Korea Garden — Restaurant in Honolulu

Food is really amazing here! Our favorites are the galbijjim, meat jun, and sullungtang. They serve a wide variety of delicious banchan as well. If it hadn't been for our most recent visit, I would leave a 5 star review.

Unfortunately, we had an awful experience with an extremely rude and condescending waitress. We came in past the dinner rush and were seated immediately at a table for 3. It was a bit late for a big meal so we decided to order 2 menu items to share. The waitress gave us a dirty look and asked us if we were going to order another item and I told her we were not very hungry but that we can order more later on if needed. She shook her head and began to badger my dad, asking if he was going to order anything. At this point, we felt so uncomfortable and she pulls over another waitress and tells her that we are only ordering 2 items. This other waitress was nicer and tells her multiple times that it's fine, so she finally shakes her head at us again and gives up.

I tried to rationalize her attitude towards us by thinking from a business viewpoint that it's not good for customers to take up space and not order anything and instead refilling on banchan. So I decided to order another stew just to feel less bad, knowing we were not going to finish all the food and would have to bring home unneeded leftovers. FYI: we didn't even ask for banchan refills because we genuinely weren't that hungry and we don't like wasting food.

To top it off, she treated us coldly through the remainder of the dining experience even though I had already done what she wanted... It made me realize that what she did to us was not ok and if she wanted us to order more she could positively encourage us by talking up some menu items, or even just kindly informing us if there is some kind of order minimum. It's not that hard to communicate with a customer service attitude, especially given how friendly we were being towards her. We've always over ordered in the past so we never encountered an issue like this with the staff but we would have been happy to add on an item if spoken to with respect. Honestly, all the other staff are friendly but knowing she is there, we can't imagine ever dining here again. Might just do takeout moving forward if I really need a meat jun fix.

To management: Please address this issue with your staff. There's no need to be rude or hostile towards customers that have been supporting your business. If there is an order minimum, just inform them courteously and...

Hmmm. This is a tough review.

The food was really good, but…

Basically no one in the restaurant speaks American/english making it extreme difficult to order food/beverages - and just simply impossible to ask for anything. For instance, when we ordered “Orange juice”, the waitress had to look at the menu and I had to point at it for her to understand what we wanted to drink. The same for ordering “Korean Rice Wine”. Ordering food was even harder.

So, I recommend not going here if you are not Korean or do not speak Korean. Otherwise it is an uphill battle to get served.

Also, I do not recommend going if you have not tried Korean BarBQ before. Because it is almost impossible to order something right - and afterwards very difficult to do the bar-b-q’ing at the table. We were the only Caucasian European people at the restaurant. And I believe it was obvious that we had difficulty eating with the sticks - and due to the language barrier it was not possible to ask for a knife and fork - and none the less we saw (at the end of our visit) that someone got knives and forks. Strange we were not offered it automatically.

We did not have a reservation and had to wait about 45 minutes to get a table - which is ok. But after we got seated we waited about 10 minutes for our waitress to get our drink order - and after that a lot of chaos to get the food ordered. For instance, we could point at the meats that we wanted - but the waitresses could answer/understand when we asked if we needed to order sides also. But somehow they managed to to get us a soup? to share. Not sure how that happened. But the soup tasted well - and we got spoons for that… Once they got the barbq going they never came back to assist us to cut the meats up in smaller pieces - at least until they came to our table and shut off the barbq and replaced the grilll-surface…

Regarding the service, I would like to mention that one of our waitresses were really and really trying to make it work. That was nice to feel that.

So to wrap it up: the food was nice. The rest of the experience quite bad.

You choose if you want to go. No recommendation from me - except do not go if you do not know Korean - and if you have not tried Korean...

Korea Garden Overall: * Recommended * Food: ** Value: * Menu: * Ambiance: ** Service: ** Parking: * limited stalls

After passing by Korea Garden, which replaced Home Bar, several times and wondering if it was good, I was told that it’s the same owner as the original Choi’s Garden on Rycroft Street. So, we went there at the next opportunity.

I normally go to Korean restaurants for lunch to enjoy their combination lunch plates at reasonable prices. At dinner, you have to order most items ala carte and the prices are higher.

The banchan were excellent, and they gave us a wide variety! Of all the Korean restaurants I’ve eaten at, Korea Garden’s banchan and Seoul Garden’s banchan are the best.

I was disappointed in their marinated Kalbi. While the taste was good, they cooked it in the back and cut it up. I ordered it rare, but it came medium. I had two bones and some meat for $42. I decided that I prefer the big bone Kalbi at Kim Chee 2 and Kim Chee 7, where I get 4 bones with more meat, uncut, and I get it rare.

All of the dishes were good and I will be going back for lunches (better value) for sure.

RATINGS & RECOMMENDED ORDER: Banchan (side dishes) = A one of the best Steamed Oxtail = A good taste Mandoo = A nicely filled Marinated Kalbi = B (dry & cut up) Soft Tofu Stew with beef = B (little too spicy for my daughter) Hot Stone Pot Bibimbap = B Cold Noodles in Beef Broth = B refreshing

Yelp: https://yelp.to/mSeJh_HkJf Google: https://maps.app.goo.gl/G3zLd37vu1VWnhba9?g_st=ic

INSTAGRAM: MiltonIn808 If you would like to see more restaurant reviews, ratings of each dish, my recommended order, and the complete video, follow me.

RATINGS KEY: A = Really Good - one of the best B = Good - would order again C = ok - similar, nothing special D = Not very good - wouldn’t order F =...