Oshibi Korean Bistro & BBQ — Restaurant in England

I decided to go here with my brother based on a lot of good reviews on another site so the question was; would it live up to the hype? Unfortunately, it did not.

On entering the place, I was a little surprised at just how small it is. I knew it would be small and that's no bad thing in itself but it really is small; seating just 16 people. So if you want to come here to try it for yourself, make sure you book in advance.

Therein lies the first frustration with our visit. While we had booked, three Chinese people arrived at the door who hadn't booked so we were asked if we would mind moving to a smaller table to accommodate them. Since we had only just ordered, we were OK with that. What really annoyed us though was that they got their food well before us. Not sure how that happened, but it was incredibly annoying.

Problem number two was in how long it took for any food to come to the table. We ordered some dumplings as "appetisers" and after 45mins, there was still no sign of them. My brother said he thought they'd probably end up bringing everything to the table at the same time; he was right. Out came all the food we'd ordered, squeezed onto our (now much smaller) table. It made eating a little cramped experience. If the waiter is going to advertise something as an appetiser then they should bring it to the table first while we wait for the rest.

In terms of the food itself, it tasted OK. But one of the dishes (the squid) was lukewarm so we sent it back to the kitchen with the waiter. A couple of minutes later, a woman came out of the kitchen with the same dish and asked us to touch the bottom of the plate to prove that it was hot. I have never had that happen before and, frankly, I don't care if you put a lukewarm meal on a hot plate; it's not going to make the meal hot. By this point we were getting a bit fed up so decided to eat it anyway and it was "OK".

Another of the dishes we ordered didn't even come to the table because the waiter wrote it down wrong on the pad. We ordered the udon noodles (chicken teriyaki version) but only received a plate with some chunks of chicken teriyaki on with some salad. Not a noodle in sight. Again, we mentioned this to the waiter and he pointed to his order pad where he'd written "chicken teriyaki". Not sure what he was trying to prove but it just wasn't what we ordered. He asked us if it was OK; it wasn't but, again, given how long it took to get served, we ate it anyway.

Generally, the food was tasty; some of it better than others (we had a couple of others as the waiter recommended four dishes between the two of us). It wasn't "great" though and the portion sizes were quite small. I believe they haven't quite got the pricing right on their menu as a result. Small portions is OK if you balance it with quality and price. Unfortunately since the quality of the food and general experience wasn't as good as we were hoping, it led to the food looking too expensive.

To his credit, the manager did come over to talk to us at the end of the meal as the waiter had obviously told him that we weren't happy. He looked genuinely disappointed that we didn't have a good experience and we told him what we were unhappy with. He apologised and deducted the chicken teriyaki meal from the bill too.

One final note to the manager if he happens to read this review; keep a closer eye on the level of service instead of turning up at the end to apologise. There are a few things that went wrong with our visit that would be quite easy to fix.

I don't like being negative but a disappointing experience is a disappointing experience. Perhaps we caught them on a bad night but it's important that you give a good impression every night. I've no doubt that the manager cares so I hope they make a few improvements that will be of benefit to Oshibi...

Anyone who's read my reviews before knows I'm a huge fan of authenticity.

I believe there's something special about trying a dish, which you know is the genuine article... The real deal.

I felt this when I went to Little Italy on Goodramgate (another restaurant in York).

But one venue that has recently stood out to me for its authenticity is Oshibi Korean Bistro & BBQ.

Tucked down an alley on Fossgate, Oshibi sits in the attic of the same building that Batanga (a Mexican restaurant) calls home.

Once there, your attention is quickly drawn to the small size of the venue. It's pokey... Intimate... Cosy, even. But this only adds to the welcoming atmosphere.

The service is lovely. When you walk through the door, you're greeted by a small dog (I want to say she's a Shih Tzu, but I can't say for certain).

When I visited with my girlfriend, not long ago, I counted maybe eight or nine tables, each with four seats (give or take).

I'd say there's room for maybe 30 to 40 people at any one time, all being served by two attentive waitresses (and the little dog, of course).

Some of the tables have a hot plate built into them, so you can cook your own meat.

However, my girlfriend and I decided to leave it to the professionals when we made our visit.

We started with the Kimchi Jeon (kimchi pancakes), which were excellent. They had a lovely, warm kick of spice and beautifully crispy edges.

Afterwards, we moved onto the Kimari (deep-fried seaweed spring rolls), which tasted very fresh.

The taste was reminiscent of the smell of the sea. I didn't dislike it, but I felt the Kimari paled in comparison to some of the other dishes we tried.

We then had the Honey Buttered Chicken, which, I have to say, we had a fairly good idea of what it would be like.

It was crispy, warm, and comforting.

After that, we tried the Japchae (stir-fried noodles) with tofu and vegetables.

This dish, if anything, was a welcome palate cleanser after all the strong flavours we'd been experiencing up to this point.

Finally, we had the Tukboki. And oh my word... I felt as though the dish had been created with me in mind.

I'm sure Tukboki is nothing of the sort, but to me, it tasted like a Korean lasagne. It was stodgy, hot, and wonderfully filling.

I believe they fill a dish with rice cakes or fish cakes and cover it in a gochujang sauce. We also added cheese to it (hence my comparison to a lasagne).

Needless to say, I left Oshibi with a full stomach, rosy cheeks, and the unwavering desire to go back.

I would heartily recommend it to anyone who's looking for York's...

Upon our search for interesting halal places to eat during our stay in York, we soon came to realise that our options were so limited. Which is quite unfortunate. However, this Korean BBQ place looked so tempting and i’ve always wanted to try it so we tried our luck and called up. The owner was so lovely on the phone and said they didn’t normally serve halal meat however if we booked a table for the following night they would personally go and get some for us!! How lovely!? Who does that? So we explained our dietary requirements and booked in excitedly for the following night. The restaurant is off the main road and up and couple of flights of stairs so could possibly be a little tricky to get to but with the help of google maps, we didn’t find it too difficult. Upon arrival we were greeted by the owner and his lovely little dog milo who is super friendly, my little one had a great time playing with him. If you are uncomfortable with dining with a dog around they are more than happy to take him away. The restaurant is a small family owned business with what I believe is autentic korean food. We were served the korean bbq with halal chicken and beef, a variety of banchan (sides) and dips. My dream of being in a kdrama grilling my own meat was making me excited at this point. You are given a grilling place and seperate tongs for raw and cooked meat. Everything tasted absolutely delicious and I couldn’t fault it. I guess to get things perfect though, you would have to have some prior experience of how to cook your own meat. If you’re not so comfortable with this, there is a giant menu of other things you could try. My elder daughter had the kimchi fried rice and said it was the best shes ever had!

Once we finished with our main we were offered the dessert menu, we saw an unfamiliar name “bingsu” and questioned what it is. When we were told it was a sort of shaved ice cream - we HAD to try it. We went for both the original and strawberry flavour. OMG OMG - think tasty snow melting in your mouth. The bingsu was so GOOD we went back to just to have it again after a couple of months! Korean pancake was divine too.

Worth visiting even JUST for the...