ARISU Korean Restaurant     阿利水韓國料理  

We didn't have to wait for a table as we were early.

The environment was clean, but the restroom wasn't that good...First, they brought us the 9 dishes.We asked to take a look at the Korean drinksWe ordered a few recommendations:They gave us peach candy.Overall, we were really impressed with the food. We enjoyed our Mother's Day a lot!!

Went there for mom's birthday, saw lots of good feedback on openrice, so thought would give this restaurant a try. BIG MISTAKE. We have experienced the worst service ever! We will never go back to thus restaurant, and will definitely not refer this to our friend.

Examples:
We called to make reservation for 7pm, and was told we need to return the table at 8:30pm - no problem, we are fine with that.

We arrived on time and placed our order. At 8:15pm they sent the bill, we told the waitress we will finish up our food and go.

It was mom's birthday and we bought a cake, so we asked the waitress to bring the cake out. Immediately she has this very rude attitude and asked "What? You have a cake? You won't be able to finish your food and the cake in 15 min. We need the table back!"

We were already fed up, but asked that we get a takeaway box to pack the food then. Again, the waitress was VERY unhappy that she had to bring us the takeaway box. Geezzz.... What are we suppose to do? We didn't finish our meal in time and thought we would make them a favor by leaving and packing the food....

We told the waitress then we will take the cake away back then, so that they can have the table back (obviously we then had to find another venue to cut and eat the cake). We waited for 10 minutes for them to bring the bill and the cake back....

Another manager then comes over and said 'You have to leave the table and wait at the corridor, we need the table back" .... Honestly this is the rudest manner we have ever received at a restaurant, they could have asked us to return the table in a more polite manner...

All in all, it doesn't matter if the food was good or not, we ordered a feast but did not enjoy it at all. We will never go back and will not refer this restaurant to our friends and families.

To suit the request of our pregnant friend (TST, near parking, no raw food, comfy seating), I picked this Korean restaurant seeing as it has a few good reviews. Turns out another in the group has already been several times in the short span of a few months since its opening, so we had high expectations of what was on offer.

Good thing of Korean waiters - somehow it lends more authenticity to the restaurant. Bad thing of Korean waiters - I couldn't understand what they were saying half the time, and a couple of them couldn't understand what I was saying ALL the time, and had to ask a colleague to help out. However service was reasonably attentive, and a wave of the hand when you caught their eyes normally meant your requests are met. The banchan was free but only up to a certain point, after that it's $10 a dish. Do ask before you ask for a refill as it seems to be up to the discretion of the manager/waiters(resses). The manager with a slightly receding hairline and a little pony tail was really nice, and practically gave us a complete refill of the 10 dishes. All were very yummy, more notable ones were the crispy seaweed, the kimchee (spicy without the excess vinegary sourness, and firmly stacked and still a bit crunchy), and the firm and juicy tofu.Then we ordered the bibimbap, and went for the mixed soup noodles over the cold noodles as quite a few reviewers have previously recommended it (though note that it's not called "seafood noodles" per se, but it does come with a heap of seafood). The bibimbap was up to standard: hot, moist, fresh ingredients, lean and juicy beef, and the rice at the bottom was seared into crunchy rice cakes without being burnt. The noodle however was a bit of a let down, the noodles were too soggy and the soup was spicy but without much seafood flavour to it. The ingredients were quite fresh though and there were lots of it to share around.The ginseng chicken soup was a flavoursome and meaty broth that wasn't oily and had a whole chicken in it, and the meat was still tender enough to be eaten (sometimes they get a bit tough after long hours of boiling). The beef rib in soup was similarly good.The kimchee pancake didn't look like the one in the menu, ours was darker and had more batter than kimchee. It was quite thin and came with a mildly spicy sauce. It was quite nice but rather filling as it was a massive pancake. The picture made it look a lot smaller.Then we had the "neen go" or rice cake with beef, which was a very peppery rendition and the sauce was quite thick too.

We peered over to the tables around us and it seems the hotpots were very popular, and the pumpkin with short ribs was a ginormous dish that could easily feed 6 to 8 persons. For the price of the food the portions were surprisingly big, and overall the dishes were tasty. The environment was quite pleasant too, and the tables were spaced apart wide enough so that the smoke from the other tables (unless you're also making your own smoke screen) wouldn't waff over to your end.