Seoul Tokyo — Restaurant in London

So disappointed!!! We are a decent client here. Always left a bill of at least £170 each time. But today is absolutely a total disaster!

When we arrived, the girl said 1) “YOU ONLY HAVE 1 HR 30 MINS TO EAT”. I’m like but nobody said that to me in the phone when we booked the table. My husband & I decided to have our celebration of Women’s Day here and what a crazy dinner! When we ordered our food, one of the girl repeatted once again that 2) YOU KNOW ONLY HAVE 1 HOUR 30 MINS TO EAT right? We looked each other and said to her “yes we know”. When we realised we haven’t been confirm that our tteokbokki could come with the option of cheese (as many time before) so we ordered the normal one and when we realise it’s wrong, we kindly ask one of the girl here to help for exchange (with more money of course for the dishes), but her reaction was 3) DID YOU ASK FOR THE CHEESE OPTION with a demanding tone of voice. She was not happy but very quickly put the meat on the bbq table to cook for us. We then asked “could we please finish our starters first as it’s just brought out?” She is in such a hurry to kick us out before 9:30pm. She quickly 4) BANG our bbq set on the table then brought our tteokbokki inside the kitchen. She then stand in front of the kitchen area and talk to someone and that someone lean over and look at us then she quickly look away like she didn’t look at us. Of course we are not stupid to not know 5) THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT US (AS THEIR CLIENTS). Usually for the BBQ, someone will come and serve us then as soon as we realize that we been isolated and ignored, then we asked to change our paper (for bbq), one of the different staff helped us for the rest. She was helpful and polite. Not like the banging dish girl and her best mate girl (who been looking at us) before. We tend to get some more food for take away then realise we only have 1,5 hours to eat so we ask for bill. The best mate came with the bill with a writing RED pen £102 and told us if you paid cash will be this amount. Or else card will be £113.06 After checking the bill is correct, we kindly ask to take off the service. The “best mate” girl quickly said 6) WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE SERVICE. Then I explained the she said 7) IM THE MANAGER AND THIS £102 ALREADY BEEN TAKE OFF THE SERVICE. This time we are really speechless. All the time we ate here, they charge us 12.5% for service charge (see my previous bill). And now she is LYING to us that £102 is already took off while before she said £102 is if we we pay by cash. Then she took our cash and quickly walk away and speak something in her language (probably Thai).

I mean, guys! If we can spend over a £170 each time for a dinner. You think we care when you don’t give discount or what? What we wanted you to realise it’s your attitude to client is WRONG! That’s why we asked for taking off the service charge. Then you will know what is not good yet then change! Not just because of £10 or £20. Sadly the food here is amazing, the atmosphere is great too but the staffs!!!

This kind of service and bad behaviour only can work in somewhere that not involved clients or humans! A nice old lady in a small Thai village even have better service and smile than some of the staff here. Especially the “best mate” girl who claimed that she is the manager here. No wonder why your staffs are like this!

BTW We finish our horrible night before 9:30pm as you requested too, happy? (please see the bill time on...

We had a booking for 5pm (which was when the restaurant opens) and were told about a grace period of 15 minutes over the phone so we arrived at 5:16 (1 min late) and the server acknowledged we were 1 min late and that he couldn’t change anything our table was already given to another customer. The restaurant was not busy. The restaurant treated us with such petty service by saying cos we arrived 1min late that we had to wait 40 mins! We understood we were late however the service felt so low class from that moment forward …..we waited as we have been looking forward to eating there and after the 40 mins we were shocked that the server took us to the table that was empty the entire time we were waiting. My friend and myself felt so shocked even to how they served us the food and drinks even after we finally received a table. Despite the fact that we did receive a table,….we were told we could only eat for an hour 😑 despite tables usually being 1 hour and half 🔥😑. I must say however the server who gave our order was soo polite 💜 and none of what we are saying relates to her! 💜 However the person on reservations and the person who gave us our bill were really not accommodating and gave our bill before we even asked for it!! We also saw how they treated other customers by giving them notice of their bill in notice and that their time was coming to end and instead we received our bill straight away whilst eating ..absolute shock! I hope they realise due the size of their restaurant that they should do walk ins only as they clearly can’t handle reservations well! It was absolutely poor service despite the food …it all left a sour taste...

I’ve been to Seoul Tokyo several times, and overall, it’s one of my favorite places for Korean food in central London. This time, my boyfriend and I came for dinner, and as usual, the food didn’t disappoint.

We ordered gamjatang, half & half chicken (ganjang and snow cheese), white jjambbong, yukhwe, and a selection of kimchi. The yukhwe and white jjambbong were by far the best I’ve had among Korean restaurants in central London — truly excellent. The rest of the dishes were also delicious; I have no complaints about the food itself.

However, this visit had a few frustrating moments. The rice that’s supposed to come with gamjatang was brought only at the end of the dinner because, according to staff, it “wasn’t ready” — which really disrupted the dining experience.

What bothered me the most was the mix-up with the chicken order. We clearly ordered half ganjang, half snow cheese chicken (repeating it twice), but were instead served yangnyeom. When we pointed it out, the waitress didn’t apologise — instead, she started arguing with us, insisting we never asked for snow cheese. And rather than replacing the chicken, she just brought a small bowl of cheese powder. That kind of service felt dismissive and unprofessional.

Customer service and communication matter just as much as the food. I also believe a Korean restaurant would benefit from having more Korean staff, both for authenticity and smoother communication with guests.

I’d still be happy to return because the food is genuinely good, but if we get the same waitress again, I’d kindly request another server...