Assa — Restaurant in London

If they seat you at the table next to food lift, AVOID IT.

Long story short:

1. missed starter order
2. poor quality food: Bulgogi&Mushroom Hotpot - 4/5 Seafood pancake - 2/5 Toppoki - 0/5
3. poor staff attitude upon complaints - 0/5
4. poor handling of the problem in general - 2/5 Not coming again

Pancake came first, and then the hotpot. After good 20 mins, asked if the other starter dish was coming. The manager came shortly after and apologised that it was missed and said it’ll take less than 3 mins to prep it for us. It was indeed served very quickly.

However, our second starter tasted very poor - the rice cake tasted blend, didn’t soak up the sauce at all. Ended up leaving the whole dish untouched. I didn’t even bother telling/complaining about how bad the dish was at the time, hoping they’ll get the message by leaving the dish untouched.

Our table was next to the food lift. Being busy and crowded beside our table was totally understandable when the restaurant gets very busy. I worked part time during my uni-days in a Korean restaurant too so I understand the situation. What I DON'T UNDERSTAND is why staff members decide to carry hot soup dishes on this narrow pathway when there is very little space to pass through, while the other end of the table offers alternative?

There were at least 4 moments when the staff member was carrying boiling hot soup dishes over my friend's head/shoulder. My friend had her head turned away so she was unaware of it, but as I was watching that happening, I just could NOT focus on our conversations at all. After so many close moments, one staff member ended up bumping into my friend’s elbow when my friend was having the spoon reaching towards her mouth. The staff member apologised immediately and as this was the first time that has happened, my friend and I did not say anything on that moment and it ended politely on both ends.

Time passed, tables were freeing up, I asked one staff member if we could move to another table. There were a 6 seatings table and one 2 seatings table. I asked for the end of the 6 seatings table. She answered back "We can't move you to another table when all of your food is out now, and when you have nearly finished your meal, and we have a group reservation for that table". Group reservation, understandable. So I asked if the 2 seatings table was free instead. She said she'll have to check with the manager, and went away. I planned on ordering more soju and another dish if we were to be seated else where to continue our conversation. Few seconds later she stands in front of the lift with her back towards us, checking the orders and what not, without informing us of the follow up situation. A simple 'the manager will be with you shortly' would've been nice. We both felt that she was very rude. At this point I was very upset not only by her attitude but with piling up of problems up until this moment; the missed order, poor quality food and the attitude of the staff.

Couple minutes after the manager came asking kindly what he could help with. I mentioned how poorly the Toppoki was done, and the reason of requesting to move the table was due to how crowded staff members beside our table and it was distracting to our conversation. The manager insisted to redo the Toppoki, but I refused and instead requested to let the kitchen know of the situation that this won't happen again in the future for the sake of Assa. He said he'll let the kitchen know, and he moved us to the 2 seatings table which was so much better not having to worry about a boiling hot soup or sizzling pots over my friend's head/shoulder or staff bumping into my friend.

The manager handled the situation to his best, yes. But the staff members need to learn how to handle the customer complaints & the ATTITUDE as well. Relocating the tables around the lift area would be nice. Left the restaurant feeling very very upset.

Such a shame since I used to like Assa, and that's why I took my friend for a special occasion. Pure disappointment. Sorry but I won't be...

Saw a review on the "no sit down at the table until your group complete" policy and want to add on that too as I also had a same disappointing experience several days ago. I was running late, but the rest of my friends already arrived there (literally, it was just me - one person - who had not arrived yet). The situation was my friends were ready to order once they're inside, they did not plan to wait for me before proceeding with order & eating. My final straw was when i informed that i was

The kimchi pancake doesn't have enough kimchi in it so it tastes bland. Giving soy sauce doesn't cover up the fact that the pancake is mostly batter. The food is clearly made by someone who has no basics in cooking. Ingredients such as crab, which should be one of the main ingredients to give the soup flavour, came out frozen, whereas ingredients that should be cooked quickly came out defrosted, meaning that by the time the jeongol is fully cooked, all the seafood is tough but the flavour from the crab is barely present. Not sure why you would put the mooli around the edges. It tastes longer than the other ingredients to cook and should be placed at the bottom or fully submerged in the soup. Preferrably, if you were to make a little effort, it should be boiled prior to serving as part of making the soup and served already soft. There are things you expect from food that is called jjampong, which is (i) chili oil (ii) soup flavoured with the taste of spring onion, chili powder and soy sauce, and (iii) noodles. So when you serve a jjampong jeongol with none of these things, I'm not sure how it's any different from a haemul jeongol. Check your burners. We've had ours changed twice.

Overall, if you're going here for the hyped up budaejjigae, sure go ahead. You can't really go wrong with it but then again, the same goes if you were to make it at home. Don't expect quality food from this place, it's quite clear that they use ingredients...