Dong Hae Korean Grill & Sushi — Restaurant in Minneapolis

I came to Dong Hae expecting their AYCE lunch menu that was advertised online, but when we arrived, the server told us they no longer offer it. Instead, we had to order from a $45 per person menu, which was shockingly overpriced compared to similar restaurants like Shin Hwa or Kyoto that offer more variety for much less.

Even worse, there were limitations on what we could order, and when we mentioned the outdated online menu, the server just said it wasn’t updated. The food itself was a huge letdown - sashimi wasn’t fresh, and most dishes were too salty and dry to finish. We barely left any food, but the server used that as an excuse, saying we’d be charged for leftovers if we didn’t agree to pay an automatic 18% tip.

They claimed the tip was mentioned on the order sheet, but it was just a tiny, blurry line at the bottom that’s easy to miss. What’s worse is that their website and social media never mentioned anything about an automatic tip charge, so it completely caught us by surprise. Tips should be something given by choice to reward good service, not something required - especially when the bill is already so high. Most restaurants only charge around 15%, and for poor service, 18% felt unreasonable.

There was only one server for the entire restaurant, so we waited a long time for everything - from getting seated to receiving our food, to even getting help when we had questions or wanted to pay. To make matters worse, they told us we could only order one round of food, unlike other AYCE places that allow two or three rounds.

The total bill for two people came to nearly $120 for lunch, which is outrageous for the quality and experience we received. The entrance was also confusing and hard to find. Overall, this was one of the most disappointing dining experiences I’ve had — overpriced, limited, and misleading. I won’t be...

So good LUCK finding this place. If you didn't, you probably made a good choice to go elsewhere. To start, had we known it WASN'T all you can eat for the KBBQ we would have not even gone. As we walk in we get the stink eye from the girl at the hostess stand, as she seats us she tries asks if we know what we want already and we say its our first time to this location and we need a minute to look. She comes back about 45 seconds later asking again if we were ready when we'd barely opened our menus let alone know what we want. We open the menu and see "18% Manditory Gratuity Added" on the KBBQ page of meats and I instantly picked something else. Then after we were pestered with the first 2 minutes it took over 10 minutes and us going to get someone to have any one come back to take our order. The food comes out in waves so we are forced to start eating before everyone gets their food otherwise it'll be cold. I ordered the Red Dragon Sushi roll specifically because it didn't list avocado as an ingredient(im allergic so i try my best to avoid the ones made with it if/when i can) and when it came out it 100% had avocado on it so I had to send that back. THEN comes the 4% surcharge on ALL Credit/Debit Card transactions that isnt stated ANYWHERE UNTIL YOU GET YOUR CHECK. Now, this terrible service however does not detract from the food that I must say does taste great. Everything was full of flavor and seemed really quality, but the prices and specificly the extra fees(FOR WHAT THEY ADVERTISE IN THEIR RESTAURANT NAME) that they gouge you with on the back end of everything really just puts a damper on the whole experience.

We will not be returning to this location and thats not because we don't live here, it is because of the undeniably bad service and unreasonable fees they nickel and...

I think overall this place is not too bad. A lot of the things were pretty good.

We took a friend here for her birthday and got the AYCE Korean and sushi. Most of the sushi is pretty good and the appetizers were spot on.

We got spicy tuna rolls, mackarel nigiri, rainbow roll, some appetizers, and some other random ones (I think we ordered one of every specialty roll).

The good stuff: The goods far outweigh the bad and I try to be as fair as possible! The mackarel nigiri was great as well as most of the other specialty rolls. The spicy tuna roll was also excellent, it tastes better than other AYCE places I have been to. The highlight might have been the spicy tuna rolls to be honest. The people serving us were also nice and attentive, it seemed like they were super busy..

Meh stuff:

The seafood and kimchi pancakes were a bit cold, but they weren't too bad. I think they would have been better warm. It was a little disappointing because I LOVE getting the seafood pancakes (pajeon).

The bad stuff:

The ones I would avoid was surprisingly the kimbap. The meat ratio was way too much (to the point where it was overflowing) and you might say "who wouldn't want more meat?". But I think with kimbap there needs to be a balance, the excess meat made it a bit dry. The rainbow roll was a bit dry (like the crab meat was dry for some reason) and kind of inedible so we didn't finish those...

I think overall this is a 4 out of 5. Good customer service with a decent selection of Korean food and sushi for their AYCE menu. I would maybe come back again for only certain specialty rolls and what not... And avoid my favorites.... Kimbap and pajeon.

Food: 3.5 out of 5. Environment: 5 out of 5 (nice and clean). Customer...