Surf to turf — Restaurant in Grand Junction

An Asian food oasis in a valley desert.

TLDR: A cultural experience. You'll either love it or you won't.

Let me start off by saying: I came here with very low expectations. Growing up in GJ, there weren't a lot of Asian food restaurants to begin with and almost all of them were Asian-American adaptations. With a name like 'Surf to Turf', I anticipated this place to be another such restaurant and was going to pass on trying it. What peaked my interest was the presentation of the food and the array of dishes offered. STT offers Japanese sushi, Chinese hotpot, and Korean BBQ. Having lived in Seattle for the past 6 years, many places offer one or two of these cuisines so I'm impressed STT manages to offer all three-in Grand Junction no less!

This far inland, and away from the coast, I'm rather wary of sushi/sashimi and would prefer not having food poisoning. Additionally, I do not have have a big enough stomach for both hotpot and Korean BBQ, so this review is for STT's Korean BBQ side only, at this time.

While still in their semi-soft opening, there are still some things that need ironing out. Mainly service kinks and educating the waiters about the types of food and drink offered. The restaurant is split into two sides- one side for sushi only; one side for hotpot/BBQ. It can be a bit confusing but if even one person in a party wants hotpot/BBQ, you're going to be seated on the hotpot/BBQ side of the restaurant, due to the special setup that is needed.

For hotpot, there is a large sauce bar and an add-in ingredient bar. For BBQ, you choose a few meats from their menu. I prefer, and recommend, rib-in beef, pork belly, and traditional fatty beef. Wagyu is also very good but can be a bit thick and filling. You cannot return plates of meat that you don't eat and BBQ isn't that great as leftovers so please refrain from ordering too many things. YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR WASTED/UNUSED MEAT AND HOTPOT! This is common for most hotpot and Korean BBQ restaurants. I recommend ordering a few plates before you decide if you need more. (There isn't a ton of room on the table for lots of little plates anyway.)

At this time, not every staff member is knowledgeable on how to cook hotpot/BBQ, so you'll need to be patient if there are communication mishaps. Be aware: the restaurant is NOT responsible for mishaps connected to undercooked food, since you are cooking the food yourself. This is also a common disclaimer for hotpot and Korean BBQ restaurants. When in doubt, cook the meat until you no longer see pink.

The Korean BBQ includes the standard assortment of small Korean appetizers (seaweed salad, Kimchi, pickled radish, etc.). The presentation of the BBQ meat was neat and tidy. The service was prompt but the staff are not quite knowledgeable of all the items they offer quite yet. I am blown away by how much effort they put in to decorating this restaurant. It is truly a restaurant setup worthy of a big city. One dish was even presented with a fresh orchid flower!

FYI: The owner of 'Surf to Turf' also owns the 'Grand International Buffet' down the road.

Overall, I think that despite its name, 'Surf to Turf' is an authentic, cultural experience that is a great new addition to the western slope. It can't be easy or cheap bringing in such ingredients to this small city, but I'm hoping STT will prosper and flourish in GJ and perhaps usher in more, authentic Asian restaurants...

This evening my husband and I went to dinner here with family and friends. We do not get to do this often as we all have children/newborns. We arrived at 6pm and expected a wait but not like this. As we stood there waiting we had been told multiple times in a 30 to 45 minute time period that they were wiping off our table. I am unsure of what table takes that long to wipe down but regardless when my sister went and asked the hostess about it (magically the only one NOT wearing her name tag) she was met with hostility and poor customer service. When we finally got seated it took quite quite awhile to get our sushi which we had ordered right off the bat but surprisingly it also took quite a while to get the raw meat we cooked ourselves as well. They only brought us 2 forks originally, 1 of which was dirty. When we finally got our meat to Cook some of it was incorrect. Which no big deal since its all included, except for the fact they charge you if you waste food from the Korean BBQ or hot pot menu so we just cooked and ate it. There's no real way of checking the temperature of the pork to make sure its to the correct temperature making it safe to eat . When it was time for the bill, it was split three ways and wrong, she had to fix it (which isnt a big deal easy fix) and the person who brought them back was rude and just said here and walked away. We also had asked her for boxes, TWICE, for the sushi we had ordered. SHE never brought them out. When we were signing for our checks she said "oh let me get you those boxes" we told her no because by that time we had sat there so long we were all just ready to go. She spent more time with the guys seated behind us (who showed up well after us) chatting about college and whatever else than she did with us. We were there for 3 1/2 hrs and spent over $300 between the 3 couples. We have all collectively decided it was not worth it and none of us will go again.

My suggestion, do more training. Go to hospitality school. Or just get out of the service industry all together because tonight was a disaster. McDonalds gives better service. Also just because you work there, does not mean you should be trying to sneak your friends in ahead of other paying customers. Some of us had been waiting well over an hour. Shame on the employee I witnessed doing this.

Other things to consider, theres already not enough room on the table for hardly anything. And they're horrible at clearing your table of empty cups, plates or bowls. Im not a huge eater so $37.99 was a bit much for what I did eat of the Korean BBQ. All in all, there was really nothing all that special about it. We won't be back and will be taking our hard earned money elsewhere. If you want to spend big money on a nice meal go elsewhere. Because this place really isnt anything that amazing and they weren't friendly at all.

This experience makes us miss the restaurant that was there previously...

We arrived at 7:00 PM as a party of six and were told there would be a 30-minute wait, which was accurate—we were seated right at 7:30. Fair start! A heads-up: you can’t combine BBQ and hot pot in one order, but you can pair sushi with either BBQ or hot pot. Reasonable policy. We choose the BBQ to accommodate our party.

They initially tried to split our group between two tables, unsure we’d all fit in a booth. We made it work—tight, but manageable with four kids and two adults.

Drink-wise, they serve Pepsi products. Unfortunately, they didn’t have hot sake available because the warmers weren’t turned on yet. I tried a sparkling flavored sake instead—not really my thing, as it tasted more like a seltzer with a kick. Thankfully, they later brought out a cold sake that was much closer to what I wanted, which I appreciated.

The timing of service was a bit spotty: • 7:50 PM – Order taken • 8:10 PM – Meat arrived • 8:30 PM – Silverware finally offered (a little late)

Unfortunately, the scissors provided were dirty, and the utensils sitting in the pre-set cups looked previously used—not a great impression on the cleanliness front.

We grabbed some tilapia from the cold bar, but even after cooking several fatty meats beforehand, it was still difficult to get the fish cooked properly.

Sushi was ordered at 8:41 PM and arrived around 9:00, just in time for the kitchen’s final meat call. Around this time, someone finally let us know that we could adjust the temperature of our in-table grill (ironically, just as we had already turned it off).

We paid at the table and left at 9:50 PM. The staff did give us a decent discount, acknowledging that this was part of their soft opening. On our way out, we briefly chatted with Ming, the manager, who assured us they’re working out the kinks and hope to improve with time.

Final Thoughts:

The potential is there—the concept is fun, the food selection is promising, and the staff were courteous. But they clearly still have some things to iron out, especially with timing, cleanliness, and communication. Hoping for a smoother experience next time once they’re fully up and running.

My favorite dishes: The duo beef sides and the fruit flavored beef and of course the enoke mushrooms.

We did not take advantage of the sauces that were at one of the bars, we were not really sure if that was only for hot pot or not so it was left unexplored. We also did not inquire, so that may be...