DAWA Korean Restaurant — Restaurant in West Haven

So, I don’t think Dawa is a chain? At least I can’t find any evidence that it is a chain. But it feels and tastes like a chain…

And what I mean by that is the vibe is “fast casual chain restaurant” and the food is of the quality I would expect from a chain: not particularly high quality, not particularly tasty, extremely meh sauces. Which is too bad.

Hypothetically Dawa is a “full table service” restaurant. And, may God strike me dead I am about to speak negatively about service in a restaurant. But, honestly, there is almost no service to speak of at Dawa. By that I mean someone will take your order and someone (else) will bring your order. If you need anything else in-between of after you are entirely on your own. I mean it did not appear possible to even get someone’s attention at any point during or after my meal No one checked in. No one would make eye contact. Mainly there wasn’t even anyone in the room. Whatever, I took a napkin off the table next to me. When I wanted to pay I decided that I must have to go up to the host station/desk and pay, since there was zero sign of anyone returning to my table.

But when I started to get up from my table the original waitress did come and bring the check. So I guess you’re not supposed to go up and pay…

Bottomline: This is not what I would consider a “full service” restaurant.

While I love Korean cuisine, I really do not like Soju. So this is probably my fault, for wanting to eat Korean food, but also drink Sake. There was one cold Sake on the menu, so I ordered it. $25 for a bottle. To put this in perspective: I have had plenty of cold sake that I enjoy for less price than this. So I was not worried about the price point. This sake was actually undrinkable. I have had A LOT of sake my friends. A LOT. This somehow tasted like bad apple juice?

I mention this because someone at Dawa, hypothetically chose this apple juice sake to serve. Which makes me really, really question the judgment of whoever is making those decisions…

The banchan was okay. Not terrible Not particularly good. The potato was not good. I know that they are meant to not be cooked super soft. But this potato was so hard I question if it was cooked much at all. Flavors were meh. As in whoever is making the banchan is not using the best quality oils, seasonings, etc etc. Can you buy banchan pre made?? I’ve never heard of that. But if you can then that’s what I would say this was…

Things I ordered: Tteok Bokki, Kimchi Jeon, Hwae Dupbap. Just so we’re clear: These are all things that I have eaten before. Many times. So I’m judging the food at Da.Wa against…BETTER Korean food.

Every dish was disappointing in flavor and ingredients. If I had to guess I would guess that the Tteok Bokki sauce came out of a jar/can/bottle. Very flat flavor profile, no depth, not delicious. Korean Pancake, when made with the correct ingredients is tender and crispy fried and creamy delicious. This was not I mean it was fine. If you haven’t had really good Korean pancake.

The Hwae Dupbap was not good. Hwae Dupbap is basically a sashimi version of Bibimbap. So it is rice with basically a fresh salad over it and then topped with all sorts of fresh, raw fish. When the Hwae Dupbap was put in front of me I could see that the fish was not, shall we say, “as fresh as it could be” (i.e., not the best quality). It was topped with Tobiko that was CLEARLY not great. I could see that before I ate anything. The salad portion seemed to be that kind of pre package coleslaw mix you can buy…???? I’ve never been served that in a Korean restaurant before. As in the salad portion was raw cabbage sliced super fine. Which is, actually, incorrect. Not an enjoyable meal.

If the food had been DELICIOUS I would have ignored the lack of service. But both of these aspects were not something I would be interested in experiencing a second time. Oh well.

If you’ve never had Korean food before this is probably fine. Maybe meat items are better than non meat items?? I...

This review is from a native Korean and is based on several experiences I've had over the last month and a half since DAWA has opened.

Let me just say that with the quality of the food this place has put out, this restaurant will NOT be in business for long. My family and I have long awaited for a decent korean restaurant in the New Haven area and seems like we'll be waiting a little longer.

Here are my top 3 uneventful memories of this place:

We came here the first week they were open for my dad's birthday. Overall the food was overwhelming average and nothing to write home about. We were however disappointed in the sashimi plate. There were two different sections of salmon and tuna that tasted like they were old and left out for a couple of days unrefrigerated. We told the owner (or manager) what the deal was but he tried to reassure us the fish was fresh. My dad who had previously worked at a fish market as a sushi chef wasn't so convinced. Considering the rest of the meals were okay we let it go.

My brother and I had stopped by again one day to grab something to eat. The tangsuyuk was good, the jjambbong and jjajangmyun were good and consistent with what we had the first time. We ordered a jjajangmyun with extra noodles and it had the same amount of noodles as my regular size jjambbong. I wasn't too happy about this, but again I decided to let this go because it seemed like my brother didn't need the extra noodles but I wasn't too happy about paying the extra cost and he was getting tired from his second covid shot so i left it alone. On that same day, I brought my girlfriend maeuntang (spicy fish stew) for takeout. I'll preface this by saying she's had this same exact dish when we all went out for my dad's birthday and said it was okay but good enough for her to have again. This time it was a different story. There was barely any fish, mostly vegetables and the taste was too strong of MSG. Before anyone argues that this may be because this was takeout and she didn't have it at the restaurant, she had it immediately when I got home because we don't live far from the restaurant and didn't even have to microwave it. Fact of the matter is that they skimped out on some important key points of the dish.

The last and quite potentially the final time we went was with my family and some family friends. It's quite honestly shocking how quickly things went downhill. We ordered fried dumplings as an appetizer and to our surprise it was the frozen dumplings that we can get at Costco. How do we know? Because it was the same greasy texture and taste that we have in our freezer at home, something my dad absolutely hates. How can you put “made from scratch” on your website if this is clearly not true? My dad's friend order yukgaejang, the smell of bean sprouts and the taste of yukgaejang was so bland and watery he had them take it back and remake it. They came back with the same exact thing and he didn't have another bite. My dad had the jjambbong and he said he couldn't taste anything but salt and MSG. There is a lot more to this last experience but I think I've come across my point.

Like I mentioned at the beginning of this review, with the quality this place is currently putting out, I would not step foot in here ever again until they change some things around.

The owner says he's had other restaurants in Flushing, NY but I'm skeptical if that's true. Knowing the quality and expectations of Koreans in NY, this place would've closed its doors very quickly. This restaurant is fairly new and for its sake I do hope they turn the ship around, but until then my family and friends will not be...

I've been thinking about what to say about Dawa for a while. I've been dining here frequently over the last several weeks because the food is excellent. THE FOOD IS FIVE STARS. I want to be very clear about that.

HOWEVER, the service has been lacking in many ways, with tons of passive aggressiveness. My first night dining here, I ordered bulgogi along with my dining partners. The waitress instructed us how to properly eat it (I've eaten bulgogi before, but thought this was endearing initially - I now know better). Our experience overall was great, and we decided to come back.

The second time we visited, the waitress paid no attention to us. We had to waive our hands for attention, ask for napkins, ask for lettuce etc. I requested gochujang for my beef – she gave us the bottle (after telling us that Bulgogi shouldn't be consumed with gochujang), – and snatched it away several moments later only to give it to another table. She didn't even speak to us when she did this, just snatched it only minutes after we asked for it. We were ignored for other tables of customers, and noticed that they were treated fairly and with attentiveness. I can't say why this was the case.

The time after, we ordered a soup that was under seasoned for our taste. To make it better for myself, I added sauce to the broth. After coming to check on us, the waitress basically stuck her finger in our soup to see what we had done to it. Seriously. It was very clear that she was angry at us for seasoning the soup ourselves, despite us paying for it. She asked us "what did you do to the soup?" with a grimace. Honestly, it was very embarrassing/uncomfortable. (If I'm paying for the soup, I should be able to eat it in the way that I want.)

The last visit went similarly. I ordered bulgogi and was not given lettuce or sesame oil, despite the bulgogi coming with these things the other three times I've been there in the past. It’s strange to have such inconsistency with the dish, given that we ordered it three times in the past two weeks. I asked the waitstaff for lettuce wraps and sesame oil - and our server hesitated to give it to us "because they had to walk downstairs." They didn't give us sesame oil "because it's already marinated in sesame oil."

I found a lot of the passive aggressiveness by the wait staff to be a huge turn off. The constant judging for not eating the food "authentically" or "properly" is unwelcoming and embarrassing. The staff should learn how to better interact with customers - ask if they need help, instead of being overbearing. Let them have whatever sauces or condiments they want - if they are paying for their food. Don't tell people that they "shouldn't" eat a food a certain way, etc. The entire time we ate here, we constantly felt that either no one was paying attention to us, or that the wait staff's eyes were on us to only make sure we were eating things in a certain way. When we talked to them – if you can get them to pay attention – they are in general dismissive and it’s hard to maintain their attention (they start walking away before they even try to hear you.) The whole thing was bizarre. All people want is to eat in peace and have good...