MUGUNGHWA Korean Restaurant

We love Mugunghwa, their food is delicious & authentic. It’s a privilege to have such well established, family owned Korean restaurant around, something that is not always given. All the main dishes, I believe, come with 6 set of side dishes and please don’t sleep on them - the portions are very generous (& you can ask for refills) and are flavorful. I think they make all their kimchi in house as well.

And as a Korean, I grew loving sotbap which is basically a rice cooked in a pot where you can take out the cooked rice to a side bowl and let the rice stuck to the pot simmer in broth which makes a nutty nooroongji. So I got pretty excited when I heard they have sotbap.

Our current favorites are: Sellongtang, galbijjim and bone harjangguk. But honestly all of their stuff is great in my opinion so try whatever sounds interesting to you!!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

This place is excellent. Truly the best Japchae we've ever had. This place is a gem.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 5

Great food. Plenty to go around.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Good and nice clean atmosphere, tasty authentic korean foods.
fresh ingredients
And kind and smile service
especially weekdays.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Banchan, Seafood Jeon, Bulgogi, Seollongtang, Bibimbap, Naengmyeon, Kalbi, Galbi Jjim, Naju Gomtang, Garlic Bossam Lettuce Wrap

The best Seafood Jeon, Suyuk and Brisket Seollongtang!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Seafood Jeon

Oh my god, how have I not been here sooner?? Legendary good Korean food, with lots of staples that don’t always make it to other Korean restaurants. I had their Kalbi Tang (stew), which came out tomahawk-style on the bone, and it was so hearty. The other persons at my table had soft tofu stew and kalguksu, also solid.

While eating I had Ratatouille-style flashbacks both to my mom’s cooking, and also to a recent trip to Seoul. Even the banchans, every last one, could’ve been a standout on its own. Will have to come back again soon.

Food: 5

Do not place an online order through Google site. It redirected me to DoorDash, but I couldn’t receive my order at their San Pablo restaurant instead it appeared at their Telegraph location even though the address on my order was at the San Pablo one.
The customer service here is very poor in solving this issue. They blamed that I placed the order at the wrong location which made me surprised since I don’t even know they have 2 locations.
I walked them through Google site where I’ve placed my order and they just said “ohh” without anything else & told me to go to the Telegraph one to pick my order up.
I was in rush, having a 1 year old together, so I decided not to drive all the way to Oakland but let it go.
Be careful when placing order here. The food here is just average but cost fortune. I only buy the seafood pancake here for my son here for the 2nd time but now we won’t come back here anymore.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 3

Service: 1

The food is really good! You order through a tablet on you're table. I forgot to take a picture of the bossam, but it was SO GOOD! The the tofu soup was so good too! The banchan was good and tasty. I would return and highly recommend! The food stayed very warm for a long time and that was perfect! Come check it out!

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 4

Unbelievably good.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Vegan Jap chae is amazing!!! Ban Chan yummm

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

If I could give this place zero stars I would. Went there for their year long grand opening. Ordered Korean pancake because it is usually my favorite dish. Saddly the Korean pancake was greasy and oily as could be. Drenched in oil to a ridiculous degree. Worst Koren pancake I've ever had. If you like greasy food, this is your place. I'll go back to Bowld on Solana Ave next time I want some Korean bites. The staff wasn't friendly either. I was one of 2 Caucasians and I didn't feel welcome. It was also obnoxously loud inside.

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 1

Service: 2

Excellent food!!!!!! Nice place with a clean more upscale feel. Great for groups!!

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 4

Recommended dishes: Bulgogi

The star of our dinner was the Galbi Jjim. I would recommend to bring a sophisticated friend to enjoy with you. Try before they get the Michelin star they deserve!!!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

The best Korean food I’ve had. Everything was flavorful and the side dishes were all delicious.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Recommended dishes: Banchan, Seafood Jeon, Tofu Soup, Spicy Pork

The staff was very disrespectful to my family and I on several occasions. Towards the end of our meal, I tried to get the waitresses attention, but she would just glare at me. After a couple times of trying to call her over she paused while I asked for a to go box, but instead of acknowledging me, she glared at me, said nothing and walked away. I was respectful and said excuse me, so I see no reason why she acted this way. We had to ask a different waitress for a to go box and for the check.

We decided to pay with cash and we left our check at the corner of the table. Several waitresses passed by our table a handful of times and glanced at us, but never picked it up. They even decided to pick up the check of a table close to us while they ignored is. We had to stand up and go to the register to pay for our meal unlike all the other guests.

It felt as if they were judging us and acting as if the $100 bill we set down was not real.
A worker at the register kept testing the bill and looked embarrassed when she realized it was not fake.

They also acted very strange during our meal by purposely hitting my family members hand with the side dishes, and shoving the plates to us very roughly. Which is not only inconsiderate and rude, but dangerous because we could have been burned since the food comes in a very hot plate.

It is truly disgusting to treat your customers this way. It was a very hostile environment and it made me feel like they were treating my family this way because we were the only family in the restaurant speaking Spanish. Which is unfortunate if they judge all Spanish speaking people like this considering the majority of their cooking staff are Latinos who play Spanish music while they are working.

Not only were they rude to our faces, but we could hear them whispering, laughing, and gossiping throughout this whole situation. It was weird and immature behavior that should not be allowed.

Instead of letting us go about our day, they purposely had us waiting for them to collect our check for an unnecessary amount of time. This was very upsetting to me as I have been to this restaurant several times, and I considered it to be one of my favorites. I do not see myself ever coming back here after being treated so poorly. The waitresses were looking at us as if we were beneath them and I would never want to give money to an establishment that allows this behavior.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 1