Kimchi Korean Restaurant — Restaurant in Columbia

I have never publicly given a review before but the experience here was so bad that I have to let people know. I'm here in Columbia because my brother is graduating from Army basic training and I convinced my family to go get some Korean food after we drop him back on base for family day (three in my group of five had never had it before including my 5 year old niece).

We go to Kimchi Korean at 7:30 pm on a Weds night (24Apr2019) and they turn us away at the door at first because they said that they don't have enough food for us. When I asked my group how many wanted to eat, it only ended up being two people total and the rest would just try from our plates. Even after telling the folks at the restaurant that we only need two servings of food, they still said that they didn't want to serve us (just told us to go) and didn't give a reason why.

So maybe there was a just complete breakdown in communication (which to their credit, their English and my Korean is rough) so maybe they couldn't properly explain their reasoning but the context is not leaving me a charitable conclusion: we were turned away when there were 2 hours until they closed, plenty of seating available, 5 people of color turned away, while we're looking for another place to eat, someone walked in and was served fine....hmmmm.

Well we ended up going down the street to Arirang and the experience was excellent (everybody got to eat and the three newbies to Korean food are now converts). But during our short time in Columbia, SC, getting turned away for no good reason at Kimchi Korean is definitely the low point (the restaraunt was this close to having folks in my family think that's how all Korean restaurants treat people different than them).

I'll never be going back purely because I'm from out of town and looking at reviews I see that people of color have eaten there before so their telling us to leave may be for another reason, but let this review be a warning for those looking to avoid a place where they won't be turned away at the door without a reason (while other folks that come in afterwards get to eat) and as a warning to the restaraunt that they can't treat people like that without...

First of all, let me just say that when I order food from a restaurant I order I bulk. When my wife and I try new foods, we like to taste a lot so that we know what we like and don’t like. I am also an army veteran who has been to Korea for a year and have always eaten Korean food every chance I got. I was vegetarian at the time when I was in Korea, but the food was so good. My wife and I wanted to start our new year eating something authentic but, didn’t feel like cooking tonight like we usually do. She asked me if I wanted to choose and for some reason I was really craving Korean food. I found kimchi, and the reviews were decent so I decided to give them a call. The staff were so sweet when I called. I ordered the beef bulgogi and for my wife, the chicken bulgogi. We also ordered two orders of yaki (fried dumplings) and the fried lightly salted mackerel. We received our meal and paid, I explained to them that spent a year in Korea and was craving Korean food for the new year; they were so excited to hear that and gave me chocolates to enjoy after our meal. When my wife and I got home, we literally ate every bite! It was so delicious and satisfying. The only thing that was off was the mackerel which was overly salted. We ate the fish with white rice so it wasn’t as salty but I’ve had it before in Korea and new it was overly salted. Either way we are coming back no matter what! It was so delicious and it’s the best bulgogi I’ve ever had!! Thanks a ton for this amazing...

My partner & I were doing some shopping over at the Hyundai Oriental Grocery store midday, and decided to stop by the Kimchi Korean Restaurant to treat ourselves to some lunch. WOW! So glad we did!, we got there just as they opened & noticed a few friendly service men & women already waiting for the place to open (so obviously if it's good enough for the folks at Fort Jackson, we felt we stumbled upon a good find!) ..and in fact, we did!

The folks who greeted us were friendly & showed us right to a table, and took our drink order as we checked out what was on the menu. They have a very reasonably priced lunch menu, with a large variety of Korean foods that seemed very mouth watering.

I was in the mood for some fried rice & beef, and my partner went for the Tofu seafood soup dish, which was accompanied by a generous portion of rice. The server also adorned our table with a nice selection of Korean appetizers, which were served as part of the lunch, looked like some kimchi, korean potatoes , cucumbers, broccoli, & a variety of sprouts.

Have to say, it was all very tasty, & we were glad we decided to stop by and enjoy lunch at the Kimchi Korean Restaurant. I would very much recommend the restaurant, and we will surely stop by again next time we're in the area, possibly try dinner next time we are in the area shopping.

Thanks to the crew & staff for making us feel welcome & feeding us some...