StoneAgeKoreanBBQ & HOTPOT — Restaurant in Hoover

We ran across this place a few weeks ago while at the Galleria. We had never been to or even heard of this style dining prior to this experience, but our interests were peaked. We got in quickly, were originally sat with other diners in more of a social setting and requested to be moved to a private table and got a little bit of an attitude for this request. We rarely have time alone and in no way wanted to eat with others elbow space away. You should probably ask???

Then, we were sat and handed the menu and got our drink order and were asked to order immediately. Each of us like different food. I'm not much of a seafood/fish person, he is. He's not as much of a meat person, I am. We went to each order the food we wanted, I had him order first as I was still deciding on one item. As usual, he ordered mostly everything I didn't want. When I went to order we were told that was all we could order, it's for two, maybe I could get what I want next time. 🤔 I'm pretty sure I'm paying for my own meal and should be able to order the food I want to eat, epecially being limited to what can be ordered each round. So, when it came out it was a serving for 2, for 1 person and he also wanted to try other things on the menu, but he only has so much space in his stomach.

The food came out and we had no idea what most things were or what we were supposed to do with it, besides the obvious. After waiting for an explaination from our server, like other tables, who never showed up, we finally decided to just get to it. Luckily, he ordered the spicy pork belly, which I ate almost all of, while he dined on his meal for 2. Our server never came back. We flagged down someone else and put in another order. We waited over 40 minutes to get our 2nd round from the time we finished round 1. We had been there for an hour and 20 minutes at this point. We were then advised it was a 2 hour limit by a neighboring table, who had a good server and was on round 4. They were sat after us, no less.

Of course, I ordered mostly meat round 2. When it came out, most had no seasoning on it. It was not appetizing at all. It all went down hill. We kept trying each meat and it didn't make sense. Why serve anything plain? Gross. There wasn't even salt or pepper. Bleh!

Eventually, or server surfaced and as he was walking PAST us, we snagged him and asked if we could just skip those items and order something different, it was flavorless and just gross, plain. He looked at his watch and proceeded to tell us that we were really out of time, with only 3 minutes left. He proceeded to walk away!!! We were beyond shocked.

On our way out we saw the condiments and sauces. Smh. Why were we never explained ANYTHING about this entire experience? Where was our server for 2 hours who we saw twice? Why were we booted out when we really didn't have the opportunity to order food or be explained the process to be able to make what was delivered edible? Refills? Other tables had their hot plate exchanged each round, we did not.

I'm unsure if we would ever try this place again. Over $100 for 2 people who left extremely hungry, dissatisfied and disappointed is not exactly what we want to experience again. We ended up having to go eat after we left. Another $90. Almost a $200 meal and it wasn't even at Perry's.

The Boba drinks we had were good, but oddly enough, delivered by a robot. Yes, a drink delivering robot. Where are the servers??? At least it showed up to our table, I guess.

As much and as often as I think about possibly wanting to try it again, knowing about sauces, to order as soon as food is delivered and split the order with who wants what, and hopefully get a more attentive server...I just can't get past this experience as a whole. And simply do not understand why we can't get items each of us want to eat. You can only order what you want if you...

Completely and utterly dissatisfied with the way Management handled our issue! We ordered. Food placed on the grill but after a long time the food would not cook properly and kept sticking. We notified the server who was AWESOME that the food kept sticking and wasn’t cooking. She did what she could, but even she noticed that the grill just wasn’t getting hot enough. She told us to place new orders to try again on the new burner that she brought out. She volunteered to cook it for us. Even with her attempt on the new burner she noticed WITH US that it still wasn’t cooking properly. By this time we had been at the restaurant for well over an hour and still hadn’t eaten anything and a few items that we ordered the FIRST TIME never came out even after reordering them the SECOND time. The server told us that we could order as much as we wanted since it was unlimited, but I let her know that wouldn’t even be necessary due to the food not cooking properly the first or second time. I informed her that we would like to speak to the manager at no issue with her but the circumstance. The manager tells us that the food should not cover the holes and even with that information that we as FIRST TIMERS didn’t know that the holes weren’t covered up to begin with, but that with flipping it and trying to see why it wasn’t get hot enough to cook the food right it may have covered some holes at that point. The Manager only says that he will give 25% off which is practically nothing considering we had not eaten anything. As a former Server way back during my college days I have never worked with managers that would have handled the situation with that pitiful solution. When we got our checks I told the server that I feel like 25% was not the best solution due to us not eating a single thing that was brought to the table. I recommended bc we did not want anything to be FREE if he could charge us the LUNCH PRICE as a means to rectify the situation. She tries talking to the manager again and he declined to do more stating that because we “KEPT ORDERING” all the stuff would be waste. I then told her well no we DID NOT JUST KEEP ORDERING we were TOLD to put a new order in as an attempt to FIX THE ISSUE, because the burner wasn’t working and the server volunteered to cook it for us. Even with her trying it still didn’t work the second time! None of the stuff on the table had even been touched due to it not cooking properly. I hate that the Manager did not do a better job to rectify this failed visit due to the operation of their equipment. I will never patronize this business again!! I tipped the server well and I hope that they try to do a better job with customer satisfaction. We paid over $30 for food that we didn’t even eat 10% of. I would feel differently had we not addressed an issue the first time and ate the food then requested more but that was not what happened! Honestly I feel like he didn’t care regardless to the circumstances. WE DIDN’T WANT ANYTHING FREE WE WANTED CHASE...

I worked at this place for a short time and I’ve been in the restaurant industry for 6 years and I’ve never witnessed things in a restaurant like I did here. 1st. It’s one of the nasty places I’ve ever saw, mountains of dishes pile up and they just leave them over night sitting in water that’s black and orange over night. 70% of the cups have slime and grit in them and they just tell us to rinse them out and they fine and it physically makes me sick at my stomach. I would ask customers if they were okay with to go cups. 2nd. The kitchen is horrendous people going out side smoking cigarettes and then coming in and playing raw meat with their bare hands without washing them. Also the few times they use tongs it’s one pair of tongs for alll varieties of meat. I’ve physically watched a kitchen person pick up beef, chicken, and then baby octopus put it all one plate with justices mixing and using the same pair of tongs.

3rd. I once walked into the very back of the kitchen to see them marinating kitchen wings in a trash bag because the sink was Al ready full of frozen shrimp in right next to it all they were cutting the vegetables with no cutting board right next to multiple different raw meats.

4th. They don’t care about the service of the customers all they care about was opening the store as fast as they could so they could get some money in their pockets.

5th. The hot plates you cook your food on our rinsed off in the filthy sink water and then put back on the rack for service the “non stick” substance is peeling on 80% of them so every time you put meat on it, I had multipl customers ask me for a new hot plate bc they had “black pieces on there meat” which is the peeling non stick substance.

6th. The “ hot pot” broth is left out for days in huge massive pots and they just serve it until it’s empty that’s why all you customer that said the broth was nasty, was nasty because there is no telling how many days old the broth was.

I will bet a full paycheck that as soon as the health department checks this place out it will be shut down, maybe not for good but definitely for a while until things have changed. I truly felt bad serving every customer that came in that food knowing what I saw.

Jack the manger is a money hungry scam artist that rushes customers in and out. He made coupons for people that left good reviews and when people come in and try to use the coupons he wouldn’t even want to honor the coupons. This place was mind boggling to be a part of and I’ve never witnessed such things in a restaurant

Edit. No personal vendetta what so ever. I’m speaking true 100% facts. I hope yall do get things sorted out and turned around bc Birmingham does need this kind of dining experience. These are just things I witnessed while being an employee, this was my part time job. Not one thing I said has to do with a “vendetta” or anything personal issue. These are...