That's too bad about Corner Bistro. I haven't eaten there in awhile, but it used to be great.

The wait staff at Toque made sure to wreck our Christmas spirits at the buffet last year. They didn't explain all the frivolous rules for the "buffet", and then complained to us (well, actually, they singled out my girlfriend and talked to her in very rude language) when we hadn't intuited that even though we had been sitting there for 20 minutes with no one speaking a word to us that they were just about to bring out our plates to use on the buffet, and we were using all their clean plates, cuz when you're paying 40 bucks / person I guess that only entitles everyone to one plate at a buffet.

Them not having enough plates is just not my problem, and I don't appreciate being talked down to about it. They went on to treat us like troublemakers the rest of the dinner, never bringing drink menus out and taking their sweet time with it when we finally just asked for them. Then, of course, the drinks never arrived until we were pretty much done and ready to leave.

All in all a pretty terrible experience that convinced me to opt for the Dragon Hill's take-home dinner for Thanksgiving and Christmas from now on.

There's an Indian restaurant in the basement level of Jongno Tower (Jonggak Station). I went there once, and it was the slowest service and crappiest food I've had in Seoul-- and that's saying a lot.

I shit you not they served me *canned fruit*. And *ketchup* as a dipping sauce for my ridiculously priced samosas.

It's the kind of restaurant where I feel my anger rising every time I think of it. It's the kind of place that South Asians should rally to protest against.

The worst service I've had in Seoul was at Spain Club in Shinsadong. We got in just before last call and I guess that meant they just weren't gonna care about us.

We had to ask three people for water, one of whom, after taking the order, promptly walked outside for a smoke. One of the waitresses was constantly flirting with the Japanese chef.

We ordered paella, and I guess what they do is make a giant portion and then serve it out from there (I think they may have stopped doing this). Since we got there late, the paella we got was cold. They could have warned us beforehand, and we would've picked something else.

When we went to pay, the lady at the register told us how much so quietly that none of us, there were three of us, could hear, and when asked again, she actually yelled at us. WTF? Not worth it at all.

We saw before that the place had bad reviews for service but we were thinking, how bad can it be? Turns out, horrible. And if they didn't want to serve us, they could have just said that they were closing. As long as they have customers they should act professionally.

Dubai was one restaurant I did not enjoy. My friend told me the food was all right (she'd been there twice or so and I've never been there yet), so we decided to check it out. We ordered our food and this yoghurt drink thing. About ten minutes later, they told us the drinks are out or something, and so we opted to get sodas -- a cider and a coke.

We got our food about five minutes later, and our so-called sodas -- which was two cans and two glasses with ice -- came when we were about three-fourths done with our meal.

The place, as I recall, was a bit busy, but not terribly so to the point where it took that long for two cans of soda and glasses of ice to make it to our table.

That experience left a bad feeling in my mouth, and I reached the conclusion to never go back there. Even my friend -- after that poor soda service -- never went back there.

Almost forgot about Jackoby's Burgers. Good burgers, but horrible service. Been there three times and it took like an hour to get my food each time. The general attitude of the staff was that I was really inconveniencing them by showing up

There's a Vietnamese paper rolls place called Wolnam SSam near Gil dong that gets my thumbs down. Allegedly, it's renown in the Korean bloggo sphere for having great food but horrible service. The paper rolls were good, hearty and a nice change from the standard fare but the serving/boss ajumma was just so rude to me and my girlfriend.

1) They plunked down the trey of veggies for the paper rolls. I thought it was a bit gruff but hey, we're in Korea so I let it slide.


2) The second misdemeanor broke the donkey's back. They put chili sauce into the complimentary pho in the end. We simply asked them for another bowl of untained pho soup (w/o chili sauce mixed in) but she just told us in Korean that "she doesn't care - sanggwaneupseo" and "the sauce doesn't affect the taste". "We should just enjoy it because it's free." It takes a lot for me to get onto the internet and write a bad review but this place needs it.

pics at the naver blog link: http://blog.naver.com/missanne?Redirect=Log&logNo=30081512395

I've never found the service at Smokey's to be that bad, however it likely depends on location. I've been to the Sinsa location a few times and staff has always been friendly and prompt.

Jacoby's in HBC is definitely the worst service I've ever had in Seoul. You wait 20 minutes to receive a menu from the unfriendly staff, wait at least half an hour for food, then get half-frozen fries.

I agree on Jacoby's. It has some decent food, but the waiting and the service just don't quite add up to a good dining experience.

At Little Thai in the Seoul Finance Center, the server had the nerve to tell me to sit on the side of the table facing my companion, instead of next to her on her left! This was because "the [table] setting was already in place"! If there are FOUR chairs at a table, who's to say that I cannot occupy any of them? Was I a restaurant customer or a prisoner of war? Needless to say, we left promptly, much to their surprise.

All in all, a very surreal experience that evokes more pity than anything else--pity for those who live their lives constrained by such extremely rigid thinking that they feel compelled to impose on others.

At Little Thai in the Seoul Finance Center, the server had the nerve to tell me to sit on the side of the table facing my companion instead of my choice next to her on her left, because "the table setting was already in place"! And there were four chairs at the table already. Was I a restaurant customer or prisoner of war? Needless to say, we left promptly, much to their surprise.

All in all, a very surreal experience that evokes more pity than anything else--pity for those who live their lives constrained by such rigid thinking that they feel compelled to impose on others.

At Little Thai in the Seoul Finance Center, the server had the nerve to tell me to sit on the side of the table facing my companion instead of my choice next to her on her left, because "the table setting was already in place"! And there were four chairs at the table already. Was I a restaurant customer or prisoner of war? Needless to say, we left promptly, much to their surprise.

All in all, a very surreal experience that evokes more pity than anything else--pity for those who live their lives constrained by such rigid thinking that they feel compelled to impose on others.