Ginza Sushi & Korean BBQ — Restaurant in Hoover

I guess the blonde server didn’t remember serving us about a month ago. She was rude and made it very obvious she wanted us to hurry as it was towards the end of lunch rush. Despite this, I decided to give them another try today. I called to order takeout. I drove from Sterrett and called while I was still 20 minutes out. I was still on hold when I pulled up. I walked towards the door, phone in hand to see the same server along with another employee smoking out front. I go in where I find an essentially empty restaurant at around 1:20pm with only two customers other than myself and calmly explain that I am still on hold and would like to place my to go order now. She takes it and simply says, “I’m sorry we were busy.” I go back out to wait in my car while they make it and she goes back to smoking outside. I waited for about 15 minutes having not been told how long my order would take. She went back inside and I go back in about five minutes later. My order was waiting already bagged on the counter. At this point, she goes to get it to me and tells me to have a nice day. Very poor service. Very bad business. There was no real apology at all and nothing done to help rectify this situation. If customers don’t matter to this business, then I very much doubt it will continue to do well. A simple solution could’ve included an apology and at the very least she should’ve brought it to my car for the massive inconvenience. I was calling the order in for a reason. I didn’t have time to wait and I’m ill and didn’t want to be around the general public. I wanted to run in and out and get back to things I had...

We wanted to try Korean BBQ and this looked interesting. Nice atmosphere. The cocktails are good (though the fruit garnish was visibly dried out). My friends and I each ordered our own dinners, as the specials "for 2" or "for 3" weren't the meat choices we wanted and the "for 3" one was grossly overpriced. We had 2 sushi rolls and some gyoza as appetizers. Good, but not as good as I expected from the pics. The most disappointing part was the BBQ wasn't turned on before the food arrived and the waitress slopped my entire plate of steak onto the cooking surface which meant the rest of the food couldn't be cooked. She offered to cook the other food on a different table. Which was odd and confusing, as the experience is you should cook it yourself. She also took the plate my meat came on, so we couldn't take any off. We made it work by piling the meat up on one side. But after watching her just hand the plates to other tables, I realized she just messed ours up. Would have been nice if she hadn't. The sides brought out for the BBQ (fish cakes, a type of Kim chi, and bean sprouts with a seasame oil sauce) were really good. I might go back and try the BiBimBap, but...

Honest review!

Went on Monday night for dinner, they were busy which is good sign that the restaurant is doing something right to have almost an full house on Monday night. Know the fact that this is the only Korean bbq restaurant in Birmingham(in terms of bbq table). I will advice you to make a reservation if going on weekday so as to have a table ready when you arrive or else expect to have a 20 minute wait.

—-About Food—-

Pricing: Fairly priced, dinner for 2 ~$50 (no alcoholic drink)

Taste: It was okay, if you have been to other Korean bbq restaurants this place’s bbq was just above average.

Ambience: I guess they were short of serving/waiting staff for Monday. Servers were running around the restaurant with stomping the ground loudly. Our server just brought he sides without letting us know about the Korean sides. Hardly spoke to us or came around to check if we needed something. Not a pleasing thing but it’s okay I guess ?

TLDR: Fairly priced restaurant, sub par food taste and quality (bbq), below par server experience and ambience is average. Giving...