Bonchon San Gabriel — Restaurant in San Gabriel

While I would love to give Bonchon a higher rating, I just can't. I enjoyed the food, but the service was atrocious.

Don't get me wrong. I went there because of personal recommendations from friends to get the Korean fried chicken, and they weren't wrong. I had one other place, and Bonchon blows it out of the water with their exterior and the chicken tenderness. However, the main thing that bothers me is the service provided to me at Bonchon.

I went to Bonchon and ordered 3 items: 20 pieces of soy garlic wings, the seafood udon soup, and the bulgogi house special fried rice. Each of the items had something wrong with it.

The fried chicken only had 19 pieces rather than the 20 I was promised. While I do realize this may not be a huge problem, I still would like the full amount that I ordered since I am paying the money for it. Aside from that, it was fine. However, we also ordered the soup and the fried rice. We waited about 10 minutes for the fried chicken -- which was good, but that was probably because everyone else already had their orders so it wasn't busy for the kitchen. When we finished the chicken, which was in about 20 minutes, the fried rice and the soup didn't come out yet. We waited about 5 more minutes before asking about it. When the waitress came out, she claimed that it was in the process of being made, but we could tell that they didn't even start on either of the orders.

After about 7 minutes, the fried rice came out. To be honest, the fried rice was okay. There wasn't anything special about it since it is just fried rice but with bulgogi in it. In my opinion, it is a pretty standard dish. The only problem that we had was that it took such a long time since they forgot about our order. When we finished the fried rice, we waited another 4 minutes before they brought out the udon soup. When it was brought out, the server wondered whether it had seafood added into it and said they would check. We decided to not touch the soup since we thought that they would come back with a reply. After about 4 minutes of waiting, we decided to ask about one of the servers whether the udon had seafood. They came back and said that it did. I think that was a terrible customer service on their end since the server said they would check whether it had seafood or not. It wasn't until we asked about it that they confirmed for us rather than coming out and saying whether or not it did.

In totality, the fried chicken was good while the udon and the fried rice weren't anything special. The main caveat; however, was the horrendous customer service. I don't plan on going back just because I don't want to wait for a long time just to be served poorly.

P.S. The time approximations were due to watching the basketball game and...

I have only been here 3 times. The first time I ate at the restaurant. It took over an hour for the food to come out. The service was Less than desireable. My wife liked the food so it made up for the service.

The 2nd time we ordered and picked up because we can’t sit there and wait. We ordered at 6pm. We were told 15 to 20 minutes. I got there at the 20 min mark and waited 5 minutes. Got home and the chicken was still crispy. All good.

Today I called in the order at 605pm. I was told 15-20 minutes. Cool no problem. I got there at 625pm. The guy says my order isn’t ready yet. I sat there from 625-650pm. No order yet. I get the employee and he says “oooh are you peter? I said yes. He picks up my food from the counter. My food has been sitting there from when I got there. Same spot. I was sitting there looking at that bag for 25 min.

I told the waiter I have been waiting for a long time and my food was just sitting there? Now it’s cold. He replies no it is still ok to eat.

I opened the box and touched the chicken. It’s cold Not hot. Not warm and not crispy. It’s been sitting there steaming inside the box for 25+ minutes. The waiter looks in the box and says it’s ok. I told him I want a refund.

The waiter then says ok hold on while he gets the manager. He walks to the manager/owner. Speaks to him for about 30 seconds. He walks to me and says “I am sorry about that. Let me get your refund”.

No attempt to genuinely apologize to me. He then comes up with an excuse about sometimes when it gets busy the employees miss things. The restaurant was 20% filled. It wasn’t busy.

I got my refund and...

Disappointing service today that ruined the entire meal. Went in for lunch. Most of the staff were helpful. The food was good but a single moment ruined the entire day.

Ordered a bulgogi dish, they charge $17 for a half plate of bulgogi with mushrooms and rice. Then ordered some lunch specials which were alright.

My girlfriend asked for sauce to go with the chicken (something like spicy mayo to dip) and instead of politely offering sauce one of the staff ( an older lady) was extraordinarily rude to the both of us. She pointed at the chicken and then told us that they don't offer sauce to go. That it was on the menu (as if we can't read) and then went to the front to pick up a menu while yelling to her staff that they "don't offer sauce to go". She then brought a menu and shoved it in my face and pointing at the policy where they don't provide sauce. We explained that we meant spicy mayo or something like that she very tersely said that "we charge for that".

Honestly, the food was alright but this was extraordinarily rude and uncalled for. She acted as if we were idiots and did not provide helpful/productive statements. Maybe she was having a bad day but she shouldn't put it out on...