Bonsai Korean Cuisine — Restaurant in Chanhassen

I have been a loyal customer of this restaurant for 5–6 years and even developed a good relationship with the owner. Despite living 40 minutes away, I made regular visits because it was a special place to me. Each visit was something I eagerly anticipated, and I always left feeling satisfied.

Unfortunately, my recent experiences have been incredibly disappointing due to a new server who has been consistently rude to me on three separate occasions. Her tone, choice of words, and overall attitude have made me feel unwelcome and even discriminated against, despite the fact that we share the same ethnicity group.

Today was the final straw. I deliberately ate less at lunch because I was looking forward to dining here in the evening. I drove 40 minutes and arrived at around 5:30 PM when the restaurant was nearly empty. We stood at the front door for a while without being acknowledged, which was unusual. Eventually, the owner’s mother noticed us and told us to seat ourselves.

Once seated, we waited nearly 20 minutes, yet the server still didn’t notice us. I didn’t want to interrupt her since I saw she was taking phone orders, but after she finished, I tried waving to get her attention. She ignored me. When she finally came to the table next to ours, she smiled and asked the customers how everything was and if they needed more water. After she finished speaking with them and began to walk away, I waved again, but she continued to ignore me.

I decided to call out to her and asked about the menu and water. Her tone immediately changed, and she seemed irritated. She raised her voice, almost yelling, “There’s a 30–40 minute wait to get your food! Do you want to stay or not?” Her tone and aggression were completely uncalled for and starkly different from how she interacted with the table next to us.

I was so upset that I decided to leave immediately. After years of loyalty and fond memories, this experience has left me deeply...

The short: delicious food, friendly service, and fun relaxed, upscale atmosphere.

My wife and I started with Goon Mandu which is a Korean fried dumpling. The outside was crunchy and the inside was tender and delicious. It was accompanied by a dipping sauce that had a nice kick of spice to it.

For entrees I had kimbop which were seaweed rolls filled with rice, meat, and veggies. They were very very good.

My wife got the galbi or Korean BBQ which was fantastic as well - they took the time to cut the meat off the bone at the table which was really appreciated.

Additionally both meals came with sides of kimchi, cucumber kimchi, and a zucchini dipped in egg. All 3 were flavorful and delicious!

Really thrilled to see a place like this pop up locally! And hope others have good experiences too. Owners seemed very receptive to feed back.

Edit Went back 4/24 as I couldn't stop thinking about the food. This time my wife and I got sushi.

I ordered spicy snow crab rolls and my wife ordered tempura sweet potato rolls. Neither my wife or I are sushi afficianodos and I'm not big on seafood to begin with, but the spicy snow crab was awesome. It was not fishy in the least and flavor was just awesome. I also really appreciated the texture which was crisp, but tender.

The sweet potato tempura was similar in terms of quality. I think what really surprised me is just how much I enjoyed the experience and I'm definitely looking forward to getting more adventurous.

One other thing to note is the level of freshness of ingredients. As I was leaving I saw the chef slicing up octopus and it was very vividly colored - you could tell it was fresh. I think it is as fresh as you get in Minnesota for seafood and it shows in the taste of the food...

Finally tried this place after seeing it across from Lakewinds a number of times and glad we did. Was able to be seated right away. Staff is very friendly and courteous. The main lady is very helpful in explaining the food and what is done in traditional eating of the dish. Started with the egg rolls and Jjin Mandu (steamed dumplings). The egg rolls are small but come 6 to an order. They are crispy on the outside with tender veggies inside. The dumplings also are an order of 6. They are cooked well with a nice pork filling. The dipping sauce is flavorful with a bit of sesame oil. My daughter ordered the adult size chicken fried rice. She said it was tasty, although said she missed the egg she is used to. My wife ordered the beef ramyun. The broth was very flavorful, with nice spice to it. The beef was thinly sliced and quite tender, and there was a good amount of noodles and vegetables. She ate all of it, including almost all of the broth. Nicely spicy and very good. I ordered beef dolsot bibimbop. The owner explained how its eaten and they provide a chili sauce so you can determine your own spice level, personally I used most of it. The dish is nicely balanced amount of meat (nicely prepared), veggies (cooked but still crisp), rice, and an egg. Definitely recommend trying it. We ended the meal with Mochi and Tempura banana. I only got to taste the vanilla mochi but the tempura banana was crispy outside, warm inside and topped with whipped cream and chocolate sauce.

If you haven't had Korean before this is definitely a place to try it at. Value for the...