Oseyo — Restaurant in Austin

Let me just start this review that I am 100% Korean. I was born & raised in Seoul, which is the capital and mega-city of South Korea until I was almost 10. I have also lived in USA for almost 20 years and being able to understand those two worlds, I would believe that I am pretty qualified to give somewhat of an objective review of this restaurant.

My grandparents also have owned multiple restaurants, my mom was a professional chef, I was also previously a restaurant manager for an establishment that had multi-million dollars of sales per year.

Straight off the bat, I do have to say that the service was top notch, and atmosphere were modern, cozy and a lot of details in it for sure. I would give 10/5 stars for that. Great parking space in the back, great outdoor area, inside area (like a room) and also middle area with the bar. Workers were knowledgeable trying to speak Korean to me, which is cute and great. Lol.

Seriously though, the service was better than some super ostentatious restaurants where a steak cost $100-$200 and servers are all wearing suits.

However, I do have to be honest with myself that just the food itself is not authentic Korean at all. I understand that the food does have to cater to Americanized population as Austin does not have huge Korean population. I completely understand that. What I do not want is someone coming here and thinking this is how all Koreans eat or how Korean food is because it is not.

For example, Koreans do not need an extra dish when starting a meal. They handed me one and I was like, “What the hell is this, not even going to use it.”

In addition, drinks & wine menu. I didn’t understand why this restaurant has wine or other Americanized drinks. They do not even go with Korean food.

Third, the ddek bok ki tasted like it was just dipped in some red pepper paste with water. The sauce is supposed to be way thicker than that. It had to be way spicier and not sweet. It almost tasted like candy. The rice cake itself was over cooked, it has to be fluffy, but not over-cooked.

Jja jang myen tasted blend. The noodles and the sauce seemed like it was cooked together, which they should not be. The sauce is supposed to be placed on top later so reserve the freshness and so that the noodles do not over-cook. The food itself is not supposed to be boiling hot like that...it’s not a soup...

Overall, I would drop by and stay outside to grab a drink and maybe get an appetizer like pa jeon and the service, but that’s it...I definitely played myself thinking that this is going to be some real authentic Korean food. I should have went to H-Mart Food court or Jan-Chi restaurant where they actually...

Our friends came into town and even though my husband and I have never been to Oseyo, we took the risk and invited them there since it seems to be the new dining hot spot. Both my husband and I are major foodies, and though the food at Oseyo did not disappoint, unfortunately their drinks and especially service did, so for the menu/food, I would have rated them a 3.9 star; the drinks and (especially) service just lowered them to a 2. For the food, do not expect this to be a traditional Korean restaurant, but Korean with a modern twist. They did a great job grilling the meat...meat is grilled with a perfect amount of fat, so it is flavorful. All in all, the food is good; the only thing that was a let down was the noodle dish. Noodles were slimy and not appetizing; would recommend skipping. I think they were trying really hard to come up with creative drinks, which the effort is definitely appreciated, but unfortunately none of them (which our table tried 5) were that good. Creativity is there, but the flavors just did not come well together. Lastly and most importantly, the service was a let down. Yes, Oseyo is popular and the wait line is long, but that doesn't mean you compromise your service level by pushing out your existing/sitting customers to make sure you could get as many people seated on the wait list. MULTIPLE TIMES, servers were attempting to remove our drinks/food while we were STILL drinking/eating and even when we told them we were still eating, they somehow couldn't hear us and still attempt to remove our food (what?!) because that bothered us, I was observing why that type of service was even remotely acceptable and I noticed the servers and the managers (

I’ve always loved this restaurant’s takeout – it’s consistently delicious, which is why I decided to dine in and bring some colleagues along. Unfortunately, it was a huge mistake.

The food was still great, just as I remembered, but the service was absolutely awful. Our waiter clearly didn’t want to be there. He made zero eye contact, never greeted us properly, and seemed completely uninterested in his job.

We were served our food but had to ask for utensils. Water was spilled at our table, and even though he saw it happen, I had to request paper to clean it up. It took him 15 minutes to bring some over. He made no effort to explain any dishes, and when we asked, he pointed vaguely and said, “that one,” like he couldn’t be bothered.

Throughout the meal, he mostly ignored us and acted unprofessional whenever we needed something. It felt like he was rushing us out of the restaurant, even though it was nearly empty. Without us asking, he brought the check before we even got the chance to consider dessert. When we mentioned this, he claimed they didn’t have any dessert. The same thing happened when we asked for coffee – he said they’d run out. Yet, moments later, when we questioned how a restaurant could run out of coffee, he said, “let me check with the kitchen,” and then brought us cold coffee. Also the Music was so loud at some point we could barely hear each other.

I left a tip in hopes that the kitchen staff, who cooked the food so well, would feel my appreciation. But thinking back, the whole experience was ridiculous. Why should I have to work so hard to give a restaurant my money while dealing with such terrible service?

Sadly, this experience has me rethinking even takeout. The food is great, but service like that leaves a bad taste...