Chung Ki Wa

Their food is not worth the price they ask for. I ordered Seafood soup Haemul Jeongol. But the soup that they served was absolutely different and tastes so bad. Not even single piece of shrimp, oyster, mushrooms and vegetables are included. They only put the cheap small white fish pieces and two crab pieces without any meat in it. They only put kimchi and soy sauce, tofu and 2 to 3 pieces of white fish and meatless crab. So disappointed. And also the service is also so bad. I also ordered fried oyster pancake. Same thing happened. Only two or three pieces of small oyster and it’s not crunchy enough. Total was $71 for pancake + seafood soup + beef tripe soup and tip 18% which is a mandatory. I won’t go back there again.

my third time visiting, but the experience was honestly shocking. The staff were extremely rude, and I actually heard them talking badly about customers in Korean, assuming foreigners wouldn’t understand. They said things like "She only left a $4 tip, how disgusting," and other insulting comments right in front of customers. I couldn’t believe it. The food wasn’t good either. The broccoli tasted spoiled, and when I tried to ask something, most of the older staff didn’t even respond. When I went to pay, they asked if I wanted the tip automatically included or separated. When I said I would pay the tip separately, the staff member literally questioned me — "Why? Why separate? Just include it, 18% is accurate." Her tone was confrontational and rude. If the service had been decent, I would’ve gladly tipped 18%, but the attitude was so unpleasant and disrespectful that I honestly wanted to leave zero. I still left a small amount only because she kept staring at me aggressively. This place is truly the worst Korean restaurant experience I’ve had in New York. I’ve lived here for years and have never written a review like this, but I’m honestly shocked. The first time I visited, there were flies and mosquitoes inside — the hygiene was terrible. I’m never going back. The staff are unbelievably rude and unprofessional.

All I ordered was 1 order of glass noodles and 1 order of fried dumplings for myself. The entire service experience was just putting the food on my table. I heard the waitresses arguing with some other patrons as they paid and left, and it seemed like they were dining and dashing, but not really. Then it came time for me to pay, and I paid for my 1 person meal, $41 and change, plus $5 tip for the absolute minimum service that they gave. When I gave them the $5 tip, the service person said in broken Korean English, "Tip is 18%. You give two more dollars.". I reluctantly gave the service person the $2 right away, and left realizing what had happened to the patrons that had left before me. The service was awful. They demanded a more than deserving tip, (which I ended up giving). And if I could post the a picture of the dumplings, which had no meat, it was all glass noodle, egg and herbs. There's also a history of them having fruit flies flying around that they can't seem to resolve.

If you want quality food and to be treated well stay clear from this place. My friend and I walked in and no one welcomed us, but that’s ok we’re just here for food, right? We get our food and they taste a little "old" and not all that good (we got the tteokbokki and bulgogi bibimbap) compared to the Korean food we get at Seoul tofu in flushing or BCD tofu house in manhattan (which I do recommend). Which even then is ok, we wanted to try a new local place near us and we found out it’s not for us, no biggie. My problem lies in the fact that both servers were deep in their phones to the point where it took me a good ten minutes to even get their attention for water. And then when we were done, another ten minutes to get their attention for the check. In fact, several times one of them did glance at us and made eye contact only to immediately look away, hello? But fear not, all their words and attention suddenly appeared when it came time to sign our receipt and give them a tip. That lady all of a sudden did not shy away from eye contact, standing right next to our table literally staring us down. Obviously we didn’t want to give them 18% being that their service was beyond terrible, but still we decided to give them 15%. She counted the cash in front of us and suddenly she was able to speak and let us know we actually owe her one more dollar. Really? For a dollar you had to act that shameless knowing how terrible your service was? Whatever, we gave it to them and left vowing to never come back and to write a review. And guess what? They didn’t even bid us good night or even a thank you as we left. For $20 a dish, please go elsewhere where they actually care about your patronage and please read the other reviews if you don’t believe me, all have said the same. Never will I be back, I don’t support those who only care about me when it comes to tipping them.

To put it plainly, the food here is not good for the price requested. We ordered the Cha-Dolbagi (thinly sliced beef) and the Sandubu-jigae (tofu curd pot stew with seafood). If you order only one meat plate, they cook it in the back. Normally Im fine with this but the beef came out incrediblly overcooked with some pieces totally burnt. The tofu curd pot stew had fairly cheep ingredients. The tofu and seafood were clearly prepackaged/forzen. Additionally, the stew had this sour smell that made it unpleasant to eat. Normally Im fine with low quality food if it is reflected in the price. But these two dishes and 1 service of rice cost is $56 before tip (2024). The service was fine but not good. We were initially seated and serviced by a kind young lady and gentlmen. However, after the order we never saw from them again. Instead an older lady started to bring out food and got our order wrong. She later fixed her mistake. Then when it came to tipping, they were stringent that we tipped in cash. Overall, I will not coming back here again.

I got sick after eating the food there. Please don't go to this restaurant, there is a high chance that you will get sick too. They serve very bad food. We used to go to this restaurant all the time to eat, but its condition is getting worse and worse than before. The two of us who went to dinner yesterday were served such disgusting garbage foods. There were flies and gnats flying all over our food. There were no waiters, just an old woman. She didn't come to refill the water once, didn't pick up the plate after we finished eating, and didn't even take it away until we paid the bill. But even though we gave an 18% tip, she came back later to ask for the tip, saying it wasn't enough. From now on, we will never go to this restaurant. They threw away the garbage and put octopus dust in our food. This is a restaurant run by people who can't afford to eat. If the tips are low, the shameless ones come back to beg.😡

This was one of the worst dining experiences I’ve ever had. Despite seeing multiple negative reviews, we chose to visit because the restaurant was open late. Unfortunately, we found hair in two of our main dishes. When we brought this to the server’s attention, the lady became more argumentative and dismissive, even implying that we were trying to get free food. Her behavior was extremely rude. Overall, the experience was disappointing and completely unacceptable.