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| - Hwaro is the new kid in one busiest plazas in Chinatown (home to Curry Zen, Raku, etc). I came with a group of 9 on a Saturday night; there wasn't a table big enough for our party so we split into 2 groups. It wasn't terribly busy inside, but right from the get-go, service was very spotty. 15 minutes into being seated, our friends who are seated across from us have gotten their drinks and have started grilling their food while we are still waiting for our server to attend to us. When our server finally arrived, most of our party was already annoyed and envious of our other companions. We asked if we could get started right away, but our waitress said she couldn't take our order until she put the grill on (why she couldn't take our order and then put the grill on is beyond me...) We waited for probably another 5 minutes, but by that time it seemed like an eternity before we were able to order.
We were able to try the pork belly, beef tongue, brisket, wine marinated pork belly, and the one per person dinner items such as baby octopus and enoki beef. The meat was all very good! I liked that they weren't overly marinated and I liked that they gave you 2 extra dipping sauces (one is sweet and the other is spicy) along with the traditional sauce of sesame oil with salt and pepper used for pork belly. We also got a lot of banchan which included kimchi, fishcake, broccoli with a white sauce on top, small fish, apple/egg salad, mussels, corn cheese, and pickled radish. They also served complimentary bean paste stew, steamed egg, and salad.
Although the food was really good, our server rarely came back to check on us. And when she did, she never came back with the salad we asked for. We had to wave down our friend's to ask if their server can help refill our drinks and put in another order. And as another yelper mentioned, I don't think they change the grills after it becomes charred and nasty. When it initially started to get black, we wiped the char off with some of the pickled radish so we could continue cooking. When we were ready for our second order, we asked to change the grill and instead they wiped the grill with a napkin. At the end of the night we were all full, but with such lackluster service, it's hard to say that I thoroughly enjoyed my meal.
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