Hoban Korean Barbecue
| Address: | 2939 Hennepin Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55408, USA |
| Phone: | +1 612-345-7214 |
| Rating: | 3.8 |
| Working: | Closed 4PM–2AM 4PM–2AM 4PM–2AM 4PM–2AM 4PM–2AM 4PM–12AM |
Location
Photos 100
Reviews 5
BA
Badgervet7
Recently went to Hobans in Uptown. There were good things about the visit and also not so good things. We started by getting seated and had our beverage orders. Had an attentive young man as a server to start but then they switch to a female server. She took our order and we waited. It was on a Saturday evening so there was a little wait for the food but not unreasonable. We did have to wait for a while and flag someone down to get out water refilled. Got our appetizers (fried dumplings) which were good and at a reasonable price. Ordered the kalbi beef with the bulgogi and a naeng myun. You can judge most Korean restaurants by the quantity and quality of banchan (side dishes) that they have. The banchan that we got was okay but not as diverse as other places. Also the kimchee was not properly pickled. It tasted like it was just made that day without the proper time to ferment. Then we got our primary order of meat but no rice. This is the only Korean place Ive ever been to that charges extra for rice and almost $2.00 per bowel. If your gonna charge $20-$23 doors for a dish, I would think the rice would be included. The Kalbi beef was pretty good with good flavor, some bites were a little tough. The bulgogi was good flavored as well and fairly tender. The naeng myun was bland and tasteless. The noodles were cooked well but there was no flavor to it. At that time, we didnt see our server for a while so it wasnt worth bring it up to her. Finally had to track someone down to get our check and pay the bill. Overall, the experience was okay, considering there are not a lot of alternatives in the Cities to traditional Korean barbecue. Definitely not the best Ive ever been too but also not the worse. The quality of food and service are areas that could be improved. If they did that, this place would be a great addition to the Uptown area.
JU
Judy Park
FOOD: Moved here from California so Ill try to be fair on rating their bbq and service. Their food tends to be more on the sweeter side in marinade. For 1 order of Wang Galbi (Long rib) and 1 order of Black Pork Belly, I felt it was priced on the higher scale from a portion perspective. We also ordered the Seafood Korean Pancake or Pajeon. If youve never had this before, then this will suffice but I thought it was battered up with not as much/enough seafood that Im used to. We tried the YukHwe or Raw beef with egg aka Steak tartare. The crisp pear slices help clean up the heaviness of the yolk and balance the sweetness. SERVICE: I think theres a lot of room for improvement. Better communication from and between the servers. Its obvious that the servers are overwhelmed during and thankfully the owner or manager stepped in but it was disappointing to see certain sides or accompanying dishes not make it out on the table the first time. I think sesame oil with salt and pepper should always be placed on table. If there are 2 guests at the table, offering 2 sets of garlic/jalepeno peppers/pepperbean paste is given. To place 1 and expect it to last between 2 guests is being a bit too frugal IMO. CONCLUSION: This is probably the priciest Korean bbq for 2, Ive ever seen. Its not a weekly place I would go to eat considering the value and service. I would recommend they improve their service to alleviate the burden of their high prices upon their customers.
BE
Bella Ly
The food is overly priced and theres nothing special about it. The service was horrible, our waiter never came back to check on us. it seems like they were short staff so she was busy. we had to ask this other lady who may have been the manager to get us some water and refill on our side dishes. we ordered four items off the grill at an average of $20 per item, pork belly (4long pieces) beef bulgoi (4-6 thinly sliced pieces) veggies (two things of onion rings, four jumbo mushrooms, 4 squash slices and a couple pieces of red pepper) Hoban special Kalabi (4 long peices) for appetizers we ordered the calamari and hot wings. the calamari was horrible. no seasoning on it super oily and plain, not worth $$. wings was ok nothing special. then we ordered soup, kimchi hot pot. (which was probably the only thing I really enjoyed. the side dishes were normal. that was it and our bill came to $160. for the amount of food and lack of customer service, its overly priced. the little mom and pops Korean places are still so much better even without the grill part. youll get authentic food at a more reasonable price. this is a one time for me, probably will never go back. its so overrated.
ME
Mekaela Pha
The food was good but the service was very poor. The person in the front if us took down our name but decided to sit 3 groups of people behind us first so we ended up waiting 20 mins for a table. We ordered our meal and got some of the sides. By the time we got done eating our meat we were still hungry and so we ordered more food. Only after we ordered our set of food one of the waiter gave us the rest of the side dishes were were supposed to have gotten with the first order. 3 to 4 waiters passed our table but never asked if we got everything were ordered. In the end we had too much food. We tried to talk to 2 different waiters about getting a discount for the bad service but they kept saying its out of their power and we received all of our food so there was nothing wrong. We told them we wanted to talk to the manager so another waiter posing as the Manager talked to us but in the end only offered us drinks or more food while we were full and done eating.VERY BAD SERVICES! THIS WAS A VERY BAD FIRST TIME HAVING KOREAN BBQ EXPERIENCE. I WILL NOT GO BACK THERE AGAIN. ONE OF THE WAITERS ALSO LEFT A GLASS THAT THEY PICKED UP ON OUR TABLE ON MY TABLE.
RA
Raj Vinjamuri
Having KBBQ here was a blast back in time three weeks when I was having KBBQ in actual Seoul, South Korea. The flavors of the marinade, the cuts of meat, and the side dishes (kimchi, sprouts, etc.) are all very comparable to the authentic Korean tastes. I went to a few KBBQ places in Seoul, though mostly in the Itaewon area, which caters to foreigners a bit more. Returning to Minnesota, I was hopeful I could find a decent place to share the experience with loved ones here in the Twin Cities, and Hoban fulfilled that. The food and flavors are wonderful. Its arranged with tables that comfortably fit 4, but I saw parties more than double that size. It was quite loud on the Sunday night I went, so I can only assume its loud most other regular nights. Service was average (nothing notable). Drinks are varied in price, but if you want Sogu and beer, youll be spending a lot more than in Korea. $4/shot minimum (when a bottle was $2-3 in Seoul). The liquor variety is above average, with several East Asian mainstays as well, such as Tsing Tsao (which I was disappointed they were out of). The meal for two runs about $25/person.
