Korea Garden

Spicy soup, Shrimp fried rice and Teriyaki were so good. Good service.
The price was pretty high.

Found by accident in sketchy neighborhood. Nice family run place, friendly, 0 atmosphere. $ 18.95 for chicken Bulgogi was outrageous! :(

The service was amazing and the food was even better. I had the bip bam bap. Delish and Dan had the #40 seafood noodle soup. Would highly recommend. Place is clean and wonderful. Barley tea is also a nice touch!

I came by KG for the first time since my undergrad years at CMU– subtle changes, but I noted that they have a few tables with the KBBQ grills built in! The dining room is pretty sterile, but brighter than it was many years ago.
When I come here, I always get the Kkanpoongi (fried sweet, spicy chicken) and the Soondubu (soft tofu soup). The kkanpoongi is pretty addictive, and it comes with finely chopped carrots, which adds great texture to the dish.
Everything tasted the same as it did many, many years ago. Those two dishes I mentioned above are safe, and is probably going to be what I order every time I go there.

Food: ³⁄₅
Ambiance: ²⁄₅
Service: ³⁄₅
Coming from New York City, where Koreatown has all the Korean food one can imagine, Korea Garden shines ever so dully in my mind. Upon entering the restaurant at prime time on Friday night, there was only one table being served, with the other eight or so empty and devoid of life.
«Weird,» I thought, «especially since this restaurant is located so close to where students live!» Alas, I gave it a try anyway, since I desperately wanted some Korean stew ever since moving to Pittsburgh two months ago.
I got the soondoobu. It’s alright. Just, alright. It’s quite spicy, but I like my Korean food spicy. The side dishes were… less than ideal. Bland to the point of tasting stale, I did not consume any more past the initial sampling.
So… The food is alright. This restaurant would not survive in New York City’s Koreatown, but I was just glad to find some Korean food in Pittsburgh.
Oh, and a note about the service. After I came in, no more customers came in. So, the employees of the restaurant left the front desk and all congregated at the back of the restaurant to chat amongst themselves. There was no service between the time my food got to me and the time I asked for the check. They didn’t even bother come over to see if I needed anything, or if the other table needed anything. I was almost anticipating walking to the back of the restaurant to inform them that I would like the check and leave, but goodness the employees left their table gathering just in time.
TL;DR: it’s Korean food. Not the best, but satisfies a craving.

This place has homecooked Korean food.
They have kpop playing, and it’s family owned. I’m pretty sure that the music playing in the restaurant comes from the waitress’s ipod, which I am totally ok with. They always have the latest kpop music, which I HIGHLY appreciate haha.
Their Ddubokki is SO GOOD. Since it is considered a street food in Korea, restaurants don’t usually serve it… but THIS PLACE does!
Their kimchi/​seafood pancake is very good, or so I’ve heard.
My dad and brother always get their kalbi, or their bulgolgi bento box!
Their seafood noodle soup has a ton of noodles, but the soup is salty (or so I’ve heard, I personally cant stand seafood)

I stopped by Korea Garden with some friends last night, since they were looking for a restaurant in Oakland, and none of us had tried this one before. Unfortunately, I doubt any of us will return after our experience last night, as there are many better places to eat at in Oakland (and that’s saying something, given the mediocrity of the Oakland dining scene), and better Korean restaurants elsewhere in PGH.
Since me and one of my friends had never tried Korean BBQ before, we decided to order the pork belly version to share ($ 27). The waitress suggested that we get something else to ensure that there was enough food, so we ordered the chicken from the Chinese-​Korean section ($ 16). Finally, we ordered soju to go with our meal ($ 12), at the suggestion of my other friend, who’s been to S. Korea. Every one of these items, without exception, was subpar. The pork belly, normally one of my favorite items to order, was chewy and flavorless, indicating low quality meat and overcooking. The chicken was something straight out of an Americanized Chinese take-​out place, consisting of fried and breaded pieces smothered in a thick, sweet sauce with some vegetables sprinkled in for good measure. Some of the chicken pieces were almost completely dry, whereas others were gooey from sitting in the sauce, making for an inconsistent and undesirable texture. The soju was sweetish and watery, despite being straight from the bottle.
The service we received was equally bad. Our waitress didn’t stop by our table once after our food arrived. Our waters remained unfilled, and the banchan that came with the KBBQ weren’t replenished, which should be standard, according to my friend who visited S. Korea. Indeed, we had to ask the person who came to bus our table for the check. As other reviewers have mentioned, this place is grossly understaffed – our waitress was the only one working, except for the person bussing tables.
In the words of my friend who’s visited S. Korea, we were very unimpressed with the quality of food and service we received at Korea Garden. To add insult onto injury, the prices are quite inflated – we could have had a solid meal at the hot pot place up the street for equal or less than what I paid for this meal. If you’re in the mood for Asian food in Oakland, I strongly suggest checking out that place (Top Shabu Shabu), or one of the other Chinese restaurants nearby. If you’re in the mood for Korean, try Green Pepper in SqHill or Nakwon Garden in Shadyside. Regardless of what you’re in the mood for or how close you want to stay, I guarantee that you can find a meal with better quality, prices, and service at any number of nearby restaurants.

First time doing a review and just went to this place with my aunt. It was my first time at a Korean restaurant like this since I live in NJ and there aren’t many Korean restaurants near me and it was a really good experience and I would definitely come back. I really enjoyed their and our waiter was nice and kept checking on us (then again it wasn’t that busy) to see if everything was okay and filled our waters. Overall I enjoyed this place and would recommend it to others.

One of my worst experience. Waited 40 mins for a simple appetizer. Will I come back again? Probably not.

The stews and noodle soups here remain excellent, as always. They had a new special menu, and so I tried the yukgaejang (shredded beef stew) from it. It was excellent – very meaty, full of flavor, with nice and soft glass noodles. The stew was hot and spicy, and it feels great to eat this on a warm day (counterintuitive, but it’s a very Asian thing to do). We also got their seafood noodle stew (jjambbong), which is more of a Korean-​Chinese dish, but equally rich and spicy with a more hand-​pulled type of noodle. Definitely recommended!

I don’t know how the elite members can give this place higher than a two star…
The neighborhood and the parking was shady and lacking. The interior was very bland– no décor and no Korean tv shows. Or no decoration.
I was going to put all these aside if they food can overcome these shortcoming.
We ordered LA kalbi, I asked if it was enough for myself and my college age son, since the price was high $ 26. He guy said yes, depending how hungry we were. When it came out, there was so much bone and so little meat that I scoffed, and needed to order more. There was only four side dishes: not fresh kimchee, kong-​na-​mul, motion-​kimchee, and a fourth that we cannot remember. They were below average, and not very good nor fresh.
So I ordered Kim cheegigae — that was disappointing too, not very plentiful and the pork pieces had the bone knuckles.
We are visiting from LA or the San Diego area, so my level of expectation is from there. I guess I can’t recommend any place in Pittsburgh for a great sit down Korean style dinner place yet.
The only other place that had high reviews was closed for the holidays.

Very poor service. Even let us to calculate the payments details! It was just a simple separate.

I was not impressed. I’ve lived in Pittsburgh for forever and have tried all the Korean restaurants. Korea garden left a lot to the imagination.
They had an extensive menu from my recollection and all seemed pretty authentic. You don’t see naengmyeon on the menu at places around here typically. Unfortunately… they were out of the dishes we wanted in particular. The soups were pretty good. The soondubu had good flavor and wasn’t overpoweringly spicy. The LA style galbi we ordered was decent was well. Overall opinion is that the food is grossly overpriced. Especially for being in a very college environment. The price was not worth the overall experience in my opinion.
Service was less than stellar. The waiter just started, so I give him the benefit of the doubt with not being familiar with the menu, but our order was wrong when it came out. We took it anyway since we’ve been waiting so long for our food and were running short on time. When we went to pay our bill it took maybe 10 minutes for is to get the check back for signature.

As a person who lived in Korea for three years I will definitely vouch for the authenticity. The portions are substantial. The only major difference from Korea is how much meat they pack into the dishes. I was very impressed with how meaty the dumplings (mandu) were.
I have had Korean food in DC, St Louis and Oakland and by far Korea Garden has the boldest, truest spices. The kimchi is actually spicy and the spicy pork put a fire in my belly (in a good way).
My wife ate kimchi stew and was also very happy.
The server was very friendly and made sure my cup was always full.
Cons: keeping Korea Garden out of the five star rank is the slightly high price range, lack of parking and the servers lack of English. So speak Korean if you have any special requests. If you order «as is» they understand the numbers and you really can’t go wrong.
I would give a 4.5 if possible. Delicious. If you want real Korean food in Pittsburgh, this is a must try.

I have been here three times so far and every time the food has been great and the service has been good. It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but it’s a family-​run, authentic Korean restaurant where the experience is in the food – not in the décor. The price of the food is much closer to how much Korean cuisine costs in bigger cities with sizable Korean communities. Unlike Green Pepper in Squirrel Hill, it’s not overpriced.
The first time I ordered the Mool Naeng Myeon, which were buckwheat noodles with beef and radishes plus Asian pear slices. It came with a cold salty broth to pour over it. Good ratio of meat to noodles but it was hard to finish as it was a large serving. I got the Bi Bim Bap the second time in a normal bowl, super delicious and full of crunchy veggies. Last night I ordered the Soon Du Bu which is a stew of silken tofu and shrimp, squid pieces, and mushroom. It was the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten at a Korean place – the tofu melted in my mouth like butter, and the broth was savory and delicious. It came with a small bowl of rice. The egg was nice and runny, perfect for piercing over the rice.
The Banchan here is pretty standard – musaengchae (Korean radish), kimchi, and kongnamul (bean sprouts). The radish is my favorite! Everything is made in-​house, too. It still cracks me up that they give you Wrigley’s double mint gum with your check, but, hey, I guess you need it after eating here. I love this place and hope it sticks around for decades!

Sadly it looks like there’re only 3 Korean restaurants in PGH. :’(I’m debating about giving it 3 or 4 stars. The taste seems to be better than Green Pepper. But the portion is kinda small. Smaller than before at least. It seems the price is getting more expensive.
I just really miss the Korean restaurants in SF now. (Tears)

It is always a pleasure to eat here. Their stews are amazing! The flavor they impart into the broth is both complex and well balanced. I highly recommend both the Sun Du Bu and Den Jang Jji Geh. Soooo tasty! They also provide 4 different kimchi accompaniments — cabbage, seaweed, radish and bean spouts.
Korea Garden’s menu includes dishes from an assortment of Asian cuisines — Korean (obviously), Japanese, Chinese and Vietnamese. Depending on your dish, the prices are reality cheap, especially if you are getting the Bento box for lunch.
This place is fantastic for large groups of around 8 – 12 people. The food arrives together in a cloud of steam. It’s impressive how hot all the dishes are when they arrive at the table for large groups.
Korean Garden is a great little hideaway restaurant in Oakland. The food is authentic, consistently delicious and never disappoints.

I haven’t had a korean food for such a long time since my last visit at Sushi Kim, which I swear never to go back again.
Like the previous reviewer mentioned — this place is «waaay» understaffed and hopefully the owners will recognize this issue and at least have one extra employee during peak hours before it’s too late.
The prices for the bbq seemed a bit high especially for the amount served but the rest at least for me seemed reasonable.
So far, I’ve been here twice and both times the food has been great but the service as usual a little slower — not because they were unattentive or bad, it’s just that there were only two people working upfront as a server, buss er and a host.
If you’re looking to get a quick bite — then this may not be the ideal place to get one. Just saying…

This is restaurant is undoubtedly understaffed. There were two employees at the front in charge of hosting, waiting, and busing all of the tables as well as managing phone orders. It was obvious they were stressed and continuously in a rush. Having one more employee working the front would make dining here flow significantly smoother. Based on the prices of the entrees, it seems management should be able to afford another server.
The prices for the Korean entrees are high. The menu items under Korean BBQ averaged about $ 30 per entrée. In order to use the stoves at the table you need to order at least two of such entrees. Also, the BBQ portions are limited. In New York, I’ve seen Korean BBQ buffets for $ 30 per person, but never this much for just one portion of Bulgogi or Spare Ribs. The Korean non-​BBQ dishes average over $ 20 per entrée.
The Japanese and Korean-​Chinese dishes were priced com the range of about $ 7 — $ 20 with different prices during lunch or dinner for certain items.
I opted for the Ban Jai (steak and shrimp). My only complaint was that the steak was well done; otherwise, the shrimp and mushrooms were good. The Nam Jai is a bento box which also came with fried dumplings, fried rice, crab sticks, kimchi, and cucumber & carrot salad. I thought all of the sides except the crabmeat were very good.
I think Korea Garden has some of the best Asian good on Oakland. I would certainly return for a different bento box!
Oh, and paper towels are located outside the restrooms.

There aren’t many Korean restaurants in Pittsburgh, but this is where most of the Koreans in Pittsburgh I know go to get Korean food. The food is a little bit pricy but less expensive than Green Pepper and more authentic than Oiishi Bento. Although I’m not Korean so I can’t really say what’s authentic or not, it’s always full of Koreans and all my international Korean friends like it. My favorite is the seafood pancake and bibimpap. Love the scorched rice at the bottom.
I’ve been to the Karaōke rooms once. You can rent out a private room, but it gets pricey. They have a range of both Korean and American songs, mostly mainstream music.