Gogigo Korean BBQ - Frederick,MD — Restaurant in Frederick

A few weeks ago, my family came into town and I wanted to take them to a unique restaurant that they haven't been to before. They have never been to a Korean BBQ restaurant and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity.

I called early on a Saturday to make a reservation after which I was told they do not take reservations on weekends. I told them it was not a problem but they still took my name down and put it on the "Call Ahead List" which I thanked them for. I told them we would be there at 630 pm.

Upon arriving at approximately 620, the restaurant was busy with little to no room in the waiting area. I walked to the host and gave my name and told them about the call ahead. They found my call ahead information and politely said it would be about 40-45 minutes until we could be seated due to a large party that arrived. I understood and confirmed with them that since there was no room for my party of 6 to stand, we would be walking around the local shops until 7. The host agreed and asked for my number to contact us if a table was available earlier.

My family and I walked around the Frederick shops for a little while before returning to the restaurant. At this point, no text had been sent or table confirmation but it was about 650pm when we walked back through the door.

We walked to the now empty waiting area excited to eat since we were all very hungry at this point. I walked up to the host and gave her my name. She then told me it would be about an hour wait. Confused, I told her that I was here earlier and my name should be on the call ahead list and that she told me to return around 7pm (it is now 655). She then said there was nothing she could do since a bunch of people came in and it would be an hour wait for a table.

I then tried nicely to explain that she is the one who told me to come back at 7 and that I gave her my contact number to let us know if we could come back earlier. She then nodded at me and said well we will have a table in an hour. Holding back hunger filled anger, we left the restaurant and took my family to a different restaurant.

I was in the restaurant business for close to 7 years as a server and I've seen some pretty bad host mistakes but this one might be the worst. When you tell someone that if they return at a certain time, the table should be ready soon after that time. In this case, the host obviously made a mistake and attempted to play it off. The lack of empathy from the host and the way she handled the situation was done poorly and the lack of options to rectify the situation made it worse.

I wouldn't recommend this restaurant to anyone. If the experience at the host stand is any indication of the management there, I would try a different...

I will start by saying Gogigo is not a bad place so no reason people should not go there unless they experience it themself and choose not to return based on their personal experience like I have. I ♥ Korean Bbq and have gone to a competitor in Germantown, MD before which was a near-perfect experience for me and I look forward to the next time I go down there from Frederick. I do acknowledge Gogigo has opened in just the last month so they are working out the kinks but there are things that should be plainly obvious before even opening. While they are stocked for beer sales right now, everything non-alcoholic is sold by the can since their soda fountain is not operational yet. Yes, you pay per can, per person, during your visit while eating hot food that may also be spicy too. The tables are standard size tables for 4 like most restaurants only now there is a LARGE circular grill (considerably larger than any Korean bbq grill i have seen in other restaurants) in the center that takes most of the tabletop space except for your little bowl to eat from. There are also 6-8 sauce bottles and 6-8 bowls of toppings on the table competing for space with drink glasses and utensils, plus raw food trays brought to you and each person's eating bowl and each person's bowl of rice. Forget trying to put any personal items on the tabletop (cellphone or even a compact woman's purse). Then you find out for the beef, chicken & pork your only options are plain, spicy or sweet and there are a few they were out of that day. The AYCE pricing for A+B (waitress confirmed most choose this) is the same price as their competitor in Germantown but competitor offers all of the food options (with a LARGER selection) for the set, same price (not staggered pricing like Gogigo, plus there is still another higher level at Gogigo than this to choose from) and it also includes the hot soup per person and the seperate food items that are cooked in the soup also. Again I want to emphasize, there is nothing wrong with Gogigo here in Frederick. Their staff were polite, food in stock was good and being in Frederick very convenient to reach for me. Unfortunately having experienced what I belive to be a better option and dining experience before in Germantown, MD I will choose to travel there next time, it better meets my expectations and I personally will enjoy it more. I wish Gogigo well in its business here in Frederick but I do suggest the public also gives other Korean Bbq's a try also so you can compare and patronize...

Living 5 minutes from this location I was excited to have a kbbq spot in Frederick. I have traveled all around even to North Carolina, Baltimore, Virginia to have Kbbq. My friend group went with an open mind to have a good experience. Unfortunately this has become the worst experience I have ever had. It wasn’t due to the staff which seemed to be trying to keep up with demand. First their seating don’t get me started on how close I had to sit to the people behind me and the fact there was another group on our same table just a different burner was awkward. As for the rest it was honestly the food and every part of it just was terrible. The poor sides that tasted old or left out, rice that was overcooked and crunch, don’t get me started on my favorite thing at kbbq steamed egg that didn’t even look edible. The meats lacked any flavor or spice and are very small in portion. We had ordered the Gogi steak which was one steak to split with 3 people lacked flavor. Not to mention took 20minutes alone to cook because our grill couldn’t get hot enough to even cook it which the server basically explained to us that we didn’t have it hot enough which usually isn’t something the customers control anyways (at every other kbbq it isn’t like that). They don’t offer spicy pork belly which is my favorite at kbbq but their spicy pork wasn’t even trying. Also their sauces taste like straight out a jar no creativity or anything (teriyaki, yum yum, and sweet chili). I wanted this to be good or even sub par. But after our experience I will never go back and have told many of my local friends to not waste their money. $36 is steep for all you can eat and it wasn’t even worth $20. We left hungry because we just wanted to leave and even before our time ran out, which I never do. It’s just honestly all around a disappointment to what an AYCE Kbbq could be. I will continue to travel to Virginia...