Goki Goki Korean BBQ — Restaurant in Fenton

So, we've been going to goki for a while now and LOVE the food for the most part. Prior to Covid we'd only been in the dining area a couple of times and although the food was good, the service was hit or miss, starting with the first step in the door when you basically have to make your presence known since there is nobody dedicated to greet customers. Then Covid hit and we did carry out. The first time much of our order was missed, but we gave them a pass because we knew they were slammed. Hint to the owners - taking a name and actually MARKING THE ORDER with the name is very helpful when you have no carry out process. The 3rd time we did carry out, the building was open so I walked in to get my order and again nobody there at the carry out station to greet myself and another customer and the gentlemen seating in the dining room told us someone else would be there to help us shortly.. Ten minutes later here he comes, helps the first customer out and walks away, like I wasn't even there. Finally comes back and asks for the order I was picking up, gave him the info and he walked away. Some girl and her boyfriend, whom I'm assuming either works there or is associated with the restaurant in some fashion was having an argument in the front entrance with her boyfriend about his cleaning or not cleaning the counter top at their apartment, completely oblivious that I was even there...a paying customer. Food comes out about 15 minutes later (I'd called 45 minutes prior to order) and I leave, as the arguing couple and I'm assuming an owner or manager walk outside and continue to "yuck it up" like they've just left a club. Today we went for carry out again, and will be our final time. We walked in to place our order and again, NOBODY around, I go make ourselves known and a waitress and some older gentlemen looked at us like we were trespassing. We tell them we want to place a carry out, yes, asked if we knew what we wanted, yes; asked if we needed a menu, no like I said we know what we want, the waitress says ok. We walk up front, 5 minutes later she comes up "are you ready to order", (seriously), YES we are READY to order. So we do, she repeats back what we tell her we want, starts putting our order in and says she'll be right back, 5 minutes later comes back takes our payment says we'll be 30 minutes. I give her the name for the order, she laughs at me (???), she says to my fiancé, can you write your name on this receipt....So we go back 30 minutes later, pick up the food go home and one of our entrees is missing, one she repeated back when we ordered.

I cannot stress enough how disappointing it is that there is so little care for customer service in this restaurant. What could be a thriving, amazing place for Fenton and the surrounding areas it's nothing but excuses for poor service, (like the infamous backed up kitchen when you're waiting in the dining room for 30+ minutes for an appetizer and two tables have guests), to being forgotten by waitstaff altogether. Either get some new ownership or the owner should go get some training on how to run a restaurant. Sadly, we won't be back. Too many chances, too many disappointments for the amount of money we've spent there during each visit. DO BETTER GOKI or just...

Update 6/26: I find this place enjoyable to return to and it is continually improving as time goes on. They add new items and it is constantly changing with unique products. We went here for dinner and it was more enjoyable (with more menu items) than the last time we ate here.

Based on a relatively recent opening:

I had really enjoyed this place. It is very unique to Fenton and brings a whole different taste and style to this area. The first couple of times were great, followed by good, followed by "meh".

Marketplace: Seems easy to navigate after some wandering. Not too many issues. I have revisited many times in hopes of finding what I had purchased previously, only to find more than once that they no longer had what I wanted. This mostly pertained to the sweets aisle. I asked if it was going to be rotating at this point, in which it was stated it was based upon best selling. In this case, the limited variety they had in their marketplace (due to space), became more limited. The Hibachi is also interesting... hopefully this area will be improved. I have not tried illy coffee. Between all of this in the marketplace, it would be around 3 or 4 stars. I'm giving 4 for the recent opening.

Restaurant: Waited a couple minutes to be greeted. Not my biggest issue. After being seated, my server was as attentive as she could be. Which I find very funny, because she was tending to more tables than the 5 or 6 staff members standing around behind our table (took away from the experience I suppose, seemed overstaffed with nothing to do...). When an individual appearing to be a manager or owner walked by, she asked how it was and I said good. I asked for some refills on our drinks (that had been sitting there for awhile empty). She took them, but afterwards, when she brought them back, she promptly stated that if I needed more service then I needed to press the button on the table. Now if that was explained to me when I was sat or by my server (which happened to be the same person), I would have been more than happy to. I'm also sure she didn't mean it the way she had said it, but it came off quite rude actually. Quality of food was good, but not my taste preference. What I didn't understand is that a menu can be found online on their website which is completely different than the one given to us.

May take us a second to come back here to eat again, with hopes of the place aging...

Completely disappointed in our experience. We came in on Thursday evening 12/17/20 to order to go. We placed our order with the front desk and waited over an hour for our food. We took our food home (which is over an hour away.) excited to eat. Once we opened all the boxes we found several discrepancies.

We ordered 1 order of meat mandu 1 order of beef goki goki buns 1 order of pork goki goki buns 1 order of dukkbokie

Both orders of steamed buns came with veggies which we requested they leave out.. and although the dukkbokie was on our receipt we didn’t actually receive it. The “meat” mandu was all veggies..

We also got an individual entree of short ribs which was the only correct part of our order. Aside from missing the salad, soup & Korean side dish which according to the menu it’s supposed to come with.

We ordered a small beef combo (2-3 people) with no veggies and a fried rice rice with no veggies. Every box of beef had veggies mixed in. We did receive a box of chicken that we did not order.. The fried rice also completely mixed with veggies..

I called immediately to get a refund or at least a partial refund for the missing item. After spending $150+ with only part of our order correct we were frustrated.

The front desk put us on hold multiple time after I explained the issue, after 20 min we finally were able to speak with a gentlemen (assuming the manager). We explained the issue again and were hung up on multiple times. They called us back and appeared to understand our frustrations and said they’d issue a refund. It’s been several days and we haven’t received a refund nor a response from the restaurant. With no other Korean bbq restaurants near by we were really looking forward to this treat for a birthday dinner. With COVID restrictions our only options was to take the food to go. We’d love to give this restaurant another try when we can eat at the restaurant and avoid any issues, however, this awful customer service experience has put an bad taste...