BORI - Montrose — Restaurant in Houston

Unfortunately, a disappointing birthday experience at one of my favorite restaurants in Houston. I’ve been wanting to try this location since it opened since we’ve been to the Spring Branch location dozens of times. This one falls short… by a lot.

I made a reservation on OpenTable stating it was my birthday. It wasn’t acknowledged at any point during dinner and the waitress Angela didn’t ask if we were celebrating anything special that night.

We asked to be seated somewhere quieter but they said there was nothing available; the restaurant wasn’t even half full. It took the server a long time to finally come to our table for us to place our order because she said the other table wanted their meat cooked well done which takes a lot longer. There were half a dozen servers floating around with nothing to do (again, not a full restaurant) - they couldn’t help? After we ordered, it took an extremely long time for side dishes to come out. Then the meat came out before our seafood pancake, which I found odd since it’s an appetizer. They said that their kitchen was backed up when I inquired about it. Then we see the table next to us who got there half an hour after we did get the exact seafood pancake we ordered. I asked about this too and the server said it got mixed up because we were sharing a table with this other party so they didn’t know which side to serve it to. Sigh. They were apologetic but gosh, such a disappointing dining experience for my birthday dinner with my mom (her first time trying Bori!). I cannot recommend this location because of these mishaps and hope they will make the necessary changes to get this location on par with their Spring...

Our second time here because of the delicious flavors. The appetizers and entrees are great. I don’t remember what we had the first time but the second time around we ordered the seafood pancake and the cheese bulgogi fried rice. We ordered the premium beef cuts to be cooked at the table: the marinated filet minon and short-rib, and the ribeye cuts. The service is good, but I do think having the waiters cook the meat for us is a little awkward since it keeps them at the table for so long, so they either interrupt our conversation, or are awkwardly standing by while we talk. The waiter did offer for me to cook myself, but that was only after asking why he was doing it and if I could cook on my own. I think part of the novelty of Korean bbq is cooking the food on your own.

This place seems like more of a special occasion restaurant to me given that both times we dined here, just me and my husband, our bill has been close to the 300 dollar mark (290 including tip). You definitely do get a lot of food though....

This location doesn’t have hot stone bibimbap!! When we order in the restaurant, the menu shows they have it, so I ordered it. No one pointed it out that they don’t have it. After they served the bibimbap, I found out and the manager came to apologize - I was told they will remove “hot stone” version from the menu later. Thanks for that but It’s just very frustrating because I especially came here for hot stone bibimbap! If they told me early I would go to another location!

Later, they also forgot serving me the hot sauce for bibimbap until I asked for it…

Last, the waitress asked my husband if we need any of the free marinated veggies/appetizers, and my husband asked for more potato salad. The waitress served it exactly when we were ready for the check… very slow serving…

My husband was very nice to still give 20% tips, but I need to point out the facts here.

We ordered more than the photos attached. The food quality is good but other aspects surly need to improve. The details make people...