Banchan Korean Restaurant — Restaurant in Gauteng

Banchan refers to small dishes of food served along with cooked rice in Korean cuisine, very literal definition of the restaurant we might add.

It is quite a small and sociable restaurant that fits around 30 people squeezed in at a time. The people make up most of the atmosphere here, as it is buzzing and as soon as one table clears, there is another waiting to be seated, we were pleasantly surprised to see people just keep on coming in to get a table. This does, however, make the restaurant very hot, that and the fact that most people are cooking food right at there table. You sure do get that Asian street market vibe, which is a fantastic change of pace.

The food is unique and interesting and we literally wanted to order every single dish on the menu, but unfortunately we don't have that big a stomach. We narrowed it down to two starters, the Dakgangjung, that is fried chicken breasts in a tasty sweet chilli sauce topped with chopped peanuts. The second starter was the Oiseon, which is just pickled cucumber stuffed with beef and egg strips, really a fresh and unusual dish. We were not disappointed with our starters and were excited about the main event. We had to try the Korean Barbecue at the table so we ordered Bulgogi, this is thin pieces of beef marinated in soy sauce and pear puree, to cook at the table. To accompany the beef we ordered Shin Ramen Noodles and this... this was our favourite dish of the evening, the broth was out of this world and the noodles were perfectly cooked. We had to fight over this bowl of love. The drinks menu is very limited but you are welcome to bring your own wine, luckily there is a liqueur store next door.

The whole night we saw waiters coming out with an interesting looking dessert called Bingsu. Now, Patbingsu is a popular Korean dessert that consists of shaved ice flakes, ice cream and condensed milk. The toppings you can choose from is Red bean, coffee and strawberry. The most popular one is the Red bean but we weren't brave enough and settled for the coffee flavoured one. Needless to say, this one was utterly delicious! We will go back just to try the original Red bean Bingsu.

In Korean culture, the service fee is already included in the price. This might be the reason why the service was non-existent here. You have to raise your hand and hope they see you if you wanted to order something. They also didn't explain much of how things worked or what dishes they put in front of you. As Korean cuisine newbies, it would have been nice to get a quick breakdown of what is the most popular dishes or what is inside the small steel bowls they gave us. The manager did notice that we waited quite a while for our food so she gave us a starter on the house, but after that, the service was still very lacking.

The value was not too shabby as the total for 4 people came out to R850, for lots of delicious food and you can't really put a price on a great experience that Banchan gives.

TTT recommends you definitely make a reservation before going and try the Shin Ramen and a Bingsu.

TTT’s rating out of 5: Food - 5 | Service - 1.5 | Atmosphere – 4 | Value - 4

Banchan gets a 'Good on Ye' from Two...

Been going to Banchan for years and feel like the quality has gotten worse over the years for the price they now charge. Pros: Korean fried chicken is still good, best menu item for the price in my opinion Kimbap is good; it's very easy to make your own for much cheaper though if you have the ingredients Love that there's a bell to ring instead of waiters or waitresses coming back constantly to ask how we are doing

Cons: SO overpriced. It baffles me how much their BBQ, noodles and stew are for what you get. We ordered ramyun expecting their own homemade noodles for the R135 plus all the toppings they charge. NOPE. Just a bag of instant noodles from your local Asian convenience store, a slice of that processed cheese, 1 boiled egg and about 3 or 4 slices of their meat unmarinated. Wow! Just go to an Asian store and make it yourself for R40 and you'll still have leftover ingredients. The Ddookbaegi Bulgogi stew sounded soooo delicious on paper. It arrives and I'm left with a dish that tastes like someone accidentally poured a cup of water into it. So bland. My sister and mom ordered Oolong tea, only for them to come back with a small pot with 1 teabag. For 2 people? Outrageous! That's what you would give 1 person who ordered, not 2. Quite aggravating, luckily my sister asked for another teabag otherwise we would've paid for 2 oolong teas for only getting enough for 1. Sies. When Banchan first opened, their prices for the menu items used to include service tip. Now, as of 22 March 2025, apparently it does not (even though a month prior a waitress said the total did already include tip). I miss when they weren't so money hungry - must be because they've moved and renovated and now have to make up for that.

They're lucky they have few competitors otherwise I don't see this place doing well if it were actually in South Korea (I have been, and the food is 100x better for the price, both quality and quantity wise). I will probably come back for the KFC but otherwise, it's a skip for me.

Update after getting a response: We did not get 2 tea bags at first. We got 1 tea bag in a pot of tea when both my mom and sister asked for tea. We only received the 2 tea bags AFTER my sister asked the waitress for 2. Maybe there was some mix up with the waitress but it's definitely a good idea to make sure the customer knows exactly what they'll get. I'm also not sure why the response speaks about the plain R90 ramyun when I mentioned the ramyun with all the toppings worth R135. Regardless, both the plain R90 ramyun and the R135 one with all toppings is not...

I used to love Banchan and would go on very special occasions as a good treat, but the new Banchan has lost a lot of what made it special. I ordered a ramyun thinking it would be homemade noodles with a special broth, but it tasted and looked like Shin Ramyun. The meat was unseasoned and processed cheese was used as the topping. The fried egg was fully cooked instead of slightly runny. The kimchi was dull in flavour. The slices of mushroom were small and barely noticeable. I paid R135 for something I could make better at home. I ordered tea for two so it was placed in a teapot. The server only placed one teabag in the teapot and would’ve charged me for two people. I had to request for 2 teabags because my tea tasted like water. Mind you the tea is overpriced at R35 per person. The japchae and ddoekbaegi bulgogi lacked salt and the japchae portion size is small. The only reason why this has 2 stars instead of 1 for food is that the fried chicken with sweet chilli sauce was still good. Banchan had higher prices because the servers’ wages were included in the price of the food, but I had to include additional tip because I was told that that practice is no longer done. That is completely different to the Korean service culture I knew.

I am very disappointed and have deleted my old review and will probably never go back there again.

Edit after reply to my review 19/04: Thank you Jamie for replying back. Some feedback for your restaurant.

Please add a disclaimer to your Ramyun that it is instant noodles or request your waiters to notify your customers. As much as it is not written “handmade”, you should also notify your customers that it is instant noodles so they do not insinuate that your food is freshly made in the restaurant. Kindly note the meat was still bland and the egg overcooked. I acknowledge that two teabags were used, but it should be noted that they added the second teabag only AFTER I requested for the two tea bags be added when I ordered two tea bags and only received one in the 900ml teapot which I know is for two. Please consider this seriously with your wait staff. On service charges, we asked the waitress if service charges were included and she said no. Thus, this is not what we were accustomed to versus previous visits and we paid the tip to ensure she got paid too. It is unclear on the bill whether service is included or not. Please consider your wait staff once again and put a...