Hongdae 33 Korean BBQ — Restaurant in Houston

I am a massive fan of this restaurant, and I have come here probably 10 times in the last month alone. Every-time i’ve been, the service has been wonderful, the food has been incredible, and it’s one of the few places I can take family and friends for a dining experience while being able to eat and enjoy what I like as someone who can’t eat very much meat.

Today, I came here with a friend from out of town. I had been here not even two days ago, and spent 300 dollars for our party, but today was the most horrible visit i’ve had to a restaurant in my life.

When I come, the only things I eat are their veggie dishes and their side dishes, along with maybe one plate of meat. I asked before we ordered water and had just sat if they had the side dish that I order. Our server, Claudia, said “we are making them now.” Okay! No worries, I can wait. My friend ordered food, and I ordered rice and some onion, along with a side scallion pancake, and waited for the side dish to come out.

Thirty minutes passed, and our server, Claudia, has not checked on us once. The grill was far too hot and burning my friends steak, and it was needing to be changed. I have been here during massive rush times where they have changed it regularly. Also, we were planning on ordering some lettuce wraps and another order of meat, as we had only gotten one garlic steak and one sliced brisket plate between the two of us. Finally, 34 minutes into our meal, she comes over and asks if we need anything. I ask for the side dish, and she tells me they don’t have it. I said, “at all, during any point of this meal?” She laughed, then said nope.

My friend continues to eat, and I do not, as there is nothing for me to eat. Had they not had it at all, and informed me of such before the meal, that is totally fine, and I simply would’ve gone to another restaurant. However, she refused to inform us. This isn’t the main issue.

My friend is cooking the rest of his meat, about 20 minutes after that. She comes by and asks if we need anything, and I tell her we need the check. With meat still on the grill and two pieces of uncooked brisket, she shuts off our grill and walks away. SHE DOES NOT BRING THE CHECK OUT, SIMPLY RUINS THE REST OF THE MEAL. (Bold for emphasis.)

We can now no longer eat the steak, as it’s thick and refused to finish cooking once the grill was off. The brisket wouldn’t have cooked either.

She comes back by again and asks if we need anything. I say, yes, the check. Finally she comes over with the check.

Horrific experience at one of my favorite restaurants in Houston. I was a server too, and wouldn’t have ruined someone’s dining experience by being a child. She was more occupied standing at the meat slicing counter than checking on us, and even passed us by around 5 times without checking on us, but checked on the people behind us. When she did have to check on us, she was rude, and passive aggressive.

Claudia has ruined my experience at this restaurant. I come here quite often and use it as a meeting grounds with friends, family, and out of town visitors, quite literally bringing a large group in for a birthday two days ago. I will not be coming back.

Also, before it is perceived, we paid the full bill and did not speak to management at the restaurant. I did not feel like this would lead to a positive resolution.

Please treat your customers better. It’s a shame that we were treated like this. 35 dollars to eat a bowl of rice and a scallion pancake is ridiculous, but I had loved supporting this establishment. Not anymore. I told the hostess of the experience, so hopefully a professional talk will come out of that with our server.

I will no longer be recommending this to family, friends, or people visiting Houston that...

I was in the mood for Korean barbecue and decided to have it for dinner, embracing the opportunity to revisit a favorite cuisine. Bellaire boasts numerous Korean barbecue restaurants, but we opted to revisit Hongdae, drawn to its reputation for exceptional service. Unfortunately, I had a vexing experience with my server, Jeremy, which left me pondering the importance of quality service. I was unsure why he did not provide us with the same attention to detail that he offered to the table across from us, and I hoped that it was not another racial issue, given that we were Asian and the other table was American. He never checked on us, unlike his frequent visits to other tables, leaving me to reflect on the value of attentive service. Most of the time, we had to wait and search for him to place additional orders, request refills for sides or water, a challenge that tested my patience. Our grill was excessively dark and overburned, and there was no sign of any servers for approximately 20 minutes, a delay that left me feeling frustrated. After requesting a grill change, our server responded with an annoyed tone, stating that he was waiting for the kitchen to provide more clean grills, a response that left me feeling disappointed. The table across from us did not request a grill change, but we had to wait for theirs to be replaced before we could get ours replaced, a wait that seemed unnecessary. The server informed us 40 minutes in advance that it would be our last call to order more food, a reminder that left me feeling rushed. He was impatient and seemed eager to inform us that we had reached the 90-minute limit for dining, with an attitude that suggested he wanted our payment immediately, a pressure that left me feeling uncomfortable. Fortunately, I had set a timer on my phone to track our dining time, a decision that proved wise. My phone timer showed 70-something minutes when our server impatiently requested payment, a discrepancy that left me feeling vindicated. We felt mistreated, as we were still dining and requesting food rather than preparing to pay, a feeling that left me determined to speak up. We brought this to the attention of the manager, who did not apologize for the experience but instead explained that they started timing our meal when the host directed us to the table, whereas I started timing when my server got to my table, a clarification that left me feeling unsatisfied. We informed the manager that we would have appreciated our meal if he had ensured that his staff was efficient in changing the grill, attentive, and provided timely service, which would have allowed us to complete our meal within an hour and leave with a full, happy experience, a sentiment that left me feeling hopeful. Ultimately, we ended up leaving in the middle of our meal due to the subpar service, a decision that left me feeling disappointed but also determined to find a better dining experience in the future.

Top off the cake, there was not a single person waiting for a table. What's the rush? La galbi is decent, but there are far too many other places I can...

This is worst, horrible and humiliated server, manager and restaurant. Me, my daughter and my brother went there yesterday at 10:45pm 05/25/2023 since they opened until midnight. We didn’t even eat a lot. We ordered brisket, beef belly, pork belly, 2 garlic flat iron, beef tongue, miso flat iron, mushroom, soybean stew for 3. The first time we went there, it took super long and they brought very small portion. Took them 20 mins to bring 1 dish out and portion is like 4 shrimps and they had 90 mins limit. They had garlic flat iron on menu and didn’t even have it. This time portion is a little bit better. They tried to charge us $8/person for left over. We don’t even cooked all of it.and left over is not a lot. If they brought bigger portion, that’s on them. They said why don’t we tell them. Excuse me, do we need to count all of it? We can’t count all beef slides. Waiter put 2 orders of briskets when we ordered 1. They brought 2 beef tongues when we ordered 1. Manager, Jose is extremely rude. They said they lose money. I asked them then why you opened buffet and charge 33/per person which is higher than Gen in midtown and other places too. We didn’t even eat that much this time for 3. I told them we won’t pay for $8/per person when we didn’t even order a lot. Call the cops. Manager, Jose said I ordered margarita and I didn’t even finish. I told him I paid for it, why is his business? Then I just paid 1/10 of it since I drank 1/10?? Jose and waiter are extremely unprofessional to be in service industry. He said he will charge 2 left overs for $16 instead of $24 then 1 left over. I told him we won’t pay for any left over when we didn’t order a lot. That’s on them if they brought bigger portion. That’s their own logistic issues We didn’t even cook all of it. He told me don’t even come back. Yes for sure I will never come back and I will tell my story to everyone about this unethical bait and switch business practices, falsified advertising so Texas attorney general can look at their unethical policy for charging $8/per person left over if you left 1 slide of beef. I will make sure health department check this restaurant often, USCIS check on employment, mayor of Houston, White House and media to know about their unethical policy and falsified advertisements. Who would pay $129 for humiliated experience when restaurant is in service industry? For manager and server to humiliate guests is ok business practices? He told me this is free and I was like excuse me, $33/person is free? Look up definition of free. I will file complaint to Texas attorney general, department of Justice for bait and switch unethical business. They need to put on advertisement “this is buffet, $33/person but if you don’t finish 1 slide of beef, we will charge you $8/person. That’s our policy. Also if you don’t finish your drink, we will humiliate you but you need to pay for it.” I will make sure city of Houston mayor, southwest district, Asian communities, newspaper, Houston chronicle, business journal, KHOU in Houston aware of this restaurant unethical bait and...