KOGI Korean BBQ — Restaurant in Sydney

What a terrible service we had for the night! I barely write bad reviews because I know how hard businesses are operating but tonight is an exception…I was so looking forward to it but what I received was very terrible customer service from both the staff and the manager of Kogi (specially Saturday evening 12th Nov 5.20-5.35PM). I am not commenting on the food - just on the service I exeperienced.

My friends walked in at 5PM and I was a bit late - arriving at 5.20. Just sat down and a waiter arrived at our table said we only have 40 minutes to order and eat. Means we need leave at 6PM.

I was confused because my friend said they told her we have 90minutes so even if we were late - basically we could still sit until 6.30PM.

We were confused - then some staff came and explained - I said that we were told we have 90mins from the time my friends arrived at 5PM. I did not understand why but each time they brought another person along to our table but couldnt give us a reasonable explanation. All they told us is the manager said so. I asked to speak to the manager. The manager brought the iPad, pointed to the screen and said straight to my friend’s face - you can only until 6pm and they did not tell her the 90mins dine in. I was frustrated because if we knew we could only sit for 1hour - we would definitely have not chose to dine in there. Then we were in agurement, they said we need to leave at 6.15pm and kept saying they did not tell my friends about the 90mins, instead they told her 1hour 15mins. As a manager, all he did was arguing with us to prove he was right instead of finding a solution.

My husband was very angry saying we should leave. Then the manager and staff came in said okay you guys can sit till 6.30 in a way that made us very uncomfortable like we were begging them for it. Their attitude were horrible and unacceptable.

The only nice person there were the one of the male waiters in our seating area, who was only one said sorry to us and asked what we would like to order. But we stood up and said we would leave because we were not feel comfortable there.

Although the appetizer arrived - we left and paid for what we ordered. This was the worst service I have ever had in any KBBQ. Please don’t use the excuse that the restaurant is busy in the weekend. I can accept that they cannot service us well (ie bringing food late or anything) but the attitude from both staff and especially the manager were...

We essentially were just asked to leave because we didn’t order enough BBQ - after having ordered 6 mains for 2 adults and a 2 year old. We didn’t want BBQ, just ordered hot stone pot x2, steamed egg and a cold noodle soup. They said their rule was you must order 2 BBQs to eat there. So I obliged and ordered 2 BBQs- a meat and a vege from the BBQ menu. They then said the vege from the BBQ menu doesn’t count as BBQ. We genuinely couldn’t eat more than 6 mains between 2 adults and a toddler so asked nicely if they could accomodate for this. The place was empty. They said no. The waitress serving us apologised at least but everyone else was so rude and the manager at the front desk did not lift his head to even make eye contact let alone apologise as we left. Don’t come here unless you are the exact clientele they want- groups of young people who over drink and eat only lots of expensive BBQ meat.

EDIT: The owner responded saying there was signage on the menus and at the entrance. I beg to differ. There was no rule saying you must order 2 BBQ meats on the menus, only a tiny hand written piece of paper stuck to the top of the menu at the entrance. The staff member at the door told us you have to order BBQ to eat there. So we did- we ordered one of the cheaper meat dishes that was $35. Then the waitress at the table said that’s not enough, you need to order 2 BBQs. Then we added the BBQ mushrooms and veges dish, which another waiter said was not enough- you have to order 2 meats. For 2 adults and a toddler, we had ordered 4 mains including bibimbap and cold noodles, plus the 2 BBQs, which was well over $100 worth of food. Since we had a toddler and were in a rush we would have finished eating in 30 min which we told you as we entered and your restaurant was empty at the time, at 5:30pm. What is your minimum spend?! I am not sure what was so hard to accomodate. My wife is Korean and was craving cold noodles and I have eaten lots of Korean in my life and never have we experienced such rude and negative attitude like the guy at the front desk showed. We had a reasonable request- please let us eat 2 BBQs where one was a vege. We added to our order again and again to accomodate for the rules of dining at your restaurant. How much left over food and wasted food is enough for you? How do you expect 2 adults to eat 6 mains including 2 BBQ meats? So disappointed in...

We ordered 3 main dishes:

1. Soft Tofu Soup - soup was watery & bland, onions almost raw and tofu was not 'soft', seafood tasted like it was straight out of a frozen bag and wasn't fresh at all. This is one of the worst Tofu Soups I've ever tasted.
2. Bulgogi with rice - there was hardly any meat and it was mostly vegetables. This dish looked nothing like the picture.
3. Fried chicken - quite bland but at least crispy

Overall the food was below average and there are other korean restaurants that have more flavoursome dishes with fresh ingredients.

The Service was extremely disappointing, most of the wait staff looked like they wanted to be elsewhere and could hardly crack a smile. They seemed very mechanical. The main Host guy was pleasant enough though.

To top off our experience, we noticed that other tables were getting a potato side dish but we were missing. It is also the only side dish that my western partner can eat. When we asked if we could please get one, the waiter apologised and told us that they had run out of this dish so they couldn't serve this to us. Then we see other tables getting served the potato side dish so we ask another staff ( the main Waiter/Host) and his response was "Sorry, you are given 6 side dishes so we can't give you the potato dish". Way to go to keep your customers happy.

For the sake of one side dish, it really wasn't worth upsetting your customers. I've never experienced anything like this and it's really left a sour note to our whole experience. Korean restaurants are usually very generous about their side dishes and it wasn't like we were demanding unreasonable refills.

The only positive thing about the place was that there was very good ventilation for...