The Stone House — Restaurant in Mesa

Honestly shocked at all the 5 star reviews for this restaurant! I’ve grown up eating homemade Korean food all of my life and have been to many Korean restaurants throughout Arizona + California - AKA I know my stuff;)

Atmosphere is new, cute-ish. Prices are more expensive than other spots in the valley. Banchan was fine but nothing amazing. Some of the kimchi was well done which isn’t my favorite and a lot more limited than other places (kimchi, radish kimchi, potato, and fish cake). The bulgogi was actually excellent, dolsot bibimbap was fine but nothing to write home about.

The problem was the kimchi chigae. It was NOT good and the worst I’ve ever had. It had such a sour, bitter taste, was extremely dark in color, and the pork was so mushy. It just tasted off, smelled and looked off. My mom and I took one bite each and could not eat more. We asked the waitress and she tried the soup and said it was a little salty (probably due to more done kimchi) but tasted like it normally does. We told her maybe the off taste was radish in there and she said they don’t put radish in it. Well we took a spoonful and showed it to her and she said “oh”. We asked if there was any way they could take it back and not charge us since we didn’t have hardly any of it and it tasted off. She came back and told us she couldn’t. To me- that’s just not a good business practice. We weren’t asking to get meat or anything more expensive taken off, just the inedible $15 soup that she admitted was very salty and shouldn’t have had radish in it.

This was our first time here and we won’t come back. The seating is a little weird and there’s not much leg room due to the grills, but they don’t have tables that aren’t set up like that if you just want to eat off the normal menu. There were probably 3-4 other groups in the restaurant and they let me know they only have two high chairs and she had just given the other ones out. Two high chairs for 150+ seating capacity is not adequate in my opinion. Our waitress was apologetic but the tasty bulgogi is not enough to bring us back. We will be going to our usual restaurant, Hodori, even though this place is only 6 mins away from us. Not even top 5 for Korean food in the...

The service was generally ok, with food to match. A good option if you are nearby but other Korean BBQ options may be better.

We arrived for a late dinner, around 8:30 P.M. We were greeted by who might have been an owner, a senior woman of Asian descent. She was friendly but immediately informed us that they stopped all you can eat barbecue and we would have to order from a separate menu. She advised we come earlier next time, even though we were not protesting what she was saying. We had no problem with this policy as we interpreted it as due to us arriving too late.

When we were seated our waitress was super friendly and accommodating. She actually informed us that we could still order all you can eat barbeque and that it was open until 9:45. We proceeded with that option. Food was brought out quickly on a near robot server tray.

The food was pretty good, but did not have as much flavor as other Korean BBQ places we had been to. Still, the meats were fresh and well seasoned. The sides were also quite good, albeit not as fresh as the meats. This did not seem to match the price of dinner as it cost as much as other places that are much better. Another note, the grills did not have slits in the grill which allowed liquids to pool, which actually doesn’t seem to be a good thing when trying to grill.

The owner lady came by twice and reminded us twice to come earlier next time. After dinner and my family leaving the table for the bathroom, the owner lady came by again and reminded us to come earlier at least 4 to 5 times. I felt scolded, and was one more reminder away from snapping at her.

Overall, a decent place for Korean bbq, but price is not comparative to the taste of the food. Make sure you go early to take advantage of the all you can...

My husband and I love checking out new Korean BBQ spots and thought we had found a place that would be worth coming across town for. The waitress we had was lovely and welcoming, sat us down and recommended a bunch of meats and side dishes. We were so delighted that she made the recommendations we didn’t really look at the menu. The short rib and meat were good, the fried rice was moderate and spicy ramen was just a regular ramen out of a packet. But, the gyoza and the corn and cheese, all the side dishes were spot on. We ate everything that was brought out. We were finishing up and ordered two more meats and figured that’d do us. Midway through our waitress took a break and we got a different waiter. We got the garlic chicken and when we tried it we really were turned off by the flavor and texture. When our waiter saw that we had left over food, he asked us to finish half of the chicken (which we didn’t like??) or he would charge us the full amount. We explained that we had eaten everything before this but just didn’t like the chicken and didn’t want to be forced to eat something we didn’t like. His concession was to only charge us $12.99 (an overage charge for one person) instead of all three.

So BUYER BEWARE - you are clearly not allowed to not like something, and if you have leftovers you will be charged $12.99 PER PERSON. The lunch buffet is $29.99 to begin with. It says it at the bottom of the menu, but like I said, we didn’t read the menu in full because we had recommendations from our original waitress to start.

Unfortunate practice for them, because now they’ve lost $90 in repeat business and any further recommendations from us. We’ll never...