Ahn-Joo

Terrible!
The greasiest broccoli I have ever eaten. How do you do that?
My girlfriend can’t eat sesame seeds. We asked 3 times for no sesame seeds and they put them on anyway.
Meanwhile the clock is ticking for our movie.
I got chicken, she got bulgogi. They were both overcooked and flavorless.
Never again. Even if I’m in a rush.

I know my taste in many things is different than your average bear. Often don’t like the movies that are popular, and really enjoy the ones that aren’t. Have been to many highly rated restaurants with RAVE reviews and just can’t figure out how they can possibly think the food is more than passable. So, granted, I am weird.
I had the fried chicken. There was a bit of a line. Took a whole 10 minutes. LOVED it! The garlic, soy and spicy kick was awesome on the potatoes too. Shared it with a friend, who agreed.
So, it wasn’t a five star restaurant, but it was pretty darn good!

The food was whatevers… and the service was worse… i had to wait a few minutes for someone to notice that i was standing there ready to order. When my food was ready it just sat there for 5 minutes before i could start knocking on the window for their attention i see the cook eating his burger… the guy who took my order on the laptop doing something… and another guy just talking to them and finally the chef pointed out that the food is ready when he had finished and put it out like 5 minutes ago (why didnt he say something then? ugh!). So the food pretty much sucked and wasnt worth the wait or the money… go elsewhere if you’re craving something to eat while walking around at Americana. Overall, I would not come back.

The first time I tried this place I wasn’t impressed with my order: two drumsticks on a bed of mushy potatoes. The food was a lot heavier than I thought it would be, oily and messy. I needed plenty of napkins.
Half a year later, I went back anyway – thinking I’d ordered the wrong thing the first time. I ordered something on the lighter side: the soba noodles with vegetables and gyoza – what I got was a huge pile of gross and a smaller pile of ruined gyoza. The noodles were thick and oily, the vegetables: chunky and cluttered, the dumplings were greasy, overcooked, and had to be from a package. The only thing remotely edible on the dish was the kimchi, and that seemed to come from a bottle of low grade from who-​knows-​where.
On a lighter note – my husband was happy with his bulgogi fried rice, which again – was very oily, but he often eats like a bear out of hibernation if he skips breakfast.

This was. well, bad. From the price you’re paying for really poorly constructed small plates to the service. It’s all sort of just really bad.
You’re stuck waiting for a long time for your dishes. Which, you know, is pretty bad when you’re doing small plates, you’d hope that you would be able to jump from one plate to another. Nah, not here. You’re left finishing the first order and just waiting… and waiting for the next to show up. Oh, it’ll eventually get to you… eventually.
Was the food worth the wait? Well, clearly from the 1 star I gave this, that should be the spoiler alert that it really wasn’t tasty at all.
It’s really just some bad Korean food. You’re best off heading over to K-​town and hitting up an AYCE spot — hell, most random spots in K-​town would be better than this really bland, flavorless dishes.
Skip at all cost.

Absolutely disgusting.
THE ORDER:
Kimchi Pancake: 1 star– mushy and flavorless. It was like eating cooked flour with very little essence of kimchi. I love Korean pancakes and this was an abomination.
Fried Chicken– 1 star– This again had lackluster flavor. The skin had a hint of flavor, but it did not translate to the meat. This was served with fried potatoes. They, too were bland as all hell, tasting like the oil they were cooked in. The red sauce that they were served with was foul and did not resemble Korean ANYTHING!
Chicken Meatballs– 1 star. SO GROSS! Mushy, unappetizing balls of oil. I had to check with my iPhone flashlight to make sure that these were cooked because the texture was so wrong. ICK!
THE SERVICE:
1 star overall. Horrible, horrible… horrible! Did I mention it was horrible! The food took FOR-​ev-​errrrr and it was NOT worth the wait. They were out of the pickled cucumber thatI ordered, so I was offered potatoes (even tho my order already came with potatoes). I then asked for kimchi… they were out of that, too. So I was told to get the fried rice. I don’t want fried rice as a pickle substitute, Genius! I settled on the Korean peppers, which were horrible, too. I was told they had no cucumbers AFTER i paid, that is why I had to settle on something to sub them with. The people who work there clearly have no passion for Korean food, as it was cooked horribly and they were borderline rude.
OVERALL:
I will NEVER go back… I’d honestly rather starve. Korean food is known for it’s strong, distinct flavors, not this garbage. I actually felt as though I wanted to throw up after I ate it, not out of feeling sick, but out of disgust that this food was inside of me.
I DO NOT RECOMMEND TO ANY UnilocalER, EVER. DONT FEED THIS SHIT TO YOUR DOGS!!!
xo–
andrea

Wow. I should have read the other reviews, I saw this place and really wanted to try it– I had seen their truck around town. The service is indifferent, almost to the point where as you stand there waiting to order, it’s like you’re disturbing them from doing the absolutely nothing they’re doing back there. After I order, the guy says, it’ll be at least 10 minutes. Yikes. It’s not very busy at all, and I should have noticed that before ordering.
The food itself? Fries were drowned in this sticky sauce that got really tedious to eat after awhile (and I LOVE fries.) Chicken was ok, but the flavor got tiring too, as the chicken was drenched in that sauce and a garlic sauce. I threw most of it out. and I almost NEVER throw things out. Bummer, I really wanted to like this place.

Very pricey for the portion. And not worth it for the quality. Get pizza instead from the next stand.
Bulgogi sliders– cold, dry, lack flavor, boring
Pork belly fried rice– super salty, inedible
Bulgogi plate– nothing special
My friend wanted to order the kimchi fried rice, but they didnt have kimchi! What? How? How do they make the kimchi aioli in my bulgogi sliders then? This place is a big disappointment. And to add on to that, it took quite a long time for us to get our food.

Ahn Joo is a food stand at the Americana. It features Korean food in izakaya/​tapas portions. I paid $ 7.50 for chicken meatballs on a warm day. I snuck it into the movie theaters like a villain, but I found the smell too potent once I was seated.
I ate one piece and made an attempt to identify the flavor as I was chewing. I ate another before I concluded that the blend of seasonings wasn’t put together well at all. I ended up throwing the balance away.

Oh. My. Goodness. This place is wack.
First of all, can the person that works here hate life anymore? Service is god awful. They only have one person working here. The person that takes the orders, prepares the food. This person seems like she is just going through the motions. lol I ordered fried chicken, garlic fried rice and kimchi fried rice. After 15 minutes she calls my order and she looks at me and tells me to «enjoy». I respond with «cool, but I also ordered the garlic fried rice as well» she responds with «you did??» TF?
I’m ok with the missed item. Shit happens. After 10 minutes I get the food.
Food was not that great. I would say average at best. Pricey as hell. $ 2 for bottled water. Next time I decide to eat at the food stands at the Americana I’ll just drink the water in the dancing water fountain.
I don’t know what I was thinking. I should have known. Dissapointed.

Even though they didn’t have that many customers, it took much longer than the 15 minutes they told us to cook the 2 items we ordered. We could see that other customers had the same issue and had to keep going back to check on our order.
For a mall food stand, I wasn’t expecting spectacular food. But what they served was overpriced and not good at all. The Fried chicken was super dry and was slathered in some gooey sauce. It was served with potato wedges, which were also slathered in the same sauce. The pork belly fried rice was sort of burnt and super salty it tasted like sticky rice drenched in salty sauce rather than fried rice.

Woo hoo! The food was free, but I wish the overall experience was better.
There was absolutely no line at 11:30am on a lazy Wednesday afternoon. After ordering the kimchi fried rice, Korean fried chicken, and bulgogi sliders I tried to pay with my credit card. However, the lady behind the counter said the card machine wasn’t working. When I offered cash, she said the cash drawer wasn’t working either. She said to come back in a few minutes to pick up for the food and try paying then. I felt kind of bad for the cashier, because there was another employee behind her cursing and swearing up and down about the cash register not working.
After 10 minutes of window shopping I came back and was told that my lunch would be FREE because the cash drawer still wasn’t working. Wow… that was $ 29 of free grub! Thanks Ahn-​Joo!
The sliders were better than anything else I ordered because it actually had some flavor to it. The other two dishes were just disappointing. The kimchi fried rice was bland and had no sense of spiciness to it. The fried chicken didn’t have much taste beyond its sweetly crisped skin.
The food looked good but satisfaction will be harder to come by, especially if the food isn’t free.
Mmm…at least the pics look good…
— bulgogi sliders
— kimchi fried rice with soy braised pork
— Korean fried chicken

About too pass out from shopping… when I spotted this line at Ahn-​Joo.
Since the line was long, I thought this must be a good place? Well not quite.
1^st off the service was horrible, unorganized, confusion with the orders and the cashier was so unhappy working there.
about the food I decided too try the Bulogi Sliders.
I actually liked it, the flavors complimented each other. it was a little on the greasy side… all in all I would try it again.

2 dollar plus tax for a can of soda? Are u on crack. It took forever and waiting for my food. And it wasn’t that great looking. I kno its snacks and stuff, but 8 bucks for 2 sliders. And 10 for a rice «bowl». Nooooooo I don’t think so. I just wanted to at least try it once, but noooooooooooo I don’t think so. I know its fusion but not even close. Geebus. Really.
Had the «nachos». that «cheese» was sooooo gross.: P I didn’t really care for it. Will i return, nope. no way.

I am in love with their Bacon Wrapped rice cylinders $ 5 & change it is pricey for what it is. But it has to be the best thing on the menu. Took foreverrrrrr to get my order of 1 item .
Service is usually terrible.
avoid all other items!
im so sad this place isnt going to make it. so many places in the americana that don’t survive why?

This place really is just, whatevers.
Ordered the Korean «Nachos» which basically consisted of Korean rice cake, cheese, and braised pork. The cheese was really really watery and didn’t taste that good with the fried rice cake. I disliked this item.
I did however, like the Spicy chicken + Fried rice. The fried rice was sticky and seasoned well, and the chicken was pretty good. I like the kimchi on the side, it was sour & tangy enough.
This place is pretty pricey for the portion they give you though, it’s no wonder the pizza place across from them gets a lot of business.

This review is about the food only.
I was at the Americana on my lunch break and noticed this new Korean food stand – neat, always looking to try new takes on Korean dishes! Didn’t have time to check it out that day, but I went back and looked up the reviews on Unilocal.Hmm, lots of mediocre reviews for their food truck but maybe this would be different.
Tried it today and, wow, I’m disappointed and actually embarrassed for them. :(We ordered five dishes between us and the only thing good enough to finish were the sliders. My dish was the boneless chicken and hot sauce on a bed of rice with sprouts and kim chi. I also tried some crispy chicken drumsticks, meatballs, and bulgogi off of the other plates. Blah, poor flavoring and meat quality. The chicken was dry, the meatballs just didn’t taste right, and the bulgogi was salty. We left our dishes half eaten and trashed the rest.
Ahn Joo, you’re probably better off selling straight up Hite beer and o-​jing-​uh (dried squid) than this stuff. Hope you’ll take an honest look at your food and maybe consult with a chef to work on the taste.

I saw this place a few times without NO Unilocal reviews and wanted to be the first one, but with school and work getting in the way of it all, I just gave up and decided to let other people take the jab at it.
A really tiny kiosk in the center of the Americana, serving small Korean dishes. At first, I looked at the prices and thought, REALLY? 10 bucks for a rice bowl?!~ You’re freaken kidding me?!~
I decided, for the sake of Unilocal,I’ll order my safety Korean dish, bulgogi rice bowl with the garlic fried rice and whatever banchan was. Before I went here, my friend told me about banchan, a tiny small side dish, often something that you usually don’t get on a daily basis.
My order took some time, and I decided to relax a bit and work on some payroll stuff. Once my order came out, I was kind of off-​put with the way they served the food to me; on a school paper tray. Presentation wasn’t too bad, but if I’m paying 10 bucks for food, I would expect a bigger portion.
I have to say, I was not impressed with the food at all. The only good thing was the garlic fried rice because they made it EXTRA garlicy with no cost. I decided to continue working on my work and eat the rest at a given time when I was close enough to getting back to work. When I did that, the food was ACTUALLY better cold than hot. WTH?!~ REALLY?!~
Honestly, this is a place that you can do without. If you have an expandable income, go ahead and try it out, but I don’t think it’s really worth the price.
In case you were wondering, the banchan of the day was kimchi.

Korean Nachos is deep fried rice cakes, smoky chile queso, soy braised pork, and kimchee salsa. Yes, I said, kimchee salsa. This is an amazing play on nachos. The pork was marinated to perfection and added a special flavor to the deep fried rice cakes. The kimchee salsa added a spicy, pickley flavor and tied it all together in a neat little bow. The cheese was a very interesting addition. Who knew cheese and kimchee went together. Thumbs up, way up!
Magnolia Chile Chicken Meatballs are amazing! These Asian-​style meatballs encompass so many flavors in one bite. The ground chicken is perfectly seasoned and cooked to a juicy perfection. The kicker is the magnolia berry chile glaze. This will definitely give you an OMG moment or two! I think if they gave me the whole serving platter, I would have eaten them all. They are very addictive. You can’t just have one so order accordingly! Thumbs up, way up!
Robata Skewers are Ahn Joo’s version of an Asian kabob. Each order comes with two skewers «ssam style» with butter lettuce, spicy pickled cucumbers and ssamjang, their spicy bean paste. We got the Bacon Wrapped Rice Cylinders (cakes) with jalapeño ponzu. Bacon rules and Chef Debbie knows it! Korean rice cakes are the perfect vehicle as they take on the flavors of any ingredient you add to them. The bacon flavor just melds with the rice cakes. It was like pillows of bacon goodness. They may look little to you, but they are quite filling. If they weren’t so filling, I could eat a ton of these. The jalapeño ponzu added a slight sweet twist. Excellent execution! Thumbs up, way up!
Kimchee Pajeon «Pancake» is like a Korean crêpe. They are a little thicker, but oh so delicate. The kimchee mixes well with the batter and adds another dimension of flavor and texture. The outside has a crispy, buttery flavor. The addition of chili sauce and a sprinkle of sesame seeds and green onions are the perfect mix. Thumbs up!
Modern Mandu, aka Korean potstickers, are filled with pork (or kimchee) and topped with a scallion sauce. These are definitely the best potstickers I’ve ever had. It’s got a good portion of pork inside where their Chinese potsticker cousins have mostly cabbage. They use Gyoza wrappers which are a lot lighter than the doughy Chinese dumpling so you can taste the ginger pork rilette filling inside, like a luxurious pork meatball. The scallion sauce brings everything together. I can see these fried up like won tons too. Thumbs up!
Spicy Chilled Buckwheat Noodles topped with seasonal veggies, gochujang vinaigrette, and a boiled egg. The noodles are thin with a nutty flavor from the buckwheat and texture like whole wheat angel hair pasta. The best way to eat this is to toss it together, mixing up the vinaigrette with the pickled veggies and green onion and breaking up the boiled egg. Once the flavors mix, your taste buds will party! I predict this will be a popular dish in the summer time with SoCal warm weather and rival bun (Vietnamese cold noodle dish). Thumbs up, way up!
Ahn Joo has Sweet K-​Grub too! The Fuji Apple Eggroll with ginger mascarpone is to die for! It’s like a fried apple turnover but inside of pie crust, it’s an eggroll wrapper. The filling is hot and the apples are brimming with their natural sweetness. The ginger mascarpone is heavenly! Who knew that ginger and mascarpone would go so well together? These are addictive — might want two orders just in case. «Let go my eggroll!» Thumbs up, way up!
Grilled Nutella Bhang «Bread» with seasonal berries (blueberries were on the menu last night) is simple but so good. The bhang is light, white Asian bread, delicate in both flavor and texture. Grilling the bread provides a crunch and grilled flavor to the dish. The perfect vehicle to make the Nutella and blueberries shine through. Thumbs up!

Ahn-​Joon is a new food stand at The Americana. The stand opens in the same location as the recently closed Jody Maroni’s. The official grand opening is Thursday Nov 10, but it is opened a little early for a soft run. Once I started seeing people lining up I couldn’t resist… now that I’m done, part of me wishes I did.
Ahn-​Joon is from the mind of Debbie Lee, you may remember her as a finalist from season 5 of The Food Network Star, her motto is «Seoul 2 Soul,» a mix of Korean with Southern Comfort food. It’s an intriguing idea that I wish worked better in the food I had today.
FOOD
Bacon Wrapped Rice Cylinders in a Jalapeño Ponzu — 2 out of 5– It had me at bacon. Not a bad dish, the bacon is crisp, smokey and full of flavor. The Jalapeño ponzu was a nice touch. It added a little kick (more flavor, not so much spice which I was a little disappointed by). My least favorite part was the rice cylinder, which was just kind of gummy and lacking in much flavor (more on this below).
Korean Nachos — 1 out of 5 — Deep fried rice cylinders covered in a chile queso, soy braised pork and a kimchee salsa. HOLY GREASE BOMB and welcome to Heat Attack Lane. I don’t think I’ve ever had anything this greasy in my life. The whole thing kind of just fell flat. The rice cylinders were really bland and kind of an odd choice as a food canvas to build a dish from. The kimchee salsa didn’t have any kimchee-​ness to it at all and the chile queso just turned into a blob of curdling oil. The soy braised pork was the bright spot as it was pretty tasty but not much else. The dish was screaming for something crunchy as everything was kind of a one note mush. I couldn’t even bring myself to finish it.
Fuji Apple Eggroll — 3 out of 5 — A fried egg roll filled with fuji diced fuji apples and served with a ginger marscarpone. I wanted to like this dessert more than I did. The egg roll was fried well and the apples inside were crisp and juicy. The marscarpone dip was fluffy and light. The big problem I had with it is that overall it really wasn’t that sweet. I don’t have a big sweet tooth, but when I have a dessert I want it to satisfy my sugary needs. This particular dish was good, but it just didn’t feel like a dessert.
OVERALL
I hope this stand comes together as the culinary perspective it is aiming for is interesting and worthy. I probably will give it another chance after the grand opening and hope that some of the other items they offer satisfies my Seoul.