K-Town Korean BBQ & Hot Pot — Restaurant in Stockton

OVERALL: Your money is better spent at Elk Grove OZ Kbbq (or even Yogi across town) than here.

I’m so disappointed with this spot as someone who goes to Kbbq often in Sac, Elk Grove, and the Bay Area. I wanted Stockton to have the same level of quality and service; and I had my fears going into this place because it’s Stockton, you kind of expect a level of meh 🫤 when going into places. Sadly, this place is subpar.

SERVICE: 1/5 😐 We were seated 30 mins after waitlisting which is fine. What we didn’t like was how when we got to our seat, NO ONE explained the process. No “Is this your first time dining with us?” And so on. Had to figure it out on our own, which is fine but for the price you pay, you expect more. Just sat down at a table with no spoons, no chopsticks, no plates nothing. No prep.

Our server was running around, took 10-15 mins to get any utensils and water. He was busy—- but if you’ve ever been to OZ kbbq, this place is nothinggggg. So I’m wondering what he was so busy with if 1. The ordering system is by QR code (which should be explained to people!!!!!) and 2. Most of the sides are SELF SERVE.

Meat selection: 0/5!!!!

$30/person for dinner with KBBQ only (no hot pot) and you get 6 meat options 💀there’s chicken and squid and etc etc but this review is for people who know ordering chicken & seafood at kbbq is a side eye move. This place has 5-6 beef options and none of it is good.

When we go to kbbq, we mostly just order brisket…. This place has THICK briskets—- and it’s so lean. It literally tastes like this place just bought the cheapest cut they could find. How do you mess up the easier meat to prep? Just slice it with a machine.

0/5 on the pork belly. See pic attached. That’s ONE order of pork belly, rolled up to hide the fact that it’s such a thin cut. They probably have their machine settings mixed up bc the pork belly slices were too thin and the brisket was too thick…. My smoked bacon slices from Costco are thicker than this.

0/5 Cheese corn—— SKIP THIS!!….. we ordered 3 and literally didn’t eat it (and we always have cheese corn, this was just so nasty)

Banchan / side dish selections: 1/5 TRASH….. 1 point for the lettuce being free, no up charge. Everything else was mid and subpar in terms of options/variety you expect at other KBBQ for the price you pay. No fish cakes, no fermented sides. Just bad kimchi and BUFFALO WINGS? Anyways.

0/5 The Japchae I wanna specifically mention this bc they had “””Japchae”””” in the self service area—— and that was literally NOT Japchae lmao. That or that was the worst Japchae that doesn’t taste like Japchae I’ve ever had. Consider this just sustenance food

DESSERT: 5/5 They had an ice cream fridge where you could take as many as you wanted. This was probably the only decently good thing at this place. Still doesn’t make up for the thick briskets.

Anyways, overall, I’d rather go to Yogi bc at least their meat options are better, AND their QR system lets you call over your server as well as requests things like grill change and water without having to pray and hope that your server happens to walk by AND remember what you requested.

But fr tho, just drive to Oz kbbq lol

Special mention: I will say the table bussers were very efficient. They always took plates away quickly, which we appreciated. I never had to...

First, the hostesses have the attitude that they would like to be anywhere but there. Understandable to an extent. Second, we got seated and no one came to our table. It was our first time so we had no idea but saw other tables were being helped. Had to go ask and they found out the server assigned to the table was not there and found someone else. Nothing was explained, as far as what to do or where to go for the buffet and items for the hotpot. The drinks were bitter. The red meat had an off coloring and were not fresh. The atmosphere was so crowded and the tables near us were overcrowded they kept bumping into the seats. The hot pots come filled to the top and I didn’t finish it and asked if they offered to go. They pointed at the sign of $12.99 that they charge for food waste. But it was not as if I had gone back for seconds or even ordered anything extra, it was just the soup and some veggies that remained so I left it behind. It makes no sense they would charge $12.99 to take the only plate you got there but then not charge $12.99 for the same plate to stay back to get tossed. I would not recommend this place, it’s expensive...

First time was during their soft opening. Service was excellent and great food. Best service from our waiter, Matthew. He was ontop of it! Kept our drinks refilled and checked on us and asked if we needed anything.

This was my second time at Ktown, it was a 40 minute wait before we were seated for 3 guests, which is typical for most kbbq. We went in during noon for lunch, but we were charged for dinner. We also had a terrible experience with the server we had this time. Our waitress disappeared right after she took our first order. Our food came before our utensils, which we had to ask the person who brought out our meats for our utensils. He didn’t understand the request, so he went to the back and sent another waitress out to ask what our question was. We had asked for the utensils again. The second person went to the back and our waitress finally came out with one tong, one scissor and three forks. The entire time we were there she did not check on us, nor change our grill. Also, we ordered a mango green tea with lychee jelly. The drink didn’t have the jelly in it. We were charged 75 cents for the jelly. No tip for...