Seoul Garden — Restaurant in Dallas

Would give no stars if possible. Worst dining experience ever. Greedy owner & extremely rude wait staff totally missed the point. They must have changed owners. It was not a warm service as before. We ordered LA galbi & nangmyn combo, pork belly, galbi tang, all good except prime galbi was too fatty to eat. We've had this many times at other korean eateries but this meat was so fatty. Greedy owner & 1 nasty wait staff lady, how they handled this situation was the reason for the 1 star. They didn't realize we were korean since we were speaking English. In the beginning, had it been left to us to cook the meat we would have noticed as soon as I started cooking it but they brought it out, started cooking it for us. Being marinated it was hard to notice at 1st, then we looked at it closely, noticed how fatty it was. I mentioned it to the waitress. She ignored me & walked off. Then a young waiter came to flip the meat, we mentioned it to him. He ignored us & hurried off. Different wait staff would come by to turn the meat & leave. Then the 1st waitress came by, when I mentioned it again, she said marinated meat are a little more fatty than non marinated meat. What!!! This was not little fat. We couldn't eat it. Anyway, most of the meat were left on grill. I mentioned they should have never served this as too fatty. The 1 waitress added, after we eat rice, side dishes now complaining. And, the owner seemed to be more focused & worried I wouldn't pay. I asked for the bill & paid before we were finished dining. I paid early to get my point across to them it's not about the bill but the quality of the beef & service. Good owner would have never served fatty prime beef like this. Only after I paid, they were so apologetic, saying didn't realize we spoke Korean. I said we were korean but more fluent in English. Owner seemed surprised. She said had no idea we were korean & to please come back, next time will give us better service. There will never be a next time at this restaurant. Every customer, not just "Koreans" (or who in their eyes, they think are Koreans), should get same quality of meat and side dishes. We all agreed this was the worst dining experience. Sad, this owner was so consumed with greed, and being bias, she missed it. To my fellow Americans and...

We wanted to try Seoul Garden again since the renovation…we regret to say that we were disappointed :( We ordered the korean bbq Combo B with the extra chadol (brisket). Maybe the non-kbbq meals are better?

Food: The brisket was so lean that it immediately burned up when we placed it on the grill. The beef belly, pork belly, and pork jowl were all okay. Nothing really wowed us and it barely satisfied the kbbq craving I had.

Service: Do not come here for the service. We came on a Monday evening with a couple tables full along with a large table in one of the private rooms. There were two servers, one hostess (maybe the owner/manager), and a bus boy. We were only able to get the attention of our server once because after an hour of eating: our charcoal fire weakened so much that it could barely cook our meat. They initially told us to wait. So we waited assuming they would replace it. But once we saw other tables getting their charcoal we realized they meant to wait longer to cook our meat LOL. By that time the fire had completely died. So then we asked another waiter and they offered to bring the meat to the back to cook it…we accepted since we didn’t want to wait even longer.

Atmosphere: Too warm and weird lighting. It’s known to be an OG local spot (which vibes I appreciate - royal wok is one of my fave spots). However the fans were spinning right below the spot lights so it created a strobe light effect on the tables and grill - which initially did not bother us but then we both were feeling dizzy towards the end of the meal since we were looking down while cooking the meat. It’s on us that we decided to go eat grilled meats during a heat wave but it was warm in the restaurant already - even with the fans - so warm that my thighs were sticking to the chairs (sorry TMI).

Would I go again? No I would not. I would rather go to Koryo or Ari (yes, at the higher price point) and even GEN, for the better service & quality because Seoul Garden was...

Great food and great service.

Location was in Korea town in Dallas. The restaurant was very clean.

Ordered Korean BBQ combo set B

Table was set up with bonchon with many options. Cabbage kimchi, cucumber kimchi, japchae, tofu, fishcake, spicy potato, lotus root, steamed broccoli, pickled radish, pickled eggplant. The standout items here were the fishcake, lotus root and radish.

The set came with

A spicy Korean miso soup...it is quite different from the Japanese version. It had tofu, onions, chili peppers, melon in it. Good but very spicy.

There was a bowl of steamed eggs. Quite tasty. A common comfort food in genuine Chinese, Japanese and Korean cuisine.

Bowl of salad. Some greens to balance out the meats to be eaten tonight.

The waitress prepared the grill. They use a charcoal fire here. Many other places use a gas grill which is inferior for grilling. Using charcoal gives the meat a smoky flavor. She even brought out a second grill after the first one became very browned from the residue from grilling the meat.

Set B included -

Pork jowls Pork belly Beef belly Optional add on beef brisket

The meat was grilled by the server. And there were 2 dipping sauces for them.

Sam jaeng. A mix of gochujang and miso paste.

Salt and pepper in oil.

The meat portions were generous. The set was supposed to be for 2 people but I think there really was enough food for 3 people.

After dinner we were served a chilled persimmon tea with cinnamon and pine nuts. Very nice.

Overall experience was fantastic. The food was authentic Korean. It was pricey so I would reserve visits...