Mapo BBQ, Santa Clara CA

Seriously a hidden gem! I love this place. One of the best Korean BBQ restaurants in the bay. Their brisket is the best quality I had that is equivalent to high end restaurants as well as their service! Unlimited banchan and the only place that has decent gopchang, which is always hard to find. The service always helps to cook your meat for you and that’s worth everything. The exterior of the place doesn’t look like much since there is some construction to the whole building, but the quality and price of the food is super worth it. Every experience here is always the best!

This place is busy but to me it wasn't that special, I don't mean it's bad,

Don't like this place. The only good part is the napkins are self served. I can pull by myself.

I ordered gam ja tang (port bone, potato soup). Some of the meat is unfresh, can be clearly told from the flavor.

The service is ridiculous. We don't have tea pot so everything relies on the waiters, but we have to ask water and wait long time. The small snacks are unlimited, but they never came back and refill until we ask and wait long time. And we asked the option to make the pork bone soup as fried rice, they said 15 dollars (gosh).

What is more interesting is when I asked the check, it took more than 10 minutes, and because I asked fried rice but didn't order, the female waiter just changed her face and spoke 1 Korean sentence I can't understand.

Based on the experience, I will never come back. Just ridiculous experience.

I was checking the reviews to see if anyone shared the same experience of being charge for $1 for plastic container (for leftover soup) and $. 50 for foam (for rice), which left me just a bit less satisfied as I am not seeing this as a common practice. The food portion was large and pretty tasty. Service was a bit cold, but courteous, I accepted that considering I had to eat late today and asked whether it is too late for them three times before sitting down (arrived 9pm and out of the door before 10pm). I just did not want to be hit with some made-up changes and felt I was being punished.

Omfg this place is amazing and authentic.

If you don't speak Korean, bring a Korean friend. Try everything on this menu, the meats are really fresh. This is a weekly staple when you're bringing the Yeobo?

Had bbq lunch here. The food and service is ok. I would probably expect better environment and dining experience given the price tag. There is construction going on outside the restaurant, which is another minus point.

Gam ja tang was really tasty and there was more than enough food for the two of us. The pork meat was so tender and it just fell off of the bones when i picked it up. The flavor was definitely there, but it did get too heavy and salty towards the end. They gave us a lot of banchan and it helped a lot with the heaviness. The gam ja tang came with two bowls of mixed grain rice which I loved as well.
The staff were all really nice too.

Had the K-BBQ here for the first time during lunch. The ladies were awesome and so sweet. The food here is so good! The meat is high quality and the kimchi is handmade and you taste it. Hope this place gets more reviews and people to come taste their awesome food

Very good place to eat, soup and BBQ the best. Be coming to those place about 7 yrs. Very high end food, good quality meat. If your not afraid of spending money on dinner, this is the place. Very Korean atmosphere.

Quality and service is good. But the price is 20% higher than expected. Might not go again due to the price issue.