Goku Korean Bbq Hot Pot - San Jose

Goku is a popular and affordable AYCE KBBQ and hot pot restaurant. The hot pots are personal while the KBBQ grill is shared with the entire table. My group chose the “only KBBQ” option which was $32 per person (so cheap! but I would not recommend it for groups of 6 7 people. They did not allow us to sit at a table with two KBBQ grills unless we had a party of 8 or more. One small grill cooking for 6 persons was not enough and most of our time was spent waiting for meat to cook so we could divide the small portion among all of us.In my opinion, there are a lot of aspects that Goku can improve on. Firstly, the cleanliness. The restaurant is just so…dirty. The tables, floors, sauce bars are sticky. The sauce bar bowls are presented, cluttered in a giant dish bin and still a little dirty. The first table we sat at had a huge pool of water on the floor and we had to flag a server down just to get it mopped up. The BATHROOM SINK HAD PUKE in it that was not cleaned up the entire time we had dinner.I’m a bit puzzled as to why Goku is so popular. We ate at 5PM so we didn’t have to wait long but by the time we left there was a crowd of customers outside waiting. Is it the cheap price? Maybe.When we asked to switch our group to a different table the server let us know that our eating time would be capped to 90min because there was a reservation coming in after us. But we asked to switch tables in the first place because of the pool of water and we literally could not fit into one side of the booth. The booths are movable, the tables with the KBBQ grills are not. The party sharing the booth behind us were bigger and had our booth pushed so close to the table. I am a 5’2” 106lb small girl and even I would’ve been uncomfortable sitting there. We HAD to move tables and then were penalized because of it? I don’t get it.Another fault the grills don’t have ventilation fans directly above them. So the entire restaurant is really smoky. This is the kind of KBBQ place where you WILL smell like meat after you eat here. It’s so bad that the air is like…hazy inside.Okay…maybe time for some positives? I liked that the service was pretty fast. We ordered via touch screen which was great and our requests came to our table quickly. I also really like the kalbi, it was super good. That’s about it. I thought the other meats were pretty mid. The side dishes…mid and limited.I don’t think I would come back again, personally. Goku is not for me.

2 out of the 5 times we have come it was great. Unfortunately the last 3 times the service has been rough. Tonight will be our last time coming here because they brought the wrong cup back that was refilled. They gave my cup to a different table because I had a straw in mine and I watched my cup with the straw be delivered a table away and I recieved a cup with no straw. Plus it was a different person who returned with the refill. Needless to say that is careless in health standards and could have easily been avoided. That was the icing on the cake. The last 3 times getting refills in a timely manner has declined. And the last 3 times all our items was brought out and we waited a fair amount of time for a our grill to be lit. Its just been very slow service and the server is hanging out at the bar or talking to other workers on the other side of the restaurant. I am writing this review still at the restaurant and the wait for the refills is just oddly long as its not busy at all. For nearly $100 I honestly would have higher expectations.

Food is easy and quick to order on the screen. Quick services (dishes arrive just a few minutes after we place the order). They also pay attention to our needs and actively change the grill before we ask.Food: 5/5

They have good selection of meat, veggies, noodles and side dishes. I tried hot pot and korean bbq. It was delicious

The food was generally good but MAN the smoke... my throat hurts so badly now after inhaling all the burning smoke. The ventilator was in the ceiling so if something is burning, you inhale everything. The servers were not around eventhough when the meat grill was burning black. They were very kind though.Kid-friendliness: The servers were super niceParking: The parking space is big since it's in the plaza area.