ToBang Korean Cuisine
1052 Kiely Blvd
Santa Clara, CA 95051
Restaurant.com coupon: link
$25 off $50 coupon for $10, why not! This place has the best customer service out of all the Korean restaurants I have ever been to. Usually you need to go with a Korean-speaking friend in order to get good service, but this is not the case at this place. They treated us so well, brought us refills on banchan and rice paper without asking (to the point where we actually had to tell them to stop), asked us constantly if everything was okay for us. My friend and I were so shocked with the service, we were just expecting to be ignored and given our food!
Anywho, the restaurant is small, and there isn’t much seating, it’s very spaced out, and there is a huge draft so it’s cold inside, but the good thing is that you won’t smell too much afterwards. We were seated and we gave them our coupon, so they explained to us the restrictions very kindly and asked us what we wanted to drink. The yogurt soju is not part of the deal, but we ordered it extra since this was a celebratory dinner. I believe it was $12.99 for a big pitcher, and they only have yogurt flavor, but it was so good and definitely a creeper.
Originally, we wanted to order the seafood pajeon as our appetizer, bulgogi and kalbi as our meats, and combination tofu soup. When we ordered though, the waitress told us the pajeon was on the house! So we ordered panfried dumplings for an appetizer instead. We knew it was way too much food for just 2 people, but we decided to get it and take leftovers home.
The banchan were just like any other place, except they had string potato strips that I’ve never had, and also they had sliced pickled Korean daikon that were huge and instead of using regular vinegar I think they used red vinegar since it had a pink hue to it. That was really good with the meat. When the pajeon came out, I died a little inside. It was so good!! Crispy, warm, with a perfect amount of octopus in it…it had been so long since I had it. I still can’t believe it was free.
The bulgogi and galbi were spectacular, and much more than what BCD gives per portion. They had asked us before ordering the galbi if it was okay, since usually they marinate it for 2 days before, but since they ran out, they had marinated this batch that day only. We were fine with that, and when we got the meat, the chef came out to make sure it was okay with us. It tasted like it had been marinated for days! So juicy, tender, and well seasoned. They were good pieces of meat too, with little fat on them. Yum!
The combination tofu soup was a little bland for me, since we had ordered medium and it was not spicy at all, but there was a lot of tofu and huge chunks of meat and seafood, so that made up for it. Panfried dumplings were so crispy! Fried to perfection and even though I have no idea what the filling was, it was good.
The waitress brought us fishcake and rice paper refills, and gave us a whole pitcher of water when we asked for it. She was kind and funny, something seriously lacking in the waiters and waitresses at other Korean places. Our bill came out to be $54 after the $25 discount, plus the soju, tax, and tip (tip is calculated based on the whole order, which was roughly $80), and we were so happy with their service that we gave them another $5 tip on top of everything and wrote them a note on the back of the receipt. We also got 2 complimentary yakult drinks to finish off the night!
I am definitely coming back to this place, the customer service alone is good enough to pull me in, but the free pajeon, yakult, and the tasty high quality food is the real main catch!
~Nicole
Oh My Food Coma! 