Dongbu Korean BBQ — Restaurant in Escondido

Was excited to try this place because there isn’t any Korean bbq in Escondido. And I ordered a Combo #3 instead of doing all you can eat. Got the beef brisket, beef finger meat and premium pork belly. I’ll be honest, the meats were low quality.. the pork belly was cut too thin to be called premium. The finger meats were covred in a sweet sauce that was too sweet and made the grill burn up. Side of rice was over cooked. And the bonchon, or sides, were super limited compared to other kbbq places. The combo also came with a soup that was cold and looked thrown together, I was sick and excited for the soup so that was a bummer.

The server was very nice and sat me quickly. I asked for a side of ssamjang and she brought a small amount so I asked for another one. But it wasn’t needed because the ssamjang was way too pasty, lakes salty and was pretty spicy.

The restaurant was nice inside but it was a hot day and there was no AC on in the place so the restaurant smelled like mop water when I walked in, but I pushed passed it because I really wanted to try this place.

I hate to give a bad review but there is better kbbq out there in terms of getting quality meats for your money and with prices being so high for food these days, I think it’s important to get good quality foods...

We ordered from Doordash, so maybe not the way to experience this place. I ordered a two item bowl. Which I thought would be meat over rice. To my surprise it had a little salad and Kim chee. I am not a fan of Kim Chee so did not eat that. My meats were thin sliced pork belly and "supposedly " garlic shrimp. The pork was crunchy, crispy which I did not expect. The shrimp still had the shell on it, so I had to peel it. Not a fan of this, you could tell it had been frozen as the shrimp was mealy and fell apart. The first one I peeled was not clean and had a large dirt line in it, also did not taste garlicky at all. My husband got the two item kalbi and spicey beef. He enjoyed his, which he said had good flavor. I tasted his beef which had a nice flavor* sauce was on the side) I gave him a shrimp and he spit it out. For me the highlight was the stuffed jalapeño that had tuna and cream cheese in it. It had a little bite and a nice dipping sauce. Next time if we have a hankering for Korean we will...

Values money instead of customers.

Due to a long wait, they gave my mom a gift certificate valid until 12/24/27 for one "Combo 3." I brought it to redeem in October 2025.

Before reading it, the staff immediately said "That is too old, it's expired!" He seemed annoyed, and upon seeing the date, he claimed it's supposed to say 2025 (which would not make it expired anyway). He took my order, was even more unkind when I asked a question about the menu, and CHARGED ME THE TAX which felt unnecessary.

Several minutes after taking my order, he came back with no food and decided not to honor the certificate. He said he will refund the tax. Instead of doing that right away, he unnecessarily prolonged the interaction by continuing to show me the certificate, pointing and claiming it should have "expired in 2024" and "is not his handwriting."

He eventually processed the refund and I left with no food.

Plus, their restroom was closed, which made the environment even...