Gen Korean BBQ House

Great value. I definitely didn’t have a problem with customer service like the other reviewers did, even with a staff change in the middle of our meal and we went on Father’s Day without a reservation. I definitely recommend the beef tongue. Also, their recommended sake is really great.

We come to this place at least 3 times a month. The service here is always a hit or miss. But this time our server was Pat and he was on it. He kept our orders coming and never let our drinks empty. It had been awhile since we had gotten service this good. Keep up the good work Pat

Decided to come here for date night and try this place out! Food was delicious, small portions but unlimited. Drinks were delicious as well! Very pretty interior and nice ambience. Will be back sooner rather than later!

I wish we had this in San Luis Obispo. Great value. Good food. Equivalent to many downtown Korea town bbq. I can’t believe it is a chain.
Good service. A little noisy. Otherwise everything was delicious and we had a great time.

The brisket was weird and the portions were so small. Our day was fortunately saved by an awesome server so there’s that. Would not recommend if you’re a brisket lover.
Bless Joanne

Horrible service. Our server forgot 80 percent of the things requested. The brisket isn’t as good as other locations. Most of the food here isn’t as good as other locations. Portions are way smaller than other kbbq places. We had to order an extra round while starting to cook the first round. Every time, our grills would go black before we were able to put our next round on due to the wait. The bulgogi is as good as any other place. KFC is okay. Volcano chicken is good.
Edit: Our day was made A LOT better by a server named Joanne. She did more in the last 10 – 20 minutes than our previous server. She even took the initiative to check on us every few minutes and changed the grill without us asking. Additionally, sides and meat were brought our much quicker.

Food was pretty delicious and service was as good as it was going to get. This place is pretty full with other customers, but you can still hear yourself and your party with pretty clearly.
Overall, it was a great evening.

I went there last night after my graduation. I don’t know if it was a bad timing or the service is always that bad, but last night was my first and last time going to this place. Horrible service! The meat was weird too. I didn’t really mind the wait to get some water, but the wait to get our check was frustrating. I was tired and wanted to go home so I was really mad that they had to make us wait so long to just pay and leave. Some of the servers were actually nice yet the overall service of the place deserves 2 stars. I just think it’s not a place to go with your friends to celebrate cause they definitely know how to make your day worse.
PS. Even their KFC was meh.

Pretty good Korean bbq spot. Great food choices for AYCE and I like that they include salad without an extra charge. The space gets a little tight though once the place gets full, so it’s not very wheelchair friendly.
The service is great at the start, but lacks halfway through the dinner because they get so busy, and since the place is big, your server is usually hard to get a hold of if they are wandering around. We waited 15 minutes to try and get our check because we just couldn’t find the guy, but that is nothing against our server who was very polite and accommodating.
One star knock down for the nightclub vibe. I’m not a fan of going to a restaurant where I have to yell just so I can hear what the person next to me is saying because the music is on so loud.

I’ve been here for a lunch a few times and it seems like a group of 4 is the right amount for sharing. I really liked the beef and spicy pork bulgogis, as well as the pork cutlet. It’s nice if you can go with someone who’s cooked at a Korean BBQ restaurant before, just to get the hang of it. If you don’t like to cook, then just make sure you bring one other person to help you out. The atmosphere is nice and the staff comes around often to switch out the grill. The lunch price is good for all the food you get ($ 14.99 each).
Warning — don’t wear nice clothes because you will leave smelling really smoky from the grill…

I’m really curious how this place has 4.5 stars… I’ve tried Gen before at other locations such as in Tustin and Cerritos, and never have I had such a horrible experience like the one I had today at this West Covina location.
My co-​worker and I came here during our lunch break as we were nearby the West Covina Mall. Due to the $ 14.99 AYCE lunch special and my positive experience at the other locations, I agreed to try this place out.
Food: Is this place even Korean owned? the tofu soup tasted so unauthentic and was not freshly made in a stone pot like other locations. The server literally gave me a bowl within 30 seconds after I had ordered, with luke warm soup that was probably taken out of a huge pot that was made for the whole day. The meat quality was low grade and one of the worst I’ve had at an ayce korean bbq. Very LOW QUALITY! I had to drench it with sesame oil and hot sauce to make it taste decent. And another thing, they don’t even have «gyeranjiim» the steamed egg side dish … I’ve never been to a korean bbq spot where they don’t have this.
Service: Horrible. I had to constantly look around until a server made eye contact with me. There were less than 10 tables and about 6 servers yet they seemed to be either cleaning tables or something else. I had to wave them down. I have to admit our server was very kind and had checked up on us twice, but at times where we needed the pan changed or ran out of side dishes/​salad I had to seriously scan the room for 5 – 10 minutes till he came to our table. I was extremely irritated because I have a limited amount of time to eat during my lunch break and I had wasted 10 – 15 minutes of it waiting to get my burnt pan changed. Also, when other servers would pass by they wouldn’t even scan around to see if maybe other tables needed something.
Does this place even have a manager? Seems very unorganized. I can’t believe I had experienced such bad service during the slow hours of lunch 2pm-​3pm… there were less than 10 tables!

I like the menu at this location better. They have interesting items like «KFC», which stands for «korean fried chicken». It’s similar to orange chicken and not too bad. And I think the meat in general tasted a bit better than the Alhambra location.
I did not enjoy the service, our waitress was horribly slow in getting our orders to us, hard to get ahold of and rarely checked up on us. I had to ask multiple times for the same order because she would forget.
The thing that gives it a bad rating besides the bad service? I found a bug in my salad. It was nauseating to look at. I freaked out and waved down a waiter right away, I only wish I took a picture before hand.

Likes:
Shorter wait time than Alhambra’s location.
Gen’s barbecue steak was the best meat choice because it was thick, juicy, and tender.
Their gyoza (deep fried dumplings) were so good and tiny so I did not feel guilty.
This place is so American more than Korean. The dishes they bring out are all portioned which I love because you have room to try their big menu.
Also if you pay credit card, they bring a device to your table for transaction.
Dislike:
Their chicken was plain and bland that I do no recommend it unless you wish to put salt and pepper or something to add flavor.
Spicy tofu soup was alright.

Sorry, i’ve been here many times now, and its getting worse and worse.
Environment: place is nice, lighting, good air con. system, keeps you cool while eating and drinking.
Food: food is great honestly, I can’t complain about that here. They have a great selection of food and meats, and side dishes. Its pretty awesome.
Service: 1 star: Let me break it down from beginning to the end.
Front desk: This is what is quickly dropping and I weight service very heavily at a restaurant. Sorry, this place is BAD. We walked in for a birthday party, wait was 1 hour. Fine, its understandable. Friday night 845pm, waited and now its 945pm and they called us to the front, «your table is ready», then we stood there another 15 mins … wait, what?!
Waiter: no names. but he did things way out of order. We ordered beers and sodas, then ordered multiple orders of meat, this is great, he gave us a tip that this will help us get more food quicker if he places multiple orders of 4 meats at a time. Cool. meats came and i am cooking and still didn’t get my salad, not even the dipping sauce or oil now that i am well into my start of eating of my meal… ok no big deal… gave you another chance.
Waiter: further into meal, asked for sodas…“sorry machine broke” i can give u water, or comp you «1» cup of slushy drink. ONE cup!
Waiter: further into meal, my request to waiter at 10pm. «hey its my son’s birthday, can you guys do a song like i saw at the other table?»
His reply: «i don’t think so man, im sorry, we are very short staffed and can’t do it… But i’ll give you a free macaroon, ya?» Ok. whatever, its just upsetting.
Waiter: as the night/​meal went on, i had to repeat and remind him i want either more rice paper, because i already ordered and he still didn’t bring it to me after 10 mins, more salad, more drinks, more meats… I had to be the rude customer that FLAGS another waiter, or our own waiter to get any type of service. Mind you, i remained calm the whole time and was not being a mean customer.
Again, this sound like solely one person’s bad service. But my last 2 to 3 trips with other servers were very similar and I am ready to just give up this place for another.
Price: is very fair to me, they do have a decent amount of items to choose from.
Overall: Thumbs down for me at this point. 1 star to really shout out to management that there are serious service problems at this restaurant at this point.

Update #4
We finally went back to Gen’s after receiving horrible service here the last time, 4 months ago. This time the manager Edward (a different one than the one I wrote about in my previous review) took extremely good care of us.
In our previous trip there, the problem that started the poor experience was that one half of our table had a grill that kept going out. Well, as irony would have it, we were seated at the exact same table with the same grill that kept going out. LOL.
And you know what, it did the exact same thing as it did last time… The fire kept going out… Well, at least we know why now. Apparently, when there’s too much food cooking at the same time, it deprives the oxygen from the fire, causing it to go out. So, this time, an educated server just used one of the thongs to lift up the grill plate… and what do you know, the problem was solved. Tip of the day for you K-BBQ’ers…
Back to our experience… This has to be the best experience I’ve ever had at any Gen’s. Edward the manager kept checking up on us every so often, and our servers brought us our drinks and food in a very timely manner.
If you read my previous review, you’ll read that because our grill didn’t work, the 4 people from our party there didn’t get a chance to eat, so the manager on duty that night offered to comp our alcohol (which didn’t happen). Anyways, long story short, after we complained to corporate, they offered to comp 4 meals and drinks for our poor experience that night.
We came back and they kept their word and honored the agreement. There were 3 of us that went back, we had a shitload of alcohol and must’ve stayed there for 2 hours drinking our asses off. The bill came out to…
$ 30!
We didn’t care for the free meals or the free drinks, it was about the experience and we wanted to see if they will honor what they promised us. I commend them from coming through on their promise.
I actually didn’t feel comfortable about getting a handout and a free meal, so I personally tipped Edward $ 50 that night.
After it was all said and done, they managed to do a complete 360 and turned a very bad experience to a very good one. I feel good about telling everyone to go back to that place again.
Keep it up guys!

The selection of meat options were decent, the quality was aiiight, the sides were good; ordered several rounds of the salad which was quite fresh. The music was so loud that we could barely hear ourselves talk to each other and service was so-​so. Some of the wait staff were friendlier then some that stopped by our table.
For the price, you can’t complain. If I do return it’ll be for lunch, granted only if they don’t have music blasting, or at least very early dinner. Night time dining here felt more like I was in Vegas rather than in West Co.
Bottom line, it’s affordable KBBQ and if you aren’t too particular about the quality, give this place a try. But if you’re not into eating while bopping your head to hip hop music, then definitely check with them before driving out. The long wait also contributed to the A-​OK 3 stars.

FOOD: AYCE dinner for $ 19.99. 2 hour limit, 4 orders at a time.
— Gen Beef Bulgolgi: thinly sliced, marinated beef. One of my faves. ⁵⁄₅
— Gen Pork Bulgolgi: thinly sliced, marinated pork. Very good. 4.5÷5
— Gen Chadol: thinly sliced beef brisket. Good. ⁴⁄₅
— Shrimp: flavorless. They ran out of the cajun shrimp :(3/​5
— Korean Fried Chicken: fried, sweet & spicy chicken. 4.5÷5
— Gen Rib Meat: chewy and lacked flavor. ¹⁄₅
— Samgyubsal: pork belly. Flavorless. 2.5÷5
— Garlic Chicken: chicken with a side of cheese fondue. Hardly tasted any garlic. 3.5÷5
— Chicken Bulgolgi: marinated chicken. Flavorful. My fave. ⁵⁄₅
— Ban chan: only 5, but I really liked the mashed potatoes. ⁴⁄₅
— Happy Hour: everyday from 9-​close. We got a pitcher of Sapporo for $ 10 which is about 4 glasses. Regular price is $ 17. ⁵⁄₅
SERVICE
We were immediately greeted and seated. All of the servers were friendly. ⁵⁄₅
FINAL THOUGHTS
Great food and service for a pretty good price. I’m so glad there’s a San Jose location! :) I hope it’s just as good!

I usually love Gen, but definitely NOT this location.
My co-​workers and I came on a weekday during lunch. The place was not packed at all and there were so many empty tables.
Food: not as flavorful as the other Gen kbbq (Alhambra and Rowland Heights). The selection remains the same, but their meat seems a little lower in quality. Also, their meat does not taste as fresh as the other locations. Even with that, the kbbq was average to above average. The ban Chan was also fine and they offered the typical dishes like Kim chi, potato salad, etc.
Service: Horrible. We had to ask 6 – 7 times for items on a regular basis. I can understand if the place was packed. Kbbq places get busy and the staff gets overwhelmed that it’s understandable to forget things. Now, if your busy on your phone or chit chatting with your coworkers instead of helping customers, that’s another story. Where’s management? There’s no excuse to keep forgetting to bring items that were ordered, or not checking up on your customers when the place is fairly empty. Even to bring us our check, it took forever. Once we got our check, we went up to the cashier since we knew if we were to give the waiter our credit card, it would be another 15 – 20 minutes before we saw him again.
If I’m in the area, I’ll stick with Galbi Grill.

Overall, the best all-​you-​can-​eat korean bbq restaurant. Dinner is $ 19.99, which is a great deal! The place is clean and has a cool loungey feel.
I also heard from fam and friends that this location is way better and cleaner than the other location/​s. There was no wait. The hostess was friendly and so were the rest of the servers. We had multiple servers check on us consistently if we needed more food, drinks, new pans. They changed our pan 3 times. That is superb and prevents the food from burning.
The food was great! I would stay away from the thinner meats bc they are not as juicy as others, but that’s self-​explanatory. They don’t have the steamed egg like at other krn bbq places, but they have a lot of better things on the menu. They also had appetizers, which is great so you can munch on something while grilling. We tried the gyoza and korean fried chicken. Both were tasty!
My family loved the flavored soju. Their fave was the pomegranate (they also tried mango and strawberry). The ice cream macarons were delicious but tough to eat right away bc it was frozen.
The only negative for me is that, we had a party of 6 adults and 2 5 yr olds, so we couldn’t be seated in the lower height booths (max of 6) We sat on counter height tables and luckily the kids were ok and didn’t fall.

Horrible customer service, just the worst. Try coming back in a few months when the staff has gotten their shit together. This joint is run by a bunch of children that think tablets will do their work for them.
So they’ve got a cool bar on site, whoopdee doo.
First of all, I already knew there would be a wait so I call in to check the wait time. Zero wait, they say. We arrive to the restaurant maybe 10 min after the call… The wait will be about 20 min. Fine. Still waiting for our party anyway.
20 min later, it will be another 15 min.
The group that arrived after us gets called in first. Wtf?
«Your table still hasn’t paid their bill yet, it should be a few more minutes» — since when do places assign you a table before the other party has left? That just boggled my mind.
As we wait next to an entire section that is empty, but with appetizers all set and obviously ready to have customers be sat on, the host sits the first group in this section.
Why can’t we sit there after we had already been waiting, we ask? Because these people had called for reservations. ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS? I had JUST called in and apparently there was no wait, but the employee fails to mention that there were 6 groups that reserved their table for that time slot?
The hostess makes a very insincere apology and does nothing. There are about 3 other hosts that also stand at the podium that do nothing.
We finally get seated, order a round of food. We don’t get our drinks until maybe halfway into the 2^nd round. After a few more rounds, the waiter comes to check up on us and steps on a piece of raw meat that another table dropped. After kicking it off his shoe, where does it land? On my lap of course…
«IDK where that came from», he says. Just kinda stands there looking at me and awkwardly says a half assed sorry. I NEED NAPKINS, YOU IDIOT! After a couple more seconds of this awkwardness, I had to ask, «can I get more napkins?»
Since he didn’t have any on hand, I walk to the restroom. The other hostess is also going to turn the same corner, and for some reason at lightning speed. She’s pretty far away and I’m sure she sees me walking. What happens next? She charges into me at full speed, says a quick sorry and goes on her merry way.
WHERE. THE. FUCK. did everyone get their training in this facility?!? There was no hurry to get us a table so why the sudden change?
After a few more rounds, we get our check. We put our cards in and just wait. And wait. After the waiter passes us about 3 times, he finally tells us that we can pay at the front. Why thank you Captain Hindsight, that news would’ve been great when you handed us the bill. Maybe that’s why customers take so long to pay their bill and others just stand around waiting for a table that cannot leave yet.
Now if you can get past all of that «customer service», the food is great. Enough to make me come back? If for any reason I would crave KBBQ and needed one in the area, yea sure, maybe. But they really need to clean up their act.

Muy Rico y el precio excelente. Muy buena calidad de comida y brindan muy buen servicio…
Ya no hay que ir lejos para comer Rico y diferente.