Restaurant Horror Stories

[Daniel Gray]

I wrote a post entitled Restaurant Horror stories (http://
www.seouleats.com/2010/05/restaurant-horror-stories.html) and it got
quite a few responses. Here's what people wr

Chris said...

That's too bad about Corner Bistro. I haven't eaten there in
awhile, but it used to be great.
8:31 AM
Steve said...

The wait staff at Toque made sure to wreck our Christmas spirits
at the buffet last year. They didn't explain all the frivolous rules
for the "buffet", and then complained to us (well, actually, they
singled out my girlfriend and talked to her in very rude language)
when we hadn't intuited that even though we had been sitting there for
20 minutes with no one speaking a word to us that they were just about
to bring out our plates to use on the buffet, and we were using all
their clean plates, cuz when you're paying 40 bucks / person I guess
that only entitles everyone to one plate at a buffet.

Them not having enough plates is just not my problem, and I don't
appreciate being talked down to about it. They went on to treat us
like troublemakers the rest of the dinner, never bringing drink menus
out and taking their sweet time with it when we finally just asked for
them. Then, of course, the drinks never arrived until we were pretty
much done and ready to leave.

All in all a pretty terrible experience that convinced me to opt
for the Dragon Hill's take-home dinner for Thanksgiving and Christmas
from now on.
8:39 AM
holterbarbour said...

There's an Indian restaurant in the basement level of Jongno Tower
(Jonggak Station). I went there once, and it was the slowest service
and crappiest food I've had in Seoul-- and that's saying a lot.

I shit you not they served me *canned fruit*. And *ketchup* as a
dipping sauce for my ridiculously priced samosas.

It's the kind of restaurant where I feel my anger rising every
time I think of it. It's the kind of place that South Asians should
rally to protest against.
8:41 AM
jp said...

The worst service I've had in Seoul was at Spain Club in
Shinsadong. We got in just before last call and I guess that meant
they just weren't gonna care about us.

We had to ask three people for water, one of whom, after taking
the order, promptly walked outside for a smoke. One of the waitresses
was constantly flirting with the Japanese chef.

We ordered paella, and I guess what they do is make a giant
portion and then serve it out from there (I think they may have
stopped doing this). Since we got there late, the paella we got was
cold. They could have warned us beforehand, and we would've picked
something else.

When we went to pay, the lady at the register told us how much so
quietly that none of us, there were three of us, could hear, and when
asked again, she actually yelled at us. WTF? Not worth it at all.

We saw before that the place had bad reviews for service but we
were thinking, how bad can it be? Turns out, horrible. And if they
didn't want to serve us, they could have just said that they were
closing. As long as they have customers they should act
professionally.
9:52 AM
Tara-Chan said...

Dubai was one restaurant I did not enjoy. My friend told me the
food was all right (she'd been there twice or so and I've never been
there yet), so we decided to check it out. We ordered our food and
this yoghurt drink thing. About ten minutes later, they told us the
drinks are out or something, and so we opted to get sodas -- a cider
and a coke.

We got our food about five minutes later, and our so-called sodas
-- which was two cans and two glasses with ice -- came when we were
about three-fourths done with our meal.

The place, as I recall, was a bit busy, but not terribly so to the
point where it took that long for two cans of soda and glasses of ice
to make it to our table.

That experience left a bad feeling in my mouth, and I reached the
conclusion to never go back there. Even my friend -- after that poor
soda service -- never went back there.
12:11 PM
Steve said...

Almost forgot about Jackoby's Burgers. Good burgers, but horrible
service. Been there three times and it took like an hour to get my
food each time. The general attitude of the staff was that I was
really inconveniencing them by showing up
3:09 PM
Julian said...

There's a Vietnamese paper rolls place called Wolnam SSam near Gil
dong that gets my thumbs down. Allegedly, it's renown in the Korean
bloggo sphere for having great food but horrible service. The paper
rolls were good, hearty and a nice change from the standard fare but
the serving/boss ajumma was just so rude to me and my girlfriend.

1) They plunked down the trey of veggies for the paper rolls. I
thought it was a bit gruff but hey, we're in Korea so I let it slide.


2) The second misdemeanor broke the donkey's back. They put chili
sauce into the complimentary pho in the end. We simply asked them for
another bowl of untained pho soup (w/o chili sauce mixed in) but she
just told us in Korean that "she doesn't care - sanggwaneupseo" and
"the sauce doesn't affect the taste". "We should just enjoy it because
it's free." It takes a lot for me to get onto the internet and write a
bad review but this place needs it.

pics at the naver blog link: http://blog.naver.com/missanne?Redirect=Log&logNo=30081512395
10:50 PM
Amanda said...

I've never found the service at Smokey's to be that bad, however
it likely depends on location. I've been to the Sinsa location a few
times and staff has always been friendly and prompt.

Jacoby's in HBC is definitely the worst service I've ever had in
Seoul. You wait 20 minutes to receive a menu from the unfriendly
staff, wait at least half an hour for food, then get half-frozen
fries.
10:24 AM
Tara-Chan said...

I agree on Jacoby's. It has some decent food, but the waiting and
the service just don't quite add up to a good dining experience.