Dooriban — Restaurant in Pinellas Park

TL;DR: Food is good. Expensive. Banchan (side dishes) are not free if ask for more (NOT normal for Korean restaurants). Bad customer expereience. Owner is cheap. See similar expereience review by Gean Austin.

First of all, this is my first impression of this restaurant, and it is also my first and last visit of this restaurant. I ordered Jjamppong, a Korean noodle soup with red, spicy seafood flavored with gochugaru. And it will cost you $19.99! It is very expensive if you ask me, but I ordered it anyway because I thought the portion might be a lot to justify the price. It turned out the portion was small for the price you paid, but it was served in a LARGE bowl! Sarcasm aside, the food tasted alright, it was flavorful and spicy.

However, my experience only went downhill from here. 3 side dishes (banchan) were served with my jjamppong, and they were kimchi, pickled raddish, and bean sprouts. Then few moments later, the gentleman sat in front of me ordered dolsot bibimbob, and was served with 5 side dishes. The 2 side dishes that I didn't have were fish cake, and broccoli. I found it odd that why I was only served with 3 side dishes. I thought they had run out of side dishes, but that gentleman's food was served after mine. Go figure. So far the expereience was leaning toward the negative side, and what really made the experience even worse was that I asked for a refill of side dishes. He then asked me which side dishes that I wanted to refill so I replied all of them. He looked at me funny, but he didn't say anything as he walked back to the kitchen. A minute later, He came back with 1(ONE) side dish, and it was a meager portion of pickled raddish. He didn't even say a word why I was served with only 1 side dish refill. I was confused, and a little insulted. A moment later, I asked him why I was only served with 1 side dish refill, and his reply was "I will get yelled by the owner if I give customers free refill of side dishes, or you can pay for more side dishes, didn't you see them on the menu?". Then I replied "since when do Korean restaurants charge customers for refill of side dishes? It's ridicuous". Yet again, he looked at me funny and walked away. It so happened the gentleman sat in front of me overheard my conversation with the waiter, and he casually talked to me saying that he also found it weird that the refill of side dishes weren't free. It is not normal.

For the record, I have been to many Korean restaurants throughout the nation, and this is the first time I have a restaurant charging customers for a refill of side dishes. Personally, I'd avoid this restaurant if you really want a true Korean restaurant experience. If you really like their food, then just do takeout, but really... the food on the menu are on the expensive side of the spectrum. From where I live (Chicago, IL), jjamppong would only cost you around $12, and generous portion.

Experience: 1 star out of 5 Food taste: 3 stars out of 5 Value: 2 stars out of 5 Final score: 2...

Probably this is the best Korean restaurant in the area, the authenticity is in the DNA, this place is ran by a Korean family bringing their home town taste here.

We came here as a group of 12 colleagues with very different taste buds and got opportunities to try different dishes on the menu, the unanimous feedback from the team is they will come back with their friends and families again as all of us were very satisfied with what we had.

You will be surprised the variety of items the owner is offering on the menu and they charged reasonably, good value for money. We ordered the Korean chicken wings and Korean seafood pancake to share. I didn’t have chance to take a picture of the full plate of the food, as the group can’t wait to share the food as they taste sooooo good.

I had Korean Galbi which is a beef short rib clear soup, trust me this is a must order item. It is not very common you can get clear soup in the US and they use whole piece of short rib to cook the soup with radish. It must have cooked for so long the meat was very tender.

If you are a big eater , please order fried rice and you can ask for the type of meat either chicken , pork or beef base on your preference. The portion is huge.

The owner is definitely having a very particular standard on the food, we were informed there is only limited amount of over night rice that they have to serve the fried rice. They didn’t use the fresh steamed rice to do fried rice and insisted to use over night rice which has a different level of moist.

One thing I always love about Korean food is they always serve a variety of side dishes, different kimchi , pickles , tofu, very refreshing.

A side note , the restaurant is facing the main road and having plenty of parking spaces , this is one of the major considerations when the owner chose...

Food is good but a little pricey. Service is inconsistent depending on whether you get an actual waiter or relative of the owner serving you. The servers are very attentive and polite. They also provide complimentary refills on side dishes.

The young thin man, who is a relative of the owner, provides poor service, and is constantly apologizing to customers for poor service, and the fact that he has to charge you $5 for a refill of side dishes (which is just 5 small plates of vegetables). Despite the fact that the last four times I'd visited this establishment, I was never charged extra. Also, most Korean restaurants in Korea Town California, New York, and Orlando do not charge for refills on side dishes. You can hear him all day saying to his customers "sorry I can't do this," or "sorry, I forgot that..." This kid has an excuse for everything. Plus, you have to ask him to refill your water glass despite the fact that he walked by your table a half dozen times.

In short, your dining experience will depend on whether you get a real server or a relative of the owner.

Follow- up 2nd visit: The server cleans your table by stepping on the booth, the part you sit on! Service is very poor / inattentive. The seafood pancake was soggy vs crispy. The beef bowgugie was served on a sizzling platter, but the platter was only Luke warm. Servers were in no hurry to clean dirty tables despite the fact that it was slow, and didn't see a problem with leaving a cart filled with dirty dishes in the middle of the dining room for prolong periods.

Food, sanitation and service is very inconsistent.

This place was good earlier on, but last two visits was very dissapointing.

Follow up third visit: This place appears to have changed hands, but rating...