Gaza & Xin Korean BBQ — Restaurant in West Lafayette

I am very hesitant to leave negative reviews on any restaurant, especially ones that have been good in the past. I have eaten here before in the past, but recently it has gone downhill in terms of food quality and service. I had a very negative visit tonight, which is prompting this review.

First and foremost; I came with my partner around 8:30 and the restaurant had very few people, so they were not very busy at all. Many of the staff members were standing around and chatting; so clearly were not in any kind of rush.

Here are the things that led to a negative experience: -The server came one time, took our order, then NEVER came back. He sat in the corner chatting and ignored any attempt to signal him. He never refilled our waters; never checked on us or asked how the food was; nothing. We had to politely get the check from a different server. -The garlic beef I ordered was so heavily seasoned with garlic I could hardly eat it. I love garlic beef; I cook with a lot of garlic myself; and I have had it at many other restaurants and have NEVER had this problem. The garlic was so strong it made me a bit sick. In addition to this; the portion of the beef was incredibly small compared to the price; it also feels like the portion of meat is nearly half the size of what you would get a couple years ago for the same price. -My partners seafood was incredibly "rubbery" and tasted strongly like frozen seafood that had been heated up, it genuinely tasted like cheap fish or shrimp you could buy bagged frozen from Walmart and then heat up, which was really surprising and disappointing.

Given the server never returning and waiting ages for the check/someone to come and check in on us, we decided to not finish our food and just go pay and leave. And, since you have to pay up front in front of multiple servers, we felt guilty and could not leave 0% tip so we tipped 15-20% anyway.

Absolutely disappointed and saddened with the...

This place does not deserve the hype. The service was straight-up disrespectful. Our server didn’t check on us a single time — not once. We had to literally wave them down like we were invisible. Meanwhile, they were hovering over other tables, all of which just so happened to be white. Yeah… we noticed.

We asked multiple times for a grill change, and they ignored us every single time. But then we watched them switch the grill for the table next to us twice without them even asking. When my partner tried to bring it up again, the Korean waiter interrupted him mid-sentence and just moved on. At that point, it felt deliberate. It wasn’t just bad service — it was personal. And honestly, it felt racist.

The food was garbage. Meat was mid, portions were tiny, and the “unlimited” thing is a scam — you can only order 3 meats at a time. And they take their sweet time bringing it out. We spent more time waiting than actually eating.

And here’s the wild part: they charge an automatic 18% tip. For what? For pretending we didn’t exist? For garbage food and worse service? They really taxed us for being treated like trash.

And don’t even trust the reviews — no way this many people had a good experience. Either they’re paying for fake ones or handing out discounts for 5 stars, because there’s nothing here worth recommending.

Never coming back. Ever. This place should be...

I’ve only had the bbq here and I absolutely love it. IDK what they put in that orange sauce but I literally crave it making me wanna go to gaza!! Regardless of loving the food, I have two reasons why I gave this place two stars. 1. the service is absolutely terrible. I kid you not I have tried to go on non-busy days (knowing how bad the service is yet wanting korean bbq) and the service was still horrible. The servers don’t ever really check on you so imagine how it’s like on a busy day. 2. I had talked up gaza & xin (the food) to a very special friend of mine at the time who lives out of town and I finally convinced him to try it (this was around a year and a half ago but this experience still flabbergasts me). We had got there around 7:45ish and who seemed to be the owner denied us the bbq service because they “close at 9”… I get the 2 hour limit on the bbq but to be quite honest, I have never went up to 2 hours on my previous bbq experiences but either way, I saw that to be unprofessional and just simply disappointing. So that experience definitely made me not want to come back…. I have came back after tho lol I actually celebrated my 25th there back in April but the service was disappointing when, again, it was on a Wednesday where they were not...