Seoul Galbi — Restaurant in Paramus

For a restaurant named after Korean BBQ, I'm slightly ashamed to admit I've never tried their meats. That said, this restaurant is one of few decent Korean spots outside of Fort Lee and Palisades Park. As such, it's become a return spot for our family members who live fairly local.

As soon as you sit down, the default beverage offered is warm barley tea (which is much appreciated during those colder winter visits). The banchan, or side dishes, are few but a little more robust here than other Korean restaurants. During my last visit, we were given plates of standard kimchi, sprouts, and seasoned broccoli. I was also surprised to find pumpkin-egg salad, soy marinated lotus root, and soy-marinated ribeye pieces. The offerings change a little from visit to visit, but they're always decent to downright delicious.

While I've not been wowed by anything from the menu, I've found most of the meals to be predictable. Hot stone bibimbap is my regular order, and I love the different proteins they offer here for mixed rice dishes. For those curious about the barbecue but unwilling to pay the high sticker price for a full entree, you can try the galbi, bulgogi, and spicy pork atop a bibimbap. During my last visit, I was delighted by the salmon hot stone bibimbap, which came with a great teriyaki marinade. My regular complaint with Seoul Galbi's bibimbap is that the hot stone has never gotten hot enough for my rice to char and crisp (which is arguably the best part of ordering it on a hot stone. Otherwise, why else would one pay the elevated prices?).

When it comes to decor and ambiance, the restaurant is fairly no frills. As far as service goes, the waitresses have always been quick - quick to order, quick to serve, and quick to refill glasses (or, when asked, the side dishes). I also appreciate how slow they are to deliver the check, allowing conversations to linger. When my family and I came with a cake for a family member, the auntie serving our table not only came by with extra plates and silverware, she clapped and sang the 'Happy Birthday' song as...

We are regulars and go eat here often but last Friday was a huge disappointment. 1st, none of the staff were wearing a mask!! They serve BBQ so the waitresses go from table to table and the buss boys go around to refill water/tea.. no mask!! yes they take your temperature when you come in and customers take off their mask when they eat but staff should all be wearing masks. 2nd, we got there at 7:15pm, needed a table for 6, told them we want BBQ. They had a lot of empty tables but told us because of COVID-19, they needed to distance the tables so it would be a 15 min wait.. which we were fine and went to wait outside. Meanwhile, a bunch of other Korean folks walked in after us (party of 2 -4) and got seated a big tables (that would fit 6 easily!). We had to go check in on our table several times and finally got a tale at 8:10pm.. and the worse is they sat us at 2 separate tables when there were tons of available tables that could sit 6 people together. When I asked to move us to a bigger table so we could all sit together, I was told that they can only sit 5 on those tables (which is BS since we've been there several times and have sat up to 7 people at those table without any issues). Needless to say that it was beyond annoying having to get up back & forth to share & pass the food around between the 2 tables. The food is good but the service level has gone down so badly.. and if you're not Korean nor speak it, good luck on getting a table without having to wait ridiculously. We had to ask several times to get rice, never got our red leaf lettuce and refill of the "banchan" side dishes was done very poorly. So...

I gave 1 star only because in order to write a review I had to hit a star. I was very excited to try this barbecue restaurant because of the reviews I read. Initially, my visit started out well. The wait staff was very friendly and pleasant. We ordered our food and as we began to eat we noticed ants crawling in the bowls and on the table. After further investigation, we noticed ants in the corners, crawling up the walls, and in the windows. We did not want to cause a scene and called a staff member over to alert them about the situation. The staff member asked if we wanted to move tables and we said we would. After we moved to another table we never expected them to move over the bowls and the rest of the food from our prior table, which could've also been exposed to the ants. As we sat at our new table, we watched the staff trying to kill the ants with a fly swatted, a spatula and spoons. At this point I was disgusted. We then noticed ants crawling under the new table we were placed at. At this point, we could not eat any further and just left the food on the table. We did not want to cause a scene and just requested our check. We received our check and were charged for everything even though we did not eat it. I assume that maybe they would not charge us, at least, for the cranberry juice my two children split. I was kind of taken back. I paid the check and left a 20 percent tip, but Suffice it to say, we will not be going back. I was extremely disappointed. I willl not be going back and I will not recommended this...