Seoul Garden Restaurant
| Address: | 4701 Atlantic Ave, Raleigh, NC 27604, USA |
| Phone: | +1 919-850-9984 |
| Rating: | 4.3 |
| Working: | 11AM–10PM 11AM–10PM 11AM–10PM 11AM–10PM 11AM–10PM 11AM–10PM 12–10PM |
Location
Photos 100
Reviews 5
MA
Mark L.
My wife and I had been the most loyal customers of Seoul Garden for the past 5 years until several weeks ago after a horrible experience with this restaurant, and I am giving them one star rating because as a business they have failed miserably in handling customer complaints. Being the loyal customers means that if it wasn’t once a week at least we would keep up the pace and be there once every other week. We craved many of their delicacies as the quality of their foods and service had been mostly consistent. Once in a while the soup could be too salty or too spicy. As frequent diners we totally understood that so we would ask the server to make correction. Last time when we were there the Champong was simply too salty. A request to dilute the soup was ignored. The server was slow in responding and left us unattended for a prolong period of time. After several requests, eventually the correction was made. The server explained that the kitchen staffs were very busy. That was not a big deal to us. However, for some reason the management team, maybe the owner, took our complaint as an offense and at the end of the meal had the server told us that we are no longer welcome there. This is by far the most ridiculous response we have ever received from the restaurant. We dine out several times on a weekly basis and have been the regular customers of several restaurants and no business would handle customer complaint like Seoul Garden does. To be honest, I am not a big fan of their food and the reason I went there simply because my wife loves it so I am more than happy to take my business elsewhere. To Seoul Garden management team, if you like to remain in business you should maintain a good business-customer relationship by taking every complaint seriously, in particular, from those frequent customers. To other customers, unless you want to be insulted stay away from this business!
RI
Rick S
Food: 4 (for Raleigh), Atmosphere: 3, Service 4-5(see why in review), SWAGFactor: 4 - So I moved to Raleigh about 3 months ago and have been searching for a good Korean restaurant. I should note that a good one month before that we went to this place on a visit before moving to Raleigh. Our first impression, "it was ok". Why? Lets start with the food. Why, because you can tolerate almost anything so long as the food is awesome. So the korean food here is above average. Its not Seoul, but it is better than, "umm, well, that was good korean". NOTE: keep in mind to go for the more "authentic dishes". Try the Ah Gu Jim or Soon Do Boo. Bento boxes are for posers. The Ah Gu Jim is heavy on the pepper, crispy, slightly blanched bean sprout, and the monk fish - mmmm. The Soon Do Boo is not quite as good but better than any Ive had in Raleigh. The atmosphere is better than the other Korean places Ive been in Raleigh but so so for a real Korean place. What that means is for whitey, you are fine here. For the Service and the SWAGFactor, be friends. In the words of Baz Luhurman, you are not as [beautiful] as you think you are. Make friends. Say hi. Ask questions. The staff will help. Here is how to have a great meal: 1. Say hello (angyung) 2. Get soon do boo 3. Get pa jun 4. Get duk boo gey (yes, Im writing this in pseudo english) 5. Get grilled mackeral 6. Get a ghu jim 7. Ask for extra kim chi 8. And most important, get So Ju - and never pour for yourself Now tell me this place isnt 4 stars.
SA
Sam Lee
This restaurant is not for you if you are taking guests for a relaxed lunch. I had unpleasant experience when I visited second time. A waitress insisted for my wife and I to seat a certain table instead of our preferred table. There was only three tables occupied by the customers at that time and plenty of empty tables. My impression was that the restaurant forgot the attitude of "service" but purely focus on their convenience. I spoke to the manager about the incident ask her to address my concern, however, the manager was too busy for the new customers instead of listening. I am giving two stars because of latest incident. Below is my review of the meal at the first visit: Food: decent side dishes (반찬) and enough portion for not wasting unwanted items. Two types of kimchi, radish and cabbage, were well suited for Western taste. A radish kimchi was rather small size than what I enticipated. The main dish, marinated beef and beef soup, were pretty good. The portion was right, and didnt taste too much of artificial flavor. I am not sure whether I will visit this restaurant again, however, this restaurant has plenty room to improve and can be better. If I do visit again, I will update this review again.
GR
Gray Anthony
I was really excited to try this place after seeing so many good reviews and hearing so many wonderful things about it, but my party of two waited for nearly 20 minutes with no one coming by to take our order. I had tried to go once before when the wait was over an hour for a table, so I tried coming back on a Monday. We were seated right away, but then we waited 10 minutes with no one coming by to check on us. Eventually the hostess noticed that we hadnt been helped and took our drink order for water. She said that the server was busy and would be with us soon. I started noticing that the servers working tables next to ours were coming by and not even looking at our table, and that there were tables seated after us who had ordered and were getting food. There were still empty tables in the restaurant near us, and the several of the servers were stopping to laugh and joke and make friendly conversation with other tables, so no one seemed to be especially rushed or busy. I tried to find a reason for the poor service, but I couldnt. After 20 minutes of being ignored, we left. Ive only had to do that one other time in the last 15 years, and it is a big disappointment.
MA
Margarette Yeager
If we lived closer to this place, then we might just eat there everyday! At least I would! I am half-Korean and lived in Korea for a year teaching English. While the food at Seoul Garden is not as good as my mothers cooking or as the food I had in Korea, it is the best place weve tried for authentic Korean cuisine in Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill. Min Ga in Chapel Hill is much closer to where we live and while it will work in a fix, its not the same. Vit Goal and Chosun Ok in Durham are mediocre at best though they are much cheaper and much closer to where we live. If we really want to go all out and enjoy some Korean food the way we used to have it, then we go to Seoul Garden. We have celebrated several birthdays and anniversaries there as well. The women on waitstaff are always kind and prompt. They remember me and my friends when we come in and they tell us that they have missed us when we have been away too long. I highly recommend it!
