Ghama Zone — Restaurant in Round Rock

We went last night and… honestly left super disappointed and won’t be returning.

We don’t usually speak poorly of food places, but this didn’t even meet basic expectations for what it should have been for food in terms of seasoning and portion expectations. (See below)

As Koreans, we were honestly excited to have another option in town. We went curious but unsure since the menu had mostly (to us) snack or street food for double average prices (gimbap, yubu/inari).

We ordered the jungsik and a couple of appetizers- Dak Ganjung and a hand roll.

Dak ganjung - tasted more like general Tso’s American Chinese food than the Korean dish. I’ve had the original in Seokcho, and while I wasn’t expecting it to match that, we were both saddened that it was far from it. Prob 50% breaded 50% chicken, which is too much.

The myungran shrimp hand roll- sadly didn’t really have roe in it. Myungran means fish roe but just a few specs present. It was Mayo and shrimp.

Then there was the jung sik. they said it was portion for 2. It really was a tasters portion for 2 or lunch portion for 1.

The worst part was- the wagyu was drenched in some marinade that was doused in salt! It was sooooooo salty I grimaced and spit it out! Also- why marinate wagyu? 🥴

the meat had no marbeling, so definitely not high grade wagyu, and for $70 and 5 pieces, I’d expect higher grade.

They still have to work out the table grilling thing bc a catering candle isn’t enough to heat a cast iron grill (albeit a cute setup). It took 15-20 min to be hot enough to actually slightly brown the raw wagyu. With the portion sizes, we waited as long for the skillet to warm up as it took to eat everything we ordered (portion sizes were small).

Also, jungsik - 정식 - means tradition meal. At basic, it should come with a soup, rice, a protein, and several like 10+ side dishes/banchan + multiple courses. It’s a setting originally meant for a king or nobility.

Their meal came with 6 small dishes of banchan, 1 protein and 2 rice (all to share for 2). No soup. When we inquired to our server (who is Korean, so understood it was a sore missing part), she brought us some chicken stock from the kitchen.

For $70, tbh- imho, we should have at the very least gotten 2 sets of banchan and meat portions, and the meat should have been higher grade and honestly unseasoned. While the banchans were good (sans Dak ganjung), they were tiny portions.

the thing I enjoyed was the sewoojang was good. (Banchan) - soy shrimp.

When the manager came to ask for our feedback at the end, we did give her both honest highs and lows, but were were taken aback when her response began with, “well, I’m not Korean, so I don’t know what Korean food is supposed to be like,” we 🥴😑.

Another off putting thing for us was that - with the exception of our server, a sweet ajumma who served us well, no one else was Korean.

Our host had asked us if we wanted to sit at the sushi bar (which was setup as one). we asked if there was also sushi and not just gimbap, she asked me what gimbap was. 😑

In the end, the manager gave us a small discount for the wagyu bc we rinsed our meat pieces in water, “grilled” them for 10-15 min and ate the salty pieces, and we left to go eat fast food bc we were still hungry. I’ve done that after eating a Michelin star meal, but this was a far cry from that to go grab fast food afterward.

It’s a pretty interior, people seem nice, I like that they offer some dishes we don’t have at other Korean restaurants in town, but it misses the mark by a lot, tbh. It was very overpriced and sadly not meeting even some basic seasoning sense ( 🧂 🤮).

I don’t recommend the dishes we had.

I get they’re in a soft opening phase, but this is a franchise. You’d think they have a few basic things down?

Anyways- those are our thoughts. We’re sad bc we were excited to have a nice Korean option, however, eating Korean at home or w couple of trusted places if we don’t want to cook, is a better time and...

I’m shocked that it took me this long to find this place but very pleased that I did. Normally if I want tteokbokki I either have to make it myself or go all the way to Cedar Park to visit HMart to get it the way I like it. So after a long weekend I was craving comfort food I searched Tteokbokki and google said this was 7 minutes away. The drinks were nice, I wanted Prosecco but they were sold out of the kind I wanted but we had an amazing server and he suggested Peach Makkoli or the Chestnut Makkoi and said they were most popular and would help cool my mouth down while eatting Tteokbokki. He was right and it was delicious and an easy drink to share with two people. I got Rose Tteokbokki for like $20ish and added cheese for +$3 and added dumplings for +$4 The dumplings I could’ve done without because they were just two pieces with a fried wrapper with rice inside and the cheese was burned with a torch to melt. I’m not a massive of having it done that way because of the smoky flavor it added but it was still really really good and the rice cakes were cooked perfectly. I prefer my tteokbokki to have a bit more kick to it spice wise but it was my first time eating here so I’m not going to be spicy about these things in my review, but I know for next time to ask for more gochujang. If you’re new to eating tteokbokki and can’t handle a ton of spice this is an excellent option for you because it’s a bit more mild of heat. My friend got what looked like a bibimbap dish with beef and he said it was really good and flavorful. The banchan were restocked constantly through our meal and when my server came around at one point to check on us I asked for a little more kimchi and he offered to bring me two. He wasn’t doing it in a rude way but just paying attention to what I liked most. The fish cake and raddish and kimchi were my favorites but I could’ve done without the macaroni salad side. That being said the staff were excellent, everyone in there seemed to really enjoy their job and had a positive attitude the entire time. The atmosphere was beautiful and not doing too much especially for those of us who get sensory overload easily. The two person table had enough space for the food, the lighting was dim enough to be comfortable and create calm ambiance but not dark to where it was hard to read the menu. The music was a decent volume so I could have easy conversation with my friend without needing to whisper or shout. I get that people might be surprised to pay $20 for kimbap or tteokbokki which can vary from place to place. When going to Hmart to my normal tteokbokki place it’s $16 but comes with a lot more add ons for free instead of $3/$4 for little add ons. Kimbap can vary in price and while ingredients don’t cost a lot it’s time consuming to make, I normally don’t pay over $10 for kimbap so I didn’t get it this time. Overall I think it’s worth the price to have a quiet clean organized place close to home to eat my favorite comfort food instead of a bustling food court atmosphere where I can’t hear the person across from me speak like when I’m at Hmart. I will...

The price is not worth the food or experience.

I am comparing my experience to similarly priced Korean or Asian inspired restaurants.

Food - Honestly the food was pretty solid. Everything was well cooked and tasted pretty good. No banchan and only received a small kimchi and pickled radish after we asked about the banchan.

We were also only given 5 chicken wings instead of the 6 listed in the menu.

The Rose tteokbokki was really interesting and a fun kinda twist on your standard tteokbokki dish. I really enjoyed it!

Drinks were very much limited to mostly wines and generic beers.

Service - We were sat at the end of the bar where we were kind of forgot for a lot of the night. Definitely heard a lot of employee gossip which was kinda rude to be talking about customers within earshot of other customers.

The employees were friendly when dealing with us though.

Atmosphere - This was probably one of the biggest drawbacks for me personally. The aesthetic is that of the restaurant First Watch except a little more bland. No real flair or direction in any of the design, it feels like just any sort of random restaurant with some little trinkets here and there.

The Men's restroom was small and had trash overflowing from the trashcan and on the floor.

You're paying for the experience of a restaurant and the food. The food and mood/atmosphere have to be good enough to make you forget about the price you're paying.

Price - I mean, they definitely charge a premium for their food. Because it cannot be the atmosphere. For a couple, you can easily swing up to the $100 - $200 range.

Overall - I wouldn't really recommend this place to anyone looking for Korean or Korean-fusion food for the price. I've actually talked some friends from going to here based on...