Mapo88 Korean Dining Bar — Restaurant in South Island

I recently had a very disappointing experience at this restaurant.

First, I ordered the pork belly and kimchi stew, but the stew arrived first, and I had to wait another 20 minutes for the pork belly. I believe dishes ordered together should be served at the same time.

Second, the service, particularly from one of the female staff members, was lacking. While I was waiting for the next dish, instead of apologizing, she questioned why I hadn’t touched the food. When I inquired about the delay, I didn’t receive a clear response. It was only after asking again that I was told the kitchen had made a mistake. Next time, if someone asks, "how long will it take?", plz response quickly.

Third, the biggest issue was with the stew itself. The dish looked like it had been half-eaten or poorly prepared. Like someone's leftover. Honestly, I even questioned if it's truly leftover.

It wasn't until I spoke to the manager on my way out that they admitted the dish had been served incorrectly. What upset me the most is that the staff member insisted she had already asked me and that I was okay with the dish. Well, I can understand the miscommunication, but the real issue is that the waitress served the disgusting kimshi stew without realizing it was wrong, and when she told me it had been served incorrectly (according to her), she didnt even start with an apology.

Shouldn't a simple 'sorry' come first? They said they recognized their mistake and remade the food, but that dish was never served to me.

"Staff should check the QUALITY of the food before serving it.

"If the staff made a mistake, they should APOLOGIZE first to inform the customer.

I won't comment on the kitchen's issue with my stew. It seems like the quality is far from ready for the...

First of all, I must say the food at this restaurant is so good we ordered a lot.and you can get cokes for free by scanning the code. However, the service in this restaurant is really poor.First, when we arrived, there was no room for four of us to sit indoor.Then I asked if we could move in when there was a table in the room since the weather.But waitress refused and we still chose to eat in the restaurant. Second, since we were sitting outside and the waitress never came to bring water or order food, I entered the room to remind her twice that the waitress had been pretending to be busy with other things. Third, I later found that every table had kimchi salad or little snacks which we don’t have outside,I took the initiative to go in and offer it twice, but did not give it to us until I asked her for the third time, did I have to ask every question more than twice before serving me?The waitress changed her face at that moment.I don't know what that means, but this is the first time I've ever written a bad review on google that...

Unfortunately the restaurant was obviously understaffed on the day we went, after being sat down we had 0 attention for 20minutes despite ringing the bell on the table 3 times. Ended up waiting at the till for another 5 minutes to make the order. We ordered food and drinks. Food came out fast which was appreciated. We ordered the seafood soup, fried chicken, corn cheese, steamed egg and seaweed rice. Seafood soup and fried chicken was just okay, corn cheese was very small in portion and not enough cheese, seaweed rice was fine however with kimchi inside it was too wet and near impossible to roll into a ball, steam egg was a huge disappointment, looked nothing like the picture, portion was small but tasted okay. Drinks and water came halfway through our meal so much needed improvement in communication between front of house and kitchen and again understaffed was obvious.

We love korean food and visited this spot because of the high review but would urge the owner and/or manager to step...