Gooi Nara — Restaurant in Reading

If this review was just about food, it would be 5.

The food is good. The service however can only be explained by being too attentative.

We wanted to have a nice relaxed meal out, we'd made an evening of it, left the newborn with her grandma who'd driven an hour and a half to look after her to give us an evening off. It was also my belated 30th birthday meal.

We arrived and the service was good. We ordered a lot of food, we were excited to relax and chill, chat and eat at our own pace. Unfortunately we couldn't do this.. We couldn't go two sentences without being interrupted by someone wiping down our grill and then adding more meat.. It got to the point where I had to tell my boyfriend 'quick, there's space on the bbq, fill it so that we can actually keep talking'. We felt rushed, we were in and out in an hour after ordering £110 worth of food. We weren't left to our own devices, we barely got to talk to each other. It felt awkward to be honest and that admittedly ruined our evening. We were keeping an eye on other tables but it was just ours that got this 'treatment' to this level.

We've had korean bbq before, we'd been to Hong Kong where we'd had it there, and our first ever date many years ago was at Soju. Maybe they suspected that we were new to Korean bbq but we felt really babied and didn't even get to choose what meat to put on the bbq. If they'd have asked if we wanted help and continued with it then fair enough, but we weren't asked, it was just assumed.

I'm going to be honest, it really dampened our evening out. We hoped it would be longer, we hoped we'd be left somewhat alone to chat, maybe asked once how our meal was - that's fine. But the whole experience honestly took away what Korean bbq should...

You can't imagine my joy when I found out that this Korean restaurant had opened up closer to me. I used to live in Staines and visited their sister restaurant Sushi Nara regularly!!! My parents are both Korean and I constantly miss my mother's cooking, having lived in the UK now for over 10 years. I now can get my fix whenever I want......life is good! I have now taken a few groups of friends to introduce them to Korean cuisine and they have been nothing short of seriously impressed and delighted with the yummy flavours, the clean decor of the restaurant and the service. I would definite recommend everyone to try their seafood pancake, noodle chapchae, my personal favourite soup, Guk Je Jung (spicy), and my friend had the most generous sized seafood soup which was absolutely delicious, and of course, your traditional bulgogi with all the side trimmings. I am working my way through the whole menu and look very much forward to every moment it! Korean cuisine is now the real buzz all throughout London, and I am so happy to have such a quality establishment that I can recommend honestly to my friends and know that they'll come away having tasted authentic Korean flavours, with the quality of freshness and cookery that Korean food requires. I wish the restaurant continued success in the future and hope the local community continue to support it, because variety is definitely the spice of life! I'm now a very happy little Korean mum of two, that unfortunately didn't learn how to cook before she left home......problem now...

Just got back. I'd never had Korean BBQ before, but I'd always heard about it. Glad I started here, since it was exceptionally good. The food was fantastic, the staff were great too, and right there when you needed them. (They'll help you with the cooking too if you want. Friendly people, willing to explain what things are and how best to cook them.)

The portion sizes were great as well. No idea if this is really good Korean BBQ, or if this is just what Korean BBQ is normally like, but either way, I'd recommend this place to anyone and I'll definitely be back again in future.

Also, you can order a whole bottle of whiskey to your table. It's just straight up on the menu. I didn't, but I thought it was cool that you could.

(Quick note, I booked same day over the phone, and they didn't ask my name. Instead they took the phone number I called from for the booking, though I didn't know this until we arrived. A good way of doing it to be honest rather than a name, but it's something to keep in mind while booking over the phone. Glad we booked though because I would have been gutted to miss it now that i know what it's like. There's also a free car park basically opposite it...