YakiniQ Korean BBQ — Restaurant in San Francisco

Korean bbq is one of my favorite things of all time. I have been to NY (jongro bbq), charlotte (lets meat), Atlanta (762 bbq and 9292 korean bbq), and many gyu kaku (its japanese i know). My point is, yakiniq has been average. I enjoyed the food. The quality and variety are not bad, but there are some things that left me wishing for more. I hope the owners reads this because i think there is room for improvement. San Francisco is one of the major cities and all the other places i've been have done a better job at k bbq in my opinion.

What you guys did well:

1. good miso marinate 2)lots of variety
2. maybe this is a bad thing for the people trying to eat every item on the menu but you guys give large portions of meats.
3. fair prices, specially because this is an all you can eat restaurant.
4. most items are fairly tasty

What needs improvement? :

1. only 2 sauces. You guys have one that is a spicy with a wasabi flavor (not bad). But the second sauce is just another extra spicy version of the first one. Where is the sesame oil with salt. Where is the Gochujang, or soybean paste, or a sweet and spicy. Only 2 sauces: one spicy and one extra spicy. This makes it really hard to eat non marinated meats.
2. key side dishes missing. You guys have some good and tasty side dishes like potato salad, kimchi, the glass noodles, cabbage salad and others. But you don't have pickle radish, pickled onion, or a cucumber salad. In my opinion, having some pickled radish wrapped around some meat and kimchi would have made this much better. Lettuce leaves were too big and It took a very long time to refill the side dishes bur that is a minor problem.
3. no oil or lemon for the grill. In many restaurants they oil the grill to prevent food from sticking and burning. And the lemon is to scrub the burned residue. This would have helped reduce how often we needed to change grills.
4. our fan was not working. We were on the older side of the restaurant so i think our fan was just a bad one. Our neighbors had a good fan. Because of that and having to wait a long time for the waiter to come change the grill, we would find ourselves inhaling all the smoke. Not a lot of fun.
5. music was little bit too loud.
6. the place feels and looks old. The stair to the bathroom smells. Probably a renovation is needed but i understand it is a major project.
7. the bulgogi marinate was really average. It wasn't salty or sweet.
8. this is minor but Nothing we ordered had any garlic or green onions. These are typical korean aromatics and I think it would have added a extra layer of flavor to everything.

I would probably given you a 3.5 out of 5 because of the need of a renovation, average ambiance, average bulgogi and the slow service; however, i think 4 out 5 is okay because of the price, the variety, the waiters are hard workers and most items were fairly tasty. Ultimately, this is an all you can eat korean bbq restaurant. Most ayce will skip on quality and focus on quantity. YakiniQ does some things well but it is not an exception to the ayce rule. if i had more sauces (at least the traditional kbbq sauces), lemon or oil to prevent food burning/sticking, 1 or 2 more side dishes, and fix the bulgogi, i think yall could be a 4.5 out of 5 or even a 5 out of 5 (if you over look the old building) when it comes to...

We passed by lady night and the aroma from the street was amazing. We came up the staircase to a hip and happening place. The crowd is young and the energy was high. The wait was over and an hour and we were starving from a long day of moving. Several hours later we got a call from the owner, Tony. He apologized for the long wait. Now that is customer service. Who does that? That phone call and the smell made us know there was only one place in the city we were having dinner on our second night.

We arrived around 10 PM. To my great surprise they were still busy and a line at the door. This time we waited. Great crowd once again. There were large groups, small groups and bday parties. As the guest get up to leave a crew comes out to clean the tables and everything is clean and tidy in what seemed to be about 60 seconds.

We were seated and our Servers name was Moses What a great spirit and server. He took great care in guiding us through the evenings selection. He was so good that we ended up just letting him chose what came next. If you are new to the s type of food then ask for Moses. Rest assured you will be in the best of hands.

The food was amazing. You cook all the meats on a grill in the middle of the table. The smell is intoxicating and your taste buds water while waiting for the first round to be ready. Make sure you bring a healthy Appetite. This is not a restaurant where you want to come and just pick a little.

After our dinner was over, Tony came to the table and made sure our visit was good. Once again demonstrating great customer service and care for the guest. I look forward to attending this restaurant again in the...

The food was fine, but we were very disappointed with the attitude of the person that seemed to be the manager. We got our table late at around 9pm and ordered the Premium all you can eat set for 4. After the one big plate of the Premium set, we started our first round at the last order before the kitchen closed. So we sat and tried to finish everything. Just a little before 10, we asked one of the staff to help change the grill plate. The staff was polite to assist. Then after that, the manager came and appeared very upset telling us that the restaurant was closed and we could not ask for the staff for the service anymore. We were astonished cuz the close time was 10pm, and even though we were the only customers left, it was not yet the close time. We didn’t understand why the man seemed so upset. Then we continued and ended up finishing everything at 22:20. The manager one more time came up to us, more pissed off and told that everybody was trying to clean up and they all waited for us! He was very rude with all the attitude and the way he said it. If they were strict with their closing time, they could have told us 15min earlier with a polite reminder or even asked us to leave, instead of appearing pissed off, angry and saying something like ‘everybody is trying to do their job and they all wait just because of us’. I don’t think we will ever go back to the place...