Gangnam Korean Cuisine — Restaurant in Evansville

I'm sorry, but I have no idea how this place is getting as high of reviews as they are. The atmosphere is that of a nightclub that has suddenly turned up the house lights brought out tables onto the dance, and decided they were going to attempt to be a restaurant. They have several TV's and half of them had basketball on and the other half were MTV music videos. My horrible experience started from the moment I walked in the door. I stood there for several minutes waiting to be seated (as the sign said) before anyone came up to even acknowledge me. There was a guy who clearly saw me while he was making sushi (come to find out that he is the owner) and did nothing. Apparently getting paying customers into his restaurant is not a priority for him. Now, I know some of you would say that he was busy, and yeah I would give you that, however he was able to walk away from making orders to take a microphone (more on that later). Anyway, I eventually was offered a place at the bar and the waitress did take my drink order promptly, but it when down hill from there.Apparently their beer menu needs to be updated as the beer that I wanted was no longer on draft. If I didn't catch the problem I would have received a completely different style of beer. Then their was some confusion about what menu I was supposed to be ordering from. Apparently there is a "lunch menu," a "special events" menu, and finally the "dinner menu." Lucky me, I got to see the other two and have them taken away from me before I was finally given the correct menu (at 7'oclock at night). After a several minute wait the waitress came over to take my order. I wasn't sure what it was called, but thank you to another Google reviewers photo I knew what it looked like. The waitress seemed fairly sure of what the dish was and I took a chance and ordered it based off her opinion. After sitting there for a while the music was interrupted by a young man getting on a microphone and starting to just talk about random life experiences. After a while he turns the mic over to the owner who comes out and goes on this long, racist rant about Asians and how much Kung Fu means to them and how sometimes they can get you to do what they want by making you think they know Kung Fu. Now, if you ordered sushi during this time then your sushi was just sitting out in the open and this is why it took so long to get. You can see why I was now even more irritated that he could not greet anyone who came to the door. Anyway, several minutes in his attempt to be funny (I think that's what they were going for...a comedy club atmosphere) the waitress came up and asked if she had taken my order and if so, what had I ordered. Are you serious right now...I had already been waiting 15minutes for my bowl of rice and chicken! How hard is that to cook!? They were not even that busy! There were 3 waitresses for only 6tables and 3 other people at the bar who were only drinking. If I wasn't so hungry and hadn't ordered anything but water I would have walked out right there. After reminding her what I ordered she tried to convince me that she had in fact placed my order. I'm still doubtful, as it took another 15 minutes to get my food. The "comedy routine" was made wildly inappropriate by the owner's mother getting on the microphone and talking about sex! Oh yes...just what I wanted to hear while I'm trying to eat. It wasn't that she just mentioned it...oh no...she felt it was appropriate to explain sex, what "parts" are needed, and how they work! Then she actually told about one of her experiences, back in the day, and included noises to complete the story. Thank God there were no children present! This is NOT a kid friendly restaurant with staff who will get up and talk about whatever inappropriate topic they wish! The food finally came and I proceeded to start eating vigourously so I could get out asap. It goes on and if you want to know more then reach out to me. The food was good, but the whole rest of the experience was horrible! STAY AWAY until the clean up their act and get service...

Let me start by saying I'm not korean but I love korean food and have eaten at many korean restaurants in the US, Canada and Seoul. Mul Naengmyum is one of my favourite korean soups. But make sure you only ask for it during the summer, if you ask for it during the cold months, you'll get a cold stare back as traditionally it is only served during hot months. Up until now, at any of the other "traditional" korean restaurants, I have been able to ask for it, and get it prepared, whether it is on the menu or not. As I was seated, by the way at a small table, though I asked to be seated at a booth and was told those were for parties of two or more, even though there were multiple booths open, so as I sat down on a small chair at a small table, I asked the non-korean server if they had the cold noodle soup (Mul Naengmyum). I got a blank look and was told that if it's not on the menu they don't have it. Strike one, she did not even offer to go back and ask the cook. Next she brought out 3 varieties of kimchi (really, only 3, Isn't 6-8 different kimchis the norm for a traditional restaurant?). When asked if they had other varieties, she said I think so, and brought me 3 others. Strike 2, if you have a variety of kimchis, offer up the whole lot. Isn't that the traditional norm? Since I couldn't get the cold noodle soup (Sigh, guess I'll have to get some at Mama's in Indy), I ordered the Bulgogi, probably the most commonly ordered dish at any korean restaurant. When it came, it looked great. I ate a couple bites, and noticed it didn't taste like it was well marinated, like it hadn't sit long enough in the marinade. As I ate through more of the dish, I came across pieces that were tough, another sign it didnt marinade long enough. I had eaten much less than 1/2 the dish, when I told the server about the poor taste and tough meat, she didn't apologize or offer to do anything, not even get the manager. Strike three, I'm outta there. ...hey, at least the Kimchis and Hite beer was good. Bottom line, not on my return or recommend to...

Reply to Owner Response:

She was tall, with reddish blonde wavy hair. This was actually back in April of 2018. I recently edited my nearly year-old review which brought it to your attention now. Honestly, at this point I'd love to come back and try again, but between the experience I described below, and other equally bad experiences my wife had with the same server, if we were to walk in and see the waitress in question, we would turn around and leave. As far as making up for it, I don't know what that would look like. I do, however, appreciate your reply.

Original review from late 2018:

This place ruined my mother's 50th birthday party back in April.

We chose it because my wife and I had previously had good experiences. We used to tell everyone about the unique and delicious food. I called ahead and reserved a table for a large group, 10-15 people. Well, they decided that my mother's special event would be the perfect time to give a known problem waitress a huge table. The woman bungled everything it's possible to screw up in the course of being a waitress. She was robotic, strange, and inaccurate. It took us about 2 hours longer to leave that restaurant than would have been necessary minus the incompetence. In short, she is not cut out to be a waitress.

She became the star of the evening, and not in a good way. Looking back on what should have been a great time to reunite with family members and friends my mother hadn't seen in a long time, all any of us talk about when that night gets brought up is that awful waitress. We will never be back.

All of that being said, the reason I waited so long to write this review is that I loathe to criticize people so harshly. It's possible that that waitress is an absolutely amazing human being in every way--except being a waitress--and I just wasn't sure I wanted to put that negativity into the world. But I've come to the conclusion that dining establishments and people don't change if not subject to the force...