Kimchi Time

I’ve been here many occasions and have waited to write a review because I’ve been wavering between 3 and 4 stars. A solid 3.4 would be most appropriate, hence the 3 star rating.
The food is decent and so far among the better Korean restaurants I have been to in Tucson. The banchan is so-​so. It’s mostly teeny tiny portions of kimchi (plus a potato salad). I suppose this is appropriate given the name of the restaurant. They will refill if you ask (several times). Even with a medium sized party splitting 1 meager set, they would not refill all or give a second set. We had to ask for each individually as they were completely eaten and had to request them numerous times because they kept «forgetting.» .
The entrees are decent. I almost always get the stone bowl bibimbap at Korean restaurants but I have stopped because I’m not a fan of their rice. They use a combo white and purple rice that is overcooked and mushy. The toppings for the bibimbap is excellent. I also do like their bulgogi and jap chae.
I have never had a problem with their service until my last encounter with a party of 6ish. Besides constantly reminding the waitress about missing items or refills on Banchan, we were very rushed to finish our meal. The check was plopped on the table without a word before we were even halfway done with our meal. I hope they were just having a bad day because I was really surprised and turned off by this service experience.
Overall, a very solid option for Korean food in Tucson. I do recommend this place but would think twice about bringing a group.

We were looking for Korean food and found this gem of a restaurant! The people who work there are warm and welcoming. The food overall is excellent. On our second visit the kimchi pancake was under-​cooked, not crispy. The next time I would specify «crispy» as it was wonderful on the previous visit. With the pancake, 3 dishes and a $ 14 bottle of wonderful Korean alcoholic drink, the bill with tax and tip was about $ 75, which I thought was a bit high for essentially 3 dishes plus appetizer and drink for 4 people.

I’m so happy my friend introduced me to this place! This is more similar to the Korean food I’ve tried back in California with the side dishes and all. You won’t be disappointed.

The kimchi fried rice was too die for, probably the best I’ve ever had and I eat a lot of kimchi fried rice! However, I cannot say the same for the service. The cashier and server who seemed to be the owner of the restaurant was very rude. We asked for a refill of the side dishes and she did not seem happy at all to give us seconds. Maybe it’s because customers in Tucson don’t ask her seconds? But in California, we do! Secondly, when my friend changed her order last minute she mistakenly assumed that my friend wanted to order two entrees. When the two entrees came out we politely told her that we wanted to change the order and not add one on. She walked away behind the counter and rolled her eyes. Service trumps food quality for me so sadly I can only give this place one star. For the owner: try and smile more often, it will do your body good!

Overpriced terrible Korean good. Don’t recommend at all. The jap chae was overly oily, the kimchi jeon was too soggy and undercooked. Don’t waste your time here.

Good Food, good location, I like their bim bim bop alot

Overall the food was ok, we got #3 family combination. The bubolgi was good, the soup not bad, but the was a little bland. For $ 75 it is enough to feed 4 adults and a child. Would I come back? maybe, it is not the best nor the worst, sort of middle of the pack.

Though always in a state of bustling half-​chaos, Kimchi Time remains worth a visit. Their menu features a mix of hits and near misses that are, if not exciting, never bad. The bibim bap is solidly good, as is the soon du bu chigae, though the latter needed a bit more substance. On the weaker side, the gai bi tang and the duk mandoo guk were both insipid soups that delivered far more sodium than flavor. Perhaps they would make nice soul food if you had a cold on a winter day, but they wouldn’t bring you back like the bibim bap.
Prices are fair and the servers seem like they are being driven around the small restaurant by biting gnats, which doesn’t make them unfriendly so much as harried.
Ultimately, Kimchi Time is a comfortably mid-​pack restaurant. You can find better Korean food in the world (perhaps not in Tucson), but you can also find massively worse Korean food. Generally, they’re fun, the palette of Korean flavors is always nice to re-​experience, and when Kimchi Time is good they’re more than good enough to keep you exploring the menu.

I kinda don’t want to write this review because I don’t want this place to get too crowded for me to go with my family. But it’s effing amazing. Kimchi rice, Jap Che and beef bulgogi were my favorites, but seriously everything was good. Didn’t expect to find good Korean in the desert, but we sure did.

Kimchi Time was such a great experience! The service was on point. We had fun perusing the menu, and all the dishes we settled on were great; the food was flavorful and so good. The space is casual and chill – neon beer lights above the bar and such. So glad I checked this place out!

Let me start with the positives: service was excellent, as was the kimchi pancake appetizer (kimchi jeon). The soohn dhoo bhoo chigae was good. Now, here are my criticisms of this restaurant:
a) The bahn chan was woefully inadequate. Five dishes consisting of miniscule servings of unripened khak doogi and kimchi, two variations of bean sprouts, and an unidentifiable cucumber and cilantro pickle are not enough for a proper Korean restaurant.
b) The kimchi jeon should have been served with a soy sauce and vinegar dip. The other appetizer, jaeyuk bokkeum, was skimpy on pork and had little flavor. Jaeyuk bokkeum is supposed to be a spicy, hot, stir fried, piece of heaven made from pork and kimchi. This dish was none of those things.
c) The galbi was sweet, small, and not properly grilled. Galbi should be savory, and a bit charred from grilling. This dish looked like they casually placed under-​marinated meat into a warm frying pan and left it there until it looked cooked. Then they charged $ 19 for an undersized serving.
d) The cardinal sin: my dwen jahng chigae was bland. Dwen jahng chigae is the national dish of Korea, it is what makes Koreans Korean. It should be ultra savory with the fermented bean paste (dwen jahng) redolent in the soup, amidst strips of beef and a little bean curd (dhoo bhoo) and zucchini. I had to add soy sauce (argh!!!) to my chigae in order to eat it.
If there are no other, better Korean restaurants in Tucson, I may return to Kimchi Time, but only if I’m feeling too lazy to cook Korean meals at home.

OMG!!! This place is the bomb, loved it! Not really digging the location, there is something about that strip center I don’t like. The fermented veggies were spot on, and so was the mackerel. It is a true authentic Asian feel from the service to the tacky neon beer signs. Either you’re all in or your all out. Me? I’m all in!

I love this place! Always so hospitable and the food is amazing and tastes so fresh! The appetizers are great, and everyone is so nice. I love the homey, family feel every time I come in. Try the ice cream!

Wow, terrible food. This is by far the worst Korean food I’ve ever had in my life. I noticed a lot of people complaining about the service… service wasn’t bad and it was decently busy when I was there. Food took a while to get and when it finally came out, they served one at a time. It took the last person in out party 20 minutes to get his food from the time the first person in our party got theirs. The banchan or side dishes were not good. First of all, 5 of the 6 side dishes were kimchee…3 radish kimchees, 1 cucumber kimchee, 2 kimchee, and potatoe salad. Most Korean restaurants you go to will give you a mix of things such as seaweed, fishcake, anchovies, etc.
The food was horrible and none of our 4 dishes tasted like Korean food… and I’m Korean and and have been to Korea and have had lots of Korean food and this is food here was horrible. The Seafood Tofu soup had 4 pieces of seafood, the Kimchee soup tasted like water with some red coloring. I could go on but won’t.
Saying that this place serves Korean food is like saying Taco Bell serves authentic Mexican food.

I arrived at 7:30pm on a Tuesday night. I was seated quickly, and the waitress took my order right away. They take AMEX… awesome.
The room is packed! Nothing but U of A kids sitting down… with no food. That should’ve been a clue — the wait for the food was appalling.
It was obvious that all the patrons, including myself were getting irritated and hungry.
45 minute mark: I believe the owners, possible partners, or even family of the establishment were also present, waiting for their food. As I glance towards their direction, I lock eyes with one of the gentlemen — he’s commenting to the other next to him, with a small finger gesture in my direction. It doesn’t take a genius to know what they’re quipping about. I just stare back. Who cares, I want them to feel my hungry loathing.
55 minute mark: I put my wallet in my pocket, grab my keys, and pause — I don’t know why I did. I was ready to go and find another place to get a snack (since my hunger has diminished.)
As the waitress saw all my motions, she quickly, no, frantically ran to the back to get my order. Feverishly, she scooped rice into a bowl and walked in my direction. Finally! My soup in front of me and five minutes later, the bulgogi.
–_​–
It took one hour. Quite literally, one hour, to have my food come out. It was a full house, with everyone waited least an hour for their food.
Taste was average/​good and the price was average for a sit down Korean restaurant. They didn’t have the cabbage Kim Chi as a standard side. Pero por que, mijo?!
No discount — endless apologizes. They kept asking, «Is everything ok?» with every eye contact we had — they must have not read any Holmes novels to figure their own question out.
They could tell by my body language that I was not a happy customer. I admit it. Was I rude? No. I just stayed tight-​lipped as I payed. You be the judge on what percent I tipped.
Once I am back in Tucson for business, I may give them another try.
3 stars; good food, but THE longest wait for food at a Korean restaurant, «…in the woooorrrllldd.» — Jeremy Clarkson

Everytime we are hungry in Tucson, we want our fave Viet food place… but we decided to finally try this Korean place since we love this one restaurant back in Phoenix. This place was small and kinda homey… you can definitely tell that it is family ran (Not necessarily a bad thing!)
We were seated right away, since there weren’t really many people there. It was good coz we were STARving… Our server was nice, but it seemed like she was having a hard time understanding us a little, but maybe we were mumbling coz we were so hungry.
When we saw the menu… we were surprised on how cheap it was… well, compared to what we pay at the other place. So that made us happy… we got the beef bulgogi $ 13.95 ish and the Galbi $ 16.95 ish…
It came with the six sides, which were good. We started eating it since they served it to us right away (appetizers? lol).ooh and THE BEST PART was one of the sides… the cucumber one… idk what it is but it was so good… reminds me of back home in the Philippines on how we pickle cucumbers but with a twist… I could eat a whole big bowl of that thing probably.
The plates that we got were decent sized. Tastewise– it was good but not great… the bulgogi was average… but what I loved about the Galbi was that it was so soft!!!
Service was great, food was good, prices was good, dessert was a no no… had mango mochi for $ 4.50…do not do it!
The mochi was hard and stale tasting… I’ve had so much better… the trader joe ones are way better than those…
Anyways.would go back for the Galbi and the cucumbers. 3.5*

I’ve been going here for years! Never disappointed.
1) Real Korean food. They greet in Korean, speak Korean and have real Korean food (with your typical slight American twists, like potato side dish etc). Now, expect Korean service. They are nice but the culture is slightly different. In most Asian countries, you ask your server for help instead of waiting for them to ask you. Keep that in mind on a busy night. Ya still gotta tip though.
2) Delicious food! I’ve tried a lot here and only felt underwhelmed by the kimchi rice and I’m pretty sure that’s just because I wanted more kimchi in it… HA. Beef bulgogi is a must. Dolsot bibimbop is another must. If you want spicy, get dok bok gi. Personally, I always get kimchi chigae because I am a hot/​spicy soup kinda gal.
3) If you never have had Korean food, don’t worry, it’s delicious. Don’t get yakisoba. That’s not even close. If you like beef, try beef bulgogi first. Sweet seared beef with rice, WINNER. You cannot go wrong with this dish. If you want to outreach a little more, go with the dolsot bibimbop– it’s a stone bowl with cooked rice, bulgogi beef and veggies. You add sauce as needed and it’s another winner, regardless of your food background.
I could live here if I wanted to. Seriously. If only I had unlimited money.

Best Korean food in town. I am so glad that it’s close from my house!
I would highly recommend the sizzling hot bibimbap served in the stone bowl. Then I would highly recommend that you wait a couple of minutes to eat it because it will be super hot! It’s worth the $ 12.

Kimchi time is a modest Korean restaurant with a great menu and staff. I have been many times for dinner and have tried several appetizers and entrees. The entire restaurant is a single room with a single restroom stall in the back to service the place. They have a TV’s mounted on 2 out of four corners of the room playing sports, so yesterday for dinner there were some very happy people who arranged to have both TV’s playing the same game/​race. Despite the size of the place they easily can move tables around to accommodate large parties; last year I attended a Unilocal unofficial event that had 17 people and they took care of our large party.
Every time i’m there the owner seats us or is present and is so attentive. I can attest, I’ve always had attentive service. My favorite dish is a spicy rice cake and noodle dish (which I forgot to get the actual name of); the heat and taste of the dish is my go to dish. They also have a soy bean stew which comes out bubbling and hot which puts a smile on my face and warm feeling in my tummy. Kimchi Time may not have the best Korean food in all of Tucson, but it is my my favorite Korean restaurant because of the price, the service and the feeling I get when I’m dining there. I am most absolutely a big fan.

Cute little joint that everyone raves about.
I’ll agree this is one of the best Korean spots in Tucson, but definitely not the best. It’s a small little hole in the wall family restruant type if business. Everything about it just seems homey, from the décor to the friendly servers.
I ordered the Kailbi and surprisingly the portion was a lot smaller than I expected. The food was tasted something one of my Koreans friends moms would make; delicious, but not 5 star restaurant quality.
All meals come with those infamous 6 small side dishes. All amazing! I was just disappointed to hear that after the second round, my party of 6 would have to pay.
Overall, cute little stop that everyone should try especially if they don’t want to go to an overcrowded restaurant.