it is lovely inside it is however quite run down looking on the outside.

On service, like most asian resturants I go to the service can be good/bad depending on the days and waitresses. Honestly they can be rude and forgetful at times. The water needing to be refilled or signaling for one to come to my table can be a hassel. However sometimes I get a good waitress that is polite and comes back often, subsitutes side dishes when I need them to be changed, and happily has the chef cook the meat for us if I dont feel like bbqing it.

The bbq meat plates range about $13-15 and feed about 2 people very well. In addition they come with about 6-8 small side dishes. Also there is a awesome spicy vingerette salad and I think miso soup.

I have visited over 4-6 times but i dont think I'm a "everyone knows my name" person. I've been there about 15+ over the past 3 years

NAME: Epicurean lady
SUBMITTED: 5/29/2006   LAST VISIT WAS: 5/13/2006
FREQUENCY: Visited 4-6 times

MY REVIEW: This is our second time dining here with friends and both times left very dissapointed. There are several other Korean restaurants on Long Point, that my husband and I both feel are much better in both food and service.

After giving them a second chance, we will never go back. I have food allergies and was very specific about them when I orderd the "Vegetables & Rice" in a hot stone pot to omit the egg. I told her I wanted vegetables, no egg, and no meat. When the waitress served it, it was topped with ground beef, which I do not eat, and which was not listed in the menu for that item. I asked for a new one, which she was glad to do, but when she brought it back it was in the same dish, I could tell becuase of a very distinctive crack in the pot. The rice on the bottom was hard and burned and I found bits of ground beef in it as I ate. I notified the waitress. She claimed that it was not the same as the first and then told me that they mix ground beef in the hot sauce served with it in the jar on the table. A good waitress would have told me that when she brought the sauce out and told me it was for my "Vegetables & Rice".

We go out to eat to be social and to enjoy a time out without the hassle of cooking. We are also very tolerant, and a wait-staff has to mess up very badly for us to tip less than 20%. On this day, we went in the afternoon, and there were only 2 other tables occupied, so our lack of service (it took a long time to get her to come back so I could return my dish) was not due to being busy.

When we got the bill, the tip was automatically added in, athogh there were only 6 of us at the table. My husband was especially disapointed by this, since this is a rare occurance that we would have tipped less.

NAME: Excellent Chef
SUBMITTED: 3/26/2006   LAST VISIT WAS: 3/25/06
FREQUENCY: Visited 2-3 times

MY REVIEW: i love their oyster casserole soup!!!!

NAME: jtru
SUBMITTED: 6/15/2005   LAST VISIT WAS: June 2005
FREQUENCY: Visited 2-3 times

MY REVIEW: Please don't waste your hard earned money on this pathetic place; I just can't even get myself to call this place a restaurant. I am Korean and have been living in Houston for almost 20 years, and believe me, you can find much better Korean restaurants within 10 minutes from this dump.

I will not go any further on the poor service as other reviewers have made this crystal clear. For my worst experience, I had a waitress who followed us out to the parking lot just to tell us that the tip is 15% (I only left $20 on a $200 tab due to terrible service).

Food is edible but not anything to brag about at all. The side dishes are very limited & some of the dishes are down right horrible (ex: Nang Myun). I understand the food might seem decent to those of you that are new to Korean cuisine, but why put up with mediocracy & bad service when there are many Korean restaurants on Long Point Rd and Gessner Rd.

It's completely atrocious that this place is remotely associated with Korea, and embarrased to think what kind of image it will leave on other Americans that are new to Korean food. I hope this place does itself justice by closing its door.

NAME: John D
SUBMITTED: 5/8/2005   LAST VISIT WAS: 04/2005
FREQUENCY: Visited 4-6 times

MY REVIEW: A group of friends and I came here on a Saturday night to a packed restaurant. My first impression of the outside wasn't too great. The shopping center looked kind of run down. However, the interior is actually quite beautiful. We did have to wait for some time before we were even seated, but none of us minded. We were all having fun chatting anyway. When we were seated, a friendly waitress came by to take our orders. She was very polite and was very helpful on what kind of things newbies could try. We did not have any real problems with the service. She did take awhile to come back and refill our glasses but it wasn't that bad. (Most Vietnamese and Chinese restaraunts are even worse).

The food was delicious! We all loved the side dishes. Well, the girls did anyway. Our carnivorous male companions didn't bother with the side dishes. More for us! :) I've been to a couple of Korean restaurants in Dallas and this one definitely trumps those other places. Overall, I would recommend this to anyone interested in a good dining atmosphere. It's a fun way to enjoy social eatings. Luckily, my office isn't too far from the restaurant so I may be able to visit again soon.

NAME: FV
SUBMITTED: 4/19/2005   LAST VISIT WAS: 04/2005
FREQUENCY: Visited once

MY REVIEW: I was very disappointment with this establishment. It seems the restaurant has gone downhill ever since my first visit. The food is good, but the service is TERRIBLE!. I mean, I'm not the one to pick on service seeing how I love Vietnamese food, and the service is usually bad anyways. But for the price I pay at here, I expect my water to be refilled when it's low. My real complaint is the way we have to order, which is 1 BBQ plate per person. And if you deviate from this rule, side dishes are not replenished for free. My god, this the first time they ever told about this since I started going here. What really will keep me away from this place from now on is the fact they will charge you extra for rice whereas other places won't. Avoid this place, save your money and go to K*orean Garden or G*reen Tree Pine or whatever it's called.

NAME: richard
SUBMITTED: 3/5/2005   LAST VISIT WAS: 1/05
FREQUENCY: Visited 4-6 times

MY REVIEW: I think this is a fabulous restaurant, with the best Korean Food and service. I have tried many Korean rests. and this is by far one of my favorite restaurants. The side dishes that come with main courses are always fresh and delicious. Their portions are huge and with all the side dishes, you can’t go wrong. I love the table top grill (cook your own meet) concept. It’s a great family atmosphere. As far as the service, they’re great! They are very busy on weekends, but we’ve always had good service. Great food, great demand!!!

Try their Zucchini pancake, it’s to dye for!!!

NAME: Lisa
SUBMITTED: 1/4/2005   LAST VISIT WAS: 12/24/04
FREQUENCY: Everybody here knows my name...

MY REVIEW: We ordered kalbee and it was not very good. The meat was very chewy and thick and the side dishes were tasteless too. Now, I'm korean and had plenty of great korean food so I know what I'm talking about. A non-korean friend was also with us. The portions were very small too I thought, we ordered 3 orders of kalbee and they brought it out on one dish. I also thought the restaurant was overpriced for the quality of food. They also didn't bring out other condiments that you eat with the meat until I requested it. I have not had their other dishes, but the kalbee I must say was terrible!

NAME: Kate
SUBMITTED: 1/4/2005   LAST VISIT WAS: Jan/2005
FREQUENCY: Visited once

MY REVIEW: I went with my best friend's family (who is Korean). What an experience! I can only say thank you and come here in Korean, so I do not know what anybody said unless my friend told me. But overall, i thought the atmosphere was great, the food was great (I loved cooking the meat ourselves) and they were very kind to us.

NAME: Brad
SUBMITTED: 10/17/2004   LAST VISIT WAS: 10/04
FREQUENCY: Visited once

MY REVIEW: Being raised in a Korean household I can appraciate the quality of their food. It is very good. On the other hand the service SUCKS. The waitresses are very rude.

It is very embarrassing to take a friend who has never had Korean food to this place and have to fill your own water glass....

The waitresses also need to realize that eventhough not everyone that comes into their restraunt looks Korean the customer may understand what they say!!!! So they should keep their gosip to a minimum or do what others in the restraunt industry do and talk about the customer after they leave.

NAME: kathy
SUBMITTED: 12/31/2003   LAST VISIT WAS: Nov 2003
FREQUENCY: Visited 4-6 times

MY REVIEW: The food is pretty good, but the service is not. last time i went, they didn't refill my water, the food took way too long, and the waitress just was not sincere. To add to that, when we were walking out, the waitress ran out of the restaurant telling us we didn't pay tip. although the service was bad, my friends and I did pay tip, but even if we didn't, I have never seen someone demand for it!! It'll probably be the last time I go to this place because I feel that service is an intricate part of dining.

NAME: Natalie
SUBMITTED: 8/11/2003   LAST VISIT WAS: 
FREQUENCY: Visited 4-6 times

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