Korea Garden

05/11/2008 Posted by INTERNATIONALCUISINELOVER

Excellent food, waitstaff, and service - - even my eight year old loves it! If it's up to her, we'll be there every weekend! Too bad there's not one in Cedar Park!

Pros: Excellent food and service

Cons: Distance from home

02/27/2008 Posted by murderbyjill

This is the only sushi place I go to Austin. I love the staff, they're always really friendly. The sushi chefs are adorable and they give me free special rolls when I bring in alot of friends. One day I will get one of those huge sushi boats! Korea Garden is much much better than Korea House...they do need an upgrade on the style I always notice little holes in the paper walls.

Pros: Great staff, not overpriced.

Cons: curb appeal.

12/28/2007 Posted by xochitl92113

I'm from San Diego and have been looking for a good cheap sushi place. Although compared to SD this place's prices are a bit expensive (but that's okay since sushi I ate in SD was cheap$). Compared to everywhere else I've been in Austin (which is either ridiculously expensive, or crappy sushi), this place gives me good value for my buck. Outside, it really needs to be redone, I was apprehensive about coming in. I think they'd get more customers if they gave their place more curb appeal. I went in anyways, hoping to find a "hole in the wall" gem. I think I did. The place inside was playing some music in another language (Korean I assume?), and it was nice and soothing, if a bit sappy sounding. The inside needs a MAJOR update. Even if it just means paint and a few new walpieces/screens & window coverings. I was seated quickly. Service was quick for a sit down. The waitress was courteous. They had a lot of choices and bento boxes for those friends that come along and don't eat sushi or are first timers. For around $12.00 during lunch time, I got a sushi lunch special of: Miso soup, a small lettuce/tomato salad w/dressing, A dragon Roll, 2 pieces of a house roll in a sauce, and 4 or 5 pieces of nigiri. It was honestly enough to feed 2. I was a bit annoyed that my waitress disappeared for quite some time and I needed to go. I assume she's probably in the back doing other work. Overall, great value if you have the hungries for sushi. I will go again. If you go the the DMV/DPS on Lamar and Denson, you may want to stop by this place, it's not far.

Pros: Great Sushi, Great Value, Lots of Choices, Awesome Prices

Cons: Needs a Remodel, OLD interior, Sappy Music, No Curb Appeal

09/02/2007 Posted by rhkwon

The place is your generic Korean looking restaurant with a separate place to sit Korean style ie without chairs. We ordered the soondooboo, sulangtang, and bibimbap. The soondooboo had way too much kimchee in it that it tasted like kimchee chigae with dooboo in it. The bibimpap did'nt have enough vegetables, that I had to dump half the banchan and my wife's bowl of rice just to fill me up. The sulangtang tasted like it was about 25 days old or came out of one of those 1970's sulangtang soup cans. Awful. The banchan was not very good. This kind of banchan you can get in North Korea. Like I said for the other Korean restaurant, if this place was open in LA or Atlanta, it would not survive. This is just very very average food that I could make myself. Can someone open a decent restaurant in Austin, please?

Pros: Open until late at night til at least 10:30 and later.

Cons: Very average country farmer type tasting food.

07/26/2007 Posted by organic007

Okay, so I'm native korean, and I eat a lot of korean food. Korea Garden is on my okay list. In Austin, it's one of 2 korean restaurants that I go to. I NEVER go to Korea House. Korea Garden's inside interior is homey, and yes, it needs a little upgrading. Tables and almost everything is in an "older" condition. For some reason, I get the feeling that this place may not be the cleanest, but I try not to think of that, since this place has decent korean food. Service is good...the ajjumah was nice, and once, I ordered nakji bokum aka spicy fried squid, and it was AWFUL. That was the one time, they had served something terrible. The squid was boiled, and then just added in. When I bit into it, I tasted water. I told the waiter, and they must have tasted it, because the grandma came out later apologizing. They were nice about changing it for something else. Perhaps, they had a different cook working that day...I know some Korean restaurants hire mexicans for everything, and make them do everything. Service is good, but the waitstaff always changes. They are always nice to me, but I notice a difference when I bring an American friend, or a Korean friend. When I come in with a korean friend, service is always good, and they bring out the right banchan (side dishes), and I am happy. When I come with an American friend, ie = anyone that doesn't look korean, they bring out the "American" banchan, that they think the american would like. This is crappy banchan, and not authentic at all. Like Corn with Mayonaise, and CANNED corn at that! It ain't korean! And I swear, some of the banchan must have been RECYCLED!! Yes, it irritates me. Because I'm korean, I've been there before, I know what banchan they have, and also, I can see the ajushi's (older korean men) in the booth over, getting all the good stuff I like. That's the only negative. I still choose to eat here though. The food is authentic, and service is good.

Pros: Food is authentic and tasty

Cons: Kind of old in the inside, doesn't look too clean.

03/15/2007 Posted by liverworts

The food was ok although a little pricy, but what really irritated us was the service and their attitude! That day we ate there as a group of 4, two people paid in cash and the other two paid with credit cards. Somehow we miscalculated the amount of $ to be put in the credit cards and the total tip did not make to 15%. That was our mistake and we had no excuse. However, as we walked out the Korean female manager (?) came to us with very very bad and rude attitude blaming, almost scolding us for not paying the tip. We stopped, tried to recalculate the bill, and the amount to be added. She kept talking with loud voice and pointing at us with a calculator. I asked her more than 3 times with my card in my hand, "I'm paying now and just show me how much more I need to add" and I spoke slowly and clearly that I was paying. She kept nagging on us. Finally she stopped after I signed for another extra $10 to be added. Again we were sorry for miscalculating the 1st time and didn't make the tip to 15%, BUT what kind of service attitude is that to yell at and force your clients to listen to you, even though they already expressed multiple times that they were about to pay? And who said they Korea Garden could force the clients to pay the 15% tip? I'll never go back there again, if I have to deal with that woman ever!

04/28/2006 Posted by depechekin

The food was wonderful and we were very impressed with the service, this iwas the friendlest and most wonderful staff of people I have ever met in any restraunt anywhere in my lifetime. They really do care about their customers and go out of their way to make your trip enoyable, if you are a first time tryer of Korean food, this a good place to start, they will explain everything to you and guide you through the menu. You just can't find better food or service anywhere!

Pros: Great Service, Nicest Staff Ever!, Excellent Food

Cons: Price

10/07/2005 Posted by greatsushi

Korea Garden is the best of best Sushi place in Austin!!!. Sushi quality is better than any other sushi place in Austin. We tried so many sushi restaurants in Austin, but any of other sushi places cant bit the Korea Garden. The spicy rainbow roll was AWESOME and Tempura Ice Cream was great for dessert. Wait staffs were nice and very friendly, also one of the Sushi Chef show us how to do SAKE BUM that was so fun. They even have bonus card that accumulate points (dollars). When the amounts is over $20 than you can use that bonus card as cash at Korea Garden. I highly recommended this place!!!!

05/24/2005 Posted by felinetattoo

I came in around five o'clock to order some sushi to go from their Happy Hour Sushi menu. I told them when I arrived that I was here for their Happy Hour Sushi and could I get it to go. The lady behind the counter said, "Yes." They handed me a Happy Hour Sushi menu and I ordered a couple of orders of rolls. (about $12). The lady came back ten minutes later and told me I couldn't get the Happy Hour Sushi unless I ordered $20 worth of food. I was a little embarrassed as she sat poised to write down more food on my order form. I felt fooled, especially when there is a larger than life sign promoting Happy Hour Sushi, but no disclaimer about a minimum.

05/17/2005 Posted by gweasley

I have been to this place about 5 times now, and I honestly have yet to experience bad service from them. Their beef bulgogi is the best. Even a friend of mine who'd spent her time in Korea says this was the best chicken bulgogi she's had. While some of them may not understand English very well, they've always been polite and courteous to me and the people I'm with. Plus the sushi and tempura is great... and the prices even better. One time I was stuck waiting for my friend and they unsolicitedly served me fish tempura for free because I was waiting so long. They even give you a bonus card so you get dollars back/discounts as long as you accumulate points with future purchases over $20. I highly recommend this place.

Pros: Great food, great value, great service

Cons: limited English, can get noisy, can get busy