The Crew

4.24.24
Dinner post pickleball session around 8pm - no wait.

This spot reminds of your typical Korean bar, but serves more than your typically fried foods. I came to try their soup and seafood pancake.

FOOD:
They have your traditional Korean food - tofu soups, kalbitang, various pancakes, kalbijim, and they also offer kbbq. We opted for:
- banchan: they offer a pretty good selection and the kimchi was fresh.
- seafood pancake: we were pretty impressed with the size, taste and generous amount of seafood. I would say top 3 seafood pancakes I've had - and I've had my fair share of seafood pancakes - I ALWAYS order seafood pancakes at Korean restaurants :)
- tofu soup mild: this was the perfect amount of spiciness and came with an raw egg as usual and a plus for including purple rice.
- kalbitang: I always order this as it is my fav type of Korean soup. But their was okay. It didn't come with much glass noodles and did not come with egg strips or the wasabi soy sauce to dip the ribs. The flavor of the soup was pretty good overall.

AMBIANCE:
Neon signs and dark vibes so the late night bar scene. Not the biggest spot, I can imagine it can get pretty busy here during the weekend nights.

SERVICE:
Very friendly waiters!

Verdit:
I would return to try their other items.

it's hard. rating this lower than when i had them back in 2021. there's just a lot they've changed and not for the better.

there's a few things that made this place being a homey, reasonably priced, delicious restaurant to being an overrated, average tasting/not worth it, intense yelling zone.

they've renovated their restaurant. awesome. lovely. they've also changed their menu to be more trendier and to include stuff i have admired from shows. however the service and quality doesn't meet the expectations of was presented to me via social media, or of what i thought the food was suppose to taste like.

what was good? the cheese kimchi pancake. always a fan favorite and glad they didn't take that off the menu. it's so thick and cheesy, it's giving pizza. galbi/kalbi is standard. nothing special. banchans good! lots of variety.

what was not good? the rose tteokbeokki. it was really not good. it wasn't creamy, it wasn't spicy, it wasn't really anything and the flavor itself was just off. i wish i listened to the other yelpers who also felt the same way. the honey makgulri was just the aesthetics because of the honeycomb has the white stuff, it makes the whole drink gritty, with hard white bits stuck to your mouth and have to spit out. the sweetness didn't blend/mix with the alc especially because the drink is cold and in order to melt honey, it needs to be hot. and finally, the service.

service itself was really poor. the servers don't check up on y'all to either take order, check on the food/table, give the bill at the appropriate time, etc, nor does they acknowledge us if i was getting their attention. it's clear they bit off more than they can chew and i hope they can work on quality of service, instead of them just giving half baked service as they're overworked themselves.

crew if you reading this, bring back the Pork Jjagleri, it was so good and yummy.

After seeing this restaurant on Instagram, I came here for the honeycomb rice wine combo. Unfortunately, this was the only memorable part of the meal, as they cut the honeycomb tableside ($10 per slice though). The food was pricy for the quality you get, and the flavors didn't meet my expectations.

The biggest disappointment was the seafood pancake ($23.95); it was burnt and therefore, bitter, and every single one the shrimp pieces surprisingly had the tails still on! You could maybe get away with that if the shells were fried crispy like in tempura, but this was not the case. Different than the American style, the garlic fries ($13) were tossed in a garlic sauce, which gave the fries an odd stale and soggy texture. The beef in the kalbi tang ($24.95) was a bit tough.
The 8 piece wings ($18.95) were fine. I wouldn't come back.

I've been to The Crew before but it's definitely been a minute. Their interior looks a lot different now and feels more cozy.

We got their King Tonkatsu ($19.95), Tofu Soup ($18.95) and their Makgulri ($14). I thought their Tonkatsu was okey, it definitely was very big but wish it was more juicy. My friend got their tofu soup, the mild one, i tried a little bit and it had a slight kick. I don't really drink so my friend mainly drank the makgulri. We wanted it with the honey comb but didn't realize it was a separate price for it ... the waitress made it seem like it comes with it and if you want more of the honeycomb then you'll pay extra. We were a little bit ticked off but it was whatever lol To get honeycomb it is +$10.

Overall Rating: 3/5

The Crew is a culinary voyage to Korea's vibrant street food scene, tucked away in a cozy enclave. Despite its modest size, this gem packs a flavorful punch. From crispy chicken wings to savory rice cakes and sizzling BBQ meals, each dish is a tantalizing journey for the taste buds. And what's a Korean feast without soju? The Crew's selection adds an extra layer of authenticity and enjoyment to the experience. With every bite and sip, you'll feel like you've stumbled upon a delicious secret worth sharing.

This place somehow blew up with the Honey Makkgeoli and while it was a good hearty Korean meal, it didn't necessarily wow me to the point I'd come back. It's sort of in between a pocha and sit down Korean restaurant.

Note - the honey in makkgeoli also causes the drink to be a bit waxy

Ordered Dishes - Spicy Pork, Fried Chicken, Kimchijigae, Tteboki, Kimchi pancake. Favorite dish is probably the spicy pork

Finally went back to the Crew after going several years ago. The interior of the restaurant has changed (for the better) and the food was delicious! My party of 2 went on a Saturday but we got there 30mins before opening since they don't do reservations. They get busy quickly so I suggest getting there early!

Food Ordered:

Kalbi half portion -bbq (9/10): the meat wasn't overly greasy and was perfectly marinated! I do wish it was a little hotter even though it was on a hot stone plate.

Corn Cheese (10/10): one of my fave dishes at the Crew! The cheese was so gooey and hot and had the perfect amount to compliment the amount of corn.

Mozzarella Corndog (3/10): to me this wasn't worth since you can get mozzarella corndogs for cheaper at asian markets and this one was covered in way too much sugar. There also wasn't much of a cheese pull.

Kalbi Short Rib Soup (9/10): I'm a sucker for Kalbitang and the broth for this was perfect. I wish there were more bones, but that's my personal preference.

The Crew Wings - Garlic (9/10): the taste was amazing, but with the sauce it does lose some of its crispiness.

Drinks Ordered:

Honeycomb Makgeolli (9/10): if you like sweet honey drinks, this is perfect for you! It got a bit too sweet for me towards the end, but I still enjoyed it.


Overall for 2 people, we finished everything and enjoyed most of the items we ordered. We're definitely planning on coming back and trying more items!

I liked that there were 1/2 portions in the case you didn't want anything extremely big. Pricing was steeper for Korean compared to our typical favorites. Seafood pancake was huge!

They gave us the date table by the front of the restaurant but it's a bit cramped, we didn't mind!

Love the ambiance and darker lights which matches the new usual settings for modern restaurants.

Service was normal, nothing crazy. Overall easy come and go place!

This was an amazing experience. Please go experience!

The ambiance feels like how a small restaurant with delicious, affordable food would be. There's a video projector that projected the NBA game directly on the wall without a screen, at 8pm they started playing music fairly loud, it became hard to hear conversations. The floors and tables are slightly sticky. When I first sat in my chair, there was something sticky on the arm.

Service was very accommodating, very sweet. Excellent service.

Food was delicious. Maybe because my first time trying tteokbokki, but this was one of the best dishes ever! A variety of different rice noodles, delicious creamy sauce. The experience was so amazing I just go back and just stare at the picture sometimes.

Seafood pancake was a little bland. We probably wouldn't order again

Fried rice was a fun experience too. They poor egg whites around the rice and you have to mix and cook it on the hot plate yourself. Was delicious.

Props to a Korean place that has vegetarian options- I know I can't take that for granted. We came at 5:30pm on weeknight because we knew it could get busy.

Corn cheese: best I've ever had and I usually don't even like corn cheese. Cheese was nice and creamy almost like an alfredo.

Vegan bibimbap: solid choice - nice shallow bowl to get maximum sizzle.

Tofu soup - really yummy for a cold night. got medium spicy but it wasn't really. Came with purple rice!

And of course we came for the honey Makgeolli so had to get that! Really cool concept but the beeswax was floating all over my cup towards the end and the honey made it too sweet so not sure I would get it again.

Server also pointed out which banchan was vegetarian and which were not (the marinated bean sprouts apparently are not!!). That was super helpful too.