Seoul Prime - Korean Steakhouse — Restaurant in Falls Church

I feel like our anniversary was ruined.

We chose to try Seoul Prime since we love Korean Steakhouses and wanted to supported other small businesses. However, dining in tonight led to both me and my partner unhappy.

Before I dive in, I want to caveat that this is not necessarily due to our assigned waiter. She was very kind and apologetic of the situation because there was a 70 person Asian dating mixer happening at the same time as our reservation. They got to put their order in right before us, which led to large delays in getting food and banchan refills. When we requested samjang sauce and banchan refills around the second cut, we did not get those refills until the last cut of meat. Additionally, the management team should have requested more people to staff the front and work the kitchen to support the 70 person event. instead, everyone else was stretched thin.

In our reservation, I put a note saying we were celebrating our anniversary and did not get any kind of acknowledgement or celebration, which really put a damper to the night.

Before we received the food, we accidently ordered still water, but they should have gave a heads up that there's a surcharge (+$8 dollars) and that the tap water option was available. In addition, me and my partner ordered two drinks -- Very Strawberry (soju cocktail) and Fruit Punch (mocktail). When a different waiter dropped off the drinks, he asked who got the Fruit Punch (I did) but handed me the Very Strawberry. I took a sip of the alcoholic drink by accident and gagged since I am sensitive to alcohol. I can't help but imagine what kind of issues could arise if someone accidently gave the wrong person an alcoholic drink.

The food itself wasn't bad (except the banchan and soybean brisket) which I will break down below: +Volcano Egg Souffle - delicious and fluffy! Not sure why it has a cheese on top; I probably would have prefered the traditional style with green onions. +Seafood Chive Pancake - crispy and flavorful with a good amount of seafood (shrimp and cuttlefish). The sauce itself is REALLY salty but worked well if you put it on the pancake. +Soybean Brisket Stew - this had a good amount of meat, but this had way too much soybean paste, which made the soup too salty. Would not get again. +Prime Steak Tour - no complaints here, liked all the cuts, and the waiter checked in often and cut the pieces before putting them on our plates. A few pieces were more charred or slightly overcooked, but given the situation where everyone's stretched thin, I can't blame them. +Strawberry sorbet - self explanatory; I enjoyed it. +Banchans (side dishes) - did not like them at all except for the scallion salad. I've gone to many Korean restaurants and none of the banchan servedhere had the in depth flavor like other stores. This is a Korean restaurant and I'd expect better with this.

Lastly, serious question, but for a Korean BBQ place, why am I being offered sweet mustard as a dipping sauce with my meats? I've gone to other ones and this is a first.

TL;DR -- +Very upset anniversary was not acknowledged +70 person event was prioritized and upper management did not prepare for this event accordingly by staffing more waiters and cooks. +Banchan needs big improvement, doesn't feel like your typical Korean side dishes +Please remove the sweet mustard -- this isn't traditional in most KBBQ places and I am confused by this...

Me and my 2 girlfriends very much looked forward to eating at this new restaurant, but unfortunately we were somewhat disappointed.

The good:

The food looked pretty. Atmosphere was good. The receptionist would check your coat. Free parking instruction sent to my phone in advance.

The so-so:

Waiter came after we were seated about 7-10 minutes, it was kind of a long wait without any water. The quality of meat was ok but I don’t think it lives up to the price and hype. Me and my friends thought the meat you buy at H mart would top the meat here. The side dishes were so-so, their Kimchi was ok, and the both of my friends said the soybean paste soup was too salty. The egg curd was not the traditional Korean style but more like Japanese style. But we are in a Korean steakhouse…

The least favorite:

First it was really cold out there in the winter, and we were expecting such high end Korean restaurant would have Korean Barley tea (that a regular Korean restaurant would have), but they don’t. And we asked for hot water, still a no; what about room temperature water? Don’t have that either. Only cold water from the fridge.

Second, we were seated around 7:10 pm, and we ordered the prime tour. It took approximately 10 mins to have everything brought to the table. (Remember it took 7-10 mins to get our order in? So I am guessing by the time the meat started being cooked would be 7:30 ish) Once started, we felt our waiter was rushing to cook all 4 types of meat. Once all cooked, my friend was about to eat her last piece of beef and the waiter came to ask if we were ready for check. We stayed silent for a second because we didn’t expect that and said we are still working on it. 5 minutes later, he came back again while we were having a good conversation at the table asking if we want the check. We felt really rushed and not welcomed because they want us out so soon. I looked at the time, it was 8:10 pm. We were pretty much given 30 mins to finish our dinner before they came to rush us out. There were enough empty tables at the restaurant at the time and no other people were waiting in line to get seated. We didn’t have a good experience here, it was a waste of the nice...

I’ve been to a ton of Korean Hotpot’s/Steakhouse’s!! This one takes the cake!! Spoiler Alert…it’s high quality food, service, & ambience in here!! I highly recommend this spot Good Folks…you will not be disappointed!! . Where I am: @seoulprime . Location Reviewed: 106 Founders Ave, Falls Church VA. . Items Reviewed: STAMP!! Their Seafood Chive Pancake ($25 with shrimp, cuttlefish, crisp onions, chives, & eggs). Flaky, fluffy, & super tasty!!

STAMP!! Their Fruitpunch Mocktail (included with the steak tour with mango, pineapple, & cranberry). Fresh, refreshing, & tasty!!

STAMP!! Their Cheese Corn ($12 with Mayo, mozzarella, cheddar, & Tajin). I could eat a bucket of this!! Get it!

STAMP!! Their Seoul Steak Tour ($55 with NY Strip steak, Hanging Tender, Prime Short Rib, & Marinated Rib Finger). I got the NY Strip medium well dipped in their mustard sauce, & Korean hot sauce with salt…STAMP!! The Hanging Tender cut was super tender!! The Short Rib was meaty, & tender I only dipped this in the mustard, no salt. The Marinated Rib needed no dip, it was super flavorful!!

STAMP!! The Sides to the Seoul Steak Tour (with Kongnamul Munchim-Korean bean sprouts, Mixed Veggies, Kimchi, Banchan-with jalapeños-spicy, & pickled radish LIKE THAT, Rice with chili sauce, & Korean Scallions-hot spicy). These ALL complimented the entire meal very well, & were high quality!! . Customer Service: On Point. . Parking: Decent. . Recommendations: Just GO!! . Accessibility: It’s wheelchair friendly, & it’s differently abled persons friendly.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️=STAMP ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️➕=LIKE...