Kuma

I’m korean, and i want businesses to succeed, so i hate to have to write negative feedback for this place, but no choice.
I didn’t even get to experience the food, because the service was such a turn-​off that I walked out before even being seated.
On a level of ultra basic customer service, it was just really bad. I walked in early into the dinner hour on a week night, maybe around 6:30ish, the place was virtually empty (maybe just two tables full), and I was standing around waiting to be seated. The hostess/​filling in waitress (maybe their usual staff didn’t show up?) definitely saw me at the front, as did the sushi guy, but there was no acknowledgement whatsoever for what was almost 10 minutes. It seemed like they were so woefully understaffed that they decided it was better to ignore me waiting at the front to be seated. It was just a real turnoff. I don’t know how they stay in business with such abysmal customer service.
I hope they survive, because as I mentioned at the outset, i hate to see businesses fail, but they lost this potential regular customer, indefinitely. They need to rethink their customer service strategy.

Was a little leery, but pleasantly surprised. Probably more like 3.5
Food: Quite tasty. Sure beats schleping to NOVA for BiBimBap. We ordered the advertised Bi Bim Bap special. Good value. Sushi was good, but again I was leery so I did not order much of it.
Décor: Simple. Very clean.
Service: Friendly. Giggly korean college students trying to master the english language.
Value: Very good price.
Eat here again: Yes, espeically if I were in the neighborhood.
Without the BiBimBap special, I may have dropped a star. Korean has replaced Thai as the new Chinese.

I’d agree with the reviews that it’s not the most diverse offering of Korean food around. I come from NYC and LA where K-​Town usually has a lot to offer (moreso in LA of course).
If you have a hankering for Korean food or are a white person just looking to try it out for the first time, this is a good place.
My wife is Korean-​American and spoke to the owner/​waitress who was serving us. The service was horrible and very late — but it was because they had been short-​staffed by a head cook and waitress not showing up for work.
All in all, it was good. I went standard with the dol soot bi bim bap which i shared with my wife who ordered the yuk gae jang. Surprisingly, the yuk gae jang (spicy beef and noodle soup) was pretty spicy. The bi bim bap — well, how can you mess up bi bim bap?
My wife and I are new to the DC area and we had a slight hunger pang for Korean food. Without driving to far off places, this is a good spot to hit up. If you speak Korean – USE IT! It will get you served much, much faster.

Just plain awful. We went out for 2 Amy’s one night and then decided we weren’t up for the 90 minute wait just to get some pizza, so we searched around the area for a suitable alternative. Seeing nothing else that really looked appetizing we decided to try Kuma for a bit of sushi and maybe something else creative.
The idea of multiple different asian cuisines under one roof is usually a bad idea, but it was late and we were willing to give them a shot. The restaurant was essentially empty, and since nobody came to seat us we just grabbed a table for ourselves. There were probably 4 or 5 other tables with distressed looking patrons, which should have tipped us off right away. After sitting down and waiting for about 5 more minutes we finally got annoyed and flagged down the nearest working-​looking person in our area and asked if we could at least have some water and maybe a menu. This is one of those points in a restaurant where you can either decide to get up and leave and accept that you just wasted 15 minutes and are even more hungry, or you can stick it out and hope the food makes up for the horrible service. We made the wrong choice.
Once we were finally able to place our order I decided to go for the Dohl Sot Bibim Bop and she got a few rolls of sushi and some miso soup. We waited over 30 minutes to actually receive our food, probably closer to 45 minutes. I must reiterate this was during normal dinner hours (about 8pm on a Saturday night) and the restaurant was not even a quarter full.
The food itself was manageable at best. I’ve had Bibim several times and I’m very familiar with the «crunchy rice» aspect, but they somehow managed to make it rock hard, and the special «hot sauce» was so murky and not flavorful you would have to drown your meal in it to get any sort of spice. The miso soup came out cold, and smelled like fish piss, I didn’t even bother to see if the taste lived up to the aroma. Even the sushi was disappointing, and I thought that would be the easiest thing on the menu for them to make.
I could not recommend this place to ANYONE. In fact I suggest if you find yourselves desperate for something to eat in this area like we were to just go to the Subway next door, and I hate Subway.

Solid sushi place. The miso soup is some of the best I’ve ever had. I’m not sure if they still do the sushi buffet at lunch time, but that is a definite must. The sushi and other items seemed to always be fresh.
A cute, small, quasi-​romantic sushi joint in the Tenley area. Good date place for all you freshies at AU.

One of very few korean eateries in DC. Kuma used to offer lunch-​buffet for korean food and sushi on weekdays but not any more.
Kuma is better than nothing kinda place for korean food. Not too bad but you won’t get various (or any authentic) side dishes or korean dishes. When you are craving for korean food and can’t go all the way to MD or VA, Try Kuma. You can get most commonly known dishes like korean BBQ (Bul-​go-​ki), stews (kimchee, tofu, kalbi and etc) or other appetizers AND sushi/​maki rolls and teriyaki stuff.
I think AU students get discount there.

I completely agree with Susan L! I hate leaving negative feedback for Korean places (Lord knows there are few enough of them in the district!), but this place is kind of poopy. Their customer service has been pretty terrible the few times that I’ve been there. You stand up in front watching the hostess look at you and ignore you, waiting at least 5 minutes for her to acknowledge you… then you spend the entire meal just waiting… waiting… waiting… for your food. *sigh* the only thing that came promptly was the check.
Also, this place is pretty ridiculously overpriced. Even knowing this, I was lured in recently by a big sign outside advertising a special on bibimbap, which I adore… but when I tried to order it, I was informed that that was a «special» «healthy» kind of bibimbap (read: lacks ingredients in normal bibimbap) — and the regular bibimbap was like $ 5 more — and $ 6 – 7 more for the dolsot bibimbap. Not a huge amount, true, but $ 12 – 13 for bibimbap is still way too much to pay — especially when I only gave them another chance b/​c of that stupid sign!
Overall, the food itself is not bad — average, I suppose, although the portions are small. But at those prices, DH and I will only go there maybe once or twice a year, even though we live right next to it. Korean to the bone, I guess!

I had a hankering for some Korean food one morning so figured I would give this place a try. I am sure it is by far and away not the best, most authentic Korean food in the region, but as far as I can tell really great Korean food is a long drive to the ‘burbs of VA or MD. Kuma has a muddled mix of Korean and Japanese fare, but does both well.
Their bibim bap is really comforting and hearty, perfect hangover food! I cant speak for the sushi, but when I had visited they weren’t running it. Apparently next week they are updating the menu to include more noodle and rice dishes, which sounds like great news to me. DC is chock full of sushi joints, but having a dependable metro-​friendly Korean restaurant is a much needed gap.

I live in the neighborhood and I’ve been dining at Kuma regularly since it opened. The all-​you-​can-​eat lunch buffet keeps my sushi cravings satisfied! I also love Korean food and especially the Kimchee Ji Gae which is a spicy, delicious, bubbling cauldron of kim chee in a broth with tofu and pork. I swear that eating this soup helps keep me healthy when I feel a cold or a sinus infection coming on! (Kimchee eaters may even have some protection against contracting bird flu
)
This is a great, inexpensive place to go with friends, but it is also has a very comfortable atmosphere for solo diners, too.
(As to a previous poster’s allegations that Kuma had been closed for health code violations, when I checked the listings for Sept 9^th it showed Guapo’s — which is in the next block — had been closed briefly for a lack of hot water, but Kuma was not listed as having had a violation.
)

Kuma has been my saving grace here in DC where there is a lack of Korean food. I usually don’t go there for the sushi, but for the chicken bulgogi, dol-​sot bibimbap, or yukkeh jjang.
I usually go there with a couple other people, so that we can order all three dishes and share but occasionally I have cravings when I’m alone so then I’m forced to pick one. :(
Service is great and side dishes are equally delicious.

Update.
Kuma has since re-​opened. The Korean dishes are excellent and even more impressive considering the relatively low prices. I especially like the Kimchi jjigae, a piping hot soup with tofu, kimchi, and bits of meat.

Did you know you can get a 24oz tub of kimchee to go for $ 5.00??? I just got 2 and I’m a happy camper. We just finished a long run (we got lost) and ended up in Tenlytown in front of Kuma when I saw the sign in the window. The kimchee was a big reward for sticking it out. The reviews I’m reading now sound great – I’ll have to actually go back when I’m presentable enough to dine in!

My lone experience in the restaurant was a good one. I sat at the sushi bar and chatted up the sushi chef. He rewarded me with some funky, trippy free sushi concoction that would have been right at home on one of the «Krofft Superstars» shows like H. R Pufnstuf. (see Wikipedia if under 35 years old. TV writers in the 70’s did lots of drugs. That’s the only explanation I have for some of this LSD-​laced stuff that passed for wholesome children’s entertainment) Good eating, whatever the betentacled, rainbow thing was.
I have also ordered takeaway and again, good stuff. Very solid sushi, neato atmosphere inside, and looked to have a few good brews at the bar. About as trendy as Tenleytown gets, though it’s getting moreso all the time!

Allow me to make a broad generalization: combining cuisines that seem similar usually makes for crappy restaurants.
Kuma is a big exception. Don’t be put off — as I was at first — because their logo looks like a cat’s pawprint. The Korean food is awesome. I especially enjoy their bibimbap (make sure you have it in the stone pot).

I am not a sushi expert by any means, but I thought there were some decent items on the ayce buffet and was really happy with my meal. It was $ 11.95 for a mix of Korean and Sushi items. I sampled the Korean items, but after just having eaten at Yechon, I stuck with sushi for the rest of the meal. There was a good variety of rolls and a few nigiri options. I loved the tuna/​salmon/​avocado roll combo, that was definitely the stand out for me. There was a tuna/​spicy tuna roll that was also pretty decent. The salmon nigiri tasted very fresh, but the yellowtail tasted a bit rubbery and blah. There were definitely some bad rolls in there, they can’t all be winners. The rainbow roll was so-​so, and some of the tempura rolls didn’t really thrill me. I guess you just have to try a bit of everything to see what’s good. I’ll definitely be going back.

The sushi is excellent and the staff is very attentive. I’ve heard a lot of people rave about the Korean dishes there as well, although I haven’t tried them yet. They even give you some good misu-​misu soup to get you going… mmm.