BAB Korean Food & BBQ — Restaurant in Hamilton

The entire point of a franchise/chain restaurant should be that across all places, the taste should remain the same. As a Korean who loves eating out at Korean restaurants, I've been sorely disappointed by the slow decline of the quality of food and service at this location since its opening.

The servers have no knowledge of the menu or drinks. The manager, when asked to see us, was nowhere to be found. Korean places pride themselves on banchan refills. There were none here. Which is a shame, because even up until a few months ago, it was the hospitable service and sharp eyes of the servers that kept us coming back - along with the food.

No place in my recent memory has the food quality taken such a sharp nosedive. Again, which is a shame - the food was at least, even if it was a hit or a miss, palatable.

My husband ordered the galbitang (only after being told that the yumsotang he ordered was not available, almost 15 minutes after ordering it) and when it came out, you could tell immediately that the quality was bad. There were brown fat bits floating on top like soapscum, and the soup tasted like sugar water. The rice came out sloppily dumped into a rice bowl with bits hanging off the sides.

The cchampong (seafood noodle soup) wildly differs in taste and presentation every time I go. Sometimes the broth is spicy, sometimes not. Sometimes the noodles are hand-pulled (impressive), sometimes from a package. Sometimes there are large shrimp, sometimes tiny or close to none.

When the manager/owner came over and was told about the taste, we were told that the taste was "catered to white Canadians" and that's why the flavour changed. Which is a ridiculous statement. We were also told that depending on the cook, the meal was going to be different and that we should tell the server beforehand how we would like a dish. But doesn't that destroy the purpose of a restaurant? To have consistency?

At the end of the meal, the usual dessert cream puff that was offered was nowhere to be seen, but it didn't matter as we knew we would never be coming back here again. RIP to another Korean restaurant in Hamilton that can't seem to keep consistency or its act together. The only reason I'm not giving this a full 1-star is because at least, when they first opened, had so much promise. For nostalgia's...

I’ve been to this location for dine in before and we had a wonderful experience. So we decided to do take out last night, and unfortunately had a frustrating experience.

We confirmed with our server several times what items we wanted order, and we even confirmed that our bill was correct. Upon opening the food at home, 2 items were incorrect and we were missing another. I called the restaurant, and had to have multiple calls to confirm what was incorrect, and that I wanted what we originally ordered. They said they would prepare the food which would be ready in 10-15 minutes, and to bring the food back that was incorrectly given.

We arrived, and the server and manger couldn’t understand what was wrong even though I had spoken with them on the phone previously. The food wasn’t ready, and I had to explain again what was wrong and that we wanted the correct order. They then gave us money back for one incorrect dishes, BUT then said I’d have to pay them for the actual dish I wanted because the original server inputted the order wrong, and my actual order was more expensive. I was asking why I would have to pay them again when it was their staff’s fault that the order was incorrect, and the server could only tell me that that’s what I needed to do; we ended up paying the difference out of frustration. They then threw out the food we returned; while our intention wasn’t to receive free food, at least the incorrect items wouldn’t have been wasted.

The food was good in the end, but the miscommunication and frustrating customer service was off putting. I’d recommend dining in over take-out at...

We are regulars at this restaurant. But this was the first time we ordered "lunch special" during dinner time, with an additional $3 per pax (so the total is $20 per pax).

This time we ordered like in the pictures that show a big portion of pork kalbi on a hot plate with a small soup, and a big portion of bulgogi on a hot plate with a small soup - both come with rice.

UNFORTUNATELY, the pork kalbi and bulgogi were not as seen in the pictures! They came out small portions (as seen on my video & pics).

ALSO, the taste of the bulgogi was sweet (only). TOO sweet for a bulgogi dish! The soup has a sour taste only. The pork kalbi was just ok (it was better on the other visit!).

We are wondering why the portions are not as seen in the pictures, OR at least you should have mentioned it on description. So people wouldn't expect that BIG. And the taste is...