I Love Korea — Restaurant in Huntsville

My family and I decided to check out this place over the weekend. It was a cold and rainy day, so it was good to get out of the weather and into a restaurant. We were promptly seated and had our drink orders taken (they serve Coke products and alcohol; no Coke Zero sadly).

The menu was pretty large but they don't offer a lunch portion on weekends which was unfortunate but fine. The adult meals came with 2 sides and miso soup, kids meals featured one side and miso soup. I ordered Beef Bulgogi with cabbage kimchi and cucumber kimchi, wife ordered Pork Belly with bean sprouts and fish cakes, kids ordered Beef Bulgogi Fried Rice and Chicken Frid Rice both with Japchae noodles.

The miso soup was a little disappointing - the soup cup was filled a third of the way up and only had a few slivers of green onion; no tofu or seaweed or anything else. It was the smallest, saddest miso soup I have tried.

Sides were brought out before the test of the meal -- save them for when the food comes out, you will need them to cleanse your palate and break up the meat overload. Sides were pretty good.

The main course was served and the food looked beautiful! Unfortunately the food was very bland. The pork belly lacked salt (don't ask me how this is possible) though the onions they came with were nice. The beef Bulgogi was pretty bad, had flavor but seemed dry and it was just a pile of meat that got old quickly. Not a lot of complex flavors. My youngest kid's chicken fried rice was bad -- the chicken was extremely dry and lacked flavoring. She loved it; but she also doesnt want to use ketchup or any sort of flavoring on her meat usually so that tells you the flavor profile here.

The waitresses we had we both very nice, but they weren't attentive. My glass of water was low and I got no refill - no one at my table was ever asked if they wanted something else to drink.

One of my daughters used the rest room and complained that the floor of the women's restroom had a lot of water on it. She siad when she say down on the toilet water squirted out from around thr seal and when she stood up it sucked back in. She specifically asked me to mention it and and she's 11 years old and never complains about bathrooms so that was weird.

Food cost $72 after taxes for 2 adult meals, 2 kid meals, 3 drinks and no apps or booze. Not worth it. If you think the food looks good, its post production. I really hate to rank this place so low but the wife and a I both agreed that it's a solid 2 stars and that we wouldn't return here. I enjoyed most of the other korean restaurants around town and have traveled quite a bit internationally and across the US for context; this place was not good. If you do want to try it out, I'd advise eating it family style where everyone shares several...

If you’re considering dining at "I Love Korea," you might want to bring a good book and a bit of a dictionary for the menu.

From the moment I walked in, the manager was laser-focused on preparing a single table as if it was some VIP throne room. When the hostess asked if that table was free, the manager brushed her off with a dismissiveness that set the tone for the whole meal. Turns out that table and that one table alone got the royal treatment.

Meanwhile, I got seated and, for a good 20 minutes, nobody even took my drink order. The manager (who I thought was just a waitress ignoring me) only had eyes for the reservation table. By the time my bibimbap finally arrived, the special table had come, eaten, paid, and left. My food? Let’s just say it was lukewarm, the stone bowl was barely hot, and the bottom was burnt. Apparently, it had been sitting around waiting for as long as I had.

And then there was the spicy pork bulgogi saga. On the menu, it’s all a confusing mishmash. When I ordered, they asked if I wanted fried rice. Sure, I said, not realizing they meant a stir-fry dish that’s not even labeled correctly. When it arrived, it was stir-fried rice mixed with the meat, not a separate bulgogi plate like every other Korean place I’ve been to. I suggested they might want to call it stir-fry on the menu because that’s the common term. They refused to swap it out and made me pay for something I didn't want.

In short, this place turned "I Love Korea" into "I Love Never Coming Here Again." Maybe the manager can learn to serve more than one table, and maybe they can rethink their menu wording. But as it stands, I definitely won't...

The last couple of times had some issues with waitstaff that I could look over, but this last time I went will be my last. While the food is great, the last couple of times the wait staff has failed to be attentive to their tables, many times you have to ask for refills, or your food because they forgot a person's food. They also have stopped providing both the ginger salad and the miso soup. They only provide the miso soup which is nothing but water, green onions, and soy. Miso should have tofu, and wakame seaweed. This last time I went, they forgot to bring out drinks, didn't bring out refills until the food came out, then forgot my son's bowl of white rice and fried egg. Then when it came time to pay, they expected a 20% automatic gratuity even though this is NOT POSTED ANYWHERE for parties of 5 or more. So they expected a $15 dollar tip for doing the absolute bar minimum. Short answer, service sucks, food is starting to be made with less ingredients, and they charge hidden fees to groups.

Their hasn't been much competition here lately for Korean restaurants, but I will certainly avoid this place...