GAN-HOO BBQ — Restaurant in New York

TLDR: Fast service, conniving staff, good quality food.

We (party of 2) arrived around 4:15pm on a Wednesday to try out the AYCE BBQ. The staff seated us quickly at a spacious table. We were informed that we had two total hours for the BBQ but that we would have to submit our first order by 4:30pm, which we noted without a problem.

Our most notable orders were the squid skewers, cucumber salad, beef plate, pork belly, and garlic shrimp. The squid skewers were smoky and smothered with spices, making it a delicious and springy bite. The cucumber salad was light and fresh, served with peanuts mixed in and a little spicy. The meat quality was overall pretty good. The shrimp was flavorful. Everything was served up quickly after we put in the orders, which we were grateful for. The dipping sauce served on the side was delicious; one was a spicy sweet type and the other was a soy sauce base.

Unfortunately, the waiter that greeted us initially was replaced by another waiter who took our second round of orders. This waiter gave us a very suspicious look when we ordered a few different meats and then proceeded to inform us that if we did not finish the food we would be charged for the leftovers. I found this very weird because it was only the second time we placed an order and we were hungry so we could accommodate all the food, yet the waiter seemed to be making assumptions. The same waiter then proceeded to pass by regularly and instruct us how to manage the grill, from saying we shouldn't cook beef and pork together because pork has more fat to saying we should ease up on the oil on the grill. We felt this was a bit condescending and unnecessary. We were not even done with our second order, and not even up to the hour mark yet, when the waiter came back and told us that AYCE would be ending at 5:20pm and we would need to place our final orders. We were taken aback; the first waiter who seated and greeted us told us we had two hours, yet here the new waiter was telling us we only had one hour. We hastily placed our final orders and finished our meal.

I will also mention that the grill burnt very easily, even when we added oil (which is another reason why the waiter's advice to put less oil was weird), and the fire underneath flamed all the way up to our hands very easily, even after the waiter told us he had turned the fire down. Thus our meat was very easily burnt and we could not consume everything in time before it became black and charred.

So overall, our experience was mediocre. The food quality was good and the food came out fast, but the service was very weird and we did not feel very welcome, so this was a very big letdown. I hope there's some sort of explanation for this or that it was just an off day, but I will not be returning...

This place is either super OVERATED or we were just very unfortunate to have this very unprofessional and inattentive waitress to serve us.

I came here with a friend who just visited this place two weeks ago and highly recommended here. But by the end the meal, she was also very disappointed at the dinning experience.

The seating experience was very nice until the waitress showed up. She was very impatient while taking the order from us and wasn't able to properly answer our questions about the menu. Minutes after placing the order, she came to our table and asked us if we want to sign up for their membership. My friend and I was already very uncomfortable by her attitude and kindly rejected her. AND THEN, she NEVER came to our table without us calling her ever again! Our grill was burned many times and needed to be changed, she would just stand there until we wave at her. ( She was taking care of four tables, three tables with two people including ours and one party table with about ten people who came in an hour after we were seated). They have two types of grill for grilling different kinds of meat. Our order came very promptly which we really appreciate. But we had to stay there for longer because we couldn't find the waitress to change the dirty grill. When we finally got her attention, she didn't give us the correct grill to cook the meat that came first. We also asked for another piece of pork fatty at the same time, she acknowledged it and spend the next twenty minutes only serving the party table that just came in at the moment.

Also, the food was just okay. (The lay out of the food was very pretty though. ) We ordered Szechuan pepper beef (川式泡椒肥牛). The taste of the pepper overpowered the meat. We didn't even want to finish the plate. Not recommended. Wagyu beef truffle was not worth it, you can't really taste the truffle. However, I would recommend Thick Cut Wagyu Beef Tongue (厚切牛舌), it's pretty tender and juicy. Also the Garlic Oyster (蒜蓉生蠔) was very...

THEY FORCE YOU TO TIP‼️ MADE US TIP MORE EVEN THOUGH WE ALREADY TIPPED. + SMALLER PROPORTIONS FOR THE SAME PRICE I went to this restaurant with my friends and the food was alright, just very costly. However After we finished our food we paid leaving a small tip and were walking out our waitress and a man presumably the manager chased us down and before we could leave the man said the tip was not enough and we had to tip more. First of all the check said “SUGGESTED TIP” I had no idea suggested meant mandatory, and if it did then just add it to the bill or advertise that in the menu. He made no sense and my friend tried to pay the tip on her card but he said they couldn’t do that? He proceeded to pull up the card machine and it was gonna charge her for out meal again Plus a Hefty tip AGAIN. We told him we don’t wanna pay for the whole thing and just the tip but he said no and kept pressuring my friend to just put her card in and sign. She was made very uncomfortable. I ended up scrapping some extra cash that I had and just gave it to the man and he laughed in my face? And said more. WHO DOES THAT? I ended up giving an extra 32 dollars for tip because I just wanted to leave that toxic and intimidating environment. It is important to mention me and my friends were all MINORS which made everything worse. I believe they forcibly made us pay significantly more since we were minors and likely to cave in. Horrible experience. What establishment forces minors to pay extra on “suggested tip” after being already tipped and laughing in their faces when given more tip? They didn’t even do anything we cooked everything ourselves. Never going back spreading my experience as much as I can. Below the receipt says “SUGGESTED” definitely not suggested but rather mandatory. Not to mention last time the proportions were bigger but this time smaller but the price was...