Gangnam Station — Restaurant in Waitematā

First things first, I used to love this place but their shocking service one day just put me off completely. I have thought about going back but feel that one rude and unethical business person doesn't deserve to get paid and ruined it for his staff. Maybe I'll get over it and go back one day lol.

We always get the ox tail soup. The first time we're tried it, it was literally the best soup I'd ever had - perfect amount of flavour and went really well with my rice. I kept going back for it but it never tastes as good as that first time. Still yummy though! Perhaps they changed their recipe.

I love their side dishes and there are some things I haven't yet found at other restaurants (or it's slightly different), like the kumara, hard boiled egg and bean sprouts. You can also refill and I feel like with two people, we can refill twice?

I ordered 8 dishes for takeout one day and they gave me eight portions of side dishes! And we only had four people eating so it was totally worth it.

The buzzer button on each table makes it easy to order when you're ready.

I love the cuteness of the restaurant. The tree in the middle of everything is a bit funny but still adds to it's character. Sometimes I see little mosquitos... Dunno if that's related.

So back to the issue...Overall the service was okay. Very good from the general staff, not so great from the managers themselves. Not impolite, you just don't get a genuinely friendly vibe. The worst is the manager's son.

So we'd been going to this place since I was in uni, over 6 years. This particular day, I found a hair or some wiry object in my food, and mentioned it to a staff member quietly. He apologised and took the hair away.

The manager's son came and claimed it wasn't from his restaurant's food and that it wasn't hair. I asked him what it was and if he was implying I put it in myself and he repeated it wasn't from the food and that he chucked the 'hair' out. Not very happy but I don't usually like making a fuss so just left it.

When I went to pay, I paid the full amount and took a photo of the manager on duty's name on the wall (I assume that was the son). He said, "what are you doing? I am the manager's son. I don't care if you take photos." I told him I was just giving feedback to the kitchen, and he was being rude accusing customers of putting hair in their own food. I was happy to pay full price for my meal because everyone makes mistakes, and I'd had no problem over the many years. Or maybe a simple apology would go a long way. He insisted he did no wrong and that he was the manager's son (like we didn't get it!) I said even his staff member knew better about customer service and just apologised. No fuss needed.

What happened to the customer is always right? I have worked in the food industry and we try to satisfy customers regardless even if we know they were in the wrong. I wasn't being unreasonable. Just offered feedback to the kitchen so they be more careful.

I think the main issue is that there is an arrogant kid living off his parent's fortune but not learning or genuinely caring about the business. Very sad. Hope you learn one day how to professionally deal with...

Came for dinner due to rather high ratings. Ordered the 순두부 (soondubu) which is written as tofu soup on the menu. Soondubu jjigae is actually a stew (rather than "soup") with soft tofu, vegetables and other ingredients (commonly seafood, sometimes meat).

While surprised and slightly disappointed that the banchan (side dishes) that came did not include kimchi, I was pleasantly surprised that the soup base tasted rather close to the authentic dish. (FYI, I lived in Korea and have learnt to cook this dish in a cooking class before.) However, halfway through the meal, I realised something was missing. I dug through the stew and found that the ingredients were just many bits of tofu with some slices of onion and leek. Where were the seafood and egg? I checked the menu picture to confirm that it showed a prawn, some clams and a raw egg yolk. Thinking that the cook may have forgotten about adding these ingredients in, I checked with the server and was told that the egg was beaten in (I later dug more and found a morsel of cooked yolk that is definitely not a whole yolk) and there is no seafood for this dish! I found that unbelievable as the soup base had a strong seafood taste, and the menu picture showed seafood ingredients so I naturally assumed that the stew should contain it. So essentially, it is $19 for a seafood-tasting stew with mostly tofu and no actual seafood or any meat inside. 🤔

Pros: Food portion was quite substantial. Service staff was friendly. Opens till late.

Cons: Deceiving menu picture and not value-for-money for the soondubu dish, no kimchi served, quite hot in the back dining area, 60 cents charge for paying with a foreign credit card (first time that I encountered such a charge only for...

Just wanted to share our experience at Gangnam Station in CBD today. My friend and I usually love coming here for lunch and ordering the Meat and Vegetables Steamboat for 2 people - it's our go-to dish and always so delicious with different types of meat. Our favorite has always been the pulled beef - delicious!

Although they've raised the price which is understandable and no longer offer free refills on small entrees. We still come here with our loyalty. But what really disappointed us today: Instead of a variety of meats, it only had sausages! We were even told they couldn't give us cheese anymore ( used to always come inside of the pot)  due to allergy concerns- Very funny! The Meat and Vegetables Steamboat for 2 people only came with 1 rice this time. We were told it was because there were noodles in the pot already, but it used to come with noodles in the pot for this dish all the time!

In the end, we were charged $60 in total, $58 for the dish and an extra $2 for the rice. Received $1 discount on the rice, as normally charges $3 for 1 bowl of rice. Thank you for the discount! Thanks for the memories, Gangnam...