Genwa Korean BBQ

Genwa is fantastic! My husband loves Korean BBQ, but I’m not a huge fan. So it took a special occasion to get ourselves here. We were lucky to find street parking not too far away — valet is $ 6. There was also quite a lengthy wait — over 30 minutes. But the food that followed was so superlative that it made the wait totally worth it!
We kept it simple and ordered combo A for the two of us — the mains were prime galbi and bulgogi chicken. The combo also came with japchae, soon tofu, brown rice, gyerinjjim (Korean steamed egg that was bubbling as it reached us!), house salad and wait for it…26 types of banchan! (Yes, I counted!) Honestly, I could’ve spent the entire meal sampling the banchan; plus we had a wonderful server who explained the various dishes to us and brought us second and even third helpings of our favorites (our faves were the fish cakes, dried calamari and the little savory pancakes whose names I do not know)
Just we were beginning to feel full, the meats arrived! Ordinarily, I would’ve wondered how 2 meats would fill us up, but I hadn’t counted on the unlimited banchan and other sides. While the bulgogi chicken arrived already cooked, our server pretty much did most of the work while grilling the prime galbi at our table. The galbi was the juiciest, most tender meat I have ever eaten (probably one of the fattiest too, but when it tastes as great as it did, I don’t really care!). The bulgogi chicken was good too, but everything paled in comparison to the galbi!
Honestly, the meal was enough to warrant a five star rating, but they went above and beyond with service that treated us like royalty, and the nice touches at the end — the sweet rice tea (totally regretting that I didn’t ask for more!) and the foot-​shaped lollipops! Genwa is definitely pricey (the meal came to $ 80 with tax and tip, and no drinks or dessert), but I can’t think of a nicer place to celebrate a special occasion!

My fiancé and me love this place. The prime galbi and the wagyu are out of this world. The waiters here cook the food for you and they do a pretty good job of it. They offer so many side dishes and can’t forget the rice punch. My fiancé orders a full glass everytime. Hope to have have our rehearsal dinner here, that’s how much we love it
Price is high FYI but it is ultra high quality meats. (I love gen but you do sacrifice some quality for quality there)

This is a high end Korean BBQ place, it can get very expensive if you’re ordering BBQ items individually. We opted for the Course A meal which only had one BBQ item, the prime ribs. we chose Bulgogi chicken as our option which was selectable as part of the course.
The food isn’t that much better than AYCE places therefore you don’t get a lot of value for the price you’re paying. Like I said, the course for two people only had one BBQ item but you do get a bunch of side dishes.
I only recommend this place if you’re going on a date or a more formal dinner as I find AYCE places to be similar in terms of food and taste, you just get a more fine dinning experience here.

Great place!
Very good quality of meat.
One down side is that we ordered a 4 person pre selected meal and our entrée plates were coming out so quickly that our last course seafood had to sit on a nearby table for 20min waiting for us to place it on the grill. I am not sure if the staff is aware but they can easily keep the food in the kitchen more importantly seafood refrigerated and bring it out when the customer is ready for it… Just an obvious r suggestion.
Otherwise the staff is extremely attentive, I for once did not have to flip/​grill my own meat.
$ 250 for 4 people with drinks and tip, we did not have the most expensive pre-​set meal.

Genwa might not be super traditional Korean BBQ but they do serve some fantastic food. There are many AYCE Korean BBQ restaurants but after eating at Genwa you realize the quality can’t compare. I started off with the Galbi Jim, Prime beef short ribs braised in a special sweet house sauce with vegetables and herbs. I actually ordered this by accident, I thought it was something that you BBQ on the grill but it is served in a hot pot needless to say it was fantastic, definitely worth ordering. I also had the Cha Dol, thinly sliced unseasoned prime brisket, the meat quality was excellent. To top off my amazing dinner I also ordered the assortment of shrimp, scallops & lobster, I did find this order a little on the small side but it was really good, there could have been a few more scallops.
The service at Genwa was spot on, there was always a server around to get you whatever you needed.

Best service! Pretty good quality meats. Parking is $ 6 valet. Big booth tables to accommodate large groups. Almost 2 dozen assorted banchan. side dishes. Small sample portions but they will happily give you more side dishes of you ask. Very clean and you don’t walk out smelling like bbq.
Had to knock down a star because they forgot to bring out two orders. We were waiting for our soybean stew and pork belly. Never came. Turned out the waiter never placed the order in. Had to wait for the pork but canceled the stew. We were almost done eating by the time they tried to figure out what happened with the stew order. Kind of disappointed when service seemed top notch. Just make sure to repeat and confirm your order.
Good place to bring guests or celebrate birthdays. Dining area is spacious and ambience is quite modern. Very fitting being in the La Cienega restaurant row area.

So we finally tried Genwa Korean BBQ, basically I went there for banchan, they have so many side dishes to offer, but most of them are similar to any Korean restaurants, we didn’t even ask for more of them except very few ones. I liked the spinach and marinated spicy clams the most, potato salad and fish flakes were very delicious too.
On to the menu, courses and a la carte, impressive vegetarian selections, good seafood choices too. The prices are a bit higher than regular Korean restaurants, but that was to be expected though. We decided on course A and seafood platter with lobster tail, tiger shrimps and scallops. The course came with salad, glass noodles, steamed eggs and spicy tofu soup. We ordered a Hite beer and a soju to wash down our comfort food.
Hubby liked the quality of the meats, my seafood was very fresh too. We just didn’t enjoy them cooking for us too much. I am an extremely slow eater, most of my grilled seafood was cold when I was eating it, I didn’t want to turn on the grill again cause the seafood would get hard and chewy. Hubby’s meat was too well done because they cooked it too fast. Next time we will just tell them to leave the cooking to us! We enjoy slow eating and drinking.
For dessert we had gelato, very refreshing and tasty, perfect for balancing out a heavy meal in the end.
Overall I liked Genwa, liked the upscale service and ambience, lots of different items to choose in addition to BBQ. We will be back whenever I crave comfort Korean food and lots of banchan!

On a Saturday night when the restaurants we were hoping to eat at in KTown had waits of upwards of 1.75 hours, we called Genwa and were able to put our names down for a table. When we got there, about 15 minutes later, we waited about 10 minutes for our table.
CON: Valet is required, which was silly, because they literally did nothing with our car, as we parked ourselves it in the first spot outside the restaurant. Worse, the valet even left our key in the car with the headlights on, until we went out to check on the car, having seen that our lights were still on after 5 minutes of leaving our car.
PROS: Great service and delicious food
The servers do everything for you in terms of cooking the meat, but you serve yourself
The servers also refill the bonchon generously and are very friendly.
We had the F Course serving 4 – 5 (House Salad ~ Japchae ~ Deung Shim ~ Kot Sal ~ Prime Galbi ~ Bulgogi ~ Shrimp &

Quality? Exceptional. Service? Spectacular. Price? Ouch. KBBQ smell afterwards? NO SIR!
I’ve been to a fair share of Korean BBQ restaurants and for the most part, always dine at AYCE KBBQ spots because it gives me the best bang for my buck. However, my mind might’ve changed after coming here. Within one bite of the meat, you can definitely tell it’s top quality meat.
For a party of 2, we decided on the A course which comes with House Salad, Soon Tofu, Rice (White or Brown), japchae, prime galbi and your choice of either bulgogi, bulgogi chicken or cha dol. We decided on the bulgogi. Plus, it comes with 20+ sides dishes (banchan) which is more than enough to fill you up. At first, you’re thinking… how in the world can only 2 meats fill me up when I’ve always gone to AYCE spots and ordered multiple rounds… Trust me, it will. The banchan is unlimited so eat away! My favorites were the fish cake, spicy fish cake, clams and anchovies. Quite frankly, everything is delicious. The meat is to die for. Melts in your mouth… literally.
The service is amazing. Our waitress, Susan, made sure we were treated like royalty. She was friendly, extremely attentive and catered to our needs. The most surprising thing was that she cooked for us the entire time. I don’t think I had to touch the tongs once. Expect to be treated like a VIP when you come. Also, if you are wearing slacks, ask for black napkins. She had to run around looking for the longest time but she found one!
The price is what you expect when dining in Beverly Hills but you get what you pay for… top quality meat with exceptional customer service!
I always dread the after-​effects of dining at a KBBQ restaurant because I just smell like a piece of meat when I leave the restaurant. Fear not my friends, you will leave smelling the exact same as when you first entered the restaurant. The ventilation here is great and you need not worry about the smell afterwards.