Saja Korean Kitchen

Let me start off by saying the owner works really hard as she was working as hard as she could since her staff was letting her down.
The short-​if you are forced here, get the wings, they were pretty good, otherwise move on.
This place is slow, it’s no wonder this was not busy when other places around it were busy. I should have listened to my gut. The meal started out well enough, it too awhile but our appetizers came out and looked great. The wings were crispy, big and delicious. Then another long wait for food. We noticed people who ordered after us were already getting food. The bibimbap was a disappointment. The rice was cold and nowhere near crispy. The egg was noticeably undercooked, as a server, you’re supposed to check the food before taking it out. What should have been maybe a 45min lunch turned into a 2 hour ordeal.
Expensive for what you get.

Really hate to do this, but I’m knocking off stars because of our last two visits here. Now, full disclosure: our last two visits were during Comic Con, but STILL. Hear me out.
Visit one was aborted. We stopped by at around 1 or so on the second day of the convention. When we got there, a group of four was standing at the empty hostess podium. We stood behind them, and as we were waiting, a group came out and one of the girls said, «They’re running really behind. It’s going to be a while before you actually eat.»
We all kind of looked at each other, but none of us moved. At that point, we had been standing there for about 5 minutes. If I had a penny for every time someone stopped to talk to us, or to help us in some way, I’d be flat broke. We stood there — completely ignored — for almost ten minutes. The kicker is, there were employees walking past us (they were delivering food to the kitchen at that point), and employees wandering the dining room, but nobody bothered talking to the patrons standing at their front door.
So we left, and went to Sab Lai for lunch, instead.
We only chose to go there for dinner that following Sunday because the friend we were meeting chose it. So, we decide to meet there at 6:30 pm. It’s Sunday, the last day of the Con, we figured it’d be better. How terribly wrong we were.
We were shown to a table after waiting a couple of minutes, but the second we sat down, we were forgotten. We had to ask the hostess — THREE TIMES — to send our waiter to our table. We should have just left, but I think some of us were feeling rebellious at that point.
By the time the waiter finally got to our table, we had all decided what we wanted. For drinks, I stuck with water, my husband ordered a Diet Coke, my friend ordered a regular Coke and my brother ordered a hot sake. For dinner, I got the Galbi ribs Bibimbap bowl with brown rice; hubs got the pork belly entrée with jasmine rice; my brother ordered the BBQ chicken entrée with jasmine rice; and my friend ordered the spicy pork Korean tacos and the pork belly bibimbap with jasmine rice.
And we were summarily ignored. Once again, we had to ask after our waiter. He didn’t come back right away (or any time soon after that), but the hostess came by with the most pathetic serving of banchan I’ve ever seen. Three small dishes. That’s IT.
It took over 10 minutes for my husband’s Diet Coke to get to the table. And yet, no sake and no regular Coke. The sake came out five minutes after that, and — you guessed it — still no regular Coke. We asked the waiter if he was bringing it out, and he replied with, «Yeah, I’ll get to work on that.» What the —? Get to work on WHAT, exactly?
We had to ask twice more for the damn regular Coke. By the time the food got to us, I was thoroughly and royally pissed. But wait — it gets better.
Remember our rice orders? Let me refresh you — I ordered brown rice, all the boys ordered white rice. And yet, the meals that came out? EVERYBODY got brown rice. We were going to complain, but honestly, by that time it was past 8 pm and we were starving. There was no telling how long it would have taken to get the correct rice dish to them!
And yet — there’s more. Not sure if you saw my previous review, in which I ordered the pork belly dish and was served something very definitely not pork belly? Well, we had the same conversation this time, only my brother called the hostess over (waiter was MIA) and asked her flat-​out if that was pork belly. Oh yes, she assured us. It definitely is. Strangest looking pork belly we’ve ever seen, that’s for sure.
The waiter did come by much later, as we were getting ready to leave, to give us a small sake to try to compensate for the horrendous service, but the thing is, nobody else was drinking that stuff. A discount on our meals would have been much better.
All in all, I do like the food, but the service is terrible. I get that Comic Con is one of the busiest times of the year, but every other restaurant we went to had the capacity to handle crowds and weren’t ignoring their seated customers.

So I give it three star rating because it seems this Korean restaurant has a more Americanized twist to it. I prefer the authentic table top cooking style better. I ordered the «traditional» bulgogi beef dish and it was marinated and season far too sweet. It was more stir fry beef than bulgogi. I also chose the steamed egg as my side thinking the typical vegetable sides would still come with it but it didn’t so I missed out on my kimchi and spinach sides I think are a staple when eating bulgogi. I also chose brown rice but got white so it was just all an all not what my taste buds were anticipating when wanting Korean food.

The food itself is pretty good… when you finally receive it. I would have given them 3 stars if it weren’t for the service. Got to the restaurant around 7:40pm on a Thursday and there was only a family of 3 ahead of us. It was the first night of Comic-​Con so we knew every restaurant would be packed. Did a quick Unilocal search and this place came back with 4 solid stars. Score! Only one table ahead of us during prime dinner time. We waited for the host/​hostess or anyone to greet us and ask for the number of our party, which was only 2 people. 10 mins go by, then 15 mins, and eventually at 20 mins, we were approached and finally seated.
We were relieved once we sat, and our server came by to take our order immediately. We assumed things were looking up, but we were quickly proven wrong. While waiting for our food, we noticed how disorganized the place was. No greeter and no communication between wait/​bus staff. Daikon and kimchee were brought out after 30 min, but not our orders. After 45 mins, we stared getting impatient. We asked one of the female employees to check on our order. She nodded, walked away and didn’t inquire about our dishes.
At the hour mark, we noticed the table next to us, which was a larger party that was seated AFTER us, started receiving their dishes. We asked the manager/​owner (we assumed this because she was openly chastising an employee in public earlier) about our order. Before we could finish our question, she replied in an annoyed tone «your bowls are coming now».
We finally got our food and about halfway through, we made sure to ask for the check. We paid by cash but needed change. The server came back and said he didn’t have anymore singles (really??) and gave us two $ 5.00 bills back, forcing us to either under or over tip the standard 20% I always leave.
I understand it’s Comic-​Con week which is super crazy, but when a local couple (who were never greeted or seated and eventually left) says the food is good but the wait is hit or miss, that says a lot about the establishment. The food itself was pretty good, but the service left a bad taste in our mouths.

I have been craving Korean BBQ for a few weeks now, and I felt like going out down town. I jumped on Unilocal and found a place that would satisfy both requirements, Saja Korean kitchen.
The restaurant itself is adorable, and I was greeted by an even more adorable older lady who showed us to our table. I will say this took a few minutes, and while waiting for service another couple waited to be seated, and actually ended up leaving.
The food ended up taking a great long while to come out even with only a few patrons in the restaurant. The seafood pancake was really delicious, crunchy and full of seafood, but this is where the deliciousness ended I’m afraid. Both our entrees came out another 20 – 25 minutes later sizzling and crackling. Unfortunately the sizzling was the only pleasant part about them. They were okay, nothing stellar, and really seemed to be overly Americanized. At the end of the day my craving for Korean BBQ went unfulfilled.

Came here with my boyfriend for dinner during Comicon weekend on a Saturday night. I would give this place 0 stars. I know businesses get swamped during this time but honestly it just looks really bad.
First off, the outside patio is absolutely filthy. And disgusting. Why can’t they sweep the area around here? My boyfriend also asked them to clean the table because there was leftover food on it and the waitress just rushed by and said ‘WHEN I HAVE TIME OK??!’ Wtf!
Second off, I wanted to order the gimbap rolls and our male server was pretty rude in saying it’s no longer available.
Third, I ordered the dumpling appetizers instead and asked if I could get them mixed steamed and pan fried and he said no extremely rudely and curtly. Okay — fine I get it — no customizing menu items for Comicon weekend. However, this is where it gets worse.
Fourth, I went into the bathroom to wash my hands there was absolutely NO toilet paper, soap, OR hand towels. Aren’t employees supposed to wash hands before going into the kitchen??? I politely told the woman who works here and she said ‘no more soap’ in their storage either and took out the dispenser and gave me the last trickle of soap left in the container.
Fifth, our food was cold when it came out. I heard neighboring tables ask for the waiter to check up on their order and drinks. My boyfriend asked for a hot green tea but it never came and the waitress he asked was barely able to speak English.
Sixth, my boyfriend found something blue on the pork in the bibimbap we ordered. And I found a piece of hair.
Seventh, he and I lost our appetite and left the restaurant after paying the bill and got food poisoning before even being able to get onto our shuttle back to the hotel. We ended up having to cab it back in fear of throwing up all over a bus.
Seriously DON’T EAT HERE.

I don’t post negative reviews often but I feel it’s necessary to warn people about this place.
I was in San Diego for Comic Con & Saja happened to be right next to the parking garage my friend & I were in so we went for lunch.
At first glance the place has a very modern look & the wafts of KBBQ are unmistakable. But from the get-​go I should’ve realized that this place was no good.
First, it took more than 5 minutes for a hostess/​waitress to greet us at the host stand & took another waiter to even get us seated. The restaurant is not large and could easily be handled by the 2 waittresses & 1 waiter on staff but they seemed disorganized (which at the end I realized was not their fault).
We sat at the bar & made our order; this is where I saw why this place was so slow in service. Their biggest problem is their public chef (the one behind the bar in front of everyone). The first rookie mistake he makes is that he crumples up & throws away every order receipt that he «completes» instead of pinning them all on a spike in order of completion for future reference. This ended up being an issue in the hour I was there. With orders constantly being mistaken including my own. Their staging area (simply the end of the bar) for outgoing dishes was also a mess because the cook simply placed finished dishes at the end of bar, not over the proper receipt copies laid there. Which caused additional confusion & delays.
The couple that sat right next to us at the bar received their food in 5 minutes because the cook messed up my order. I waited 45 for mine. The Spicy Pork Bimbimbap Bowl I eventually received was above average although it was missing ingredients spelled out in the menu. My appetizer also arrived after my entrée.
My friend & I were starving so after he saw how we were treated he left no tip on his check, while I did (25%) because it wasn’t our waiter’s fault that the kitchen was an disorganized mess.
I hope that management makes changes because Saja does have potential to be great & is in a prime location downtown.
I know as a low-​review Unilocal user my small voice will only carry so much weight, but I hope that whoever reads this will reconsider going to Saja. There are many amazing eateries downtown to choose from, stay away from this trap.

Im sitting here writing a review after 1.5 wait… watching people eat… and still havent received our food. Had to go back and cancel and they still charged me 18% gratuity for my beer and soju (separate check) since I sat at a large party.
As I walked to a waiter and asked him to cancel our food he replied «I dont work here so I dont really care.» «Wait…you dont work here?» «Ya im just helping out so I dont care» …
So I walked over to the lady who served us and she cancelled it w. o any complaints.
Nice lady. Feel bad. But no one should ever run a restaurant this way. Everyone else got their food but 10 minutes apart and they forgot side stuff like the egg soufflé.
Some food items people got were good while some were terrible but honestly I didnt have my own meal so I cant really say.
If you have a large party and want your food on time. This is def not the place. No I would never recommend this place unless you eat alone and have all the time in the world.
The end.
Oh and fyi. If youre reading my review but you still went and now youre writing your own bad review… you have only yourself to blame.

Hmm, where do I begin with this place? The boyfriend and I went here yesterday for date night since he was craving some Korean BBQ and we wanted to go someplace downtown. This place had good reviews and seemed to fit the bill, so we were down. We went around 8pm on Friday and, despite it being a holiday weekend, the restaurant was pretty empty. Only 3 – 4 other tables besides ours were occupied. We were seated immediately and had to wait 10 minutes before I finally had to get up and ask if we could order since no one had come over to our table yet.
Our waitress was an adorable older lady and was very sweet, which is probably the main reason I didn’t rate them lower. One of the items we wanted to order they were out of, which is always disappointing. We went with the Korean Pancake for appetizer, while I got the Galbi and my boyfriend got the Bulgogi. Despite the restaurant being pretty empty on a Friday night, it took FOREVER for us to get our food. So long that she came over to give us updates and apologize multiple times.
The Korean pancake was delicious and crispy and we both had no problem finishing it off. However, that’s about where the deliciousness ends. Both my Galbi and his Bulgogi tasted very «Americanized» and overly salty. While it did pull apart from the bone much like you would like for it to, I found myself not excited to finish off the meal because it almost tasted like American BBQ as opposed to the delicious Korean BBQ that we were both craving.
We ended up leaving pretty disappointed and having our craving go unquenched. The restaurant itself has a very nice and modern ambiance though and the staff were all very pleasant. If they could get a quicker and higher quality staff in the kitchen, I’m sure they’ll thrive since they’re in a great location.

The service wasn’t on point at all. We were the only table occupying the entire restaurant when we walked in. The Japchae we ordered never came out and I had to ask them to bring it out. We weren’t given spoons to eat our soup and had to ask for them. I asked for brown rice in my bibimbap and was given white rice. I had to send that back.
The food was just okay. Nothing amazing.

I was a bit apprehensive hearing about a Korean restaurant opening in East Village, but it was surprisingly good and the whiff of the delicious food that you get when you first enter is definitely a teaser of what’s to come.
The décor is very modern and the art on the wall is pretty cool. But what really sold this place was their tasty small plates. I would come back just for their Korean pancakes, spicy tuna tar tar, and fried calamari.
They were done so well… it far exceeded my expectations.
Service was extremely slow, but there was only one server and he was so slammed. I’m hoping that they get more servers to address this and to have an ample amount of brussel chips on hand for when I come back so that I can try it.

YUM. Every single thing we ordered was delicious. If you go here expecting it to be authentic, you will probably be very disappointed. This place is more of a Korean fusion restaurant. Happy hour is from 5−7pm.
–Brussel chips: wow these were really good. Instead of serving brussel sprouts like every other restaurant, Saja separates each leaf from the brussel sprout so that each bite is crispy. The sauce was also really flavorful. This was only $ 4 during happy hour.
–Beef soondubu: FYI this actually tastes nothing like soondubu. They should be calling it soy bean paste soup. Either way, it was really good since I still like soy bean paste soup.
–BBQ galbi bowl: yum this was soooo good. I’ve never had a bibimbap bowl with galbi. Most places usually serve it with bulgogi meat. Again, it didn’t taste authentic but it was delicious nonetheless.
Between two people, these 3 dishes were enough. Our total was only $ 29, which is really reasonable for how much food we got. I would definitely recommend this place if you are sick of all the 1000 American (New) restaurants in the Gaslamp area! Just sit in the patio though because it doesn’t seem like this places uses their AC.

I just wanted to get all of the food, put it all in my mouth and keep it there forever… It’s street-​food quality (that’s a really good thing) in a modern/​contemporary style restaurant with great ambiance and enjoyable modern lounge music. I gave this place a 5 star because I just had no reason to give it any less.
Authentic? I don’t know. I’m not Korean. I wouldn’t care, either, if someone told me that it was Mexicans or white people cooking in the back… I just know it’s damn good Korean food and I eat a lot of Korean food from home-​made Korean food from my Korean friends, to the Korean BBQ and tofu places in Clairemont, to Korean food in LA, Vegas, Bay Area, etc.
Started off with brussel sprout chips… Wasn’t expecting this to be that great, but that appetizer was killed instantly.
I ordered the Bulgogi with steam rice and egg soufflé (steamed egg). The Bulgogi was delicious, but DAT STEAMED EGG THO! There wasn’t a moment where food wasn’t in my mouth. So don’t go here expecting to talk unless you’re praising how good that damn steamed egg is.
My wife ordered the pork belly with bown rice and tofu soup. The pork belly was incredible and even made brown rice taste good. The tofu soup was nice, plain, and simple. Take a chunk of the steamed egg and dip it in the tofu soup – that was my wife’s idea – do it and thank her later.

Hello my name is Bear-​E Hungry please excuse my grammar I’m just a bear. Every week i try to eat at a new restaurant only during happy hours, so i get to try many different foods under $ 30 for two, including drinks.
This week i went to Saja Korean Kitchen. Their happy hour starts 5−7pm, everything on their happy hour is only $ 4! The best part of their happy hour is that they have $ 2.50 Korean beer… Great friendly service.
First thing we tried was the Brussels chips, it was a pretty good portion and it had a great flavor, they cooked it just right it had a a little crunch and not greasy, u might want to get more than 1 its hard to share this one.
Next was Korean tacos, they have two flavor spicy chicken and bulgogi, i thought i would like the Bulgogi better but the spicy chicken was the winner for me, only if you like spicy. Their steam bun perfectly paired with the meat :).
Next was Seaweed Salad, great flavor, light and refreshing.
Next was the Vegetable Tempura for $ 4 it was a huge portions.
Next was Cream Cheese Ragoon, Its basically cream cheese wonton with crab meat and done well.
The last thing we tried was Crystal Shrimp Dumplings, this one was ok in my mind, its missing one more flavor its my least favorite.
Tune in next week for our new Restaurant happy hour. Im Bear –E Satisfied.

We are the first customers of the day! Décor is nice and contemporary, a bit more dark towards the back end but nice nonetheless. We ordered drinks So Ju Want me which is pretty yummy, good kick with some sweetness and Tae Kwon Do which is comparable to a mojito.
Our appetizers were the Brussel chips and the Korean tacos. Brussel chips were so good! Not heavy and perfectly portioned. Very tasty because of the bonito flakes. We got bulgolgi tacos which are really pork buns and the meat was so juicy and tender. Definitely worth a try too.
Our entrees were spicy pork and galbi bibambap bowls. The spicy pork isn’t actually spicy, but still good. The galbi on the other hand, A freakin plus, dude. But I will say that the drink I got (so ju want me) goes perfectly with the hot sauce included in the bibambap bowl. ⁹⁄₁₀ would return lol.
Service was nice too. But we were the only ones there at the time. Lol

Having first tried Saja at a Unilocal Elite event, I recently returned with a friend to have a regular dinner and had a great experience.
We arrived half an hour before closing on a Thursday night but still were treated well and weren’t rushed. We ordered the seafood pancake, which was really large compared to other restaurants. My friend ordered the traditional tofu stew with seafood and I ordered a bibibop bowl with bulgogi. I was really pleased with the large portions and the hot, fresh quality of our food. My bulgogi beef was very tender with a robust sauce that I could only describe to my friend as «bomb, you just have to try it.» The measure of a good bibimbap bowl for me is that the rice isn’t soggy and has that perfect crustiness from the hot stone bowl encasing it, and Saja passed my test.
The shrimp in my friend’s tofu soup was a little overcooked but otherwise I was impressed by how many shrimps and clams there were in his dish. I must mention that the tofu soup was definitely too spicy for me. Korean restaurants usually let you customize this but I don’t recall they asked us.
We were given about a half dozen tiny side dishes of pickled garnishments, and liked them so much we took them to go (we had a lot of leftovers anyway!). When we got our leftovers boxed up, the staff gave us fresh rice, which is always appreciated.
Overall, really good value for the price. I would say it’s a few bucks more per dish versus going to Convoy Street, but the portion sizes are proportionally bigger.

First time there food we ordered:
Crispy chicken tacos aka bao: no bad chicken was crispy but ive had better at Underbelly. Sauce was week and no pickeled items in it.
Pot stickers: not bad regular ground pork nothing amazing
Chicken wings: panko crusted and 2 sauces were nice.
Spicy chicken bimbinbap: disappointed because the stone pot was not hot enough none of my brown rice was charred. But i got brown rice so that was a nice change.
Spicy chicken entrée: came with a steamed egg nothing amazing
Final bill $ 60 which i think was too much for what we had. You can get better food for less $$ on convoy :)
Also there was a major nat problem at our table :(

My boyfriend and I were in town for a week, and the staff at our hotel suggested Saja to us. We’d never had Korean food before (other than some kimchi) but we both love asian food, so we were excited to give it a try. Let me tell you we were not disappointed. What I thought was going to be a week of various culinary adventures, became nearly a week of Saja, and this was not a bad thing!
We were hooked from the moment we stepped in. The service was excellent! The owner is very sweet and attentive, along with the servers (who assisted us on other nights). Our food always arrived in a very timely manner, starting with the Banchan (small side dishes). We received an assortment of pickled vegetables and edamame. The kimchi was so good! So much more crisp and flavorful than the other kimchi I’ve had in the past. My boyfriend got the spicy chicken bibimbap, and (the first night) I got the salmon bibimbap. Both dishes were beautiful, fresh, hearty, and delicious! Since I have been rarely eating any meat (fish on occasion), I asked the owner the next night if there was a dish that I could get made vegetarian, and she more-​than-​happily made me a delicious vegetable and tofu bibimbap (I ordered this the remainder of our trip).
The prices are also great! You can easily get two meals out of the bibimbap bowls (they are huge portions) and ours only cost $ 12 (chicken and tofu) $ 14 (salmon).
I’m already missing Saja since everything about our experiences there were wonderful! If you don’t check this place out, you’re missing out on a great experience all-​around!

We found a new small spot we Love
Our experience was great. The waitress was attentive and very kind. She explained the various dishes and gave us sampling cups for the soju. My favorite was Asian pear — yum yum!
A little strong for me, however it was something fun to try.
The food was delicious we had the short rib Korean tacos on some cute buns, I believe it’s call bao. Surprisingly amazing taste & fresh.
I had the spicy pork bibimbap Was also very flavorful and fresh.
Overall we were very pleased with both service and the food. We’ll definitely be back.

I just had to return for more brussel chips.
Great addition to the downtown gaslamp district but it’s a little hard to find since it’s not in the busy area.
Service:
Kimmie (I think was her name according to my receipt) was absolutely great. I listened to her chit chat with other patrons and she carried herself very well and recommended sister restaurants in downtown. Very friendly and attentive. Good job and keep it up!
Food:
Props to the Chef of Saja Korean!
Here are some the dishes I had.
Brussel Chips-​The best ever I’ve had in SD and I’ve tried a lot of places.
Beef Bulgogi
Jap Chae
Tofu Soup
White Rice
Complimentary Banchan which consist of: cabbage kimchee, pickled cucumbers, bean sprouts, pickled daikon, brocolli and fishcake.
Everything was on point and flavorful. I’m picky with kimchee and I’m happy to say it’s not as strong flavored like I’ve had in some places.
I would highly recommend the brussel chips if you love brussel sprouts. I prefer to have the brussels shaved instead of whole so this was a treat for me.
Overall, the ambiance is nice, clean and a very chill environment. There’s one TV set if you’re insterested in watching sports. I would’ve thought I’d hear Korean Pop music on the overhead music but no, it was regular songs. Come check them out!