Cafe Korea El Paso — Restaurant in El Paso

I lived in Korea for 5 years. Korean is my favorite. Husband and I have a tradition when we go to a new to us Korean restaurant. We order multiple dishes, usually the same kinds, and that gives us a good feel for the restaurant.

We ordered yakki mandu (fried dumplings), gyerran jjim (steamed/custardy eggs), combo bokkeum bap (fried rice), dolpan bibimbap (basically dolsot bibimbap but in a pan rather than a bowl), chapchae (glass noodles). The only banchan we got was oi kimchi (cucumber kimchi), gamja jorim (braised potato), pickled daikon, and they gave us some donut-type fried dough at the end.

Overall everything lacked depth of flavor. The gyerran jjim, which I was so excited to get because it’s rare to find on menus, tasted mostly like just steamed eggs. There was very little extra broth in it, lacked saltiness/shrimp flavor.

The fried rice was really greasy, and again, lacked flavor despite multiple meats/kimchi/shrimp.

The bibimbap was also lackluster. They did cook the vegetables nicely. I liked the mushrooms, but overall it was just lacking seasoning.

The chapchae (glass noodles) had an almost weirdly smoky flavor. Normally you get wood ear mushrooms but these were over-cooked.

The yakki mandu (fried dumplings) seemed like they didn’t have enough filling, and we didn’t get much dipping sauce.

The banchan was worst out of the bunch. The cucumber kimchi was a bit old—not enough crunch. The potatoes were oddly textured. I was surprised we didn’t get regular kimchi.

The servers were really nice. It was obvious there aren’t a lot of customers very familiar with Korean food based on how they were describing the dishes/promoting certain ones. They were friendly, checked in on us, and were kind.

No soju or maekju, but the server let us know we could pop over to a store and buy it to bring it in. That’s pretty cool! No Korean spoons—just normal metal ones, and no metal chopsticks—wooden disposable ones.

The place felt a bit like a cafeteria. Well used. Not super fancy or upscale—just a place you’d pop in after work.

Overall was not impressed with the food, but the portion sizes...

Food was good, but the service was terrible. This was our first time here as well. We came with our family and there were plenty of tables that were not bussed yet. We understand they were coming out of a rush so we knew they were doing the best they could. After we sat they continued to bus tables while we were waiting for our menus and greeter. 20 minutes passed and the couple that sat before us still had no greeter or menus as well. A group of five people walked in, were sat immediately, and had their orders placed on the spot. As we were about to leave, they stopped us and took our order. Ok. We decided to give it a chance. The food took a long time to come out and everyone but our two kids’ meal came out. After 10 minutes passed, we inquired if their bulgogi was coming out (we saw five more delivered at nearby tables) and they said it was on its way. We sat waiting. After a while we asked again and same answer. It actually took about 45 minutes AFTER everyone else’s food at our table arrived along with the appetizers to come out. The couple behind us (they sat before us) received their food an about an hour and a half. This was our first and last time here. There are other well run Korean restaurants in town. This is not one of them. We are very disappointed considering we spent...

Let me say first of all that the food was very tasty but I was extremely disappointed that they did not bring out the side dishes even though I pleaded with them on two occasions, and after we had all finished our food they finally brought the side dishes out. I have been to Korea many times and i I invited four families and made reservations because I wanted these friends of mine to experience Korean food. But this restaurant let us down.. I had noticed that many Korean families came in after we did and the servers were quick to bring the side dishes to them before the meal came out. It seem to me that they were discriminating against us because we were not Koreans. This is not the way to treat people. At any rate I still gave them a very large tip because they worked hard and there is COVID and I do have compassion for these waitresses and restaurants. They finally apologize profusely for failing to bring out the side dishes and promise to do better. I hope they do get better, not just for us,, but for all. I forgive them yet I do want to make the restaurant aware of this problem so they...