Arang

I came here for a friends birthday, having never tried Korean food before. Turns out, I love Korean food!
The staff were very attentive and dealt really well with the escalating rowdiness of our group — there’s always one that breaks a glass…
We ordered the table top meat grill and plenty of yummy side dishes. The meat grill seemed to go on forever, more and more meats being brought to the grill every couples of minutes. There were plenty of fish dishes to choose from as well. The food was amazing, although, it was a shame about the price as it ended up rather costly.
A great place for groups to have. Taste of authenticity.
Although the place wasn’t very busy at all, do make sure you book ahead if you are going as a big group.

Mediocre food or maybe I am not ordering the right thing. The sizzling plates on others’ table looked delicious though .
I ordered the pancakes, the glass noodle, the stone-​pot rice. But I have had better. Food s somewhat lacking some flavoring/​seasoning .
One thing I like is the hot pot kinda soup with glass noodle and your choice of meat, that one was good.

So there’s a korean food fair in town, and they were serving kimchi pancakes for 6 dollars apiece, and I just had to try one because it reminded me so much of this place.
So where do I begin? London, a cold winter’s night, just before The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. We stumbled in worn and weary after a day of shopping into this warm, cosy haven tucked just off Golden Square. You know that it’s a good deal when 90% of the diners in the restaurant are Korean. I felt a little bit of a culture shock, having spent the past 3 weeks being the minority.
I must admit that my knowledge of Korean food is zilch– the only korean things I know are korean barbeque and kimchi and instant noodles. My friends, the experts, ordered.
So where was I… KIMCHI PANCAKES, yes. If you must order one dish make it THIS ONE because it was so darn awesome. A pancake meant to feed 6 as a side but I WANTED IT ALL. It was thin, crisp, yet flavourful and packed with wonderful compressed kimchi. Good just on its own! (In contrast, the one I had for takeaway today was soggy and limp and nowhere as rich in flavour mehhh)
Oh yes and the food is pretty spicy, no holds barred authentic cooking. But seriously. Just go. The kimchi pancakes are worth it.

Not much things better to have on a Winter’s day than an Asian Soup. There’s ramen or phở, but the cravings for a spicy Sundubu-​Jjigae all week can only last so long. And that is what I had on a cold January.
It’s the only way I will ever have Tofu. Loved investigating the depths of that broth to discover all the different creatures of the sea lurking under surface. Mussels, fish, shrimp, squid and octopus. Surprisingly quite a lot.
I have to say the broth was not as thick as I have previously tasted at rival Korean restaurants. Assa down the road have a fantastic Sundubu-​Jjigae, which is a perfect balance of thick, spicy and flavour. This one at Arang is spicy but I think there could be more depth of flavour and intensity.
I did like however, something I haven’t found much of in Korean London eateries. And that is unlimited free sides. So Kimchi was a staple to get seconds on for sure. It’s a nice and in my opinion necessary touch. It’s common to give loads of free sides in Korea so glad someone is at least replicating this here.
Service is quite good. We sat at the ate which is fine by us even though the door kept opening for new custom and allowing breeze in. People being turned away is good sign of popularity but can’t help think that’s a London thing. Seems to be the norm to have to wait everywhere is so busy.
I’ll definitely come back to try some meats and bbq as they had a proper table set up with extractor fan to experience that.

Nice place ! If you want to avoid the crowd on Piccadilly street and have some quite good bbq definitely the place to go

I’d say mediocre. It’s not that bad, but I wouldn’t really be keen to come again. The flavorings quite weak and everything’s just okay.

My family was vacationing in London and we came across this restaurant after a long day of walking. First they sat us in the basement and acted as if we were bothering them. Excuse me if you want business!!!
Then after ordering our food came out in a random order. One dish at a time, none of our food came out together. Main dishes before appetizers and some food never came. We were extremely disappointed in the service.
Not only was the service poor but the amount of food brought out and the quality was not worth the prices whatsoever. This establishment really needs to work on its customer service and quality management. Overall a sad experience all around. I would never go back. None of the staff seemed to care that we were even there.

This is actually one of my all time favourite Korean restaurants around the area, the other one being Assa. However, this time my experience is not as good as the experiences in the past few years.
I came with Wendy L and we ordered the seafood pancake, glass noodles, 2x Cinnamon punch, 1x spicy seafood noodles, and 1x beef bibimbap (hot stone bowl rice).
We were given the usual complimentary starters, which consisted of potatos in salad type cream, kimchi, and green veggie. So far so good.
The seafood pancake was also as expected, although it was lacking the seafood, I could barely make out any.
The glass noodles tasted a bit bland this time round. It used to be sweeter and same problem again, lack of beef.
Cinnamon punch is my favourite drink and it did not disappoint, although it was a bit weird coming in an Asahi beer glass.
Spicy seafood noodles was the really really disappointing dish. I have never ordered this before and Wendy L wanted to try it. The broth was slightly spicy, but otherwise tasteless. The seafood was completely overcooked (think really chewy squid, octopus etc). Noodles were average.
The beef bibimbap was pretty good except the egg came completely cooked as well… like a sunny side up egg. This should have come raw and been mixed in the rice? I was super confused.
Just before paying the bill they gave us two halves of an orange sliced. It was super sour and was actually hurting my teeth due to sensitivity. I noticed the table next to ours seems to have melons as well. Ah well, if the melons were as bad then I was glad they didn’t waste it trying to feed this to us.
The waitress looked a bit depressed but this could have been because I was ultra depressed at the state of the meal and was also very tired due to lack of sleep. I was particularly disappointed that after finishing the meal and whilst waiting for the bill, these flies kept hovering over my empty bowls and were trying to get into my super sweet tasting cinnamon punch. They were unrelenting to say the least!
I think I will give this place a break for now… hopefully it will be back to the amazing place I have known it to be soon.

kimchi is not good. Not sour enough and too juicy. Others are fine. But not satisfied that the BBQ doesn’t come with lettuce.

Whenever we have a big family get together, Arang has always been up there as one of our go-​to places. It is or rather it was a great Korean BBQ place. They even have a wonderful direct extractor fan system so your clothes will never smell of Korean BBQ when you leave. The food is obviously good, as many Koreans come here and there are often queues outside and people sitting waiting to be seated. It’s definitely worth booking. I don’t know whether they have changed hands recently or not, but we experienced terrible service on our most recent visit. The side dishes were plonked/​slammed on to our table, causing some to spill out. Then when they were taking our dishes away, they knocked over a glass of water spilling some on my brother. They then did not help wipe up/​provide napkins or a cloth and only half-​assed apologised. The final straw was that they just put the bill on the table without us even requesting it. I mean yes you have people waiting but they can wait, we had booked a table!!! So just because YOU want a quick turnaround and more money, don’t be rushing your paying customers out of the door. It made me so angry. Needless to say I won’t be in a rush to hurry back there again.

Good food but… Very uncomfortable tables with no leg room (due to the hot plate mechanism?) and very rushed. One dish arrived after another without any being finished first. To make things worse the bill was placed in the table without our request! In total we ate a full meal in 45 mins! Never again

The Arang restaurant is quite the odd bird and there are things that I liked along with some absurd solutions and mediocre service. The place is on two levels; the upstairs being reserved for the BBQ and a basement level with a complete lack of style and air in that matter. It was like entering a completely different place so I recommend not going there — just stick with the upstairs BBQ and it would be fine. The food was amazing and cooked in front of our eyes. Keeping in mind that I am a meat lover, I had a great evening. I think that Arang is great minus the dodgy basement area.

This is the review of the restaurant only and in particular the the BBQ. One of the better places I had the marinated beef and chicken flavor was good for me I enjoyed it and would come here again for the BBQ.

As a vegetarian, I cannot review the BBQ, which seems good judging by at other reviews, but I WOULD NOT go to this restaurant at all costs if you want to eat something other than meat.
Being korean and a regular customer at great Korean restaurants in the NYC and DMV area, I had high expectations for Arang– and it even seemed that many Koreans were in the restaurant, a usual sign for authentic food.
However, I was thoroughly disappointed on all counts:
ATMOSPHERE: Upon entering the restaurant, we were told that there were no more seats on the ground floor and we would have to be seated in the basement – which seemed fine. However, the basement seemed like a very dodgy club with dirty, sagging red couches and a «private» sign affixed to the door. I felt like I was in a strip club dressed up as a restaurant.
FOOD: Mediocre at best. The boricha we received on arrival was lukewarm and of a cheap grade; the cups were greasy and smelled of oil. Tap water was also served in a beer shot glass– a super pet peeve of mine. The side dishes were bland and unappealing – kimchi, bean sprouts, and potato mayonnaise salad. The haemul pajun was a soggy, bland, oily mess with cheap imitation crab counting as the «haemul» or seafood; it looked like it had just been reheated and served. The haemul bibimbap was appalling; instead of vegetables and seafood with gochujang on the side it was random segments of unidentifiable seafood smothered in cheap artificial gochujang with just rice. Everything was past its expiration date and just plain bland.
PRICE: Expensive and unreasonable prices for the small portions. About 9 quid for a small bowl of rice and low-​grade seafood?!? are you insane??? And the whole «rent» excuse is just not acceptable– I have dined at asian restaurants near the Piccadilly area which are far more affordable and ten times better than this restaurant.
SERVICE: Our waiter could not speak English. We had to ask twice for the boricha and the bill. The place was understaffed and the service was incredibly slow. When we asked the manager if we could get a table upstairs, he told us that we could leave. We should have taken his advice.
Needless to say, I would not recommend Arang to anyone. A truly good restaurant should prepare all its menu items with equal quality and attention – Arang has failed at this.

Came here for dinner for a friend’s birthday party — he selected it because he considers it the best Korean restaurant he knows of in London.
I haven’t been to any others so as to compare, but I can say that compared to Korean in NY, which I’m pretty accustomed to, I’d say this place is pretty good.
You’ll want to certainly get the Korean BBQ platters (where you have a little grill on your table), they’re not pricey for a group, and the waitress (es), whose English was lacking by the way, did a lot of the work grilling the stuff for you and preparing it when it was done cooking. They don’t do that in NY.
Then, you’ll want to get a ‘Korean pizza’ which has nothing to do with a pizza at all, as there are no pizza ingredients. Try the kimchi one, in particular. Finally try a bibimbap to share with your friends, the hot pot the rice is served in makes the rice on the bottom crispy, while you get a variety of ingredients on top to mix in (and you must mix the spicy sauce in there or you’ve failed to do it properly).
Even the ‘house wine’ was tolerable, and nothing felt particularly expensive.

This place is tight, not the cool tight, but spacious tight.
Overall, their food is mediocre and overpriced. Portions are nothing dramatic; not too small, not too big.
We ordered a variety of things; shredded raw beef, pancakes, neng myun, rice cake, rice in hot stone bowl and assorted BBQ meats.
The neng myun is up to par, really cold, crisp and refreshing.
The rice cake dish is the only true phenomenon happened during the whole dinner. Everything else is really not worth mentioning, including the BBQ meats.
FYI, unlike some other places, the nibblers are not refillable.
I dont think I will be back.
The End.

In all a decent dining experience though portions are a serious problem.
Koreans dine here, which in my book represents a solid endorsement to the cuisine it proclaims to serve. Sprouts, wasabi-​laced potato salad and kimchi fermented to its prime — all very standard but regrettably lacking, too, in variety.
My order of seared pork belly was rather disappointing; it arrived as ten overcooked slices, each roughly three-​by-​three centimeters in size of negligible thickness — not by any measure satisfying especially for an American like me. The kimchi chigae was acceptable in that it was served hot and not excessively sour (a sign that it hasn’t past its prime) but yielded only two small tin bowls in volume.
With entrees beginning at around GBP 9.00 a pop, the hungry man is advised to hit up a noodle joint in neighboring chi-​town before coming by.

Good Korean BBQ was something I thought would be really hard to find. Everything here seems to be very well thought out from the ventilation that the fans bring to the amazing amount of food that comes from the set menu.
I really like the small dishes that come with Korean food and the ones here were quite tasty. They had the pickled cucumbers which are my favorite but the kim chi was delicious as well. I liked the BBQ meats and have never left hungry. The staff is very friendly and attentive. I can’t wait to come here when I’ve feeling starved.

Excellent! I tried this the week after I tried Jindalle, and this place wins hands down. It is a classy place suitable for dates, friends, and family.
Service was very prompt and helpful. Out of the non-​alcoholic drinks, I recommend the cinnamon punch, which was something out of this world! Their prices are slightly on the pricey side especially for the barbeque, but their other dishes are really good too and come in quite big portions to share.
Now I know why its consistently rated one of the best Korean restaurants in town!

I think I’m still full from my meal at Arang, from about 7 months ago. It all started when a group of 4 flew across the Atlantic Ocean in hopes of making it to Tanzania. A quick stop in London seemed necessary, if not required. After a 10-​hr overnight flight, a stop at LAB for zombies, and wanderings around whoknowswhere, we ran into friends who extended an invitation to us for korean bbq. «Sure!»
This was my first experience with korean bbq and no one told me to go light on the appetizers. All these great, scrumptous dishes kept flowing out of the kitchen, plus bottles upon bottles of soju, sake, and beer. Holy moly! An hour later when I was happy and satisfied, they busted out the bbq grills and platters of meat! I kept telling my stomach to power through. Maybe the alcohol helped. Anyways, 3 hours later, the feast ended but the night only began. We rolled out of our chairs and downstairs to the private karaōke rooms. At this point, I had been awake for WAY too many hours and probably delusional. I remember yelling and standing on couches. Whatever happened that night, I woke up the next day refreshed, with my internal clock adjusted, and ready to tackle London! Thank you Arang for keeping the food, drinks, and entertainment rolling till the cows came home.