Koko — Restaurant in City of Ithaca

I do not recommend this place at all! The food is decent, but the employees/owners can be downright rude, unaccommodating, and extremely unprofessional. They got my order wrong four times in a row over the span of a couple of weeks, despite me clearly stating my allergies/dietary restrictions when I placed the order. I didn't say anything the first three times. When I called to inform them that they had gotten my order wrong again, they deflected the blame and said that they were "busy" and that my order was annoying to make because of the modifications. The owner was rude and short with me and told me she couldn't continue our conversation because it was getting too busy. I called again after waiting about half an hour (when she told me to), but she forced an employee to take the phone call because I'm guessing she didn't want to speak to me. I could hear her getting angry and yelling in frustration at the employee in the background because I asked for a refund and they refused to give it to me, lying and stating that their payment system didn't allow for refunds unless they had the credit card with them. When I offered to bring the credit card in, the owner told the employee to say that they couldn't offer me a refund because of "COVID restrictions". This didn't make sense to me at all - what COVID restrictions were they speaking of exactly? This has been one of the most packed dine-in restaurants in Collegetown throughout the entire pandemic... it doesn't seem like they are taking too many precautions. I've been a customer for almost four years, but I won't be...

honestly my #1 pick for Korean in CTown. staff is always very friendly. my go-to is soondubu, which I think they do best in CTown. solid familiar flavors in the dishes, which I super appreciate. also the hidden gem of the steamed egg appetizer — essentially gyeran jjim 계란찜 — is super cheap ($3 or so) and can act as its own entree, if you’re in a pinch. my favorite of their banchan is the potatoes and broccoli, which they seemingly always run out of. :-)

edit, as of october ‘19: seems as though the quality of the food is going down. service is spottier, and a lot of the flavors seem off or lacking. i mentioned the soondubu earlier, but these days, it’s been very comparatively disappointing: bowl not filled all the way, sometimes not bubbling and just warm (should be served boiling hot), very bland. in the words of my partner, “it tastes like spicy nothing”. also, we’ve experienced several separate order mixups; just today, we received a budaejjigae instead of the soondubu that we ordered. i’m sad i had to downgrade my 5...

The owner is nice but the guy who works at the cashier is rude and unprofessional. I am the frequent customers of Koko. (Come to koko at least 4 times a week) The first time that guy didn’t tight the take out bag which made it drop on the ground. The soups leaked. So I asked him to remake it and I would pay it again. He refused me at once. The owner was in the kitchen she heard it and told me to wait a second. I totally understood that there were other orders in front of mine. So I waited and got my dishes again. And this same thing happened again. The same guy he didn’t tied the take out bag and it dropped on the ground. And he refused to remake it even if I paid again. There was 0 people in the store. (It passed the lunch time) and there were only 2 receipts on the cashier which means there were only 2 take out orders now) I had issues with that guy two times in a row. Next time I won’t come to koko if I know he is working. Again the owner is really nice. And food is good. This review is...