Zoomak Korean Tavern — Restaurant in Vancouver

COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME.

Management needs to seriously sort out their front desk/reservation system. It’s a Friday morning and we decided to visit for lunch, and I’ve been trying their line since 11am to reserve as there is no online system. Finally someone picked up at 11:30, to say their fully booked for lunch but has a waitlist. I called back and I asked how many ppl are on the waitlist they said none at the moment, and I asked if she can put us down over the phone as we only live 10 min drive away.

She said no, I have to be in person in order to put my name down (despite COVID) and she would do her absolute best to accommodate us. So we drove over and arrived at 11:45am to an empty restaurant, except for 2-3 table seated on the patio.

The front desk girl (same voice as the one who took our call) took a look at the empty restaurant and said she can’t accommodate us. And that it would be 1-2 hour wait. And THEN she informs me the lunch special is not available today anymore. I also glanced on the waitlist - it was a blank piece of paper.

Few problems here for management to consider: -perhaps consider allowing waitlist over the phone or online. Especially in an area where parking is limited, pricey, and homelessness is an issue. Does the restaurant really expect ppl to come in just to just put their name on the waitlist and be told to expect an 1-2 hours wait when they can just wait at home? -maybe guests should be informed over the phone lunch items are out before insisting them to arrive in person put name down in person. Other restaurants have this but they clearly mark on the website and menu daily quantity is limited -overall economics and long term impacts along with customer experience of the business practice of turning away guests in a near empty restaurant -more training is clearly requires for the front end staff. The girl herself said they were short staff and overwhelmed

Needless to say I will not be returning regardless how nice their menu offering looks on social media. My spouse and I walked off without putting our names down and had a nice meal next door (places that was not dead inside and turning...

I'm not one to leave a negative review at a local business, but this experience was beyond disappointing, even if the food was delicious. I came here by myself for lunch on a weekday. I didn't have a reservation and I was given a choice of a seat outside at the patio or at the bar. I chose to sit outside. I waited 15 minutes and no one came to follow up, check if I wanted to order, and I had to stand up and wave in the window to get a server's attention. I asked to be switched inside to the bar, and when I sat down I ordered their Han Sang Pork Cheek lunch set. The great news is, the food was delicious! A platter of 12 different dishes along with a delicious seaweed soup and your choice of main. I really liked how I could try some of their other popular dishes with the sampler, like the fried chicken and the yukhoe. Unfortunately, what made my experience so bad was the cleanliness, care, and rude service that I received. As a solo diner, I understand if sometimes servers get caught up with other parties or larger tables. But as you can see from the photos, I was splashed at the bar, sitting next to a wet counter, and no one attempted to clean or take care of it. It was an uncomfortable dining experience and no one (even the people working at the bar) bothered to clean it up despite it being a bright blue liquid. The worst part, and the part that made the service awful, is that when I finished eating, the server asked, "are you done?" I expected her to ask if she could clear my plate, if I had wanted anything else, or if everything was okay. Instead, after I responded yes, she grabbed the machine and gave me my bill. I have never seen any service so dismissive and greedy for me to leave - I didn't ask for the bill, I didn't ask for the machine, and me being finished with my entree does not imply that I'm ready to pay. Zoomak has good food, but to feel ignored and disrespected (and also have a tip screen that has default tip options starting at 18%) is ridiculous. I won't be coming back, and the staff need some basic training. If your food is going to be priced at this price point, the service has to live up...

Our time here could be described as a rollercoaster of a night. I went with my partner and our friend visiting from Korea.

We got to the door, my korean friend went up and asked one of the servers about the wait time, and she didn't get the best experience and response (in her opinion), so not a great start. Wait time was an estimated at an hour and a half but it ended up being 15 mins.

We got seated downstairs, and enjoyed some of the best Korean food I've tried in the city. I'm not a big fan of seafood dishes, but the tofu seafood soup we tried was probably one of the favourites amongst our table. We also tried their kimchi fried rice, which tasted amazing and definitely added on to our awesome experience at that point.

What killed the awesome experience was the service. A group was sat next to us before we'd been seated, and one of the members of that table had apparently worked on a recently released and popular Netflix show.

One of the waiting staff had found out when that particular guest reacted to a song from the show had played over their sound system (I was not aware of the show or the track until it was pointed out to me by my partner), and about 4 or 5 members of the staff came to their table asking for autographs and praising their work in the show (they thought she produced the music but apparently she was part of another team that worked on the show)

I'm not against people at work getting autographs (especially if they really like what they worked on), but I am against getting poor service. And we waited for our bill for at least 15 minutes before I had to ask a member of the staff to bring us our bill. To compare, they'd brought the other group their bill relatively quickly during the autograph session.

Another member of the staff (who wasn't part of the autograph group) gave us our bill. We paid, tipped for the food and that was it.

If we go back I hope the service will be better (and I'll make sure to ask for a table...