Today was my second time eating at Arisu. I went for lunch today with my parents and my partner and we ordered the Arisu BBQ combo consisting of boneless galbi beef short ribs, beef short ribs, bulgogi, sliced pork belly, marinated chicken breast, vegetables, soybean stew plus Banchan dishes & rice. The food was absolutely DELICIOUS as it was the last time I went with just my partner. The meat is extremely tender and tasty and BBQing at the table is truly lovely and endlessly entertaining in a family setting. I highly recommend Korean BBQ for dates and families!
I rate the food 4 stars. I love the tofu stew and the banchan dishes are really tasty and fresh and make a wonderful compliment to the BBQ'd meat. My issue was with the service and the overall experience and after today I won't be returning because I'm very upset after receiving poor service and witnessing an incident that made me extremely uncomfortable.
Our server was very aloof and inattentive although we were friendly, laid-back and patient. I worried that Arisu was understaffed because our server forgot to bring us coffee that we ordered and never checked back in to offer water or tea refills or check up on how things were going. He also wasn't attentive to managing the grill and switching over to a new grill half way through the meal to prevent it from smoking and to keep the meat from sticking and burning. He came by quite late in the meal to switch the grill plate for a new one and towards the end of the meal he swooped in just after we'd put the chicken on to grill and removed it when the meat had just started to sear. The meat stuck and the butter and marinade was lost in transferring the meat over and the chicken didn't turn out as tender after he scraped it off and transferred it to a new grill. It was disappointing and awkward. After our meal we sat awkwardly for a while trying to flag him down because our grill was billowing smoke after we cooked the bulgolgi and the marinade started charring. Very poor service! I wonder if it's a staffing issue...
We were sat in a booth by the window and we were upset to see two staff members shooing pigeons away from the side of the restaurant by knocking them with brooms. One of the birds was stubborn or possibly sick or injured and when it didn't shoo the staff member pummelled it with a broom until it didn't move and swept it under a bush beside the restaurant in plain view of where we were sitting. It was utterly horrifying to watch and we all felt badly. It was extremely unsettling and unprofessional to behold not to mention CRUEL and needless. How horrible, shame on them!!
We paid around $150 for four people for lunch and I expected much better service and professionalism and I won't be returning based on my experience.