Yuk Dae Jang — Restaurant in Houston

Food prices have gone up everywhere unless you want to go for all the processed fast food route so reviews about prices being high is meh, but overall this place is not bad at all for Houston. With Korean food, it’s all in the broth for soups and flavoring with side dishes. The broth is actually good, this is not some can beef broth like some places and you know what I’m talking about lol we had the cold noodles which was good and nice touch with the Korean pear as this is missed in many places , make sure to add the vinegar and spicy yellow paste to your taste, getting extra noodles on the side is great if you have kids. The Yukgaejang was a decent size bowl and bowl is the traditional bowl that you would be served in if you were in Korea (silver or gold), so yes it keeps the broth nice and hot. Broth was rich and thick in flavor but slightly fatty so they just need to skim a little more fat off the broth once cooked and chilled. I would have liked the Gosari, but found it missing which was odd since it’s a must in this dish as well as more clear potato starch noodles. We also had the SullungTang and that was ok, same broth as Yukgaejang but white. wish they provided the correct salt and not just regular table salt for self seasoning. The purple rice was a great addition to the meal and barely water. Overall this place was great, service is slower when busy so need to be patient like anywhere else. Presentation of food was good and the side dishes was actually good and not sweet like some places with the kimchi being above average in flavor and not...

So I don’t usually write reviews but my experience here was so horrible I had to write this. My girlfriend and I wasted 2 hours of our lives that we’ll never get back due to poor service. As we all know, restaurants in Chinatown have bad customer service but this spot takes the top spot out of them all.

After waiting a little over an hour to be seated, we waited another 30mins just to place our order. So we’re sitting around another 30mins and we noticed that other tables that came in after us were getting there food (happens to be exactly same dish we ordered). We ask one of the servers if ours was coming and she said she’d check with the kitchen. She goes and asks the server (husky guy) who took our order, you can literally see him take a glance our way and put his hands on his head like something was wrong. We’re assuming he forgot to put our order in, he then proceeds and takes orders for table next to us and doesn’t say anything to us. We can tell he’s trying to avoid us now, I go up to him and ask for an update and he goes “it’s coming soon.” Ok we wait a few more minutes, and see what we thought was our food coming but it gets served to table besides us. I stop him once more and ask him if it’s really coming, he says “10mins” and doesn’t even apologize or anything for the wait. By now my girlfriend and I are frustrated and lost our appetite, so we told him to not worry we’re leaving. We came after the dinner rush and it wasn’t packed anymore so can’t use excuse of they had their hands full. I for sure will not be...

Service: We were seated quickly. Refills were on point, and orders arrived very quickly.

Ambiance: Bit of a smaller restaurant in terms of seating. Floor chairs and tables are very light and responsive, so they move a bit more than desired.

Food: Side dishes (banchan) were prepped exceptionally well. Kimchi was nicely fermented and good texture. Also was fond of the green onion side dish. Nice flavors here.

Unfortunately, all of the main dishes were underwhelming, considering their high price point ($20+).

Brisket Cold Soup Buck Wheat Noodle: Broth was too sweet. Vinegar helped to make the overall balance a little better, but wasn't enough to save the dish.

Premium tripe and Brisket Yukgaejang with glass noodle: Broth lacked depth. Severe lack of root vegetables, as is common in Yukgaejang, and they seriously skimped on the tripe (intestine). Personally, the glass noodles were incongruous with this dish.

Premium Bossam Boiled In Various Herbs: Pork meat quality was tough and thinly sliced. Although the accompanying seasonings were flavorful, the bossam lacked flavor overall. Serving size is laughingly small compared to the price point.

If you're looking for authentic Korean food, the only items that remotely pass are the side dishes (banchan). Until the main dishes are fixed, this restaurant is...