Tobagi — Restaurant in Leipzig

Despite several positive reviews, my experience of eating here was a major disappointment for an Asian restaurant as Leipzig is blessed with a great number of good Vietnamese, Chinese, and Thai restaurants.

The first clue that this was not going to be an adventure in fine dining was the discovery that, unlike Korean restaurants in Korea, New York, and L.A., there was no "banchan" -- Korean side dishes which by their number & quality distinguish great Korean restaurants from the average. Everything--even rice & kimchi!--was priced ala carte. There was even a 2.80 Euro charge for "poricha", the barley tea customarily offered for free. I ordered a jabche dinner which included a choice of "spinichsalat" or suppe. My guest ordered the chicken bulgogi and opted for the soup du jour--"miso und Chinakohl" (Chinese cabbage). My spinach salad turned out to be sigumchi namul usually only served as a banchan. The soup was thin and relatively tasteless. Service was slow with only 1 waiter. The jabchae was "interesting", containing Brussel sprouts and green beans. The chicken bulgogi looked more like a terayaki stir fry. At the end of our meal we agreed that this was the worst Korean meal we'd ever had--no insignificant assessment as my guest was Korean! Or, as someone from the Borscht Belt might say--"The food was terrible--and there was so little of it!". And yet, you DO need reservations to get a table even on a...

Looked great from the outside but turned out to be mediocre. Mandu straight from a bag (exact same ones I buy at the corner Asian store, which are fine but not so much at a restaurant and at a massive price markup for the effort of putting them on the steamer for a few minutes). No Banchan included with the main dishes and cost extra for each item. Our orders came approx. 10 minutes apart. Lettuce in the Bibimbap (which ok, I suppose that could be a regional variation, although I never saw that while living in Korea). Sauces doled in tiny portions as if this were haute cuisine. The food is fully acceptable and tasted fine, but in light of the prices and points above it's all decidedly so-so at best. Can't say whether there's a better option for Korean food in town, but I was not impressed...

There used to be two Korean restaurants in Leipzig and I always used to prefer the other one (Meetfreude) which unfortunately closed down. However in the past year, the management of Tobagi seems to have changed and I can say definitely for the positive. For sure it's not the typical Korean restaurant café experience where you get all your sides as a bonus (i.e. included in the price of your meal), however the meals they serve here are really authentic and absolutely yummy. It's like getting a home cooked meal. The owners are also such lovely people, too. It's always a really great experience to come here and we do so with pleasure pretty often. A serious must try for any of you living in Germany and missing real Korean home...