Food Court Korea — Restaurant in Town of North Hempstead

I’m so sad bc this was my go to place whenever I visited Long Island. Been here 4-5 times and every single time I had a great experience. The male manager /waiter is always so friendly and attentive and patient. Every single time we went there the food was great. And they give you Korean ice cream bars at the end of the meal. Who doesn’t like that?? But the last time I was there, the nice male manager wasn’t there. Instead it was a middle aged woman who initially seemed nice enough. I brought 3 kids with me and we usually order three dishes bc my kids are small and ordering 4 would be too much. After the meal, the woman brought 3 ice cream bars and not 4. I thought she had just forgotten it miscounted so I asked nicely can we have one more. She started to tell me very rudely that we only ordered 3 dishes so we only get 3 ice cream bars. She said one ice cream per dish. All the other times I’ve been there - I’ve always gotten 4 even if I always ordered 3 dishes. So I said ok no worries. Didn’t want to argue. She said if I wanted another one it’s gonna cost me $2. Talk about not knowing customer service. Giving a $2 ice cream bar to a customer will go long ways. At this point it wasn’t even about it the ice cream - it was just respect for the customer and appreciation- which she definitely didn’t care for. And then I asked for a container to pack my leftover food and she didn’t even look at me nor respond so I thought she didn’t hear me so I said it loudly again. And then she literally yelled at me and said that she heard me. And then after she yelled at me she practically threatened me and said you don’t have to leave a tip! DID I EVEN ASK? By that point I had already paid my bill and left a tip so it was a moot point. Up until the ice cream dessert the service was fine. So I left a tip. I would’ve loved to take it back. There was another elderly man there and he must’ve felt bad bc as we got up to leave he did say cheerfully goodbye. And I said goodbye back. I’ll never come back here again unfortunately bc of the terrible treatment I got from that woman. I’m pretty sure she was just having a bad day but it still was enough for me to not come back. Food is definitely really...

This has been open now for a little while and I have been meaning to give it a try. Could it actually replace a trip to Queens for a quality authentic meal? I have heard mainly positive reviews of the food so I was less leery walking through the door of what used to be a local bar. There was just the two of us that day so this is a somewhat limited review. First, the interior is spare and is dominated by a long bar on the right side as you enter. The tables are spaced far apart (presumably for COVID reasons since typical Korean restaurants are packed in tight!). But you’re definitely not eating here for the decor. But onto the food. First the banchan - since it was lunch time, there were just a few given: kimchi, damuji (the yellow pickled daikon), potato salad, fish cake, and a spicy marinated root vegetable. One thing that’s different about this place is that they allow you to specify the protein for many dishes. We ordered the vegetable dolsotbibimbap (bibimbap served in a nuclear hot earthenware bowl) and the jjajangmyun (noodles with fermented black bean sauce) with pork. The jjajangmyun was just ok. First the noodles weren’t the more chewy kind you get in the typical Chinese-Korean places. Also, because they allow you to pick the protein, the sauce probably didn’t benefit from being cooked with the pork. Overall it was ok (still ate the whole thing) but probably not where I’d want to go if I had a craving. On the other hand, the dolsotbibimbap was excellent. Like many people probably would, I expected the absence of meat to be a fatal flaw, but even without the salty protein, this had a ton of flavor and textures. It was like I was tasting this for the first time. To be honest, I would come here just for this. At the end, maybe because we spoke Korean, maybe because it was a slow day, they gave us each a Haagen-dazs ice cream bar for dessert. Completely out of place but, who can say no to that?

So, I definitely have to come back here to try more of their food. My instinct tells me to stick to the more traditional Korean dishes. So 3 stars for ambiance and the jjajangmyun and +1 for the Korean dishes (including the banchan) and for the convenience of being...

I really wanted to like this place, as good Korean food is hard to come by in the area. We placed an order online for mandu, bulgogi, soy dak bokum, and seafood pajeon (misspelled as "paneon" on the menu). I'll start by saying that the website needs some work, as some of the links weren't working. That aside, I felt that none of the food was bad. The mandu was cooked well and maintained its crisp shell even after a 10+ minute car ride home, and the bulgogi was pretty decent. The soy dak bokum (chicken thighs marinated in soy garlic) was definitely on the bland side; if it had more flavor, it would've been awesome. The pajeon was okay but I felt it was made with way too much flour.

In terms of cost, I felt everything was a bit overpriced, but that could be due to COVID and everything being more expensive. Even with the 15% off (when you order online), it was still a pretty big bill.

My final and biggest gripe was the wait time (I honestly wouldn't even have written this review if the food was quick). We ordered the food online at 5:25pm. You automatically receive a text indicating your order has been received and that they will text you when the food is ready. I expected the food to be ready at about 6:00 or so, but when I went inside to ask about my order, they said it wasn't ready. No biggie, I patiently waited about 10 minutes when they said it would take at least another 5 or 10 minutes. At that point my hanger started to kick in, and I was getting annoyed. My order wasn't brought out until 6:25pm, a full hour after we ordered. At that point, I was not happy. In my opinion, four orders (I didn't mention this before but they're pretty small orders) shouldn't take that long to be ready, should it? You tell me, was I just being hangry and impatient, or do I have a...