SEOUL TOFU — Restaurant in New York

Truly the most confrontational and terrible service that I can recall experiencing at any restaurant anywhere in the world.

We walked in at 9:33pm (11pm closing) after seeing the great reviews, and asked for a table for 2. The first two staff members who saw us did not acknowledge or respond to the request but instead looked back at a third staff member who rolled her eyes and looked unhappy.

She approached us and, for some reason, decided to address us immediately in Chinese even though we had been speaking English in a Korean establishment. She said, "The kitchen closes at 10:30pm, can you manage that?" We thought was an odd question, but obviously we don't need nearly that much time to place an order and said yes.

We got seated, and 5 mins later, the same lady came over to ask us if we're ready. We said we're not sure yet, and she rolled her eyes again and looked upset.

We asked her for recommendations, and she scoffed and said, "What can I possibly recommend for you?" Awkward silence. She then said, "If I recommend something for you, it'll cause problems." I asked her what she meant. She said if she recommended something and we don't like it, then we'd blame her. She told us to order whatever we feel like and walked away.

This place is around the corner from my parents', and I would have loved to become a regular here. Unfortunately, we were clearly not welcome at this establishment. Perhaps they were intentionally rude so that we would leave and let them close early. Or perhaps this is one of those restaurants whose gimmick is to be hostile to customers--that would be the most satisfying explanation. Perhaps we broke an unwritten rule about not entering restaurants within 1.5 hrs of closing, but they could have turned us away if so.

I can't rate the food because we left...

It was so disappointed 😔. We came from Staten Island and I was craving their tofu. We were not very hungry but just wanted to try their tofu. Once we sat down, the waitress rushed us to order food and when we told her we wanted to order one combo and one steamed egg together worth 41$ she gave us bad attitude and kept telling us that thats not enough for both of us and during the whole meal she didn’t come to serve us any water or provide side dishes for us. The waiter saw and he brought us water and side dishes. We didn’t go there to buy bad service. We didn't ask you to treat us great but at least treat us like normal customers and respect your customers. The tables left and right were ordering the same amount of the food. I saw on the right, three people ordered one fish and one soup! How come we got the disrespect and attitude throughout our meal. At the end a tip was left but should only have gone to the waiter. He was a gentleman! I hope the restaurant owner can read this! I hope the owner can ask their workers if they need help. Maybe they have hardship in life like everyone does and try to help them but the customers walks in don’t know to be treated like this. I am sure I won’t be the only one or the last one! Ps: I have attached the pics,first one is the table on our left and the second one is three people that sitting on our right. The third pic is our table, last is our bill. It was the restaurant lunch time for their employees no one clean the table yet when I captured...

We came here with a group of about 20 after a funeral for lunch and were seated in the semi-private room. The space and food were good overall, but our experience was affected by one waitress whose attitude felt unnecessarily rigid.

My husband and I, with our two young kids, asked if we could sit at a separate table within the same room for safety and space reasons (hot bowls + toddlers). Another staff member gave us the okay, but later we were asked to move back because another party was coming. We understood and moved without issue, but the rest of the restaurant remained empty the entire time.

We also participated in their Google review promotion for a free steamed egg. Each table in our group (split into two tables of 8 and 12) left reviews (four in total) and were told by other waiters that this was fine. But when the eggs came out, the same waitress said it “having four for our group doesn’t make sense”. Even if the policy is one per table, the way it was communicated felt dismissive, especially when our reviews would also support the restaurant.

Small moments like this make a big difference in whether a group returns or not. I hope this place succeeds, especially since the location has had many restaurants come and go, but I think hospitality and consistency in service are just as important...