Korea House Restaurant — Restaurant in Austin

UPDATE: First, I need to get this out of the way—this is probably the first and last time Korea House will ever prepare Soondae Guk for anyone. The ingredients (to get it perfectly right) are very hard to find in Austin. Because I am Korean myself and a regular at Korea House, I begged the owners to put an end to my search (4+ years) for authentic Soondae Guk (my favorite dish) in Austin by specially preparing it themselves. They were kind enough to prepare a Soondae Guk feast for me and my friends (a group of ten). It was also pretty pricey ($25/serving, which is higher than their usual $16 - $20/serving for their guk dishes on the menu). I also asked if they would put it on the menu, but they told me that it would hurt the business, most likely because less people would get it for its higher price and the profit margin is probably much lower than the dishes they offer, which I totally understand.

It was perfect. Best Soondae Guk I've tried in the USA and holds its own against the ones in Korea. From the first smell, I knew this was the real deal (oh, how much I had missed this wonderful smell). The blood sausages was cut by the chef herself (you can tell that this wasn't some cheap factory Soondae) and tasted great, the intestines and liver (and other mystery pork meat) had the perfect bite and was full of flavor explosions, the bone broth was rich, and they provided all the essential garnishes and seasonings (chopped green onions, toasted ground sesame seeds, dadaegi seasoning paste, and salted shrimp). They also served it with rice (of course) and plenty of their usual side dishes, which I always love (except one of them). They checked in with us a few times to see if everything was great, and we had no complaints. Best dinner I've had in a while. 10/10 highly recommend if they serve it again (which they won't for now). A good idea would be for them to add it on their menu as a special request or a preorder item and let people make reservations for it... just an idea.

Their other dishes are great too, so be sure to check them out if you haven't already... and remember, the first Wednesday of every month is FREE (within their condensed menu).

ORIGINAL REVIEW: Best homestyle Korean restaurant in Austin. I've been here several times. The first Wednesday of each month is free, but the menu has much more variety and items to choose from when you pay, and portions are much larger as well. The items to choose from are still alright when I went for the free meal, and I would say one of the items on that free menu is among the best tasting out of the dishes I have tried regardless of paid or free. The food is mostly authentic, but I do feel like a couple of dishes were modified maybe to suit the American taste buds or because they just wanted to put their own spin on them. For example, I had the Yukaejang, and I felt like it was too peppery (not too spicy though) and covered up the bone broth flavor a bit, but it was still pretty good. The spicy baby back ribs was pretty good as well, and it had a nice sweet touch to it (not that spicy for my taste buds). I think the Bulgogi is too sweet, but it still tastes good. All these complaints are minor though. My favorite is only on the free menu, and that is the radish ribeye stew. It tastes similar to a Yukaejang and it has a very nice, rich beef flavor. They need to add this to their paid menu!

I think the free meal every first Wednesday of the month is a great idea. It is good for the community and I would bet it also helps the business by letting people try the food first so that they can come back whenever they are craving some...

I really hate that I have to do this but I would rather be the bad guy by posting this review in hope that the owners will take heed to my advice and truly strive to become a little more “authentic Korean”. If you are new to the whole Korean cuisine, I think this may be okay entry point to Korean cuisine. But if you are an avid enthusiast of Korean cuisine, or you happened to be Korean, stay away from this place. It’s not Korean. It’s more like imitation Korean. I wish I had visited other “Korean” restaurants in this region to do a more clear comparison of this place (but judging by the google review of this place and others in the area, I have a feeling that all the Korean restaurants in Austin are similarly bad). First things first, this is Texas… place known for abundance of Texas beef. The portion size of the galbi which is $29 per serving, is more like a half serving. But worst of it is, galbi, which is supposed to be the rib meat of the cow, well known for the tenderness of the meat due to the well mixture of the fat and meat of the rib, is not really galbi (rib meat) at all. It’s some unknown part of the cow that is obviously very chewy and tough. All the food is way too bland and lacks any flavor. It’s kind of like going to a really expensive Chinese restaurant and realizing that the food taste just like Panda Express lol. I really do hope that the owners will take the time to read this review and take actions to really level up their quality and become the inspiration to other korean restaurants in the region to truly represent the wonderful cuisine of Korea and stop deceiving the...

I would love to praise this place because I enjoyed the food here, but sadly I cannot say the same about their service.

My fiancée and I decided to come here on a family friend’s recommendation. The menu looked very promising so we were excited! However, as much as we loved the food, the service we received left enough of a sour taste in our mouths that we would definitely hesitate to recommend this restaurant; or come back ourselves.

The waitress we had was not very attentive at all. When carting out our food to us, she attempted to serve our food to the couple at the table beside us — who already had food (and food that was finished) before mumbling ‘Oops’ and coming to us instead and not bothering to apologize. While this was maybe a minor mistake that could be easily overlooked, it wasn’t the only one. All of the waitresses there ignored us, but they made sure to be attentive to everyone else around us: taking extra care of checking up on everyone, asking if they wanted more water or more sides. No one bothered to ask us how everything tasted, if we wanted more sides, or filled up our empty water canister. It was hard enough getting someone’s attention to grab some to-go boxes when we were done. Conveniently enough, they paid attention when it came to actually paying the bill.

Bottom line is, if you can look past uncaring servers to have some pretty quality Korean food, I’d say go for it. I recommend the Bulgogi. Otherwise, if service does matter to you, please spend your time trying to find somewhere else to go because there are plenty of other options in the Austin and...