Shilla Korean Restaurant — Restaurant in Zurich

4/5 Stars Food 2/5 Stars Service 3/5 Stars Ambiente

My friends and I ordered the following: 1x Jukhoe (Llittle Beef Tartar) 1x Mandu 1x Dolsot Bibimbab 1x Jugkejang 1x Kotsal (Korean BBQ) 1x Galbi Spezial

The food was very delicious overall but I cannot recommend the Mandu. That starter dish was obviously not homemade and I don't know why they mix in such frozen goods for this price level. 1 Star penalty for the frozen convenience food served for CHF 10. This ruined our expectations to be honest.

The number of the traditional side dishes were the half of the regular serving in Korea but still impressive to see that stuff here. I hoped to have more choice to order additionally but it was kinda limited.

If you never tried Korean food and do not care about service and ambiente that much, try out the food.

Now to the details for the patient readers: The Korean food is certainly worth a try because there are not many Korean restaurants in Switzerland to begin with and most of them are not worth mentioning. Unfortunately I was very stressed by the many flies trying to share your food and flying around your head.

However, the service is a big question. I've seen two Asian girls and the boss himself running the service. Unfortunately nobody speaks German there and English is just "ok". They are polite and try their best but it's still meaningless if they do not understand you and work uncoordinated. The entire service team is everything but experienced. You may consider the pricing and expect experienced staff who speak German at least. We were forced to repeat our orders up to three times depending on how careful they listen. Obviously Swiss German is the preference for local customers.

The ambiente is quiet interesting and you don't see this kind of idea everywhere. Once you enter the restaurant, you get a refreshing feeling. After taking your seat, you just realize that your table is somewhat small sized. The only good thing was the integrated table grill. The table grill looks pretty easy-to-use and clean but do not touch the edging! It's really hot and there is just one little warning sticker in Korean...

Don't be surprised about the exterior facade and interior stone plates on the ground. They covered the fence with a very interesting color... and the stone plates inside the restaurant have two different inappropriate colors and the floor is not even at some places. High heels not...

Points to improve :

Service for a big group very bad and unorganized.

I booked 3 weeks in advance a table for 20 people at 8 pm so that the restaurant is prepared.

The restaurant was very careful and called me 3 times before that date to be sure that I'm confirming and I did.

Since it was a celebration I arrived at 8 pm to make sure I can welcome my friends and guests.

To my surprise the tables were not ready for us. And i was trying to find someone who can help in the restaurant and set everything. My friends had to wait until some other tables are free so that they can add them to another big table. It looked like that the restaurant was not ready at all. And my friends hat to lift tables and arrange the space.

The tables got prepared very late and alot of things were missing like glasses of water that I had to ask to bring to the guests.

The servers were very nice and kind however, looked overwhelmed and kept bringing either missing orders or wrong ones, or bringing to another table the wrong order.

To finally pay, they didn't know how to manage payment, they printed the bill for me which contains more than 50 orders and asked my friends who got what. This should be the restaurants service to manage and figure out, not us. They should include a system for big groups.

We paid more for items that we didn't know from where they came, but when it's a large group and no system in place these things easily happen.

Positive notes:

The food especially the barbecue and starters were super tasty !! The Sonju excellent and we all enjoyed it.

The room is private and nice and had few other tables so we could enjoy our time without disturbing other guests.

The servers were super kind and whenever I asked for something they did their best to accommodate us.

The manager came during the meal to ask if everything was okay and thats thoughtful.

Since it was my birthday, my friends asked if they can bring a little cheese cake with a candle , and that's super nice as well.

Overall I'll give a 3. But seriously the service for large groups should be reorganized and prepared in advance and better :)

I'll come back but just with a friend...

Its a good korean place, for zuerich standards probably very good. As usual here, the prices are much higher than lets say LA or London. However, what I liked about the food was that it seemed somewhat korean home made. As if you fly over to korea to meet your and his parents invite you for dinner. The kimchi was very very nice, not the one you buy from the supermarket.

The staff was very friendly. The seafood pancake was good, I cannot say they were bad. The hot pot soup (forgot the name) was veery taste. Unfortunately however, there was barely anything in it (there was supposed to be meat and noodles inside and there were however just a spoon full though.....bit disappointing).

In the end they offered me a pumpkin rice juice (tastes amazing).

Overall, good experience. I am definitely gonna ask them next time to put more meat and noodles in the soup though, it was basically just a broth, it kind of made me sad...