Sami's Korean Restaurant — Restaurant in Hampton

How does this restaurant get a 4-star rating? It's not a true rating. It should be a 2-Star rating. The Korean food is awful, and I say this with complete honesty. The waitress would not let me order from the lunch menu because she said only the dinner menu was available. This was at 2pm. I had to ask for the side dishes of kimchi and rice. She just wanted to serve my mackerel and hot soup.

Let's talk about the food. My mackerel was deep-fried from a previously frozen state. It was very hard and greasy. Mackerel is oily anyway, but frying it was not very good. The kimchee was terrible and old. The other dishes were bland, like blah.

I think at one time, this was a thriving place, and served really good food. However, it looks like a tired place. Food is below average. They are more focused on money, more than anything...food cost did go up. I get it. My lunch cost $50. The food simply wasn't worth it. Too bad because this place is close to NASA and Langley. There could be so much potential if they would prepare their food better. More people would come out to eat there.

I don't recommend this place and do NOT believe their outstanding food reviews. It must be from their church friends. It's not true at all. Bottom line, you shouldn't rip your customers off by providing a lunch menu, then telling you the dinner menu is your only choice to choose from. Also, if you pay $50 for lunch, it should not be below average, greasy, bland, and having to ask for rice and the little side dishes at a Korean restaurant. I'm never coming back, and hopefully, this review will make...

My husband and I decided to try something new. I decided oh great it’s close to my house. I went there and wasn’t acknowledged. I just grabbed a menu off of the counter with still having high hopes. I saw that it was maybe 3 families being served and 1 person on the floor. I saw that it was some concerns with a family, and the host was trying to remedy the issue but yet still no acknowledgement to me. I would say after talking with a friend getting menu support on the phone, I still wanted to give them a chance. I went to the bar and approached the woman. Not helpful, very short, and still ran around. I think at that point I realized that my services wasn’t wanted. I wasted maybe 20 min of my life. I called another restaurant Kyung and went all the way to Newport News as I live 2 min from this restaurant. I received great customer service, and they took the time to help me with the menu as this is my first adventure with this food. Thanks...

I went out to dinner with my kids, and they wanted to try something new. We walked in and were greeted immediately by the staff. Sat immediately after finding out how many.

We tried the Mandu (fried dumplings), and these were amazing. The pastry was flaky and crisp, the filling was hot and flavorful. Definitely will return just for these.

I had Beef Bulgogi which came with white rice and the meat was so tender, it had a hint of sweetness to it but paired with the complimentary banchan it was perfect.

My daughter had the dolsot bibimbap with bulgogi beef she loved it, and the portion size was generous. She ended up having to take the extra home, which they put into to go containers for her at the table and bagged it up.

My other kids had the fried rice which I failed to take pictures of, but both cleaned their plates. This will be a place we return to on a regular basis....