Gaya Korean Tofu & Grill — Restaurant in Torrance

I'd like to preface this by saying I've never felt compelled to write a Google review in my entire life until now. But the customer service (or lack of it) my friends and I experienced last Saturday (9/18/21) was unacceptable and I'd like this review to heed a warning for future guests.

tl;dr: My friends and I were seated around 6:30 pm but did not receive our food until after 8 pm and the staff were not communicative and did not follow COVID safety measures.

Basically, there were 3 of us (myself included), we all ordered soup-based dishes so we assumed the food would be out relatively quickly but we didn't even get our side dishes (banchan) until 8pm, let alone our water. There were two other large parties (of about 10-12 people each) that ordered after us and even then we didn't receive our food until way later around the same time as them. Even worse, the gentleman (manager?) took off his mask when he was approaching our table to collect the bill.

I wish one of the staff was at least transparent to all parties that the food wasn't expected to come by until much later. There was no communication nor apologies whatsoever from the staff nor management. And I understand that perhaps Gaya was particularly short-staffed that evening but there still should have been some communication on their end on the estimated time our food was going to arrive or what was going on from their end. My friends and I really just sat there trying to kill the time for 1.5 hours while waiting for the food, and I don't know why I didn't suggest we cancel our orders and walk out sooner. My friends and I left the restaurant much later than expected and I can only imagine how stressful that could have been for other guests who might have been on a tighter schedule.

Don't get me wrong, the food was good but the lack of customer service and communication are unfortunately not enough for me to reconsider going back. Again, it pains me to write such a negative review, especially for a small business, but I hope my feedback will be put to good use for better management practices moving forward as well as a warning to...

It is very unfortunate that I have to give this place 2 stars because it is one of the decent Korean restaurants I can find in Torrance. The food is good, and the price is great, compared to others. However, I am not sure if the owner is not looking for servers to hire or can't find them but they are extremely short of servers. There are plenty of tables to sit but no one to serve them. When I went on Friday for a dinner, I was surprised to see the place full plus some more waiting for their food to take out, but with only ONE server and the owner to serve them. We had to sit at the table for 45 minute without anything on our table except for cups of water. This is very difficult when you have little kids. Korean restaurants usually give you some banchans before the main food comes out but I guess this place knows that the main food won't be coming out for 30 min so they didn't want to give you banchan too early?? We also had to wait forever to pay our check, actually I just went up to the register, still waited about 10 minutes standing there before I could pay and leave. We devoured our food since we were too hungry but I won't be...

We've been here a few times and each time we've enjoyed ourselves. the grilled meats and tofu soups are all tasty. They have many different side dishes they bring out at the beginning of the meal which i am pretty sure they make them in house. This includes their kimchi which was the best I've ever had. Their prices reflect a family style serving, so it can get a little pricey but its totally worth it. The over all atmosphere is nice, and everything is clean and neat. I've never had a big problem with their service, but they are chronically short staffed and are always rushing around. This makes things really nice if you dont like to be inturrupted during your meal all the time. But don't be afraid to get their attention if you need assistance because they are super nice. I'm pretty sure it's a family run establishment. i'll always come back, i have dreams about their delicious beef...