Bi-Won

Had an excellent lunch here a week ago. Chatting with the lady who served us I heard that she had recently taken the place over... Hopefully the engagement of this professional owner will improve the experience and food sampled by dinners and thus the reviews. Korean food is sadly not well introduced to new diners: the restaurant owners or their staff seem to underestimate the interest and sophistication of people eating out in London. People are keen to try new things but don't want to be patronised with Fusion versions or ripped off overpriced dishes. As one reviewer has already said one of the joys of Korean food is that it is generous and really tasty when a balanced meal is ordered...

To me it's brilliant, and as an Asian who grew up eating all kinds of oriental food, this Korean restaurant is very authentic, I ordered the raw beef with rice in hot pot - excellent, other dishes are very good too. Service was very good, very friendly & homely. Good value of money I would say. Would definitely go back.

Came across this restaurant. Thought we would try Korean dishes. Fodd was not great andf portions very small. Stodgy rice. Assorted fruit as dessert was half a cut orange. The set menu at £20.00 per person represented poor value for money. Staff not very overly welcoming and seem to bring next course quite quickly which seems to be aimed at getting the meal over quickly. A can of cola was £2.50 but then I suppose it is the West End. Wish I had hunted around a little more for a better deal.

This is a tourist trap, a total ripoff. Korean meals are supposed to be hearty and served with lots of tasty side dishes. This place provides meagre servings, no side dishes, surly service. I went with a non-Korean friend for dinner last night and paid 50 pounds for watery soup, 8 little pieces of bacon, 6 prawns and two drinks. Six lettuce leaves cost an additional 4 pounds and a couple of garlic cloves an additional 3 pounds. Interestingly, the portions were larger and side dishes were served when I went to Bi Won with Korean friends several weeks ago. This place is a ripoff. I speak Korean fluently and understood what the waitresses were saying in their North Korean dialects. I told them they had been rude and refused to pay the service charge they'd arbitrarily added to the bill. I also asked them to tell the owners they should be ashamed of themselves for such poor quality, high prices, and shoddy service. Like most ethnic restaurants in tourist areas, this one seems to be counting on a steady supply of one-off visitors, never to be seen again after being fleeced.

Not particularly good value for the money, bulgogi not particularly tasty, side dishes good, staff not particularly friendly. Don't recommend.

First, not sure why this was listed in your new restaurants to try in the Dec 16-19 issue and has only a 3 star rating here - the 3 star seems appropriate, the staff were generally not friendly, and seemed to bothered when asking for something. The pan-chan was fine but the meet in the fixed price menu was not great. Overall, for the value on the fixed price menu, it was overpriced. The other items that we tried - kim-chi-jikae, pa-jun were fine. Again, not worth a note on your places to try in 2011 - unless that was paid advertising. At least SoJu has a friendly atmosphere.

are u still hiring ?