We are here today to not only explore, but review three different Korean restaurants that are locally around Pleasanton. Those included are Korean Village, Seoul Komtang, and Bonchon Pleasanton. 

1) Korean Village

Address : 1807 Santa Rita Rd Unit F, Pleasanton CA, 94566

I was instantly impressed with not just the amount of side dishes given, but the variety as well. Examples are kimchi, sweet and sour radish salad, fish cake, bean sprouts, pickled radish, and some more. We ordered bulgogi and bibimbap, and among these three restaurants, this wins first place for many reasons. Though the bulgogi is either $15.45 to $22.95 depending on whether you ordered a half size or full, it could be worth the price due the generous amount of beef. Not only that, the bibimbap from Korean Village–in my opinion–wins by a wide margin against the two other restaurants based on taste and size.

2) Seoul Komtang

Address : A, 3170 Santa Rita Rd #2, Pleasanton CA, 94566

It was difficult to track down this restaurant since it did lack a website and the phone number didn’t call through after a couple tries. But, after checking the hours available on Google, we ordered in-person and waited in the car for around fifteen minutes. While this is personal preference, there are green beans and peas in both the bulgogi fried rice and kimchi fried rice that we ordered and I wasn’t the biggest fan of the addition. Our meals also came along with quite a handful of side dishes including two buckets (around the size of an average plastic cup) of kimchi and spicy radishes and some other sides in little containers.

3) Bonchon Pleasanton

Address : 2725 Stoneridge Dr #109, Pleasanton CA, 94588

We ordered from Bonchon Pleasanton online through their website as we did for Korean Village. While we ordered at 5:00 for a pick-up due at 5:50, we arrived at 6:00 only to be told that their new online system was broken and we had to wait another twenty minutes. After twenty minutes of waiting in our car and returning, we were again told to wait for another ten minutes. I was seeing meals of others being dished out from the kitchen.

It was 6:30 when our food was finally done after giving them up to one hour and thirty minutes to prepare for a bulgogi–much smaller than what was shown on the website–, two bibimbaps, and a 24pc boneless of their signature chicken. Their food was great, but the smallest in size despite the similar pricing to the others. They also had no side dishes, since chicken was their signature meal. Bonchon Pleasanton is the last for me among these three restaurants simply because of their lack of response being they’re “packing it” or “it’s the new system” after I repeatedly reminded them that my order was late. 

These Korean restaurants could be the next places that you visit to take-out your next meal. And I hope that this review could encourage you to explore and support more restaurants around Pleasanton during the pandemic!