Umma Korean restaurant — Restaurant in Hillsboro

My wife and I visited Umma Korean restaurant over the weekend with the intention of trying the cold noodles. Upon entering the restaurant, we were kindly greeted and seated at a wall booth. The environment and atmosphere were average and did not stand out in any particular way.

When we attempted to order the cold noodles, the lady who we assumed to be the owner simply said "summer time". We were initially confused and asked again if the cold noodles were available, but she repeated "summer time" without providing any further explanation. Eventually, we realized that the cold noodles were a seasonal item, but we were disappointed by the owner's unhelpful and belittling response. It would have been more professional and appropriate if she had informed us politely and suggested an alternative dish or invited us to return during the summer.

We ended up ordering the seafood kimchi soup and the spicy pork bulgogi dish, which were both okay. The side dishes were decent, but the rice was hard and felt like it had been sitting for too long. The owner came around to refill our tea, but on a couple of occasions, she only refilled my cup and not my wife's. Another time she came around, she refilled the table next to ours, and not our cups.

As she brought out the dish to the table next to us, the guests at the other table offered to help distribute the dishes to everyone, but the owner did not respond and simply shook her head. Moreover, the owner stood still, kept shaking her head, and did not move until the customers retracted their hands so she could put their bibimbap down. This made for an uncomfortable and awkward situation at the table, and it was clear that the owner's unresponsive and ungracious behavior towards the other customers was not appreciated.

Although English may not be the owner's first language, basic courtesy and polite body language are universal and can go a long way in conveying respect and professionalism. It was disappointing and uncomfortable to witness the owner's dismissive behavior towards us and other customers.

In addition, it's worth noting that in the owner's responses to other reviews, she has made comments like "You're right. Foreigners like my service, but Koreans hate it. Why is that? I'm scared of Koreans".

This type of arrogance and disdain towards certain customers is concerning and could be contributing to the unprofessional customer service observed during our visit. It's important for business owners to recognize that treating all customers with respect and professionalism is essential to running a successful restaurant.

While the food was decent, the poor customer service and negative attitude of the owner towards certain customers make it difficult to recommend Umma...

Called in on a Tuesday and was greeted by a very sweet lady. Did not require reservation and the place had lots of spots open on this weeknight.

The sweet lady greeted us very enthusiastically and we were sat on a corner table. We were pleasantly surprised to see lots of bottles of sanitizer next to the wall close to each table. The music and ambience was quite nice as well. But what struck a chord was how enthusiastically the lady said bye to each leaving customer.

Ordered the steamed mandu and a hot tea to start with. The mandu was delectable. Extremely juicy and perfectly paired with the spicy soy sauce. We are suckers for good momos, dumplings, siu mai etc, so mandu was an obvious choice for us. And we were glad to find out that mandu's are at par with the best of dumplings out there.

Next up were Daejigogi duruchigi (marinated spicy sliced pork with scallions) and Yukgaejang (spicy beef soup with egg, scallions and glass noodles) which came with 6 different accompaniments or small side dishes. The accompaniments consisted of bean sprouts, thinly sliced and fried tofu with onions, 3-4 different types of kimchi and rice.

The Daejigogi came sizzling to our table and was sweet and savory. It was perfectly accompanied by the spicy radish kimchi. Those two together with rice formed an unbeatable combination.

Last but never the least, Yukgaejang was the perfect soup for this cold, drizzly weather. It was served boiling but that was not the only reason why it was hot. The red color of the soup was reminiscent of red chillies used in Indian curries. The spice levels were on the higher side, without burning your mouth, and that is why we enjoyed every bit of the soup's flavor. We would have preferred slightly more salt in the soup, but it was nothing we complained about since it was close to perfection and since all the different accompaniments balanced out the flavors nicely. The succulent pieces of juicy beef and egg, entangled in translucent slivers of glass noodles, floating in that beautiful and bold red soup, was our savior this cold Tuesday night. And since we couldn't finish the whole pot of soup, we packed the rest of it to go, hoping to be saved another night.

Only sad thing about this night was that the sweet lady was possibly back in the kitchen when we left, so we didn't receive her heartwarming enthusiastic farewell for our dessert. But we are not too sad, since we know that we will be back here...

Dine in and gave $5 cash tip. When I checked credit card statement they had charged an extra $5. Called restaurant and they wrote a check since they said it was a mistake and they didn't know how to refund the extra $5 that they had charged me. I deposited the check and it bounced due to closed account and I got a $12 fee. I called and they said they close the account and I should've deposited that check earlier. DO NOT GO HERE! DISHONEST PPL! YOU TIP THEM CASH AND THEY WILL PRETEND THAT THE EXTRA CHARGED ON YOUR CREDIT CARD WAS A MISTAKE AND WILL NOT REFUND YOU! VERY DISHONEST BUSINESS!! This is NOT WRONG information. I have the check and fee to prove it. Double check your bill if you dine here. Today 11/15/22 you called to complain about the review. Before we posted this review we contacted you and you said we should've cashed the check earlier and did not apologize or intended to pay. I posted an honest review for people to know. You then call and told us to take the review off and still no apology and you wrote that we were lying. I reported you to the Better Business Bureau and have every right to do so. We dine there since July and now it is November. We don't need the lousy extra $5 you took from us and the $12 fee you caused. We want an apology for harassing us to take the review down and saying the review was not true when it's the truth! Please stop calling and harassing us if you are not going to apologize.

DISHONEST BUSINESS WILL ALWAYS BE DISHONEST. YOU CAN MAKE LIES ALL YOU WANT. BE TRUE TO YOUR CUSTOMERS! This is my experience at this dishonest business so double check your bill that's all I have to say. This is...