Arirang Korean Restaurant — Restaurant in Addis Ababa

The food here was good—we had the fried chicken with soy garlic sauce and bulgogi—the service, however, wasn’t (yet) up to par.

My lovely bride and I came here for a lunch date and we loved the vibe, decor and ambiance of this newly opened restaurant. It’s run by the same owner of the other Korean restaurant.

We’re hoping they start karaoke here at night. They have a huge tv and sound system set up on one end of the dining space—fingers crossed.

So back to the service: my fried half chicken arrived in a timely manner but it was close to 30 minutes! before my wife’s bulgogi arrived. And that was only after I went and asked them what was going on. The wait staff seemed not the slightest bit concerned when I asked where my wife’s meal was.

To their credit, the floor manager actually came up server all times to apologize for their growing pains as they get the restaurant up and running. Having someone apologize for service issues was a first for us In Addis so bravo to the owners for this! (Note: I know we aren’t in the US but this type of mistake would have warranted a comped meal or free dessert there—just saying—of course it would have probably only gotten us a disinterested shrug at a cafe in Paris:))

So while they only get three stars, we will give them another try and I sure they will rise to...

Second Korean place I’ve been to in Addis recently and Arirang did not disappoint. We had the crispy orange chicken and the bibimbap and both were tasty. The restaurant was a bit empty at 8:30 PM but that seems to be the same as restaurants nearby, and we were grateful we found a place that served us after 8:30 (we had two restaurants that said they stop taking customers in at 8:00 and 8:30)

There’s also a karaoke machine but you would need to bring your own mic apparently;...

I usually order takeout from them on Sundays. I pretty much get the same things, with little differences here and there. I absolutely love the food, and Arirang is one of my favorite restaurants in Addis! However I have noticed the portion sizes have been somewhat getting smaller, and the taste today was completely off to the point I thought they must have changed chefs. Nonetheless, I’ll keep ordering from them and hopefully the food taste goes back to normal by...