KOGI Korean BBQ — Restaurant in San Diego

My family and I got there around 11pm-11:10pm. Let me preface this by saying we 100% came in willing to pay (which we did) and we don’t expect anything free (which we didn’t get), this review is solely on the service we got. We were told that the last call was in 5 minutes and asked if we still wanted to be seated, which we agreed to and that we’ll just order once. After we got seated, what seems to be the manager came to take our orders and reiterated that it would be the last call, which again we were okay with. I asked how much meat we were allowed to order since it’s the last call which the server told us just one per meat, but that he could give us a little more and we were also okay with that. We gave our order and the server left. We get told that one of the meats is not available so we order another kind and then everything started coming in. We get all the meats and some sides and while we’re trying to cook and eat quickly so we can let them close, they forget our drinks and some sides. Then when we’re asked if everything was okay, we told them that a couple things were still missing (mind you this was 10-20 mins after we started cooking). So they bring our drinks and then tells us the side is actually not available anymore since the kitchen left for the day and asked if we wanted another meat which we declined. Up to this point the server was slightly short with us (we were trying to give them the benefit of the doubt since it was late and they’re probably tired too). The grill was smoking and burning and no one came to change it, besides the one time coming around to ask if everything is okay, only because he was cleaning up no one came to check in on us. The food was not great (that’s another story). The whole vibe was not welcoming whatsoever and just seemed like they wanted us not there at all which I would have understood, had they had turned us away since it was close to closing, but they didn’t. We weren’t expecting out of the world, above and Beyond service, but just the regular kind of hospitality would have been nice. If they didn’t want to serve people then they should have just turned us away, we 100% would have understood. It’s the fact that they did offer to seat us and then gave us bad service like we forced our way in. This was our first time here and...

I will never go to this place again. They close at 1am. We got seated at 11:00pm last call for food or drinks is at 12:00. That’s fine but….. First they sat us at a table that was so weak it couldn’t even turn shrimp orange. It just sat on the grill. When I asked if they could turn it up they said that grill is weak and moved us to another table. So that’s 15 minutes out of our hour. Then they moved us to another table that was also weak and I had to ask them to turn up the grill because even the fatty beef belly which is super thin as it should be was barely browning. No sizzle. The knob is missing for the burner so they had to stick scissors in to turn it up. So at this point we are about 40 minutes into the hour that we can order food. Also they didn’t have half of the items on their premium menu but because we got one item that was only on their premium menu they felt fine charging that price. We waited so long for food that our grill sat empty most of the time we were there. A plus was that they did keep changing the grill but we barely needed it as we didn’t have food to cook on it. So most of the meat came at last call and at that point we filled up on sides and they had the nerve to charge $11 per person for leftover meat. That’s fine. That’s a 0% tip. Never again. I hope the owners are reading this. You know that our grills were barely cooking, even when we eventually got our food. Never before have I been sitting hungry at my table at Korean bbq 45 minutes after I got seated. To have the nerve to charge an $11 per person leftover meat fee at this point is completely ridiculous. We took an Uber just to go there because Gen is so smoky but this place is also smoky now. I don’t know if they need to clean out their filters but it’s the only reason we went there vs the closer option. I will not spend another penny at this...

Came here on a Saturday night 8pm (day before Mother's Day) and waited only 10 minutes to get seated (!!!). A note about parking, the parking lot is really small and cramped in front of the restaurant, but there is additional parking to the side and back.

We went for the $24 option, which includes a decent meat selection, but limits to 2 orders per person for 3 specific meats (beef tongue, galbi ribs, and boneless short ribs).

We don't recommend the garlic finger ribs since it was mostly fat. Also, we were disappointed with the beef tongue because it was fairly tough, and not tender at all (unlike at other KBBQ places). Though there are side dishes you can order (which are unlimited), like white rice and kimchi fried rice (as well other items), the banchan side dishes (those little dishes of kimchi, potato, fish cake, etc.) was only kimchi and some potato salad at this place. My wife (who really enjoys korean food) was disappointed.

Though the service was fast and friendly, the waiters forgot 1 or 2 items each time we ordered something (like our steamed egg during one of our orders, a salad on the next order, and the thin pork belly on the third order). It wasn't a big deal, since we just had to remind them on the next order (can't really blame the dudes since we know it can get hectic for them to serve so many tables). They were on point though doing grill changes (we didn't have to explicitly ask for grill changes here, unlike at other places).

Lastly, the music was kind of loud and it was hard for any of us to hear what the waiters were saying (on one order, I had to have the waiter repeat himself 3 times), let alone what any of us were saying (we all had to raise our voices way above normal to talk to...