Korea House

Food is great, the appetizers usually consistent and better than most. Lunch time is usually a good time to go for their specials.

Baffling in the best way. Sometimes, when you have the worst expectations of something, your fears are totally confirmed… and sometimes, you get the most pleasant and shocking surprise.
The reviews for Korea House consistently say the same thing — horrible service, pretty good food. This place has been on my bookmarks for YEARS, but I was terrified to go in even though it’s super close to me in downtown Hayward, and even though I love KBBQ. I mean, good food usually trumps everything for me, but too many cries of «worst service EVER!!!» and even the most scrumptious looking truffles & foie gras with gold shavings on top can look a little tainted…
Our curiosity always remained though, so last week we finally set foot in the place we had tried to avoid for years. And as soon as we walked out, we were loudly berating ourselves in the parking lot for not coming sooner!
For some reason, we received some of the BEST service here we’ve ever had at a restaurant. Yeah, you read that right. Staff were so nice and friendly. Servers stood at our table flipping our meat and cutting it up for us, and when we told them we were okay, they backed off and gave us room. Then while we were busy eating, they came back and continued cooking for us!!! We saw similar treatment at other tables, so we didn’t think we were special or anything. It’s such a sharp contrast from other reviews that you have to wonder if they’re aware of the public perception and trying to improve, or what? Either way, we were very happy with the service here.
And then the food.
The dak gui was SO GOOD. Seriously, so good. I wasn’t impressed at first when this gigantic SLAB of meat was thrown onto our grill — half a chicken? Is this even marinated? There’s no green onion on this — but it was so good! That marinade is PERFECT. I rarely eat chicken anymore, and I couldn’t stop eating the dak gui. The portion was HUGE, so we had to take some home too. Thanks for restoring my faith in chicken.
The rest:
Kalbi: I’ve had better marinade, but it was adequate for me. Next time I’ll try the bulgogi.
Japchae: Same story as kalbi. I’ve had better, and I think the noodles were a bit overcooked. But the taste was good, and I liked the nice variety of vegetables in this japchae!
Tteokbokki: Good texture on the cakes, not as many vegetables as I’m used to but still good.
Banchan: Good.
So yeah, the dak gui was just THAT good for me. I will definitely be back to try other delicious food soon. I’m still keeping one eye open for this supposed bad service… but we had the complete opposite experience. Everyone deserves a chance!

My family and I love this place. Get the #30 Tofu bowl with an added rice cake. As with most Korean restaurants, there is a good chance you’ll get full off of the appetizers they serve up.
The people who work here are super friendly. Easy parking. Cheap prices. This is a hidden gem in Hayward.

Too salty but side dishes were not too bad. Very cold inside and the service was so so. Lunch special portion was little, but regular meal was okay.

Last night hubby and I had dinner at Korea House. I have seen this place on Unilocal,however, never had visited. Last night we ended up here since the place we usually go to (Tofu House in Castro Valley) was closed. My 4 star review is for the food only — everything we had was pretty good and I was pleasantly surprised since their reviews seem all over the place.
Hubby ordered spicy fish soup, I ordered seafood soondubu, and we shared a fried mackerel. First off, all of their banchan were delicious — there was a good variety and I especially liked the fried spicy fish. Not sure what it is exactly, but that particular banchan was great. The seafood soondubu was pretty good — this is pretty much the only thing I order everywhere I go since it’s my favorite and I’m glad to found a place nearby that makes a good soondubu. I really liked the flavor, texture, and that all of the seafood in it was easy to eat. (no shells on the shrimp, mussels, etc. so I don’t have to fuss with peeling things straight out of the hot soup) Fried Mackerel was very tasty and not dry at all.
The service here, however, is not good at all — but what can you expect at an Asian restaurant? All of the servers were running around with their heads off and rushing us when ordering, etc. But considering it’s an Asian establishment, which you typically go to places for the food vs. ambiance/​service, I’ll still come back here, especially since it’s the better Korean restaurant in the area. (Did not enjoy Sister House at all and I like Korea House better than Tofu House in CV)

I have mixed feelings about this place:
1) My friend got the incorrect size for his Tofu soup
2) The waitresses were a bit confused on which tofu soup was which.
3) The flavor of the soup was much better than what I remember it being.
4) Food came pretty fast.

I’m pretty picky with my Korean food since I’m a Korean. It’s hard to find a good Korean restaurants in Bay Area. There are Korean restaurants here and there but some of them don’t deserve any business because of their unpleasant Korean recipe. Sometimes, I get shocked about how they could serve such good to customers! Anyways.
So I go to korea house often. Korea house has gooooooood side dishes and main dishes are really good too! I mean I’m not super happy about their service also but I can let that go since its so good here. I go here with my family all the time. I totally recommend to everyone! :)

Finally came here for lunch after being initially discouraged by some negative Unilocal reviews. Easy parking in their parking lot out front, although the lot looks kind of beat up. Inside, the restaurant is nice enough — better than a fast food scene and not a dump.
Service was adequate. Nothing special. I had the clear noodles with BBQ beef and veggies. Comes with rice and the banchon bowls. I thought my dish was OK — not that much beef in the meal.
Nothing special, but I would eat here again. And I probably will.

The foods are ok by itself. The prices are very pricy compare to food quality and the service.
The service is extremely poor! Cannot ask for anything. I don’t understand why they don’t hire more people to keep up.
It’s too bad it is the only Korean restaurant near by my home. whole family went today for dinner, it was pack and so busy. I asked how long is the wait time will be & the lady was so rudely said I don’t know. It was after 10 minutes waiting without any greeting. We just walked out. Not going back again!

Ate her twice — I couldn’t remember my first experience here the first time so decided to come back again which I’m glad I did because now I know NOT to come back.
Don’t get me wrong, the ladies working here are very friendly but if you ask for the wrong thing, they’ll deny you.
So here’s the story…
My boyfriend and I come here for dinner because he wanted Korean food. We order the short ribs, fried mackerel and japchae. Food was good BUT they took a while to bring everything out. When the lady dropped off the banchan dishes, they accidentally gave us the wrong ones — they give different side dishes for each entrée you order. One of the ladies starts to take the dishes away without really saying anything to us so we were a bit confused. She then explained to us that she’ll give us better dishes that will taste better with our foods. Great we thought but we wanted to keep at least two of them (especially because we already started eating them). They allowed us to.
When the waitress brought out our short ribs, she said «bulgogi» and I corrected her by saying we ordered short ribs and she corrected herself quickly and said «yes, it’s short ribs».
They finally started to bring out all of the other dishes but at a slow pace and didn’t bring the rice out until 5 – 10 minutes after the «short ribs» were dropped off.
After trying one of the short ribs, I realized it wasn’t short ribs after all but thick pieces of bulgogi (short rib meat texture is rather chewy — that’s why I love eating it) but this one was very tender similar to bulgogi (and it’s not the way «they cook it» that makes it tender). After picking at the pieces, all we found was two HUGE pieces of short ribs bones with barely any meat on them. I was very disappointed not only because I love short ribs but because the short ribs were $ 27.99 while the other meat choices were $ 19.99 or less.
At this point, we were annoyed that everything took a while and they made mistakes, we didn’t say anything (yes, I know — closed mouths don’t get fed).
Later on during the meal, we asked for a refill on some of the banchan but they said we couldn’t do one of them because it wasn’t part of the entrees we had. Fortunately, the lady ended up giving us some more anyways and said it was on the house.
Two stars for that lady but I wouldn’t recommend this place.

Recommend for lunch specials.
Be prepared for:
*an arm workout, from swatting flies
*possible miss on your item, ordered spicy chicken, got chicken
*solid banchan, fish cake is good and loved the potatoes, kimchi is suspect
*mackerel was grilled well and not overly salty
Reasonable prices, good portions, bordering on needed a doggie bag, popular lunch spot.

Pretty good food. Recommend bimbimbop. In hot stone. I hope I spelled it right. Pretty good sides. Service isn’t bad. I recommend you visit in the day the area is Mina of sketchy.

I’m pretty excited that there’s a decent Korean restaurant in Hayward. For some reason, my map routed me to 702 West A Street when I typed in «Korea House,» but this is on 702 A Street, so don’t make the same mistake I did! When we got there, around 5:30pm a weekday, it was pretty empty, with only a couple tables of customers. The parking lot was also really empty, which was nice because I didn’t have to deal with street parking.
My friend and I ordered Combo D, which included beef, spicy chicken, grilled fish, and tofu stew. I was a little disappointed that the meat didn’t come out raw for us to cook on the table and instead came in one of the iron pan/​plate things. The meat itself was pretty delicious for the first couple of bites, but the marinade starts feeling really heavy to the point where it’s tough to finish. Definitely needs to be paired with rice. The grilled fish was a little dry and I don’t think we were expecting as many small bones as we found. But it was still really good and flavorful. My friend thought the tofu stew was the best she’s ever had, but I’ve honestly had better at other places. Still, though, it was better than average and I would order it again.
Service was not that great, maybe because the dinner rush started trickling in later on in our meal. They have a big variety of banchan (side dishes), which I love. Usually, at other places, when we ask for more banchan, I think they bring out everything. But here, they asked me specifically which ones, so I felt bad asking for more than two or three. That was kind of odd. I think I’ll give this place another try, though, since it is so close to where I live and the flavors were all on point.

I love love love the appetizers they gave us, even so I think it raised my standards when it came to my entrée. Honestly, I would probably have been more satisfied if I just kept getting more of there little appetizers, our table had like 4 rounds. I got the beef tofu stew and I was pretty disappointed, mine was bland. The only reason I gave this 3 stars was the appetizers and I tried my friends bimbimbap and it was pretty good! The waiter was extremely nice, she even cracked jokes at us which was cool.

The variety of flavors and textures that come in the form of many small plates is outstanding. The sweet and sour dishes had my mouth begging for more. The level of spice on the chili dishes could be described as shweaty. The squid was a tad chewy but the price and flavor made up for it.
Oh and get some soju foo.

I came here for soondooboo, and yep it was wayy too watery. There was flavor and spiciness, but the soupd just wasnt thick enough! Probably never coming here for that again.
But there other soups or dishes look really good! My friend really enjoyed his beef rib soup. The side dishes were also very good! and plentiful!
So tofu soup​.no. everything else? maybe.

I really enjoyed this place, we got Combo A for the grill, came with beef, chicken, shrimp snd squid. It was sooo good. It says enough for 2 people but trust me! It can feed at least 4, we were stuffed and exhausted from eating.
It was my first time trying Korean food and the experience was fun, tried a bunch of pickled vegetables I had never tried, got to grill my own meat, delicious raspberry sake, complimentary tea and soup, fast service.
Really good place for groups!

A fellow Unilocaler told me about this place and it’s now my go-​to Korean BBQ in Hayward. I’ve been here several times and my favorites have to be the Spicy BBQ Chicken, Spicy BBQ Pork, Kalbi Ribs, Japchae and Tofu Soups. Heck, all the food here is delicious.
The spaces in the parking lot are a bit tight, but I’ve always been able to find parking in their lot.
I’ve always had good service here, so I haven’t had any issues when I’ve eaten here.
The Banchan dishes are good and you can ask for as many refills as you like. I normally get them to refill all or most of my dishes at least once. They are so good.
The main reason to come here is the quality of the food. Portions are good sized, prices are reasonable and the dishes are very tasty.

The food and service here is very poor in quality.
FOOD:
— japchae: 4
— seafood pancake: 4 (I really like the sauce)
— beef: 3
— spicy pork: 3
— tofu soup: 2
— seafood bibimbap: 2
SERVICE: extremelyyyyy slow. They forgot about us.
OVERALL: Came here twice, not coming back. I’d rather make the drive to Oakland.

WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER. Honestly, it’s like they don’t even want to serve you — What? You need something? Well, too bad! They look at you like they don’t understand you. They ignore you when you try to ask for something. They don’t come by your table much.
Aside from that, let’s talk about food. The side dishes are definitely not enough for a group to share, and asking for a refill on them seems like a huge burden to the waitress. I had the bibimbap for about $ 13 or so. It was alright.
Parking lot is tiny, better for small cars.
3 stars just for the food, but everything else SUCKS.

BBQ coréen avec poulet, porc, calamar, boeuf, précédemment marinés dans une sauce coréenne. Viandes tendres et rapidement cuites.
L’accueil et le service étaient plutôt bons. Il n’y avait pas grand monde vers 20h donc le service était assez rapide.
Je le recommande si vous voulez faire un BBQ coréen.
Cependant je le déconseille en cas d’affluence.