Y’Kele Korean BBQ

I was craving for some korean food and since my boyfriend and I were in Waikele, we decided to come here. When we got in, I was surprised that there was only one diner inside. We were greeted by the cashier with her mouth full. I mean, come on now! You don’t eat in front of the customer. She then took our order. After receiving our foods, I was soooooo disappointed with their portions. I know I ordered a mini plate, but it only comes with one piece of kalbi and one piece of chicken and the price was almost $ 11?!? That is just ridiculous My kalbi was not even that fully cooked because I could still see some pinkish side of it. Chicken looked so cold. Totally would not recommend this place This would be our first and definitely last visit here!

Wow! It was our first time and last time.
Ordered full size Meat Jun and it was hard almost like it’s been heated up many of times before. The rice was just as hard too. So not happy with this $ 11 plate

Tonight, we had a craving for Korean food so my boyfriend and I stopped by to get some meatjun and bbq pork. While we were waiting for our order, my other half was checking out reviews for the restaurant. Let’s just say that after reading the reviews about bolts, uncooked flour, and roaches in the food, we were both a bit skeptical about our meals. After coming home with our take out plate, I carefully checked my food to see if there was anything I should be worried about. It was a good thing I checked! Low and behold, I found at least half of my meat jun had been undercooked with raw flour peeping out. I continued to check my food and then I found something even worse. There was a parasite looking worm in the cucumber kimchee– STILL MOVING! I wish I had taken video of it but only got to capture a small photo. I quickly went back to return the plate, hoping that no one else ordered the same food I did and let the cashier know about the bug in my food and flour in my meat jun. He apologized and returned my money. I did tell him to check the cucumber kimchee, hopefully he tossed it! Never going back here again! (Only giving one star because it won’t let me give none)

Don’t order the meat jun. The meat is pounded so thin that you’re eating mainly the starchy egg batter. Not worth $ 11.50.

The place is as most folks point out, not the best authentic Korean BBQ, but it’s one of the better options considering its neighboring restaurants, genki sushi and Panda Express. All are examples of sad American Asian food. But, what you do get here is bang for buck. I had he Yoo gae jang, which came with four sides. The food was acceptable, tasty, and the right price. Portions are large, so I’d recommend sharing a combo meal.

In order to avoid going shopping at waikele outlets, I came up with the great excuse that I was starving. It worked! I got off the hook, and headed to the food establishments, across the way from the outlets.
A few choices lay in front of me: panda, genki sushi, mcdonalds, kfc, and Ykele bbq. It had been awhile since I had meat jun, so Ykele bbq it was.
Just after I made my order of mixed bbq chicken and meat jun, I started scrolling thru the Unilocal reviews. Uh oh! It was looking like lunch wasn’t going to be a five star experience today. While the chicken was dry and almost brittle, the meat jun was okay but portions were small.
Very friendly service but For 12.95, I was expecting better quality and quantity.

In the past, this place was delicious with yummy kalbi cooked perfectly and tasty sides. But in the past 2 years I noticed that it isn’t the same and it won’t be. I picked up take out a couple of weeks ago on a Friday night. There was little beef in the meat jun, also the amount of meat jun was less than what you’re paying for. The shoyu potato was hard in the middle and tasteless. The rice noodles (jap chae) was very al dente and not perfectly cooked. The Kim chee is blah. Used to be my go-​to Korean BBQ place but not anymore. I’ve moved on to Kapolei Korean BBQ with better food, better sides and better bang for your buck. Although Y’kele is closer to me, I’ve learned the hard way not to go for location but for quality.

So it wasn’t as terrible as some folks have experienced… but I still couldn’t bring myself to put down 3 stars based on a few things.
The service was actually pretty good. They were attentive and even though busy acknowledged me and said they would be right with me. That was fine… however, as I was waiting and just observing things while waiting for my carryout order… I noticed one of the front cashiers mess with their hair… their face and then started putting their hands on plastic bags for carryout food. Yes, not a big deal given what they were touching… but technically they come in contact with food, pretty closely when they serve it out into the containers. Just bothered me they didn’t wash their hands.
I asked specifically for Kimchee and daichon radish. The radish was overly sweet in my opinion, didn’t make me want to really eat it. And the kimchee… well I used that to make some kimchee stew. It just wasn’t that good. The rice got too much sauce from the meat on it… or they might have poured more sauce on it I don’t know. Either way, I’m not one for my rice being smothered with kalbi sauce. Sauce for the kalbi belongs on the meat and there alone. So presentation of the containers was pretty sloppy.
Kalbi was ok. Not too bad, not too much gristle. The issue was the charred (I probably shouldn’t eat this much char cuz I’ll get cancer) teriyaki chicken that I got. It was so charred I had to kind of shave the char off. And granted… I love crispy char, but this was a bit much.
So will I go there again? Probably not. My curiosity about that place has been sated and I think I can find other places that call themselves Korean BBQ to try… lord knows there are a lot!

The girls working the register were slacking hard. They were probably slacking just as hard as the chef in the back. I was having my niece pay for water and it was in a clump of dollar bills. Who knows if there was 4 or 5 dollars in it and I observably watched as she purposefully DID NOT count the dollar bills and put it in the register. If someone does that I usually let a few dollar bills slide because it ain’t a reason to get mad. They probably need it more than I do. Everyone knows the procedure, say the price, receive the money and the give the change. The most important part of the exchange is counting the money right in front of the customer making sure they have the correct change. Keep in mind this was in front of my niece and I hope you cash register girls are happy about being shady in front of a young one. It was shady because you usually put the money in the register right after receiving the money… I hope you’re reading this and I hope that you know you’re the face of this place and that people trust you with money. One star for the shadiness and the portioning. The other cashiers did better and worked harder. Oh and another thing, these girls pretty much wanted you to do everything and were irritable when you needed something. I asked for a water bottle to buy and the girl automatically said to fill it up myself. If I could give zero stars I would and I’d be happy to do that myself as well

My fiancé went there for lunch today and ordered a meat jun plate and when he bit a piece he bit a large screw!!! Of all things to find in your food he found a screw in it. Horrible! I don’t know what the cooks are doing there but my fiancé could have choked on that screw and being that he did bite the screw not knowing it was there I hope n pray is tooth is okay! This place deserves no stars.

Date of visit: 8÷2÷2015
After a long flight, it was about dinner time in San Diego and my mom really wanted a «plate lunch» so my aunt and uncle dropped us off at Y’Kele while they went to Leonard’s. I was a little hesitant after the reviews, but decided to make the best of it as we only needed a quick bite.
Between five of us, I decided to order two combo plates, which ended up being way more food than we needed. Each combo plate comes with 4 sides that you pick, a couple of scoops of rice, and a large portion of the meat you ordered the combo for. Since the combos were made up of several different side dishes, I’ll just list them out by component.
Chicken Katsu. This was pretty standard and hit the spot for chicken katsu. While there was nothing terrible, it also wasn’t the best chicken katsu. Pretty good in my book and came with a generous portion of katsu sauce.
Kalbi Beef. The beef was actually also pretty typical. Again, it tasted like kalbi beef should, but nothing spectacular. This also came with two deep fried dumplings, which was also decent.
Kimchi. Maybe it’s because I’m spoiled by all of the Korean restaurants in San Diego, but I really did not like the kimchi here. It didn’t have any of that pickled spice that you expect from kmichi and was a bit warm (isn’t it usually cold?).
Glass Noodles. This was my favorite side dish. It was a simple glass noodle salad with some carrots and a light sauce that went well with the rice and meats.
Shoyu Potatoes. These potatoes were cooked until soft and marinated in shoyu. They were slightly sweet, but didn’t have much flavor from the shoyu.
Bean Sprout Salad. Although my Mom usually likes bean sprouts, she wasn’t a big fan of this salad.
Cabbage Salad. I wasn’t sure what was in this salad as our cashier did not have any clue either. Although it wasn’t terrible, it wasn’t the best side available.
Overall Y’Kele’s was just okay. It satiated my hunger, but it is definitely not on my «must visit again» list. I kind of wish that staff knew more about the side dishes, as that would have helped me decide which sides to pick.

OMG! I usually always order BBQ chix at any Korean eatery. Sometimes I do change it up and order the meat jun. I prefer not to eat beef, I do every now and then. Chicken and fish is healthier. The BBQ chicken was great. The portions were plentiful. I would definitely return when I’m craving Korean BBQ chicken and this place is convenient.

I was driving home from work today and was craving Kim Chee soup but I didn’t want to drive anywhere too out of the way because that just means more TRAFFIC! Then I remembered there was a Korean type place in Waikele. I ordered the Kim Chee soup to go with 4 sides, Kim Chee 2x and Tofu 2x.
I was disappointed by the Kim Chee. Maybe it’s just my tastes but I like my Kim Chee to be practically soaking in that red liquid! This Kim Chee was too mild. But I guess if you can’t handle spicy, it’s fine.
The soup itself was disappointing too. It didn’t taste like the Kim Chee soup I’ve had at other places… the broth wasn’t even red! It was more orange-brown…and thus… not spicy. Whenever I order Kim Chee soup, if it’s not a sit down restaurant, I specifically order it To Go because I like to be able to have a big glass of water (that I can refill from the sink at home) by my side to drink when the spiciness is too much. With this soup, I barely had to drink any water at all! What I theorized is that they make their Kim Chee soups by taking their regular soup base that they use for the Man Doo soups and just dump some KimChee in there.
I guess the gist of my review is if you like your Kim Chee to have some spice to it… DO NOT come here!

The food is just OK. This is the closest korean bbq location by my house so yes it would be our first choice… just cause it was convenient… and i never had any complaints with the food. But am just so bummed with my recent experience. I decided to get dinner for the family came here around 5:30pm. I walked in, it was not busy at all just a few customers, ordered my two plates, sat a good 15 minutes waiting for it and left. I got home after 5 minutes waiting to eat my mini meat jun plate, took a bite and noticed it wasn’t hot… not even warm. I was that hungry i was just like eh its okay… so i continued taking a few bites more. and i just figured okay wait this isn’t right i looked at it. and it was NOT COOKED AT ALL. The dough was white and flaky and the meat just tasted rubbery. I don’t know if it was old meat jun or previously frozen and they didn’t do a hell of a good job in cooking it. I was just annoyed because i came at a very slow time. Not saying it would be okay if they were busy. its still not acceptable to serve food like this.
I did call and demanded a full refund. and i did drive all the way back and showed the lady my plate. She did agree that my food was not even cooked and did give me my money back, with a huge annoyed look on her face though, ugh don’t even get me started on service. Lets just say i just tolerated the lack of smiles, lack of greetings, and lack of just normal personality all these times… Huge bummer.

I’ve read a lot of bad reviews about this place, but I have always experienced good service and great BBQ. I think if you order a normal BBQ plate here along with the choice of side dishes, you will enjoy it. Get the Kalubi.

Rushed in making food. Was not prepared or cooked properly. Too much flour not enough meat. Too much flour didn’t cook the flour.
I had to put a star cause it would not let me continue. Dammit!

If u just wanna get full and not taste… this is the spot for u
They give an ample amount of food but it’s bland… worst chicken katsu ive ever had… seems like the oil in the vat hasnt been filtered or changed in months… too dark… so cruchy/​hard it was like eating kettle chips… the sides sre decent except for the long rice aaarrrggghhhh no flavor… the yook kae jang as well had no flavor… just sustenance here

Have always had a good experience here, will continue to come here until differently so I don’t base my opinion or whether I go or not on someone else’s review.
Food is good. Staff is ok, I don’t expect them give me a huge warm welcome, they’re busy.

0 STARS. Horrible. Food was so bad it was unbelievable, flies were in the food case. Just look at my picture of the chicken, but it may turn your stomach.
Christ how do they stay in business.

It’s still all about the kim chi. Now that I’ve had the chance to try a bit of the menu, I can honestly say that the only thing I order from Y’Kele is the kim chi.
The food isn’t bad, but has nothing to recommend it above other Korean restaurants nearby. The wait is long, the service is minimal, and though the portions are generous, the food is bland.
I did finally give the kalbi a try. It was ok. I much prefer the food, atmosphere, and service at Song’s, so I head there when I am hungry.