WooJung BBQ Holborn — Restaurant in London

They say it's a sign of a good eatery when you see people of the cuisine's nationality eating in the retuaunt. So, seeing that all the other costumers were Korean, or of South East Asian descent, we were very hopeful.

The cabbage kimchi had a good balance of tasting refreshing fresh and enticing spiciness. Though we may have made a mistake of opting for the fish cake soup (a hotpot). We'd imagined it to be more more flaked fish patties than the sliced sponge of fishy whatever! The broth was reasonably tasty though and it was welcome on a very cold night. Tap water is served in tacky plastic containers, just like in South Korea, giving an authentic feel, if void of finesse.

Although an A-board outside claims authentic Korean food, it was nowhere as good as what Mummy Debra has had in South Korea.

In a basement, you are shielded from traffic noise. Though the clientele were loud and lively. The staff is friendly but it took a while before I was seated as the one that seated us was spiking bills onto a spike. Though he did in from me it's seat me shortly and apologise for the wait after spiking the bills.

I'm wondering if there was a leak in the lavatory as there was water on the floor. But seeing as as the paper holder was empty, it's likely that the lavatories are not checked frequently enough.

Prices are reasonable.

There are two entrances on either side. The one we used seems to bring an element of surprise to the staff. But it is handy if you're going to Conway Hall (where we had seen a recital).

Inaccessible restaurant if you are my wheelchair user or have difficulty...

After reading the reviews and personal recommendations, we thought to give it a try while we were around Holborn. It started off well until some fruit flies started visiting our table when the dishes were being served. As if that wasn't unpleasant enough, one of the flies fell into our tteokbokki dish and when we asked the waiter to do something about it, he just flippantly said that it was unfortunate and that there was nothing he could do. He even offered to just remove the fly from the dish for us to continue eating it. When we asked for him to check with his manager if they could replace the tteokbokki as we had barely touched the dish (we were intending to pack it as we'd ordered quite a lot of food), the manager's response was that we could order another brand new tteokbokki dish and that he would give us 20% off the new tteokbokki dish. There was clearly an issue with flies in that restaurant as when we were leaving, we saw one of the waitresses swatting off flies whilst clearing up the table next to us. We went there hoping for great Korean food but ended up being really disappointed and appalled by the customer service we received.

We have a video of the fruit fly hovering over our lettuce but unfortunately we can't upload videos to reviews so I could only provide a snapshot of the fly by the...

I had the jajangmyeon here, and it was mediocre at best. I don't know why it's so difficult to get this simple dish correct- they hadn't used the correct noodles (they used these unappetizing, non-traditional noodles), the sauce was watery, and it was flavorless in general. I feel like Korean students in London should probably just stick to eating at home with or parents' cooking, or just stick to eating in Korea. When I asked for a side of kimchee as well- thinking it was complimentary as it is in MOST restaurants- the waiter gave it to me but didn't tell me that it would cost an additional 2.80 pounds. Four US dollars for a small pile of kimchee, especially when cultural norms dictate that you usually include the kimchee in the banchan? I understand that you're catering to Londoners in general- but for actual Koreans that's an affront and offensive. Regardless, the owner was kind and offered to refund, but I refused because even that wouldn't have redeemed the experience. Almost twelve pounds for a mediocre, small jajangmyeon resulted in a world of disappointment. Go the eleven miles out to New Malden- there is no good cheap Korean...