Kangnam Korean BBQ — Restaurant in San Diego

Man what a shame! Here in town on work after driving 2200 mi from Chicago. After I booked my hotel earlier in the day about 8 hours out started looking for a restaurant close by that was open late. To my surprise there was a Korean barbecue joint right next door which was absolutely perfect. I always consider a kbbq like a celebration meal which was definitely called for after such a long drive. Restaurants states open until 10:30 and I swiftly arrived as quickly as possible at 9:15 p.m.. I was greeted by a very nice young lady and asked for a table for one which she quickly told me they no longer take people after 9:00 p.m. I thought this was kind of strange being open until 10:30 so I tried to reason with her and explain it's only me I'm by myself and I'll be out of here very quickly won't even order that much I was very excited to eat there can you make an exception? I even showed her my work truck which was outside but still no budging. I noticed there was about 7 or 8 tables that had guests already eating or just ordering their food and probably about 40 other tables that were empty so they were definitely not that busy. Now look I can't even be mad at her because she's probably just doing her job but I believe that in the service industry especially in the restaurant industry you have to have a little compassion and sometimes go the extra mile which I wasn't even asking for much. Anyways I ended up going to eat next door and even after I was finished with my meal I had to walk past their restaurant back to my vehicle which I noticed there were still groups eating inside. Not sure why they couldn't just make this small exception. I guess every restaurant works their own way and makes their own rules so no hard feelings about that but definitely disappointed about the lack of compassion and willingness to...

The first round of meat here was the typical KBBQ. The meat and sides were great however when we ordered the next round of meat they did not arrive. We had our grill exchanged for a new one, asked about our food and our server said they would check. More time passes and nothing comes.

We see our server across the restaurant helping another table, meanwhile, tables all around us continue being served plates and we patiently wait with our fresh grill.

Eventually after another 30 minutes of waiting, one person of our table got up and asked our server if we could order some more because nothing had come. They said they would be right over after taking care of something first.

Another 15 minutes pass and as we watch other tables continue to order and receive more food it became clear that nothing and nobody was coming to us.

We flag down a second server and order more food which arrives promptly. All is well again.

We finish what was ordered as our original server returns to replace the grill once again and we place an order for what feels like what will be our last round of meat due to time constraints.

As we wait we see our meat loaded onto the robot alongside the sides and orders of another table in the room. The robot delivers the sides to the other table who assumes everything is theirs and proceeds to unload every plate that the robot was carrying. The robot arrived at the foot of our table empty and all we could do was send it back home.

We lose some more time as we wait for our server to come back so we can explain how our meat never arrived due to the misunderstanding. They apologize and place a replacement order for us.

The order never arrived and after waiting another 15 minutes we had to leave.

This is the first time we have ever left an AYCE experience...

I've been to this location twice now; once when it was still Olleh and again last month now that it's Kangnam. While the atmosphere is very similar to other KBQQ restaurants across San Diego, the food and service were either only OK or sub-standard.

I recently came in a group of 3 on a Saturday evening half expecting to wait at least half an hour plus, but my party got seated relatively quick. The atmosphere and just as loud and rambunctious as other KBBQ spots, but I'd say this is generally where everything stopped being standard. There were still groups of open tables and plenty of employees on the floor, so it wasn't like the restaurant was slammed or anything. However, service that night for my party and the other groups around us were relatively slow. My group didn't want to rush the employees, but you'd assume that after you have wandering eyes and lock looks with a server, they'd catch your drift and hopefully make you way over to assist. That unfortunately didn't happen at all that night. Servers would be quick to converse with other employees and have a laugh even after making eye contact with customers who'd have liked to place another order on food and drinks.

Speaking of food, most of the cuts that evening as well were bland and cut extremely thin, leaving already lean cuts like brisket to stick to the grill and burn immediately. It's not a necessarily an enjoyable experience when you're left spending more time scrapping burnt crisps off the grill than actually eating, compounded by the fact that we didn't get much service getting new grills changed out for us either. As much as I like enjoying new places to eat, I feel as though I wasted my money coming to eat here when there's a plethora of other KBBQ spots across...