Yori — Restaurant in Cambridge

🍴 "YORI Cambridge: A Slightly Underwhelming Korean Adventure" 🍴

Venturing into YORI Cambridge felt like stepping into a parallel universe where Korea was just a whisper in the culinary wind. The ambiance, though lacking a distinct Korean vibe, held a certain charm, akin to a confused traveler – endearing, yet slightly lost. 🌏

Our digital odyssey began with an app-based ordering system, a modern twist that left our fingertips doing more walking than our taste buds. The Flavoured Soju Grape 🍇 was a delightful start, promising a fusion of fun and flavor.

As for the main event, the Beef Bulgogi Bibimbab 불고기돌솥비빔밥 was served with a side of anticipation. However, it seemed the beef took a detour from Seoul, arriving with less 'bulgogi' and more 'blandgogi'. My Pork Bulgogi Bibimbab 제육돌솥비빔밥 shared a similar fate, playing it safe in the spice department. 🐖🌶️

Our friend's Korean Style Fried Chicken 프라이드치킨 winged in with more promise. The crispy batter was a crunch-tastic highlight, though the sweet chilli sauce seemed to forget its Korean roots along the way. The Egg Rice 계란밥 was, well, eggactly what you'd expect – nothing more, nothing less. 🐔🍚

The parade of dishes followed no particular rhythm, emerging from the kitchen in a sporadic ballet. This made for a 'wait-and-watch' dining experience, testing our patience and politeness in equal measure.

A notable absence was the Korean staff, which might explain the lackluster authenticity of the flavors. Having savored Korean cuisine from its homeland to far-flung corners of the world, YORI's offerings were like a faint echo of the vibrant, punchy flavors I've come to adore. 🌍

Hydration became an afterthought, as our quest for water turned into a mid-meal adventure, reminding us of the importance of self-advocacy in arid dining landscapes. 💧

In the realm of service, YORI maintained a Zen-like presence, so Zen, in fact, that their check-ins were as elusive as a dragon in a Korean folktale. 🐉

In summary, YORI Cambridge is the culinary equivalent of a K-Drama with subtitles lost in translation – you get the gist, but the soul gets a bit muddled along the way. It's a place where the essence of Korea peeks through a veil of muted flavors and disjointed service, a gentle reminder that sometimes, the journey doesn't quite take you all the way to your...

After a very long day walking around Cambridge we needed to stop and get food quite quickly before having to catch our bus. We found Yori Korean BBQ on St Andrews Street and being quite fond of bibimbaps we decided to eat here, bearing in mind there were many other places around that would have equally as good food. The service was in the format of scanning the QR code, however one of the party has a VERY severe mushroom allergy. Obviously most bibimbaps contain mushrooms so we spoke to the waitress and she told us to leave a note on our order when ordering through their online system and she said she would tell the kitchens herself (she appeared as though she wasn’t paying much attention might I add- the customer service here was poor). We then checked twice with her after to make double sure that the chefs would not touch mushrooms and then touch said persons food. We waited 40 minutes for our dinner once the order had been sent through only to find that when the food was put on the table, both dishes contained mushrooms. The waitress then proceeded to ask “are you able to eat mushrooms or do you have to avoid them completely” when handing us the food. You can imagine our frustration that we had waited a good length of time for food that we could not eat, when the staff were fully aware of this persons allergy. What is more frustrating is that we then had to leave Cambridge (as our bus was soon to depart) without any food for a 4 hour journey home. If they had told us earlier we could have found a better restaurant to eat in, but with their appalling late notice we unfortunately could not. The waitress did offer something else however we had to decline due to our tight schedule. I do not recommend Yori as their service method of QR code does not ensure that allergies are taken seriously, the waiters clearly do not relay information to the kitchen staff which puts customers at risk. We were told that the kitchen mixes their vegetables together in preparation and are all kept in the same container. The vegetables should be prepped separately and stored in separate containers as this breaches allergy regulations. We are extremely dissatisfied with the practises of the kitchen and the waiting staff at Yori and will not be trying any of their branches in...

Far and away the worst experience I've had in a restaurant.

We arrived at 6.55pm for a pre booked 7pm bbq grill table. After a short queue to get in front of house advised us that the bbq grill for our table was not working. Not a great start. At first it was suggested that we could be seated in the nearby Green St branch, but this was full. We were then offered our original bbq grill table with the caveat that the bbq meats would be cooked by the kitchen and brought out to us, and that our appetisers and drinks would be free. This seemed a fair compromise.

We're seated and order around 7.20pm. Dumplings each for starters, and for main we order 3 bbq meats, lettuce, kimchi pancake and rice, as well as an apple juice and a beer. The apple juice arrives after 5 minutes but the beer does not. It's another 5 minutes until the waiter comes back and I ask what's happened to the beer. 5 minutes later a lukewarm beer arrives at the table.

It's now around 7.35pm and a kimchi pancake is brought to the table but no sign of the dumplings we ordered as starters. I'll also point out that there was plenty of food arriving at nearby tables while service to us was exceptionally slow.

At 7.55pm some more food arrives. The lettuce leaf wraps. That's it. No sign of the starters and 35 minutes after ordering we have a pancake and lettuce to show for it. At this point we're pretty fed up and ask why the food is taking so long. I get a reply about the kitchen being busy because it's Saturday night. Regardless the dumplings should have been the first items that came out.

We make our excuses and tell the waiter we're leaving because our whole experience was soured. I can understand Saturdays are busy but no excuse for not having starters on the table 35 minutes after ordering..The lack of attentive service was also apparent, it literally felt like we were put into a corner table then forgotten about. It shouldn't be too hard to remember two drink item orders.

Maybe it was just a bad night for the restaurant but since the moment we stepped inside we were let down. Some proactive communication that our bbq grill wasn't available would have been appreciated. Good customer service costs nothing. As such I'd give this place a swerve, especially if it's a...