Ahgassi Korean Barbecue — Restaurant in New York

EDIT 3/16/25:

FIRST NOTE - they have false advertising on their menu under the beef combo. we wanted to add the +$30 Japanese A5 wagyu, but were informed that is not possible and we can only order it a la carte ($75??).... please fix your menu if you are not offering this because this is misleading.

wow i went recently and i was so disappointed by my experience in comparison to my first visit :/ our first waitress was very kind and grilled our meat perfectly! however at some point there was a bit of confusion concerning an item we ordered and we asked to kindly switch it-- but would understand if that was not possible..... they did switch it which is appreciated but the manager was quite rude to us when we thanked him for his kindness.

not sure if this is because of us requesting if they could change our item, but we had a different server, JK, who served us a bit after this incident. he was very stand-offish and cold when he made our next meat and did not even inform us when it was done cooking he was silent the whole time. it made my party feel so uncomfortable and like we were being judged... we enjoyed the brisket we ordered that was cooked by our first server yoyo, so we ordered it again a la carte, however JK was the one who came to grill it and we were unsatisfied with how he cooked it compared to our first server. a lot of the meat was pink and not fully cooked like our first round, we wanted to ask them to grill it more but they had already turned off the grill and never really passed our table after and we felt too awkward after their reaction to our first request to really ask for them to grill it more..

after we paid, I had to use the restroom so I went and i came back to get ready to leave and my friends were quickly doing something before going and JK came back and with attitude asked us if we were done. I understand that restaurants need to shuffle in customers and want to clean tables efficiently, but there were still two hours before closing, and there were a couple empty tables so I felt like this attitude was a bit unnecessary..

based on other reviews I know nothing will be done about this other than an almost auto-generated reply asking to reach out to their email. I am just leaving this here to share my experience compared to my first visit. I was very disappointed in the treatment my party experienced, especially since my boyfriend and i hyped this restaurant up to his friend and brought him for his birthday. hopefully you guys can improve your service soon, for now I will go back to lets meat instead when I am in ktown.

below was my first review around 12/2024: firstly the service here is so nice beginning from the person who we put our name down with! our server was also very sweet and accommodating to us (we kept asking for the sweet potato banchan 🤣). the food was also delicious!! i really enjoyed their cuts of meat, and their alcoholic drinks were yummy as well~ the banchan was sooo yummy i loved the sweet potato one as well as the fish cakes ^__^ i also liked their steamed egg and kimchi soup. food is a la carte so we made sure to keep eating banchan haha overall i definitely recommend coming here! make sure to make a reservation if ur going on a busy day as you may not be able...

I have had Gopchang story and Jongro, so I felt excited to try this new addition from LA. Conclusion: Banchan is 9/10, kimchi stew is 10/10, Gopchang only 6/10.

Gopchang is usually a niche food due to 1)it is mostly intestines, and its organ intrinsically limited its audiences 2) it is bit greasy if not paired with right food 3) it is stinky if not washed/handled correctly.

We ordered the Modeum Combo: small and large beef intestines, beef mountain tripe, and beef abomasum and whole garlics. For those who are unfamiliar, mountain tripe is the folding in the stomach and the abomasum is the fourth stomach.

WARNING: those who never had small intestines before should know that they are filled with enzymes and they have a BITTER aftertaste. I knew this ahead of time and is acceptable of the taste so I ordered. But if you are not, DON’T!

Ahgassi’s intestines and stomach are marinated with the conventional Korean style marinate: sweet, salty, umami. They appear to all be chewy after cooking, and it is very hard to distinguish. The flavor is just typical, not very impressive.

They did paired each type of meat with a special sauce. But in the end I cannot really taste the difference of all cuts except the small intestines which had fillings. Apparently the place did more effort on styling and decor.

The Banchan was the surprise. I really dig the sweet potato, sweet and almost mochi-like- soft and slightly gummy like. The kimchi they served is the plain version, rare to me as the typical ones served is the spicy kind. The kimchi stew was great, spicy and savory, and there are rice cakes and tofu hidden inside. I felt this could use a bowl of rice. The onions are marinated with a wasabi/mustard miso, great for offsetting grease. The steamed eggs are fine, very fluffy at the top, but very burnt at the bottom.

We didn’t choose to have the fried rice but opted for the cold noodle instead. The noodles came in iced broth, like literally, ice cubes of broth. It is just umami, and it came with bottles of liquid mustard and vinegar for you to adjust the spice and sourness to your own liking. Great dessert to have after gopchang.

The service is great, and I felt just for gopchang, it is style over substance. I got no comments for other meat combos since I...

I was extremely disappointed with my experience at this restaurant. From the start, the waiter who served us appeared disinterested and lazy. When taking our order, he only responded with single words, making no effort to use full sentences or properly address our questions—completely unprofessional. The $40 meat we ordered was overcooked on one side and barely grilled on the other, showing zero care or consistency. To make matters worse, I got splattered with hot oil twice while he was grilling! While the other staff seemed polite and professional, this particular waiter completely ruined the experience. I left feeling upset and dissatisfied—this was an absolutely terrible dining experience!

Disappointing Follow-Up and Dismissive Attitude from the Restaurant

I visited this restaurant on January 2nd and had a poor dining experience. After seeing their generic response to my Google review asking me to email my concerns, I took the time to write a detailed email to the address provided. Despite waiting for over two weeks, I never received any reply or follow-up from them.

While these issues alone were frustrating, what truly disappointed me was the restaurant’s complete lack of accountability. Their Google review response implied they cared about customer feedback, but it was clearly just for show. Despite providing detailed information via email, they didn’t bother to respond or take any meaningful action.

This dismissive and insincere attitude towards customer concerns is deeply disappointing. If you’re looking for a restaurant that values service and professionalism, I would strongly recommend choosing...