House Of Taste — Restaurant in Fayetteville

This is an updated review from me, I have previously rated this restaurant at 1 star, but today has earned my respect and the need to re-review. My main and only issue before was the inaccuracy of the hours posted and constant disappointment of pulling into the lot during posted hours, only to find them once again closed or the open sign on, but the doors locked. Today I was craving Asian food, but I've had a significant amount of Chinese and Thai recently, so Korean was calling my name. Before driving across town (again) I decided to call and confirm that they were open for dine-in and if there was space, luckily for us and for their redemption, there was space and they served 2 very content customers. We are still in the middle of the pandemic during this review and I'm happy to say that I felt safe at this location. We were asked to sanitize hands upon entering and keep masks intact while moving through the restaurant. We were the only table. Most drinks came in single serve/ sealed containers for safety, we had Thai Tea. The menu was more expansive than expected and it made choosing difficult. The menu was also more expensive than expected, but that being said, our meal ended up being worth every penny. I wish I had taken pictures because everything was lovely, but I was starving and the food was too tempting to pause any longer. Miso soup came complimentary, as well as an array of tasting dishes featuring 4 bites or so of 6 different appetizers (apparently the offerings change daily, but our favorites today were the caramelized potatoes and kimchi pancake). My friend ordered the Teriyaki shrimp Bento box and she enjoyed every bit of it, so many options (2 kinds of shrimp, sushi, dumplings, rice and salad). We had the rice cakes with fish cakes on the side (texture was on point!) I can't remember how to spell the name of the dish. My main dish was the beef bulgolgi lunch special, and it was very flavorful. Our waitress was helpful without being overbearing and we were allowed to enjoy a very nice lunch out without feeling rushed. We were even each given a little pre-packed chocolate dessert cake when the final bill came. I'm happy to be able to update my review, and I hope to find them...

This review is from a single dining experience I had. With that out of the way, I feel comfortable saying that this place is easily one of the best Asian restaurants I've eaten at in Fayetteville. It's comparable to the Korean place I have eaten at in Little Seoul in Chicago, even. Granted, the only comparison you can make is with KJ's. Onto the actual review...

The House of Taste is a cozy little place with a bunch of shoji screens to make it a little more intimate. There's a little older woman that takes your order. There's a teeny language barrier here, but it's not hard to order at all! There's a little salad bar and warmer full of perfectly warmed and seasoned miso with small bowls of green onion and button mushrooms. I will say that the miso beats the salad by a huge margin. I'd like some tofu but that's not all that important.

I had fried dumplings and a mushroom and vegetable dumpling soup (with pork over the side) while my girlfriend had a veggie and noodle soup. Everything was very fresh, flavorful, and cooked to perfection. The dumplings were perfectly crisp and hot while not being greasy at all, filled with cabbage and pork. My soup was this gargantuan serving of enokis, shiitakes, button mushrooms, dumplings, and pork. It came out bubbling too, so it was nice and hot for sure. I can't speak about the noodle soup, but my girlfriend enjoyed it quite a bit.

I love this place and hope it's around a long time as I need to try more of it. Apparently, there's a guy that comes in twice a week to eat the Army Stew. Must be really good for him to come...

The space was empty when we arrived around 5pm for dinner on a Sunday. It made for a very peaceful ambiance as they have a nice waterfall and dim/natural lighting. The counter person greeted us with a warm smile and told us to sit anywhere. We were given a lot of time to look at the menus. We ordered veggie fried dumplings for an appetizer. They took a while to arrive but we were very fresh and hot. I believe we ended up with pork dumplings but it's ok..there was a bit of a language barrier between us and our sweet server. We ordered the bibimbap and spam kimchi for entrees and a side of kimchi radish. The spam kimchi was probably amazingly authentic and for folks that like it, I imagine this was amazing. I hadn't had kimchi stew yet so I wasn't a fan of the flavor but the dish had an amazing presentation and smelled great too. The bibimbap was SO good. This dish was still sizzling when it arrived. The rice on the bottom of the bowl caramelized and added this amazing texture to the dish. The chopped meat on top was sweet and flavorful. The veggies in the dish were cooked perfectly and added a strong flavor of their own. The kimchi radish also wasn't my favorite but again I think I've landed on not being a kimchi fan. Totally ok - I wanted the experience and was delighted with it overall. A bit on the pricey side but nowadays many are. It was a great meal and I will go back to try more...