Waba

Amazing! New favorite restaurant! Can’t wait to try everything on the menu! Ionized water! Karaōke Muzak!!!

Very disappointing– The rice was burn, bland and sticky. My husband’s sweet & sour chicken batter was under cooked. Let’s not even talk about the bathroom :0

Waba is my favorite place to eat on Hillsborough. They do great bulgogi at a reasonable price. There is always seating available. You never have to wait long for your food. The staff is very friendly and helpful. Great experience every time.

Oh my god, all I want to say is stay away from this place !! I ordered the kimchi fried rice, it came out 3 pieces of kimchi and a box of rice, nothing more, $ 8 dollars for rice with some red color !!! Give me a break !! Will never come back !

This is my first time to waba Korean restaurant. simple authentic menu (not like a normal Asian place where they got like100 dishes). they have a picture of the dish next to the item (which helps a lot)
My order
*Kim chi fried rice — I have had better Kim chi fried rice (too much fat/​oil)
* Galbi — was good
Ambience: loved the view (if you can get a table close to the window)
Cleanliness — very clean– floor shining
Service — good

This a great place for a college student to grab lunch. The only way in is by stairs. I have a roller bag so it’s difficult sometimes. It is also cheap. The view above the street is cool.
As what to eat. I have not had the Korean food. My friends have and they love it. I have been there several times and ordered either the ramen, or the veggie ramen. Both are delicious.
The staff are friendly and will kindly explain anything that you need to know about the food.

Could easily be a 5 star restaurant for me… We lived in Korea and are shocked that this joint uses cruddy rice and literally didn’t have kimchi! The food was good, a bit strange for Korean (ie carrot in the soon doboo) but still tasted good. The jayuk bocum was the best, listed as pork bulgogi on the menu

Cheap and really hit the spot in a pinch! I thought it could use some sort of hot sauce but I am also not a regular Korean eater either. I will definitely try again when the craving for cheap Korean hits.

Horrible — beef bibimbap advertised with beef and egg and cane with neither. When I asked was told next time to ask what they have before I order. There will never be a next time.

My gosh. I could really use some good Korean Barbecue. Huh? Waba? Right near campus?! This must be too good to be true! Unfortunately, it is.
Waba is located above Shanghai Express in a room with broken air conditioning. Since I prefer to eat in a pleasant environment, I decided to order my food to go. I went with the beef bulgogi.
I was slightly disappointed after opening the box. Waba should find a better way of packing rice with to go orders, as the amount that they include is significantly less than that of any other Asian restaurant. I was also disappointed to see the lack of kim chi. No casual Korean place includes a full banchan offering, but this is the first one that I’ve seen not include kim chi.
The taste of the bulgogi was the biggest disappointment of all. While there’s some variation, bulgogi has a fairly standardized taste. Waba’s bulgogi had a noticeably lighter marinade. At what should be no surprise, the flavor was underwhelming.
I was probably too harsh with my review for Nahm San in Los Angeles. Dining at Waba has helped me better appreciate how truly great even the most casual LA Korean BBQ joints can be. The food at Waba wasn’t bad, and neither was the service. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are people who like Waba, but those who have had great Korean Barbecue should probably look elsewhere.

Love that kimchi fried rice!

Disappointing bibimbap. Iceberg lettuce, clumpy rice, and no fried egg. Served with a lukewarm miso that had no nori. Not worth the price.

This is a great restaurant — no frills, good food. The kimchi is super, the vegeterian raman noodles delicious, and the folks that do the cooking know what they’re doing! I take my out-​of-​town friends that also happen to be of Korean descent and they echo the sentiment.
The only reason I don’t give it 5 stars is that I would like to see them do away with styrofoam cups and disposable plastic wear. Otherwise, excellent.

Waba isn’t a gourmet destination, but in terms of lunch spots, it’s one of my favorites. Another reviewer described it as «home style», and that’s about spot on. If you come at off hours, the cashier is often sitting on the couch relaxing, and they’ll scramble over to take your order. (It’s nice, you can settle into booth and enjoy a quiet meal at weird hours.) It’s been a staple of mine for almost 7 years at State!

The crowning achievement of Waba isn’t its style, location, or décor. No, it captures home-​style Korean cooking. The owner, also a Korean cooking teacher, does a lot of work in the community trying to spread Korean food culture, but she does it in a way that stays true to Korean food. They don’t dress it up, they don’t mix in fusion, and they don’t inflate prices.
They’ve got your corner food, your street food, your main courses, and your soups, and all for a good price. I won’t say the food is immaculate nor will I say it’s the best in the Triangle, but it’s good, it’s reliable and it’s affordable.
If you’re near NCSU, eat here.

I went to Waba late in the afternoon between NCSU summer school sessions. As you might imagine at restaurant on Hillsborough Street we were the only customers in the restaurant. Despite the odd hour that the food was clearly freshly prepared and very yummy. I explained that my Grandmother in law did not do well with spicy food and he was able to suggest a noodle dish that she really enjoyed. I had the Beef Bugogi and a side of Kim Chi which was delicious. While it does not have quite the same atmosphere of Korea Garden in Cary it also does not have the price tag either. Lunch for two was well under $ 20.
While Waba is a more casual restaurant they definitely impressed me with how helpful and friendly they were.
The only knock I have on Waba is that it is not handicapped accessible. My 87 year old grandmother in law, who has some mobility issues, had a little trouble navigating the stairs into the restaurant.

The reason this place doesn’t have a website is b/​c it exists in a bad dimension not In another dimension, with voyeuristic intention Well secluded, I see all. Well I wish I hadn’t seen Waba and I wish it didn’t exist. Walking up the stairs was exciting and I thought oh, cool a new place I hope it isn’t as bad as its trying to look. But it was. There was no one there and I thought oh, yeah the NCSU crowd won’t be back for another two weeks and the guy I guess he was the owner asked me what I wanted and I said IDK and he suggested a pork dish and I said OK. I asked if the dumplings were made there and he hesitated and said no/​frozen– and probably made in NJ not like my recent Korean experience at the new Korean place off Peace Street where the dumplings were made from scratch and the ingredients all local. So I stuck with the dish I ordered and the bad liquid from the self serve machine. The dish came out with a pile of white rice and I thought oh. lord there goes the glycemic index, There were two slices of fresh oranges and a slop serving of something that smelled awkward. I tasted and it was spicy and odd. I tasted it again and it just didn’t taste right and certainly looked unappealing like if they had turned on the lights at Flex at 2 in the morning. I was so hungry and I took a few bites but I just couldn’t eat it. I left and came home and had Almond milk and a home made cookie for dinner. I figured it was better than going to Rex hospital for food poisoning. I suppose if you’re a poor student from the campus across the street and you wanna eat something besides the food at Clark Dining Hall then you come here and eat the BUKAKI or whatever its called. But if you care about what you put in your body then avoid this place. It’s all frozen dumps and bad meat from god knows where. GO ELSEWHERE!

I used to live in NYC’s East Village and there was this amazing Korean restaurant/​bar just one block from my apartment that had the most delicious dish. This dish, of which I did not previously know the name, stuck in my head for years. Said Korean restaurant has since closed as I discovered on my last trip into the city and I was heartbroken. This left me no choice but to search high and low until I found this dish elsewhere.
Not knowing the name proved to make my search difficult. I would describe the dish to many people hoping to come up with an answer and finally a Korean friend said, «oh, that’s just rice cakes in spicy sauce… a common street food». Of course it was! That’s exactly what it is… rice cakes saturated in a yummy, spicy sauce. I later learned the real name: Duk Bokki.
These findings are what ultimately led me to the discovery of WABA. The Duk Bokki here is as good as I remember it at my little Korean spot on St. Mark’s Street. They make theirs with fish cakes, which I could live without and occasionally have them leave off, and a variety of small vegetables. And the sauce… is so spicy and so delicious.
The only other item I have had here is the Kimchi Stew which is equally as great.
WABA has become my guilty pleasure. Whenever the SO is out of town, I look forward to leaving work, fighting for parking on Hillsborough Street, and climbing the steep steps which will lead me to my treasure.
Oh, and it’s cheap!

This place is pretty good, but, man, it could be so much better. The dolsot bibimbap is thin tasting and the bulgogi is always gritty. Pleasant tasting, but gritty. The food here always is just shy of a bull’s eye.
Oh, and Waba ain’t that cheap, ya’ll. Better Korean in North Raleigh is like two to four dollars more a plate. And it’s loads better than Waba. However, North Raleigh is the worst place in the world, so screw that. Frustrating-​but-​palatable Korean on Hillsborough is the best this two-​horse town gets.

Good solid Korean food for the price! Way cheaper than a lot of the places around, and still very good. Yummy bulgolgi and very spicy kimchi (a must!)
I’ve had better, but for almost double the price, so this spot is great for me!