WUJI_asian circle — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

It's been a long time since I've had such a poor dining experience. From start to finish, the service was awful.

We booked a table online and when we arrived we were taken to a table right next to the kitchen by the manager (despite being quiet). Our waitress threw some BBQ menus at us and told us to pick what we wanted. She didn't ask if we'd been before or explain how it worked or if we wanted the BBQ or A la Carte option. Her English wasn't very strong and when she returned with a glass of wine instead of the bottle we ordered we politely explained her mistake. She went back and forth to her manager - saying we had to pay for the glass and the bottle because as far as they were concerned they had confirmed my order at the time (despite me saying bottle several times). Eventually the manager came over to argue and after speaking in a different language to the waitress he went off in a huff and eventually the bottle was brought out. This set a really bad tone for the remainder of the meal.

When our order came out for the BBQ, half of the items were missing and we assumed it was coming later (it did not). The waiter who brought out our order tray proceeded to put everything on the grill for us at the same time which meant it was a slightly stressful experience of trying to juggle cooking too much food whilst eating. At no point during the entire 1.5 hours we were there did anyone ask us if we needed anything or if we wanted anything more from the all-you-can-eat menu or more drinks. We weren't given any advice on how to order more (our table neighbours told us they had to go up to the bar to request more).

When I went to bathroom, I overheard the manager asking a party who entered the restaurant where they would like to be seated giving them a few options. Meanwhile, we were absolutely sweltering in the back by the kitchen. The airflow was extremely poor, especially on a warm night, and by the end our clothes were saturated by the smell of greasy oily BBQ food. (Which lasted for 2 days after.)

The food itself (at least what actually arrived from our order) seemed half decent - hence the two stars rather than one. But cooking food on a grill which burns everything whilst sitting inside a glass sauna was a really awful experience. I only ate a few things because of how uncomfortable and unpleasant it was.

To add insult to whole experience there is a service charge which is added to the bill automatically. (They didn't even ask if we'd enjoyed the meal.) Please note: service charges in Scotland are not compulsory unless previously advertised so my advice is to remove this if you've not had a good experience.

I'd caught wind of this restaurant via Tiktok and it really reminded me how important it is to look up Google reviews before eating anywhere. As a local, there are plenty of Korean / Asian BBQ restaurants around the city which I would heartily eat at before ever returning to this one. Not...

I've never felt so unwelcome as a solo diner in my life. I usually take great pleasure in dining alone when I am away on business and I always try to maintain a level of etiquette when going to some of the busier places as I know me occupying a full table is potentially costing the business to lose custom. However I have never been made to feel like a burden until this evening.

I arrived at 6 and asked to be seated which they said to come back at 7, that is more than fair, I wanted to explore holyrood park anyways so win win. About 20 minutes passed and I decided to call just to confirm my booking as I didn't recall if they had said to come back and check or if they were reserving a table for me. The gentleman said that's okay but could I push until 8, this wasn't ideal and I said I couldn't as that would scupper my plans for the evening. He reluctantly agreed and I probably should have listened to my gut and just cancelled and went elsewhere. But the food smelled so intoxicating and I had hyped myself up.

But unfortunately this was a mistake, I arrived and was seated and then almost instantly forgotten about. About 10 minute later after getting someone's attention I was given a food and drinks menu. All the while watching other guests being attentively seen to by the staff.

My food order was taken but no drinks order, that's fine, I don't mind popping to the bar for a drink. As my food starts arriving they realise they forgot to turn the grill on and start it up, and I start preparing my food to be cooked for someone to rush over as they had also forgot to oil my the grill.

And then the table next to me starts getting their food, now even though all of the food comes on a wheeled trolley they found it necessary to use the other half of my table as a serving platform for "the more important guests"

After finishing my meal which I will not dismiss was absolutely delicious I had worked myself into a bit of a fluster and was going to say something as even though I'm a particularly stoic man I was quite taken aback and to be honest felt really disheartened. However upon reaching the counter to pay the barmaid was the first person to greet me with a smile and pleasant attitude and it immediately disarmed me. I didn't feel it was fair to unload my frustrations after she was so polite.

If you aren't a sole diner this would probably be a great place to eat but the good food doesn't make up for the poor...

Honestly was quite disappointed with the experience. Placed next to a table near the door so every time the door was opened half our table got cold and a few things blew away.

The servers were mostly inattentive, we had to ask for things multiple times or they were forgotten but staff were standing next to the bar.

The food was average but a few things stood out like the lamb with cumin and the corn side dish. But others were poor cuts of meat filled with lots of sinew. Which were served in difficult to cut large lazy chunks. Many of the "seasoned" dishes were either bland or just cheap spicy sauce. The sushi rice was also not sushi rice it was steamed plain rice.

The upper area of the restaurant seems clean at first glance but if you use any facilities you will see otherwise. The bathrooms (male) had what looked like compost water sitting in the urinals as they were very dirty and the sinks were not much better. I'm assuming the staff do not do checks.

To settle up the night when we asked for the bill there was a 10% service charge pre added. For clarification I have no issues tipping for good service but we received almost no service and what we did was poor to say the least. Food was self cook obviously and whilst many kbbq restaurants will serve the items in easier to consume sizes this was not the case so we also had to prepare our own meat (with the exception of roll style meats). The drinks were also just bottles. No cocktails or draft etc. so I have no idea what service charge but then when trying to discuss this with the server she couldn't speak English and so I had no way to dispute this.

For a place we were so excited to visit after seeing the advert on Instagram we were so let down and disappointed. I would much rather go to one of the other options next time. I don't reccomend this unfortunately not until they have properly trained staff and service...