Orient Express Restaurant

I had the Bulgogi and Kalbi here years ago and I have always searched for a restaurant that would make the Bulgogi like they do and have not been able to find any place that can come close to theirs. They set the bar and no one has come close yet. If you are in the Monterey Seaside area, you have got to eat here at least once.

Nice Korean food within 50 miles. Best soy bean soup and Seafood noodle! My lady love the side dishes. The only way to tell how good a Korean restaurant is by its type of their side dishes and the quality that you can taste.

My second time here, still a friendly greeting when you enter. I enjoyed the conversation with the server. The food is different and distinctive with many flavors. So i ordered the sushi roll as i wasn’t that hungry. It was excellent… seaweed on the outside. And a healthy serving of beer… got to have beer …

Excellent service and lunch.

Had lunch box today. Very friendly staff. Excellent and personable service. Food is lite, non greasy, very nice flavor. I would definately recommend.

Authentic & delicious Korean food. My whole family loves this place. Very friendly to customers!

The food is not the best, but the service is great. I’ve gone to eat here on multiple occasions and some of the dishes like the galbi and tempura have been good. Some of the soups are either water downed or tasteless.

The lunch special: Calabee (Short rib teriyaki beef)
Includes miso soup, salad, 2 vegetable tempura, rice.
When you are in the restaurant, your lunch box will appear good.
Appealing. If you order for take out, you get trash meat with a
lot of fat on the meat. This has happened to me on a few
occasions. I guess since you pick up the order, they figure
your not going to find out what’s inside till you get home!
Also, I have ordered food, and the rice was NOT fresh…
was hard! Omg! They used to be much better, but now
the food is a C + at best.

I’ve eaten at many Korean restaurants and this place is way overpriced for the quality of food they serve. We ordered a few dishes of bulgolgi and noticed by the 3^rd dish they became very lazy and decided to serve us raw onions instead of cooking them. The chicken teriyaki was not impressive at all. My children who love chicken refused to eat it. «It’s too burnt, and it doesn’t taste good». For 3 adults and 7 kids, we paid over $ 200. This place is unclean. One of the workers went to use the bathroom and on his out did not use soap to clean his hands instead he just rinsed with water and headed back to the kitchen. I was sick to my stomach. I would not go back here.

Sorry, posted in error

Definitely feel like the food here is solid and the price is fare for lunch
Service was friendly and really appreciate that she made an effort to take care of everyone despite how many people kept showing up
Overall Thoughts
A good spot to grab lunch with friends

The Korean lady serving us our food is very friendly and helpful. The tofu soup was delicious and so was the bimbim bap bowl. And there were a variety of Korean side dishes to accompany our main dishes. Everything is very authentic. Wonderful place for Korean food in Monterey County!

Very unique oriental food experience. I ordered the ox tail soup did not have ox tail instead had slices of meat, very hot came boiling in a clay pot! nice! Took awhile to eat because of temperature. My husband tried the Kim chi with rice and he liked it a lot! All in all a good experience can’t complain

This is one of those rare, wonderful, hole in the wall places in a quirky sort of icky section of town. If you like spicy or Korean it’s a must. I absolutely recommend the seafood hot rice pot (#43) or the seafood soup pot. On a cold miserable Monterey day thses are the best things ever. They come in a screaming hot black clay bowl that continues cooking while on your table. Love all the great spread of kimchee too. This is a common stop for Korean tour buses… a good indicator of authenticity. Never been to Korea so I can’t say first hand. I just know it’s really good and filling.

Not the best korean place but this is probably the only korean restaurant in Seaside. I always get their bento box and my favorite is the spicy pork.

Why are some in your life taking you out to lunch and deciding on this place… WOW… not nice… pulling up I was already developing some stomach cramping ahead of time. but she went on and on how delicious their lunch was. the inside was very old and runned down… it had a 60’s quality and the dirt to prove the authenticity of its age. She ordered our lunch and the plate that was put down in front of me was not at all apetizing. however, my aunt went though this trouble to take me here… I muscled through the lunch like a proctal examination and made it thank god… but as for me … uh, Never again…

Don’t overlook this little plaza gem! The food is delicious and served in huge portion sizes. There is a ton of food to choose from and the staff is super sweet.

I am so unhappy with this place. It’s one of the only places in Monterey to get bulgogi that tastes «OK»! But for some reason they have a dinner box on the menu that gives you a dinner as if they are a Japanese restaurant. It’s just awful because without the bean sprouts and kimchi it really takes away from the flavor. I am pregnant and super upset about this. I would give a zero stars if I could! To the owners of this place Stay in your own culture and stay Authentic.

Place is outstanding. I been coming here 6 years and love it. Plenty of Parking spacious restaurant great service and great lunch specials!

I had better korean food. Few times i went in, I was pretty disappointed with the food. I will problem not go back.

I’m not too familiar with Korean food, but the food seemed okay. The ambience, however, is bad and the smell is bad.

Went into this place with somewhat higher expecations based on previous reviews but was sadly disappointed at the lack of flavors and portion. When we arrived there were about 4 tables with people in this somewhat cavernous restaurant space. As opposed to the run down, hole in the wall appearance of the store front, the interior is clean but has a somewhat strangely, 1980’s tacky and tawdry «Dynasty» look to it.
So while we were deciding on what to order that’s when the experience took a wrong turn. I inadvertently spilled my glass of ice water all over. The waitress came over looked very annoyed, ran back grabbed a towel and threw it on the table then she hurriedly proceeded picking up the ice cubes that dropped on the floor! Yikes, major faux pax because not only did she NOT bring back a replacement she not once refilled any of our water throughout the entire meal… hmmm, that’ll teach me for being clumsy!
So on to the food. Ordered squid tempura app ($ 12.95) to start with. For our party of three we decided to share entrees. Chosen were the Dol Sot Bi Bim Bap ($ 12.95) and at the recommendation of our annoyed waitress still bothered by the «Exxon water-​spill» the Hae Mool Jun-​Gol, Seafood Vege Casserole ($ 33.95).
Well it took a while for the food to come, but oddly when it did each dish literally arrived 1 minute after each other. The squid tempura was disappointly about 8 small pinky sized pieces of batter fried squid that took a bit of chewing to get it down especially with our water rations… the Bi Bim Bap, a staple and measuring stick for any decent Korean restuarant was flavorless, very sparse on the meat and vege’s although was presented nice and toasty as should be in the sizzling stone pot. The supposed «Pièce de résistance» of the meal, the Seafood & Vege Casserole was «Pièce de merde,» consisting of about 6 small mussels, 4 tiny crab bodies with a teaspoon of flesh in each, some 4 – 6 pieces of squid tentacles, a unidentifiable 3 – 4 small pieces of unidentifiable fish, 4 small shrimps, lots of overcooked veges and thick noodles all swimming in a cauldron of not at all spicy, red broth. But here’s the odd thing… the dish had lots of these «pod-​like» things floating around in it which we couldn’t figure out what they were. No one wanted to taste it so I decided to man up and brave a bite… to my surprise I couldn’t penetrate the tough skin of this squishy alien-​egg-​like matter for the life of me. If anyone one knows what these litte «beasts» (see pic) was doing in our food!!!
The «better» part of the meal was the 10 small dishes of banchan, classic Korean side dishes served with hot, fluffy steamed rice, which we were presented before the meal. To my slight disappointment missing from the ensemble was Japchae, but I dealt with it and savored these little bowls of sweet, salty, crunchy and spicy bits of goodness. BANCHAN is love!
Cost for the three of us with only «rationed tap water», incl. tax + tip…$ 75 bucks! Banchan was the only winner for this somewhat overpriced and flavorless dinner.
IMHO, this place has no «Seoul.» If you’re wanting flavorful, spicy authentic Korean cuisine you may want to look elsewhere in the neighborhood.

Food: 3.0÷5 One star added for the Banchan
Atmosphere: 2.5÷5 Back to the Dynasty Future!
Service: 2.5÷5 Only one wait person lady… hmmm
Value: 2.5÷5 Somewhat overpriced for what you get
Bathroom: 2.5÷5 a little on the dirty, old side and no paper towels to wipe your hands.
FINAL VERDICT: Two and ½ stars!
Tips, Perks & You’ve been Warned:
1. Avoid the overpriced Casserole dishes, esp the Seafood & Vege Casserole with ahem… Spicy Sauce, not!
2. Be careful not to spill your water!
3. Good banchan side dishes included in the meal

As good as it gets in these parts. I’ve eatin here a couple dozen times now, the food is always great. I’m not Korean, so I can’t say much about the authenticity but they have a Korean cook and the nice ladies that wait on you are to.
New to Korean food? Try the Bi Bim Bap, a big bowl of rice with veggies and meat. Nice on a summer day. Or try it in a smoking hot clay pot (Dol Sit Bi Bim Bop) on a cool evening.
Feeling brave? The casseroles are a good choice and they come with a variety of small side dishes to eat with your rice.
First place for Korean in the Monterey bay area, no questions.