Korean Garden & Beyond 2 — Restaurant in Colorado Springs

Everyone has different taste buds and opinions and this is not to disparage anyone who likes this place.

I'm Korean, been eating Korean my whole life, in the states and in Korea itself. I hate to bag on any Korean restaurants as I want all of them to be great and succeed so more people can experience Korean food which is amazing.

That said, I simply cannot recommend this place. Best case for this place for me is it's close to where I live and it'll suffice in a pinch. There are other Korean restaurants around town (granted, more of drive if you live around here) that are much better tasting and for a similar or better price.

I've been to this place 4-5 times, each time ordering something new in hopes of finding the "it" dish, but the last trip was where I gave up hope and concluded this is an emergency "I'm too lazy to go anywhere too far" restaurant for Korean food.

What was the tipping point? I had to ask for salt for my stew to season it to the point where it tasted acceptable. The bulgogi that I ordered for my son tasted and looked like the same (in fact, pretty sure it is the same since I've had it ton of times) bulgogi you can buy at the Korean market not to far in those plastic containers. Costs less and you get more meat if you do it that way.

That said, service was great! Restaurant seems clean as well. The only problem I have with this place is the food itself and the price tag that it comes with. Would have a higher rating if everything on the menu at least was like $4-5 cheaper, then it might be on par with the quality and taste of the food you get, but even then, at least personally, I probably still only go as a last resort. I hope this place turns around as the convenience of the location is...

My wife and I went for lunch a couple of days ago, and it was OK. If it was just me, I'd probably go back alone for a quick lunch, but I honestly would not recommend it. The two women running the place were polite enough but were more interested in their conversation than us. We had to ask for menus long after we sat down, simply because they were so focused on their topic. We really felt that we were intruding. The food was on the bland side. My wife had the teriyaki chicken, I had the "spicy" beef bulgogi. Her chicken tasted more like it was made with the cheapest bottled teriyaki sauce available than anything authentic, while my beef had hardley enough spice to notice. The banchan was just ok, a small amount of cucumber kimchi, some pickled radish (bland but nice and crunchy), and two very cold one and a half-inch squares of what I assume was a green onion pancake... the little squares were about as tasteless as a compressed sponge must be. All in all.. I found everything about this visit to be bland and feeling like "eff it... it's good enough" was kind of the mantra there. As I said, if I was alone and wanted a simple lunch that wasn't a normal burger type situation, I'd go back simply because I'm a fan of steamed rice, bulgogi,...

So it's a nice place overall. I only have a complaint about a specific thing. The lady who took mine and my friends order didn't ask us what level of spice we wanted. We both ordered dukbokki with cheese, and since she didn't ask us what spice level we wanted, we both just assumed it would default mild. However, it was SPICY. My friend can handle that a lot better than I can. Spicy food can really wreck my stomach, but I ate as much of it as I could. It was still delicious, but my mouth was on FIRE. The Taro Boba juice really helped quell the heat though since it was dairy. Anyway, at the end of the meal, we heard another staff member ask other customers what spice level they wanted, and they ordered the same dish as us! So my friend and I were shocked that it didn't have to be that spicy. As soon as I got home, I had to take tums, but this morning I woke up with sharp stomach pains from gas buildup from the spicy food, and now my stomach is still a bit fragile from it. So my overall critique is PLEASE ask all customers what level of spice they want. Otherwise, the food was good, and the kimchi pancakes were INCREDIBLE. (Extremely mild compared to the spice of...