GEN Korean BBQ House — Restaurant in Houston

I was at Gen’s Westheimer location on Sunday 2/2/25 and will NEVER return to this location.

As you can see on my receipt, we had 29 adults for a birthday dinner. We made the reservation in advance and paid a $200 deposit because we had a large party.

We are extremely familiar with the Gen Midtown location which we love but decided to give the Westheimer location a chance because it was closer for the majority of our guests and parking is easier/more plentiful.

We arrive and the manager lets us know it can only be a maximum of 2 split checks (same policy as Midtown). She then lets us know that there is a Premium Option which is $20 more per person and a Regular Menu ($31.95 per adult).

The majority of our group wanted to try the premium menu and a handful were okay sticking with the regular menu. When the manager saw that so few people wanted the Regular option, she encouraged us to do Premium for All guests and offered 8 carafes of Soju to make up for it.

As hosts of the party, my husband and I did our best to spread our time between the 2 tables. 15 minutes into us being seated, a few of our friends let us know that the Premium Marinated Long Bone Short Rib Steak as well as the Premium Cajun Shrimp were out. We immediately flagged down the waiter and he confirmed this. I told him we only ordered 1st round and you’re already out of the main things we wanted to try on Premium, I want to go back down to Regular menu or at least receive a discount on Premium.

Our server was very understanding and said “Look, I haven’t charged you guys for anything yet, let me call my manager out to see how we can make this right”

Manager came out, we explained how we felt it was unfair of her to sell us on Premium when she’s out of the main items making the extra $20 worth it (nobody is paying an extra $20 to eat Al Pastor, Carne Asada, and Pollo Asada). She stated that since we had already started ordering that she cannot charge us for Regular and that the register only has 2 options-one for Regular and one for Premium and that she’s not able to give a discount. We asked how she planned on making this right and she said Gen is still able to charge full price for Premium as long as they have some Premium items. She told us we could still order ribeyes.

We asked “What ribeyes? Where is that on the menu?” She looked around our table and returned to the front to grab a few laminated sheets that said we could have 1 Ribeye per person. THAT MEANS IF WE HADN’T had issues, we would have never even known it was an option to order ribeyes. We then ordered ribeyes and they came out FROZEN.

I called the Manager back and said “can you tell me how to grill frozen ribeyes that still have ice on them?” This was the 1st time she actually seemed embarrassed and said she would go and get me the “non-frozen ones”. When she returned I asked if she wanted the frozen ones back and she said yes. I am 100% sure that the frozen ribeyes will be served again to other customers despite sitting at our table for 10 minutes. My group didn’t tamper with anything but who is to say that if this happened to another group they wouldn’t have spit or cough on the steaks? GROSS!!!

To make matters worse, the waiters kept bringing out the same cuts of meat and they were meats we hadn’t ordered. I had to pull aside our server Rolando (that’s what my receipt says his name was) and told him not to bring anything that was not ordered from a member of my party. He was apologetic and kind.

The receipt came out and they tried to highlight 22% (options are 18%, 22%, and 25%) but we immediately said to change back down to 18%.

TLDR Long Story Short:

Gen Westheimer Female Manager from Sunday 2/2/25 IS TERRIBLE! MEAT ALSO SUBPAR. Will never ever return to Gen Westheimer location. Make sure Gen actually has all Premium Menu Items Available before opting for the $20 more expensive premium option ($51.95 vs $31.95). Don’t cheap out on tip for waiters/servers just because their manager is the worst (we still tipped 18% on receipt despite being straight...

I've been to Gen multiple times, the one on Louisiana St, in Houston as well as a few in Dallas. This by far was the worst experience I've ever had at a restaurant in a long time. Initially, no employee was there to greet us and we waited about 15 minutes for someone to notice us standing there and seat us. We were a group of two. While waiting, another group of 6 to 8 people walked in. Which wouldn't be a big deal, but the waiting area up front fit about 4 people in total. Even with the other group arriving, it was still about 6 minutes before an employee noticed us.

They take us to our table and it takes another 10ish minutes for the server to take our order. The first round was our drinks and a mix of appetizers and meats. (We were also under the impression we were going to order lunch, but Jan.1st is technically a holiday so that's on us, but we didn't put up a fuss) The meats arrive first. We have no Seasoning, no sides, just the silverware and plates. Sides and spices requested. The water comes another 5 minutes later. We inquire about the spices and the missing appetizers. Another 5ish minutes the spices arrive, we ask about the missing appetizers as well as a few meats that were missing from the order. Another 10ish minutes, everything arrives. Some items have to be ordered multiple times to make it to our table.

Second round of ordering, the same exact thing happens. We were required to order the same thing multiple times just to recieve it once. Our water cups stayed empty and another server in a different section actually came over to fill them.

Another round, same thing. We had to reorder appetizers that never came our. We asked for a refill of the spices. We asked about 3 times until it arrived. The grill actually got so greased up, that it caught fire underneath because of the fresh grease from the meat dripping through. Like flames coming a few inches out of the grill. No one offered assistance. The grill was changed a few times, but most of the time it got burt because there was no meat cooking and grease from the previous cooking section burnt from the time waiting. The reason why there was nothing cooking is because we couldn't get our meat for some reason.

We eventually call it quits and the server offers to turn off the grill. I order the Hottok for desert and let the Server know that we're done. We get the Hottok and finish eating it. We are left sitting for another 15 minutes until the server comes and asks if we would like the check. He gives us the check and we wait another 15 minutes for them to pick up the check. Eventually we give up and go to the front to pay. The server notices us up there and joined us, laughing with the hostess and another employee.

At first, we thought they were shortstaffed as the resturant is still fairly new. That was not the case. There were at least 8 employees on the floor (not including the ones who focused on getting the used dishes). I watched the other tables and it seemed they were getting great service, I'm not sure why mine was so subpar. Overall, the meat was good. The Louisiana St. has fresher premium steaks, but the honey soy beef belly was my favorite. I'm really disappointed with the service we had and how long it took for everything to reach the table. We got there at around 2:40pm and left at 4:20pm, which for two people, is a long time...

This was my first time trying out this restaurant chain, but my husband has tried another Houston location that he felt was much better. We arrived around 5:30p for dinner and at the time, there were maybe about 6 tables seated, one of which was a big party of around 10-12 people. I'm assuming the girl that initially greeted us was the manager, but she was really aloof and pretty rude. She seemed annoyed that we didn't have a reservation for our party of 8. She was training the girl who was the hostess and made a big point to emphasize this. The place was 90% empty and by the time we were leaving, the place had not fill up beyond this, so it wasn't like they had a massive party that had made a reservation to come in. The hostess made a recommendation for a table section and was immediately shot down by the manager. At this point the manager told us it will take a few minutes to set up a table. This was fine, but she walked off to the back kitchen area and disappeared for a while. We were still standing in the entrance way waiting when she came back out and told us that we needed to stand aside. Again, the restaurant at this time was practically empty, so I'm not sure how they would handle it if the place was actually busy.

The waitstaff was okay once we got seated. He explained the ordering process here. It's an all you can eat restaurant but they limit the number of items you can get with each ordering round. We were fine with this since it's likely to help cut down on good waste. But, the portions were SMALL. There wasn't enough food on that order for everyone to even get a taste. The waiter did warn us about some of the items, like the beef ribs only coming out with 1 piece, so had encouraged us to order more than 1. But that of course counted towards the "total" you can order each round. And there is lag time between when you place an order and when it comes out, so there were times we would just be sitting there with no food to cook or eat.

But for the price, the food was decent. We had some favorite items we kept ordering. There were things that we wanted to try off the regular menu, but they were apparently out. If you've been to other Korean BBQ places you know that the side dishes add to the experience, but this restaurant chain's sides are a lacking in variety and flavor. I would not recommend the Japchae since their version is really just noodles mixed in soy sauce. But my family enjoyed the Mandu.

In all, I would not recommend the Westheimer location for this restaurant. If you're in the area and want Korean BBQ, just head towards the...