yeobo, darling — Restaurant in Menlo Park

Peninsula Fine-Dining

4.5 Stars

Yeobo, Darling is the highly anticipated restaurant from the Michelin-starred couple behind Maum and is one of the hottest reservations in town

It’s another high profile addition to Menlo Park but is in downtown proper versus on El Camino’s Springline or Villa complexes (Che Fico, Robin, Eylan)

Having only bought pandemic era grocery items from Maum and small bites from their kiosk Bao Bei in Los Altos, I was excited to finally stop by for a full restaurant experience of their Taiwanese Korean dishes

The menu is a la carte and is an energetic, yet elevated dining experience worthy of a splurge or date night like other Peninsula restaurants like Ethel’s Fancy or Protege

The menu consists of appetizers and two larger plate sections and the server’s recommendation is to order 3-5 dishes for a party of two

Plating and presentation is stellar and service is top notch with frequent plate and utensil changes (stored in a drawer on the side of every table like South Korea)

We enjoyed every dish and standouts are definitely the more fusion dishes like the refreshing amberjack with flavors of Korean and Taiwanese sauces and the rich uni and abalone risotto with scallions and perilla

The flavors of the more traditional dishes are more muted including the salt and pepper shrimp (expertly fried and with differing sizes) that I couldn’t help but compare to the much tastier (and likely MSG-enhanced versions) of my favorite Chinese restaurants or the kalbi that I compared with nearby 10 Butchers or even gold-standard San Ho Won in SF

Even the banchan served with the kalbi was a bit standard with the kimchi nicely fermented but less flavorful than Kunjip and much less variety (and refills) having been spoiled again by SF’s San Ho Won

But these are nitpicks based more on only being able to get a very late dinner reservation and comparing to some of my best meals ever

Yeobo, Darling is an exciting addition to the Peninsula dining scene and another win for Opentable that has roared back with hot 🔥 restaurants (like Four Kings) competing against Tock and Resy

📷 salt and pepper coonstripe shrimp, garlic aioli $21 / amberjack, cabbage, kelp, fingerlime $26 / abalone & sea urchin risotto, charred scallions, perilla $45 / Yeobo, Darling wagyu kalbi and banchan $76 / crispy anchovy rice $19

📍Yeobo, Darling (Menlo Park, CA)

Reservations on Opentable are required. Dining is indoor only and all credit cards, including AmEx,...

Exec Summary: Overpriced, even for the Bay Area.

Food:

If you like and want to immerse more into Asian gastronomy, it's worth a try; if you're already familiar with Asian food, then there's nothing special. We ordered scallion croissant, yeobo darling chicken wings, and yeobo darling kalbi and banchan. They are ALL DELICIOUS, but I might have expected more creativity or thoughts into the food based on the price tag.

Scallion Croissant ($24): It deconstructs traditional Taiwanese green onion & pork floss bread into an artistic croissant toast form and pork floss butter spread, which is amazing to see it on a quasi fine dining table. It's delicious but doesn't add too much on top of the original. Even considering the delicacy, expenses, and country differences, I don't believe a 24-fold price increase is justifiable for something that costs only $1 in Taiwan.

Chicken Wings ($20): A common dish. Very juicy and has good match in taste with the pepper.

Kalbi and Banchan ($76): According to the menu in the restaurant, it's wagyu (didn't take a photo so not sure about the accuracy). We got a total of 16 beef cubes. The portion seems reasonable. However, a significant number of them is pretty rubbery. Both of us had a few cubes that we had to chew on for ~30 sec and decided to swallow it anyways (that's unsafe IMO). TBH I didn't know the price until I saw the bill. I would've NOT ordered this dish if I had known the huge gap between the value of my money and the quality of food.

Wine/Tea: No complaints. Omi-tea is really good.

Service:

A little bit lukewarm, but that's personal feeling. In general all normal except one thing: When we sat down, the waiter was asking us if we are here for any special event, and I told him we're here for a celebration. There's not even "Congratulations" or anything. He just walked away. And I was like...so why bothered to ask?

We paid $200+ for this meal including ~20% tips. The experience does not have anything that is worth noted. And I'm so traumatized by the price I paid for such poor provision of food. It's fine for friends/family gatherings if you have extra money to make it rain, but I would not recommend choosing this restaurant for...

I am utterly disappointed at how this restaurant cancelled my reservation the moment I arrived when they realized I had a baby. As a first time parent, I've never felt more discriminated in my life getting a reservation cancelled the moment I arrived because I had a baby. The hostess even had the audacity to push the blame back on me claiming that I had to book a three top instead of a two top. Like do they expect people to read through "Info" on their website closely when booking? At least put it on OpenTable when people are rushing to grab a reservation. My wife even offered to move our baby to a baby carrier and to sit on the inside away from the foot traffic but the hostess rebuffed us claiming that they had dishes with hot plates that would be of concern. Looking at the menu, there is technically only 2-3 dishes that would be of serious concern, but that sounded more like a weak excuse.

Considering I drove at least 35 minutes from East Bay with a baby the least the hostess could do was rebook us for another date in the future. But nope, she just asked if I would be willing to come back at 9 PM. What kind of tone deaf question is that with a baby?

This place should update its name to "Kkondae Darling" for how rigid they are with their policies. I have no incentive to even come back here in the future after that traumatizing experience. The kitchen might have some Michelin pedigree but their service wouldn't even sniff the AAA guide for how they handled my situation. You would think after the whole Kis Cafe disaster with Luke Sung, they would try and be a little bit more understanding. A restaurant that can't even do the bare minimum and support young families, who potentially might be their future bread and butter, don't deserve...