Gen Korean BBQ House — Restaurant in Pflugerville

Me and my family decided to try this place because it keep buzzing our reels, and the group of austin dining also mentioned the place, thus we decided to give it a shot.

First impressions? the restaurant is way too freezing. We like cold temperatures, but not freezing. Important advice, wanna dine in? Make sure wear jacket, long pants and shoes. I’ve never been eating in super cold environments, even when i ate out in an ‘imbiss’ in germany with temperatures of 0 degrees celcius. The ambience? Blue light is kinda killing eyes, regular warm dim light is okay, but blue? My family feels like we were in some kind of bar club.

Food? The only thing i like is the potato salad aka the sides. Flavor is decent, portion is good, but the meat cut was all too thick especially for small grill plate. I ended up curling in the corner of the booth, freezing and hungry, because it took awhile too cook the meat. Also, we came around 3:14, so it’s not full house, not even half full. Probably 1/4 full, definitely quiet. And the food we ordered? I took a good while to come out, that we even need to wait for a server to willingly approach our table and asked where’s the order that still hadn’t come out.

Service? Horrible. Our first server left just after few minutes serving us. There was another server that came helping, but she got her own table to take care also. The entire dining experience, almost no server checked on us, everyone just passed by. If they were with full hand, i understand, but not empty hands and skipped our table. After we paid, my husband asked for last sweet tea to a passing server. We asked nicely, but got a very wonderful response. ‘You go tell your server’. I was flabbergasted for that super unprofessional response. It’s one thing if he went to tell our server, but for us to look our disappearing server just for a refill? I was a restaurant manager and kitchen manager for so long, never ever i allowed my team to respond like that, not have i encountered such response anywhere else before. Nobody checked on us, even 1-2x during the entire 2hrs of dining.

In summary, we are not coming back and i am not even sure if i can recommend the place to my bother and his wife, which is also like us, like to explore restaurants and love...

When we arrived at about 9:30 we were added to the waitlist. While we were waiting i noticed that they close at 11:00 so I asked the person at the desk that my wait time will put me sitting down to eat at about 10:15 so how will that affect my diner. He said it would not and in fact I would be able to stay until after 12:30. We were seated and the first thing I seen was the grill still had food around the rim along with grease from the previous guest. The grill plate was also oily and had stuck on food. I opened the tongs only to find food debris on the inside. I then opened the scissors only yo find brown oil between the blades. At this point I was very nervous since this restaurant is brand new. We ordered our drinks and the meats we wanted. There is a large amount of meats to choose from in fact 41 different items. There was a point we ate the little side dishes and then the server returned to tell us they were out of white rice but we could purchase the kitchen fried rice which we did. My Chinese wife said it was very good. At this point the food came out and we still had not recieved our drinks or napkins. The server once again disappeared I finally flagged another person for our drink. Still no napkins at this point. The grill eventually was burnt badly and our server came over and just stirred the items on the grill and asked if we wanted anymore items. The grill was not changed. At this time I noticed it was 11:10 meaning they were closed and they are now starting to force us out. No more refills nothing. The server came and asked if she could bring the check. After a bit another lady came that has the credit card machine asking if she can pay our check now. So what is supposed to be a 2 hour dinner turned into a 1hour and 10,minute meal due to being forced out. May give it one more chance but I'm not sure since my wife is Chinese and was...

My husband and I recently visited Gen, and overall, I found it to be significantly overpriced for the experience it offered. When we arrived, instead of greeting us and asking for our party size, the staff placed a sign with a QR code in front of me so that I could request a table. It felt really unusual. The all-you-can-eat option was $31.95 per person, which included unlimited proteins, but drinks were not included. Alcoholic beverages averaged around $20 each, while non-alcoholic options like soda and tea were about $5, making the total cost add up quickly. The portioning was also disappointing. Each table only received a small bowl of rice to accompany the proteins, but since the meat takes time to cook, the rice would often go cold before we could fully enjoy it. The booths were fairly small and cramped, and the interior design felt more like a nightclub, with dim lighting and blue neon lights, which didn’t create the most inviting dining atmosphere. Service was another issue. Our waiter was friendly but frequently forgot requests, such as bringing tongs, and as first-time visitors, we were not given any explanation of how the process worked. The cooking itself took quite a while, and while the staff did come around to change out the grill tops periodically, it felt disruptive. After each swap, we had to wait again for the grill to heat up, further extending the time before we could eat. In the end, my husband and I spent around $80, and we left feeling unsatisfied. The food took too long to cook, the portions were not generous, and the overall experience didn’t justify the high price. If they were to lower the per-person cost, it might feel more reasonable, but as it stands, I wouldn’t return or...