Arirang Restaurant

Reviews 6

JA

Jayson Hughes

I went with a group. We were the only people upon arrival, and ordered drinks. They took a decent ten minutes to get those, five to get them, five to figure out which person had what. Considering most had water, thats just sad. But maybe it was a mix up, things happen. I ordered a steak salad. Which way described as a steak salad, a normal salad, with steak. I ordered second of 12 people. I got a regular Asian side salad second to last. No steak, and what is basically a couple of apples, some carrots and a half cup of vinaigrette. No steak. I gave it back, a side salad is six bucks, a steak salad was 16. This is almost a half hour after I ordered. Not only was it wrong, it took almost half an hour to get just a side salad. Ten minutes later, and yes, wed been there an hour and I still hadnt gotten food, I got the same salad, now with a thin slice of steak. It was maybe four ounces. Maybe thats the normal steak on the salad. But the salad was drenched and now soaked in what was essentially red vinegar, so uh. It was disgusting. I want to mention this doesnt include the rest of my groups issues, just me. We had one guy not get food until I got my not-a-real steak salad, and so he just requested his items to go. He got a plate. This was a decent five minutes after asking for it to go. Now we get checks. That was a fiasco. There was no order to how they were put in, and so we had to resort to reading all of them out and passing them around. And youll never guess what happened next. They didnt have all the orders correct, multiple duplicates, some of missing all together, others just wrong. Oh well. I usually am extremely generous with these reviews, giving the benefit of the doubt. But this place had everything going for it walking in and categorically failed. Wasnt busy, still had bad service, causing the wrong, bad food, and not remotely corrected by a view or anything. (Place isnt ugly, just not a water view on something so stunning it is makes up for it.) We spent two hours here. And I left hungry. This is the first time I will ever say to avoid a restaurant.

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TO

Tommy Phan

My coworker and I went to Arirang today for lunch, and sad to say, I was very disappointed with my experience. Got to the restaurant at 1205PM and was immediately approached by the waitress and sat us down. The problem was, after she sat us down, my coworker and I noticed our table has not been cleaned yet. She apologized for the mess and still sat us down anyways. As she was cleaning our table, her boss kept interrupting and distracting her, asking all these questions. You can tell the waitress was trying to be as patient as she could with her boss. She got our drink order, appetizer order and left with the dirty dishes, but left dirty silverware and glasses. 1230PM came around, still havent received our appetizer and never got a chance to order our entree. I had to get the attention of the boss, who was completely ignoring all the customers the entire time, and asked her if we could order some food. She replied OK one minute, rolled her eyes and walked away. She finally came back and got our entrée order. 1245PM rolled around and still no appetizer or our entrée. At this point my coworker and I got fed up and decided to leave. No tip, nothing. You cant expect a customer to wait 30-40 minutes for service, while they are on their lunch break. Our opinion about this restaurant, they have a lot to learn. Arirang need to hire more help, and also need to improve their customer service skills. If they cant figure out a system soon, they will not be in business for very long. Good luck Arirang, you are going to need it, especially since you are located near a military base.

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AL

allison nielsen

I really like the food at Arirang and I think its reasonably priced at lunchtime considering all the food you get. I typically tend to get bulgogi while Im eating Korean and have ordered it here several times during lunch. The price is pretty fair -- around $10, which is actually sort of a steal when you think of all the awesome sides you get with your meal! The pork bulgogi is my favorite. Its got a great flavor and has never been dry or too saucy every time Ive had it. Ive tried a few other dishes here when Ive gone with my friends and pretty much everything has always been delicious. In terms of sides, I absolutely love the vegetable pancake served here and their kimchi is also really delicious! It seems like you always can get something different here which is really fun. Service is consistently friendly which is part of what makes coming here so great. The waitresses are willing to give recommendations and explain menu items should you need any help and always seem to be happy. Ive never been for dinner, but I would love to try it out if it is as good as their lunch is!

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Nathan Fraenkel

True, when this restaurant first opened they were experiencing some growing pains. The only reason the service might have been a bit off is that the typical MacDill lunch rush begins at 11am and customers will fill a popular restaurant all the way to 1pm. The food here is the best. The location (for me) is way closer than the only other Korean restaurant in town. The owners, wait staff, chefs, are all wonderful and nice people whose only desire is to help you not only enjoy the best Korean food around but to learn a little bit about the culture and style of food available. I find the men and women that work at Arirang one of the best things about going to this establishment. I have been to many, many Korean restaurants and you will be hard pressed to find a better place than this one. The kimchi is spicy for a change, the bulgogi is always fresh made to order, and the dol sot bi bim bap is definitely one of my favorites. 5 stars to this excellent place and I hope they will be around for a long, long time.

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DI

Diego Vasquez

We visited this restaurant not knowing what to expect. The location is set outside of the heavy traffic of Tampa (big plus), easy access road. The place may seem small, but that is what made it unique. The owner greed us as soon as we walked in the door. She took her time to explain the menu to us and help us make our selection. We had already had Korean food before (so we knew!) from other "Korean-American" restaurants... if that is the type of food you are looking for here.. This is the authentic Korean food, everything made from scratch, cooked by the owner and served by her awesome server. We ordered the Seafood soup (enough for 4 people, loaded with great seafood and tasty savory broth), had the short ribs marinated and skillet sauteed, also had the marinated beef and the traditional kimshi pancakes... Our experience there will be as memorable as traveling to Korea, just go there and fall in love with their cuisine and their country traditions! - My regards to the owner and chef.

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Elliott Smith

Wow, wow, wow! What an amazing meal and incredible service. This was our first time there and wont be our last for sure. Our waitress was Rina, a very outgoing and friendly person who took the time and caring to explain everything to us as we have never eaten Korean food before, what a huge menu it was. Her attentiveness in refilling our drinks and bringing us more side dishes (free with our meal) was incredible. The food - stupendous … tasty, fresh and huge portions. A great value for the price. The cook and owner Misook came to our table a few times to make sure all was good, which made our experience even better - even got a hug before we left - no extra charge! We want to tell everyone about this place and so look forward to returning not caring about the hour drive to get there. Well worth it. Thank you for a memorable experience.

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