Bebap Korean Eats — Restaurant in Rochester

First of all, I don't think I would call this restaurant a Korean restaurant. Certainly Korean inspired, or Korean fusion... but there's a lot of authenticity and variety missing here. Of the typical dozen garnish plates you would get from an authentic Korean restaurant, you get 3 here and if those 3 the kimchi was clearly the star. Almost all of the dishes on the menu had some alteration making them less Korean and more basic which I didn't like and if you have questions they want you to scan the menu with your phone to take you to a website. What ever happened to human interaction, knowing what you're selling, and working for your tip?

The restaurant atmosphere did not give a Korean vibe, either. Maybe they tried, but I don't think very hard. There are dying plants in crooked vases hanging above the booths. They added some wood trim and an archway. I got more of a lounge type vibe than anything else.

There were several options, but I ordered the Korean fried chicken, bulgogi taco, fried dumplings, bosam wrap, and the black sesame ice cream. The KFC was quite good, but very messy and only 3 peices for a hefty price tag. The bulgogi taco was strange, but I did like it - again very messy and awkward to eat, and the corn tortillas were quite stale...but for $6 it seemed like a good value and filling. The fried dumplings were also $6, but you only get 4 and they are only filled with rice, so all the flavor comes from a Sriracha aioli and that was a little disappointing.

I debated between the bosam wrap and the galbi ribs for quite some time. After asking my server I went with the bosam wrap, but I think I would've been happier with the galbi ribs. Again, there was just no real Korean element to the wrap aside from a gogujang sauce, so it was pretty disappointing.

My server recommended the black sesame ice cream saying it was reminiscent of vanilla bean. Boy was she wrong about that. The thing is, toasted sesame seeds have a pretty dominant roasted like taste and the ice cream takes on the flavor, too. They also top it with more seeds and a caramel drizzle making a pretty clear flavor profile.

Based on my experience, I think this restaurant needs to think about what direction they are trying to go in and stick to it, train their staff to understand that and the dishes better. Have a manager present to check in with guests and help the staff. Work on the vibe, add some culture and Korean swag.

All in all, Bebap was a pretty average experience and that's OK, but I probably won't go back and I'm not going to recommend them, either. Hope this helps, good...

I wanted to like this. Decor was lovely and service was fairly good. I also enjoyed my cocktail (the woo).

The food was as my struggle. Hubby and I are both vegetarian. My meal (near in photo- jajangmyeon) tasted like thick hoisin sauce (same as the Kikkoman stuff you get at hyvee, and NO perceptible other flavor) and his glass noodle dish (japchae) was quite flavorless. I was sad to see the tofu in both dishes— his especially (mine was coated in hoisin)— seemed to have little attention to its preparation and seasoning. I wanted to try the kimchi udon bokkeum but apparently the pork couldn’t be removed.

While I take partial fault for not having the awkward “hey aren’t we supposed to get banchan?” conversation, that was another bummer— we didn’t get any. I wonder if proclaiming we were vegetarian was a barrier (and if so, please just tell us rather than making the guest ask for food that most others seem to be getting).

We did enjoy the corn cheese app, though there weren’t enough nori crisps to eat it with. And it was bummer that our food all arrived at the same time as the app, despite ordering the app earlier in our visit along with the cocktail.

Overall, I wish I had gone with my initial instinct to make a meal of some appetizers- several veg options there sounded good.

I suspect their meat-containing dishes will have more nuanced flavor, so for those of you who aren’t vegetarian, I’d still give this place a shot. For those of you who are, consider trying a few apps before you decide if you...

I used to love this place and it was just genuinely a nice place I'd go to for a nice dinner once in awhile, but god it went down hill really fast after coming back months later. I got sat and spent 30 minutes waiting a server to just bring water to my table then another 5 or so minutes to take our order. No real need to talk I suppose, but compared to the service before I had a server named Bruce who was a bright star among the servers. Always had a charm to talk about things and witty to any conversation. The server seemed quite just rushed and didnt want to take long with my table. After all that I had ordered my usual order of the dumplings and my kimchi fried rice. I asked for extra Spam and less Kimchhinand I expected the normal bowl we always had. To which to my surprise it was a smaller bowl, and honestly I guess it could be because of cost and needing to lower amounts and portions. Though I recall all the times I was able to eat and take food home, but this time around both me and my friend were dissatisfied and just content with the meal. Even so we noticed that the extra spam that we asked for wasn't really noticeable. I had poked around my rice to see, but it was more of diced small bits strewn around that were barely noticeable. Then at the end we looked at the bill and were charged the xtra 4 dollars for something that was barely noticeable compared to the previous times we were there. It just seems like the charm is lost and the way it caught our hearts with the memory is just not...