Il Me Jung

"I wanted to open with the fact that only one other establishment has ever prompted me to dedicate 20 minutes of life writing a one-star review (it was for an USPS branch, if anyone is curious). I visited Il Me Jung on a Thursday evening with two of my friends. The portion sizes were pretty big, but the prices of the dishes were relatively higher, so it balanced out in the end. We ordered three dishes and they were okay for the most part, but the cabbage for one of the dishes were soggy and had a strange texture, almost as if they were going to go bad. We didn't think much about it since it was just cabbage and it didn't touch any of our other food. Now comes the service. We were given two sauce trays for three people, and thinking that the server (a middle-aged woman) just forgot, I asked for another tray. It took me a while to be able to flag her down, and she didn't refill our empty water cups refilled the entire time we were there, but again, I didn't think too much of it since it was most likely a family-owned business and she was the only server. When it came time to pay, my friends and I put down each of our cards to split it three-way, and the server stopped, stared, and gave us a very distinct "are you serious?" look. It made us feel extremely uncomfortable, and having been a server myself in the past, I know that swiping three-way really does not take much more effort. Despite all that, we still tipped 20% on our bill (which we thought was a little odd since it was a bit lower than expected). After we all signed, she came out and said that she forgot to charge for one of the dishes. I said it was fine and had her run it on my card, and didn't tip on that one since we've all already tipped. She collected all of our signed receipts before we left (which I thought was strange because typically they would help clear the table before taking the tickets), and came back with that last receipt with no tip. She pointed at the $0 tip and asked me I didn't tip, which I replied that we've all tipped already. She then said "it's all the same food" and aggressively prompted me to tip, in which I declined again. She then laugh scoffed and rolled her eyes at all of us and walked away. That 20% that we tipped would have been about 15% with that last ticket included, which was still very fair for an average meal with very mediocre service. To think that she would visibly look down on us for a merely $5-6 extra is absolutely bonkers. TLDR only come here if you've had a bad day and want something even worse to prove to yourself that your day was actually pretty okay."

"The older waitresses did not seem as attentive to us as they were to the other guests. We were the only non-Asians which we can’t help but think had something to do with it. They checked on us once our entire time there. Regardless, the food wasn’t much better. We found it to be VERY bland. The japchae specifically had not even the slightest taste of sesame oil which is what make a good japchae. The boiled dumplings lacked salt or seasoning in general. The banchan was very underwhelming. Prices were way higher than the quality of what we were getting. The raw marinated crab did not taste fresh at all. We will not be coming back here and are surprised to see so many good reviews. Do not come here."

"I was thoroughly surprised by this quaint Korean restaurant in the midst of this strip mall. A ton of parking in front the parking lot rather bumpy. Don’t let the dated exterior deter you from having this delicious Korean eating experience. Felt like I was having a home-cooked meal. Probably some of the best kimchi I’ve had in Houston. That says a lot since I probably eat at a different Korean restaurant about once a week and eat at home at least three times a week . Each flavor of side dish tasted, unique and homemade I highly recommend and will look forward to going back"

"My family really loves the sashimi at this restaurant. There are some differences between Korean-style and Japanese-style sashimi, especially when it comes to the special vermicelli noodles served underneath the sashimi. The sashimi set comes with a variety of Korean dishes, such as spicy stir-fried squid, side dishes, chicken cutlet, and a flavorful fish soup with chewy dumplings. The servers are very friendly, and the Korean cuisine is very authentic."

"Wow flavor here are not hard to come by, this food has been made with lots of love, I will be back time and time again. Staff doesn’t know much English but we’re super kind and welcoming and suggested a fantastic stir fry octopus with rice and a fantastic medley of kimchi and other pickled dishes. Absolutely fantastic, thanks thanks y’all!"