Seoul Garden — Restaurant in Creve Coeur

Good food, but the WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE/WAIT STAFF. Just awful. We won't go back because of how awful we were treated.

We went here for lunch on a Sunday afternoon around 3pm. There was maybe two other tables there. Not busy at all. There are 5 of us in total, and we thought it would be a fun outing for our family. We ordered the All-You-Can-Eat Korean BBQ. (I've had Korean BBQ at their other location, and thought the food was good). The service at this location is TERRIBLE. We had 3 different waiters/waitresses. All of whom looked like we were annoyed to eat there. Like "how dare you come to our restaurant and order food."

When we first sat down, it took them forever to come and take our drink order. Then when we ordered our meats and soups, and the side dishes were brought to us promptly, but it was another 5-10 minutes before the raw meat was brought out to us. They turned on the grill and we started to cook the meat. As we were eating and our meat was cooking (we like our meats to be on the crispy, well-cooked side), a waiter came over and turned down our heat without asking us, and said they didn't want smoke ... but our food wasn't smoking at all... There was literally no smoke. After they chastised us, they walked away without asking if we needed anything (not asking for a drink refill or anything... In fact, every time we needed a drink refill, we had to flag them down to ask for one... Remember the restaurant had 2 other tables besides us at this time... It was NOT busy at all). Then, when we were nearly done eating our meat, they yelled at us for not turning off the burner (though no one had instructed us that we needed to turn off the heat). So they turned off, replaced the heating grate... Then they came back with our new meats, and chastised us for NOT having our heat on... even though 5 seconds ago, the other waiter had yelled at us and had turned off our heat... Later, towards the end of our meal, one of the waiters came over and turned off our meat for no reason and walked away... even though we had a bowl full of raw meat that we were in the middle of cooking.

It's so frustrating because we went to this location to cook our meat the way we wanted. If their restaurant isn't well ventilated and they are concerned about cooking meat smoking, they should have things in place (vents and etc.) so we can enjoy cooking our food the way we want them to be cooked.

At no point was anyone nice to us. If we wanted anything, we had to flag someone down and ask. No one came by and asked if we needed anything, or if everything was good (like at normal restaurants when you have a good waiter). At one point, our first waitress was on break and sat at a table next to us just eating her food... It was awkward.

It was such a disappointing experience, especially when you spend over $130 on food, you expect to have good customer service or a reliable waiter. Instead, we had 3 terrible waiters.

We are never going to this...

I had the worst service of my life here just last night. Table of 8 for a birthday dinner. We got sat at 2 different tables and were asked not to push tables together, whatever. Then the waitress comes and takes 1 tables order then walking away. Then brings the drinks for 1 table, then we tell her we are all together and would like to order together. She said she will get to us when table 1 is done. Literally told her this 3 times thinking she was misunderstanding, but she refused to take our orders at all. Then by the time the 1st table had their first round of meats cooked, we still had yet to get water.

Then waitress leaves for a LONG time. We stop another server as ours didn't appear again for 15+ minutes and politely ask for her to check on the situation. She took our drink order. Then the MANAGER/OWNER SEAN was berating the poor waitress who tried to help us. Unacceptable. We felt awful as she was doing a great job of checking on tables that weren't even hers. What a cluster.

Then the drinks come and we had 2 identical alcoholic drinks. She takes one and gives it to another table. We tell her that's ours, she says no and brings us a bottle of something else which was not what we ordered (we asked for 2 soju cocktails and waters). So then she had to remake the drink. Mind you we had not raised a tone, used harsh words, or said anything that was rude. We figured she was stressed, we've all been servers before.

Finally get the food order in. The food comes. The manager comes and talks to us and blames his "2 week old" serving staff, none of his lack of leadership or training for his employees. We told him our opinion on that end and he said we were welcome to leave. We responded half of our party was mid meal and we wouldn't ruin someone's birthday. ANOTHER TABLE next to us gets his attention and says they had the same experience and were glad we spoke up because it was sooooooooooo poorly managed. Manager was NOT happy but walked off, I'll give him that.

In the end, we DID pay for the whole meal. We gave our initial server 20% each and then apologized to the server who tried to help us bc she got yelled at. Spoke with staff before leaving and they stated how abusive the manager was much of the time with yelling at them.

Now let me say this. The food was out of this world. It was! This also wasn't our first time here. SO we know what the good experience is like. We didn't act like Karen's and demand any type of refund or discount, didn't yell, didn't say rude things. We simply wanted to have our group eat together, even if only slightly behind one another. But a 30+ minute gap with a TWO HOUR TIME LIMIT between ordering is unacceptable.

I'd love to go back when SEAN is not there. Deplorable behavior on his behalf. And kudos to the 2 waitresses and all other staff CLEARLY working hard without any...

Do not recommend eating here, particularly if you are Chinese!

I have just returned from what will be my last visit to the Seoul Garden in Creve Couer. I enjoy the food there and have ordered take out 5-10 times already since it opened, but this time I was treated so rudely I don’t think I can bring myself to go back.

I ordered my lunch and went to pick it up as usual. This time there was quite a bit of confusion as they could not find my order. This was no problem, I understand this happens with take-out orders sometimes and just stood there waiting. The girl at the counter (who was so nice and friendly, the staff there has always treated me very well) asked the manager for help and I could tell immediately by the look on his face that he was already in a bad mood. He stomped over and began looking for the order in an obviously annoyed way. I offered to help but he snapped at me saying I was standing too close to him and I needed to give him space. I was so shocked and upset! I quickly muttered an apology but this did not seem to ease his anger at me. I am a married woman and wonder if he would speak to me so rudely if my husband was with me as he usually is.

I asked again about my order as I had left my car running outside and if there was gonna be a delay I wanted to go turn off my car. Again he absolutely exploded at me in such an angry and undeserved way. I was totally shocked. I don’t think I’ve ever been treated like this at a restaurant before, certainly not one that I just spent $40 on lunch. The manager just seemed to hate the fact I was even there. Like I wasn’t good enough or couldn’t afford to eat at his restaurant. I am very upset that I didn’t say anything at the time. I should have stood up for myself or demanded to talk to the owner. I felt so bullied and mistreated that I just rushed out of the restaurant in tears.

I have discussed this incident with several of my friends and we think maybe he just does not like Chinese in his restaurant, since they have experienced similar attitudes from him (and at least one other review online mentions a similar race problem). I have always been treated nicely before, but I was always with my (white) husband so maybe that is why. Whether the restaurant has a race problem, or simply a manager in a grumpy mood, it is not acceptable to make customers feel this way. We like your restaurant and want to support good local choices in the area so why make us feel like we are not good enough to eat there? Why make us go home in tears?

I sincerely hope changes are made at this restaurant as there are not many good options for Korean food in St. Louis, but until some effort is made I cannot recommend eating here, particularly if you are Chinese. I will definitely be recommending to my friends and the entire Chinese community find somewhere we feel...