Chow One Korean Steakhouse — Restaurant in Pembroke Pines

I’ve been coming here since their grand opening, and over the years, I’ve seen a lot of positive changes and improvements. I really loved that for them. The place is nice and clean overall, but be careful while walking around because the floors can sometimes be greasy. The food is decent, and I love that you can order hot dishes from the kitchen. I like coming here cause it's close to me.

However, my main complaint is with the staff, including the manager. The wait time to get served another round of meats can take a while. Mind you it's not busy. If it was I completely understand. The last few times I’ve visited have been really disappointing. One time, we had a server who caught an attitude with us after we pointed out that the grill she set up was dirty. We politely asked her to change it because there was a large, burnt chunk stuck to it. She insisted there was nothing there, even as we pointed directly at it. Well Eventually, she took our tongs, scraped it off, and said it was fine now....but we still asked for a clean grill. She clearly didn’t like that, and her attitude for the rest of our visit was very unprofessional. Honestly, we should’ve left, but we decided to stay since we had already ordered so much food.

On another visit, the grill was malfunctioning. We moved to three different ones, but none worked properly. All grill had the same issue. The flames were way too high. Our server really tried to help and adjust it, the flames were coming directly out from the grill and when we placed the meat on it. Flame got even higher lol. the food was cooking too fast and popping everywhere due to the heat being so high. At that point, we didn’t even want to eat anymore. What we just cooked was basically nuked. It wasn't even on the grill for even that long lol. We tried our best to work with it but. We were basically fighting the flame to grab our meats. We asked to speak with the manager just to let them know what was going on, but after waiting a while, the server came back and told us the manager said we could leave.

That’s fine, but please make sure your grills are working properly. it’s a serious safety hazard to your customers and establishment.

The food is really decent here. But some of the staff can be something else. This place can be a hit or miss. Just these last few visits didn't sit...

I would really try to avoid this place if you can, it was shut down by health inspectors.

Inspection completed on 8/28/23 27 VIOLATIONS FOUND

“Dead roaches on premises. -one dead roach, under ice machine , in service station -one dead roach, on bottom of sanitizer spray bottle -one dead roach on storage drawer of cleaning plates. -5 dead roaches, in drawer, under ice cream self-customer buffet. -two dead roaches, in drawer, under self-customer hot soups buffet -4 dead roaches, in drawer, under self-customer sushi station buffet.”

“Accumulation of black/green mold-like substance in the interior of the ice machine/bin. First service area, substantial buildup of soil.”

“Stop Sale issued due to food not being in a wholesome, sound condition. Time/temperature control for safety food held using time as a public health control not discarded at the end of the 4-hour/6-hour period. See stop sale. Sushi rice left overnight. In sushi station , employee discarded rice and all sushi rolls made with same rice.”

“Time/temperature control for safety food held using time as a public health control not discarded at the end of the 4-hour/6-hour period. See stop sale. Sushi rice left overnight. In sushi station , employee discarded rice and all sushi rolls made with same rice.”

“Time/temperature control for safety food identified in the written procedure as a food held using time as a public health control has no time marking and the time removed from temperature control cannot be determined. All TCS foods from buffet, not time marking. Employee time label all buffet-TCS foods.” “Hand wash sink used for purposes other than hand washing. Sushi station, plastic container and stainless steel sponge, inside sink, employee removed both items.”

“Clean utensils or equipment stored in dirty drawer or rack. Piles of serving plates stored on dirty rack, with build up of loose food debris.”

“Food-contact surface not smooth and easily cleanable. Open bag of bean sprouts, inside cardboard box, open can of tapioca pudding, open can of tomato sauce, employee removed all food and stored on plastic food containers.”

“Hand wash sink used for purposes other than hand washing. Sushi station, plastic container and stainless steel sponge, inside sink, employee removed...

This restaurant is LOUD. You can't hear anybody talk to you. The hostess had trouble hearing us recite our cell phone number. We asked her to show us what she typed into her tablet. It was already in the system, she couldn't/wouldn't verify it. If you guessed we were never notified we had a table until we inquired at the front desk again 30 minutes later to find they texted to a wrong number, you would be correct. Once seated, our server took 20 minutes to take our order. We told her this was our first experience with Chow One. She didn't tell us how anything worked there. 40 minutes later the food arrived without the drinks or the sides. Our order arrived missing 1 of the five proteins, the server never got us the 5th protein. In fact, the server did not come back to the table to see if we were missing anything. We were missing the tongs to cook the food and the sides. The grill was set on low and we had plastic forks to grill the meat. We had to go to the bar to request cooking tongs. The drink robot arrived mid meal with our drinks, but make sure you grab the straws first, because as soon as the robot senses the weight loss of the drinks it whips aside and only quick thinking will save your.... non-reusable plastic straw that you have to use with bubble tea. The sides showed up for dessert? Usually the manager makes an appearance at some point of a meal to ask how it's going. Not here - I suspect they know how it's going, which is not well. Then, when we were ready to pay the bill, the server is a no show again. 20 minutes later we had to ask another server to bring the check. If you want to be respected and have a timely process throughout your visit, don't go to this restaurant. Also, they serve everything in stainless steel, but the straws, spoons and forks are the cheapest, smallest, flimsiest, barely functional plastic. It's a bad contrast to the elegance of the rest of the stainless aesthetic. OK, the chop sticks are disposable wood, but I don't see any reason to believe they set them aside for composting. So, if you don't like too much single use plastic in your life and that is important to you, don't go to this restaurant. If you went there to socialize with your meal mates, find a quieter place. The good food can't...