Kimu Asian Restaurant - Bloomington — Restaurant in Bloomington

I am a regular customer of Burma Garden restaurant, and I always admire their fried catfish with lemongrass. Until my last visit, I highly recommended this restaurant to my friends and colleagues, and they also started going there! In such a get-together on May 4, 2023, we went to have lunch and had a miserable and unprofessional experience. We were six people, and the waitress came to us to take orders; another joined later. She did not write down the orders and not surprisingly messed up the orders. Another friend from the group ordered for the person who attended later. We ordered a total of five fried catfish and two tamarind fish. Things only went wrong from there. The server brought four fried catfish and three tamarind fish. When we were served the wrong food, and we explained that this was not my order, the waitress denied it. She returned with the check and kept pointing fingers at me that I ordered the tamarind fish item instead of the fried catfish. She pointed out that I was the last person to order and I ordered tamarind fish, whereas the last person to order was my friend who was sitting two seats on my left. When I failed to make her understand that showing the check does not prove that this was my order cause she did not write it in the first place. Moreover, all my other friends were also trying to make her understand. She left and sent the owner of the restaurant.

The restaurant owner also VERY AGGRESSIVELY started arguing with me by pointing the finger at me. She was expressing her disturbance to the point that she began to describe the steps if her chef were to cook my correct order. They never even tried to understand that it was the server's fault, who tried to remember a large group's orders without writing them down. Later the server came and pointed at me that I had made a mistake with my order. Later the owner came, and she started pointing at me by just listening to the server while she was not physically present when the server took the order. They never thought of saying sorry for their behavior. I wonder, if we were a group of White Americans, would they behave in the way they behaved?

Their unprofessional and aggressive behavior hurt me the most as their regular visitor. I will not recommend this place to my friends anymore, cause even if the food might taste good, the unprofessionalism is...

KIMU ARE NOT THE BURMA GARDEN THAT YOU/YOUR FRIENDS KNOW

They changed owners. According to the female server, this happened at the end of last Thanksgiving. They changed a little bit of the decoration style, including the table and seat.

We ordered Kimu special soup (Pho) and Burmese simmered pork

Kimu special soup: just a salty meat soup, meat is not that good, but acceptable, with common sides for the pho soup, containing in a big bowl has two Chinese words: 吉祥

🤢Simmered pork: very oily, different than what I expected from them, they had a pork dish, very tender meat and spicy. This time, they don't even ask for a spicy level when we are ordering. Half the pork is the oil part, which is not lean meat. Not too much taste, also, acceptable, but not good. They also have two free sides, one green onion soup and one pickle (like something you would have with rice, for Chinese).

Overall, they have more food options, including Japanese ramen and Korean dishes, but their heart has changed. Not the old Burma garden that I love. If you like those foods, go try them, but I won't probably go there for another time.

I understand that by adding more foods can make the restaurant more acceptable to more people, but you are losing the core and what was beautiful about a local international...

We enjoyed our meal here. I had the special bowl Pho- it is a regular bowl but generous portion of different beef cuts and beef balls. Lots of vegetables and herbs to add to the pho soup. Best pho in this area, so glad there is a place for pho in Bloomington. The braised goat dish is absolutely amazing, tender and flavorful and again, generous in portion. It comes with a bowl of soup and some pickled vegetables in a separate bowl that I didn’t get a picture of. enjoyed my hot coffee and Igeakuai- which is dough fritters/you tiao (I ate one of the pair up so it’s not shown in the photo), which I missed so much, they are crispy and hits the spot. The server is very polite and nice. The place is nicely decorated, clean and homely. It exceeded our expectations. We are so full after the meal and I waddled my way out of the restaurant. Come with an...