Kaju Soft Tofu Restaurant — Restaurant in Garden Grove

I am not someone that writes negative reviews. I like to look at the positive side of evey business, but I feel like I should let the owner know of the bad customer service at this garden grove location. Your employees should really step up in customer service. Customer service is a major roll in every business specially in restaurants , if a customer has a negative experience they will let the entire world know, the same applies to having a wonderful experience and getting the best customer service. Sadly for my family and I we got the bad customer service. It was around 2pm on a Saturday afternoon the place was not busy, we walked in, got seated and waited around 15 min for a waitress to acknowledge us and ask if we would like anything to drink. After the lady brought us our drinks she left and totally forgot about us. We press the service button that was next to us ( the service button is used to request service when no one is around ) we waited 10 min and nothing, we were ignored, I had to wave the lady down.. We finally placed our order, food was delivered in a timely manner the food was good no complaints about the food but after the food was delivered she forgot about us again. We ran out of water and to get the lady's attention was extremely hard , while waving the lady down she looked at me, we had eye contact, so i know she saw me, but she decided to ignore me. After she finally couldn't ignore us anymore she came by and asked if we needed something.... honestly.?, I been waving you down for a while now and you come and ask me that???? ( I though to myself). We nicely asked for more water, she brought us our drinks and left. We were finally ready to leave and we waited for like 20 min to get her attention to pay. She finally brought us the Check and left never came back to charge us, we waited and waited, while waiting a family arrived they got seated next to us, another lady was their server, as soon as they sat she ask what they would like to drink, she came back with their drinks and soon after she took their order.... keep in mind we are right next to them still waiting to be charge, so i mentioned to my sister, out loud, loud enough so she could hear us, I wonder if anyone has walked out without paying here??.. She immediately stopped what she was doing turned around and took the check with our card, the card that had been waiting to be charge for a ridiculous amount of time. While she was taking the check away I asked for some boxes to go, I even added please. She came back with no boxes, and continue taking the other people's order. My sister was filling out the credit card receipt the tip part, we tip very well I dont mind tipping $30 or more for good customer service. But I have never asked my sister not to tip, this lady did not deserve a tip, I made her scratch out the tip part so even though the customer service was REALLY BAD my sister was still willing to tip you guys, sorry but NO. At this point we are still waiting for the boxes, I finally had enough and got up, walked up to a young man that is a sever there and asked for some boxes for our leftovers and I added that we been waiting for a long time, he finally brought us our boxes and apologized. So Owner even though you sale good food having bad customer sevice ruins...

As an individual who takes pride on being Korean, Kaju Tofu was an extremely frustrating experience.

I’ll start with what I came for: the food. I ordered their famous Tofu Soup. The consistency, flavor, and texture of the tofu was exactly what every hungry Korean would look for in a traditional dish. I found the menu to have a variety of dishes including the tofu this restaurant prides itself on. I would order takeout from this place as the food was solid when that’s the only factor. The men I saw working hard in the kitchen were phenomenal and prepared each dish with true precision and skill. Everything that came out of that kitchen made me feel like I was right in the heart of Seoul, ordering a warm, hearty soup on a cool summer night. Even the water was exactly what I look for in a glass of water. The clarity of the water was perfect and complimented each of the dishes my party ordered.

Let me get to the part that was the elephant in the room. From the moment I walked into this establishment, the customer service felt off. As I entered, I noticed a line of customers waiting. However, there was no one to take my name for the waitlist that was supposedly going. After waiting for about 8 minutes, a waitress by the name of Kay stormed over to the front and told my party to enter our information on the iPad at the door. There wasn’t an employee designated to greeting us or even explaining how Kaju’s check-in process worked. The iPad wasn’t working and it took us about 3 tries to get the attention of the waitress for her to even walk over and try to help us fix the problem being the iPad. Eventually, she sat us down at our table and seemed extremely irritated when taking our order. None of the front of house employees seemed to have any interest in providing a quality customer experience. There were about 3 women working as waitresses and the restaurant even had a robot that served us. Yes. A moving robot that brought the food to us. See, the problem here is that the restaurant prioritized the efficiency of the business over the care the customers deserved. I honestly believe that the robot was the friendliest worker I encountered during my time at Kaju. Whenever I asked for extra water or napkins, the waitresses would disregard my request after acknowledging the fact that they heard me. The staff provided absolutely no attention to my party or the other customers which was extremely disappointing. I wouldn’t come back solely based on the customer service experience even though the food was perfect. Saying the service was minimal is an overstatement. Every employee seemed annoyed at the customers. I think the waitresses (Kay included) could use some TLC and/or vacation time. When hiring future employees, please be more careful about the attitudes of the staff. Quality over quantity. The training and goals of the establishment need to be improved. If I wasn’t Korean, I would think that all Korean restaurants have dreadful service such as this one. In addition to harming this restaurant’s reputation, I fear that Kaju will ruin the perception of all Korean businesses to non-Korean folk. This is a global crisis that Kaju has the...

KAJU TOFU is located at the intersection of Magnolia Ave. and Garden Grove Boulevard, in the area called, "Koreatown" in Garden Grove. There is only one dining room, and the first thing to impress the new diner is the elegant wallpaper, and the wooden hangings on the wall, which resemble culinary tools or perhaps musical instruments. At the rear of the dining room, the interested person can view the kitchen. Also, at this part of the restaurant is a decorative facade, which adds an extra dimension to the room. From time to time, waitresses carry bowls of sizzling soups through the aisles to various tables. The menu is printed on glossy paper, which can be taken home as a souvenir. The quality of the food is first-rate, and since this was only my first time, I had my usual, bibimbap. I was glad that this dish came with several bowls of kimchee, as well as a bowl of miso. In particular, I was impressed by the amazing flavor of a red-colored sauce on some crunchy sliced zucchinis. And now for the not-so-good news. The waitresses don't seem to know English. I asked if they had daikon (white radish), but they were puzzled. Also, during the course of the meal, the waitress never came by to ask if I was doing okay. The servings of kimchee, and of the miso, at KAJU TOFU are half the size of the servings at nearby CHAM SUT GOL. I have been to CHAM SUT GOL on three occasions, and they provide more types of kimchee, and each saucer has twice as much kimchee as at KAJU TOFU, and also CHAM SUT GOL provides a large salad with the bibimbap. My experience tells me that both restaurants are typically filled with a friendly crowd, which is a plus for me, because I like the commotion that is provided by a group of happy diners. At any rate, I think that I'll stick with CHAM SUT GOL, because their portions of kimchee are twice the size, and also because CHAM SUT GOL's kimchee includes daikon (daikon is my...