Central BBQ Lakehouse — Restaurant in Tempe

Let me start with this is our first time experiencing a Korean BBQ. It has just opened in our neighborhood and thought we would give it a try and review it as honestly as we could. It's in "The Lakes" of Tempe and is on the Lake. The building itself goes back to the late 70's and is very big.... might be too big for this restaurant. Each table has its own "Induction Grill" (No flame, which is nice). My opinion is that the tables are too small once they start bringing the food out as it fills quickly and you find it very hard to find an open space to set your drink down. There are also LOTS of Tables and chairs inside and outside almost like they are expecting 100's of people at a time. The menu is massive with the choices of protein and vegetables. It's "all you can eat" (limit 2 hours ). You can pick 3 Proteins to start, then 3 different ones each time you re-order after your first round. Sides are unlimited also. Food and drinks are brought out by robots, however their is a waiter to help you through the process, which was important for us!

The couple we went with dine at Korean BBQ restaurants semi-frequently. They said it was one of the better ones they have been to. As for my wife and myself, though we semi enjoyed it, we found it cramped, messy (don't get too dressed up!), a maybe once or twice a year experience. Atmosphere was too "Flashy" I guess they like Flashing LED lights in different colors in Korea? Felt like I was in a Rave during spring break. Drinks were a bit pricey, but I guess that's the norm now. Our overall bill was $208 (including 22% tip) for 4 of us. Another weird rule is that you will be charged $10 at the end if YOU LEAVE (don't eat) extra "Proteins" that you may have ordered. I'm sure it's more of a threat than a reality, however what if you didn't like something they brought out and left it? Sorry sir that will be an additional $10...... Yeah, I don't think so. Bottom-line, I truly hope they do well as we need a nice restaurant (or two) in that prime location. I think the space is way too big for their business but only time will tell. I CAN'T see people coming here to support them once or twice a week for sure, unless they are at the bar. Big Problem. Fitting into the area...... I think they need to work better with their neighboring restaurant, Pier 54. It appears they may have cut patron's of this long-time Bar and grill from parking in their parking lot. They even posted a GUARD at the entrance of the lot to be sure only BBQ guests could park there. We were there on Friday night and only 1/4 of the lot was filled (all night). Making the Pier 54 patrons park in the lot next door, not a far walk but I think was totally unnecessary and could only hurt the Vibes from the owners of 54 and upset the regular customers. Pier 54 is a very small outdoor venue and many of their patrons Walk there from home, so I'm sure they don't take up that many spaces. These are potential customers that might have given the BBQ a try but may have pissed them off enough to say screw you! Working together with other businesses can make or break your business. Maybe only limit or prohibit the space when expecting larger crowds . Think about it, people driving by don't know who is dining where but a FULL PARKING Lot speaks volumes for a Restaurant! There may be more to this, however you better get over your differences asap. To sum it up... Our friends will probably go here again 3 or 4 times a year, my wife and I will probably go again one more time to see if we like it better now that we know what to expect, however I don't see us going more than...

I hate writing bad reviews I really do, but I could not overlook this one. I have been to this location when it use to be Lido, now a Korean BBQ place, thinking my experience would remain good...well yes if you like less than mediocre food with a side of HAIRS! I found not 1 not 2 but 3 hairs in various entrees! I started to look around to see if the staff was messing with me and I’m on some kind of hidden camera TV show, because this was completely ridiculous and hard to believe. I gave the restaurant grace and didn’t say anything to the waitress about the first two hairs I found but after the third one it was apparent that this is a major issue. After showing the waitress the 3rd hair she said she would speak to the manager. 10 minutes goes by and she tells us the manager will come speak with us, which we tell her that our movie is starting across the street and we need to leave. Another 10 min pass and we decided to get up and walk to the front and find said manager who is taking his sweet time. We end up running into him who looks about 20 years old, we explain the situation to him and his exact words were “I’m sorry but I didn’t personally see the hairs and all the cooks are wearing hair nets, and there’s nothing I can do but apologize” to which we said we showed the waitress and that was not enough for him, he wanted us to actually collect all 3 hairs and hang onto them so we can show him! LOL My partner told him we were not looking for a complete free bill but if he could at least take my portion off the bill because I was so disgusted I lost my appetite and stopped eating! The manager’s response was “I can’t do that because she tasted the food”. (Insert mind boggling here) first off how would he know what I ate and what I didn’t eat? Was he personally spying and counting how many pieces of meat I ate? In reality I tried to eat the interesting rice bowl side which had a hair in it so I pushed it to the side, I tried to eat a piece of garlic chicken which had a hair in it so I pushed it to the side, then the cucumber salad which also had a hair in it! When all was said and done and all hairs were accounted for I ended up eating 5 tiny pieces of beef and 1 piece of shrimp which was in the BEGINNING of our meal before the hair mishap! So $29 bucks for hair and 5 small pieces of gross flavorless meat and 1 shrimp that still had eyeballs attached to it and smelled like dirty pond scum lol. I should also mention the place was dirty which should have been my first clue. Because I am a reasonable person, we did tip the waitress because she shouldn’t have to pay for the owner’s lack of customer service. He ended up giving us $3 bucks off LOL. I can’t wait to revisit this place again when a different restaurant opens up in its place, because there is no way this company will be successful with zero customer service, dirty environment and...

The worst dining experience I have ever had (And that's Not hyperbole)

-Service inattentive and took FOREVER (2 meat orders in 2 hours) -Very poorly lit to be cooking raw food -Bill went to wrong table, charged wrong person and returned THEIR card to us

In the 2 and a half hours I was there, in a mostly empty restaurant, we had gotten 2 orders of meat in because our server was never around. It took 30 minutes to get sodas to the table. And we asked for a grill change, and that took so long, that one of our party members decided to physically pick it up (said to do it jokingly, but he was very upset at this point) and walk it across the restaurant to the bus boy.

We were sat outside on the patio, and the lighting was absolutely terrible. I understand they want it dark for the ambience, but lighting is slightly important when you're COOKING RAW FOOD. There was a bright light behind us and it turns out that another table had propped up their phone and was using that to see. And then the overhead patio lights turned off so you couldn't even see anything on the table! Just look at other pictures people have posted and noticed how the sunken in hot plate is very dark in the night time pictures.

There was a dispute with the bill so we sent it back with the server. Eventually we saw a manager, I would assume, explain something about the bill to another table. Then they left and we said dang should've flagged them down. And then another server comes back with our bill and a card in the slot of the booklet. But none of us paid, so we were confused and looked at the card and it had someone's name whom wasn't in our party, and asked the table the manager talked to and it WAS THEIR CARD. Thoroughly confused they called their server and explained the mistake, and we jokingly thanked that person for dinner, and they took the bill back and I would assume reversed the charge, but now that's a pending charge on their card based on how the restaurant works and the waitress said it should be reversed in a few days. We waited another 30 minutes for our check to come back and at this point we just walked up to the front and requested a manager there.

15 minutes roll by, and finally someone claiming to be the manager just said sorry and explained how our server was new, but clearly their training protocols are way below par because clearly serving wasn't this person's calling.

Finally they were able to correct the bill and gave it to us. After all this, i'm still reeling the fact they had the audacity to charge us full price for that experience. Couldn't even comp the Dr pepper we got 1 of because we couldn't get refills. But by this time we had it and just wanted to be done and leave that place. Walking out was heavily considered multiple times, but we try to be decent members of society and give the 1 waitress that helped...