Cafe Korea — Restaurant in Fishers

Having eaten at many Korean bbq restaurants in various states, from the countless number all over California to New York City to Chicago and then some in Colorado, Arizona, Kansas and even Oklahoma where our many travels have taken us, this is by one of the worst and most over-rated Korean restaurants. We drove 45 min to check out this place due to the number of good reviews. We can think of the only reason behind the high reviews is due to lack of other good or decent options in the area or limited experience of the reviewers/diners with good Korean food. The prices are insane also, I get it it’s inflation but $21 for small tiny soon-tofu soup (couldn’t find any of the seafood mentioned). $6 on appetizer for few sheets of seaweed (at same price you can just buy by dozen boxes at Costco or other grocery stores). $34 for LA Galbi that had mostly fat and some meat but zero Zero taste due or lackluster marinade. Tasteless, flavorless. The Galbi here tasted like raw slabs of meat sprinkled with some salt and pepper and then delivered to us. We asked the waitress repeatedly to confirm she brought us right order. At 2 orders of Galbi, we endured eating tasteless meat. The banchan selection was also limited and mediocre. Cheap quality steamed rice. Japchae tasted ok but no sliced egg omelette, and super greasy, not to mention very small size for $18. Only giving 1 star because service was pretty good and the service staff were attentive. Extremely overpriced place for tasteless and flavorless mediocre...

Goodness is what’s cooking at cafe Korea unfortunately the services doesn’t deliver. Arrived at the establishment at 6:39pm on a Sunday. Wanted to scout some cool places to take the parents. Greeted by a lovely woman and seated immediately. Let’s call the waiter Joe the Sloth, greater us with the same enthusiasm as the hostess after about a 10 min wait in a half capacity restaurant. Ordered coke and a water which came out 7 mins later. There was enough time to scour the extensive menu and formulate some great questions. Joe the Knowledgeable even helped pick out a nice bottle of Black Cherry Wine. And this is where Joe became the absentee. Food came out a whopping 47 mins later for one entree and about an additional 21 extra mins for the other dish. There was a larger table behind us that I guess waited longer and were supplied with so many of the 6 available sides they were “Sided-Out”. Joe the unapologetic refused to refill the side dishes that we requested. Joe the I have better things to do, never checked on us except to ask if we wanted a box. Joe the I will not acknowledge that I never refilled the sides. Joe the It’s the Kitchens fault that your food came out weird. Joe the let’s walk off in the middle of your sentence. (I kid you not). Joe the I want you know how much I hate my job because I refuse to do my job. Couldn’t even remember how good the food was because the service was so bad. This goes out to Joe who soured my experience and made my Sunday feel like thee...

I'm torn about this place. I really like the idea of a kind of upscale Korean restaurant, but that has to come with a better menu. This restaurant mostly sells boonshik food, which is supposed to be dirt cheap.

To make it easier to understand, imagine going abroad and seeing Cafe America where they sell corndogs for $20. They plate the corndog like a squab with the stick sticking up and the mustard artistically squibbled on the plate, but at the end of the day, you're going to see the $100 bill and feel horrible you paid that much for corndog, a hotdog, and a grilled cheese. That's what it's like here. You can fancy it up, but you don't feel good about that grilled cheese you strongly suspect was made with a certain bread mix and Kraft cheese.

But they do some things right. The service is good, and the food is prepared with noticeable care. The plating is pleasant and sometimes downright creative. Yet, other than the galbi, the food was just OK.

There's a grill side though that is very appropriately priced. So go sit at the grill and enjoy the Korean BBQ instead of sitting at the boonshik side feeling like you're...