Shu’s Korean Restaurant

This is a great place to come for bibimbap! They have a ‘salad-​bar’ like area with different salads and Kimchees that are free with your meal. Yum!

I came on a weeknight with some girlfriends and had delicious bibimbap and Korean side dishes. I’m so surprised at the reviews that mention poor customer service because the ladies there were amazingly sweet! We got a free dumpling appetizer and multiple refills on our side dishes!
Also, one of the best signs of a really good restaurant is seeing people of the same ethnicity there. The restaurant had tons of older Korean men and women there so it must be legitimately delicious to them too!

Mad bibimbap cravings so we found this on Unilocal-​dark parking in back. felt better when we walked in & saw lots of Korean people eating here.
The beef stone bowl did not disappoint! SO filling & all the yummy banchan on the side too.
Service was very efficient & super friendly– even comped us some free YUMMY fried dumplings.
Totally will return when in the area.

Food:
My friends and I are a regular at this Korean restaurant, yet we seem to always get the same dishes in the menu. Of course, you can never go wrong with Korean Short Ribs, Galbe, grilled to perfection, with the perfect marinade blend of savory, salty and sweet. We are four HUNGRY friends feasting over this one dish, paired with rice, and we always have plenty more to take home for take out. The galbe is cooked just right, juicy, and it only takes one bite to fall in love. Definitely a favorite!
Another regular we order is the bulgogi. I personally usually neglect the bulgogi because I’m way too busy chowing down the galbe, but this dish is also a MUST. Cooked to PERFECTION, the very thin slices of meat literally melts in your mouth. The meat is served on top of a bed onions, topped with sesame seeds and green onions.
Just minutes later, the server brings out the complimentary «Korean tortilla» ingredients which consist of some lettuce, sliced jalapenos, and a type of past
These dishes are served on a sizzling plate, on top of a wooden block for heat protection.
Servers:
Servers are very comfortable with their guests, but not very professional. I’m not sure if it’s because we’re a regular here, and my friend who always talks to them is korean, or they’re just like that to everyone. Regardless, very friendly and accommodating. I would definitely come back.

Came here especially for the tofu soup with fish roe, which was the highlight of the meal and did not disappoint. The owner was really nice to have left the banchan (small, cold side dishes) out for us until a little past 3pm. She said the banchan usually gets put away at 3pm. It’s buffet style — all you can pile on your plate, and they have a selection of kimchi, potato, pickled cucumber, bean sprouts, egg, lettuce, and oranges (for dessert).
We also ordered the ginseng chicken soup, which was rather bland and tasted more like porridge with boiled chicken. The seafood pajun (korean pancake) was nicely pan-​fried and sprinkled with squid. It also came with a nice dipping sauce. The soon du bu (stewed soft tofu soup) was pretty good, but the beef didn’t taste very high quality.
The owner was extremely thoughtful and nice enough to bring us one bowl of purple rice in addition to white rice. After that though, the service disappeared. We had to walk up and request takeout boxes for our leftovers before they came out to clear our plates. Perhaps it was because it was late in the day and there weren’t many other customers around. In any case, I’d probably still come back to try some of their other stews or hot pots. Great concept of self-​serve buffet-​style banchan.

Spicy squid is the best we know of in the area. Ginsing chicken soup is a little plain but we love it that way — great when you have a cold. Tofu soup is standard but very well made. Soups in general are really good.
The staff is unusually warm and friendly, which is a nice bonus!

Great value and very friendly service! Enjoyed the excellent short ribs, seafood and beef tofu soup, and seafood pancake.
My favorites from the all-​you-​can-​serve-​yourself ban chan bar were the cucumbers, sweet egg omelette, and oranges. Also featured: kim chee, sprouts, agar, potatoes, and salad (lettuce dressed with mayo).
Also had a chance to visit its neighbor Side Dish Corner, since I didn’t get to have fish cake ban chan.
Street parking, but there’s also a lot behind the restaurant. If you’ve no luck there, go down a residential side street or use the See’s Candy lot after hours.

I’m not sure if it’s what I ordered but unfortunately I wasn’t blown away when I visited :(I ordered the kimchi jjigae which turned out to be watered down and more soupy than stewy.
Service was really sweet though and my boyfriend enjoyed his bibimbap so I wouldn’t mind visiting again to try a second time.

A-​hole-​in-​the-​wall restaurant that served mighty delicious dolsot bibimbap!
This is the place to go for a quick and cheap Korean comfort meal in Santa Clara. The ambiance at this mom-​and-​pop restaurant may be bare bones, but it’s the food that will impress you.
Don’t expect, the tiny, perfectly plated banchan came swooping in to your table, because they do it AYCE style (even better!!). Although cleanliness is questionable, they offer many interesting options; such as watermelons and Korean egg omelette, all of which were delicious!
Within 30 mins, came my desire: the crispy and oh-​so-​delicious Dol-​sot Bibimbap ($ 12.99) — Topped with layers upon layers of colorful vegetables as well as a plentiful amount of perfectly cooked beef. This Bibimbap was one of the best I’ve ever had. The formation of that incredibly crunchy and crispy bottom layer was just perfection. So worth the wait!
Overall, this place offers pretty solid and satisfying Korean food. Simple, authentic and in all great value. Do check out their lunch specials, which lists some of favorite Korean comfort food in combo size for under $ 10!

This place is all around the best korean food I ever had. Service is spot on! Food is hot, fresh, and delicious. Love, love, love the side dishes buffet! Plus the pricing is cheap for what you get. I know there’s only 2 servers during dinner time and it could get hectic but they do their best for 2 people running around!

We tried black goat meat soup which was big enough for 2 – 3 people. It was quite delicious.
The staff were friendly and explained how to eat it (mix it with some sauce on the side). She also could not stop grinning as she pointed to me and said how it would increase my stamina…
The décor is quite ordinary but don’t be fooled, the food is quite good.

I have yet to try everything on the menu but their stone pots bi bim baps are amazing! Had their hot stone soup OMGOSH! And bulgogi AKKAKAKA i am in love!
Not everyone can speak English so the service is very loving or just very straight forward — never rude. Don’t take their bluntness as rude because that’s just the way they talk.
I do not know if this restaurant is family run but each time I’ve come — it’s the same servers and I get a «homey» feel from my toes, up to my heart then back down to my stomach as I eat which shows through my smile.

The food here is good, the décor just needs an update, but if the restaurant is full for dinner service then they’re doing something right. Tried their kalbi and jiigae, the kabli was the stand out. You can taste that they use good quality marbled beef for their Kabli. The Jiigae was good, but I prefer it a little more buttery haha.

Second time coming here & had the whole restaurant to ourselves. Was a bit disappointed at first to see the salad bar closed but after seeing how sad we were, the waiter decided to bring the salad/​side dishes out with our ramen/​tofu soups (eggs included without us even asking) omg best waiter ever!!! The Korean tofu-​like thingy were delicious and we kept asking for more and he brought us more plus he didn’t forget our water refills unlike the waitress last time lol took our time and ate there for a while. This was a nicer experience compared to last time for sure & it was definitely nice that the place was quite deserted rather than having too many people to have to talk over.

This is one of our favorite Korean places in
. banchan buffet and friendly service make this restaurant our family favorite. The value is huge, but I hesitated writing them a well-​deserved 5 star review, because it would get so crowded. The servers are so friendly I help myself to tableware to help them out when it gets busy during lunchtime. It looks like it is no longer a secret, because it can get pretty crowded. I hope this business stays open forever, because it has been our cafeteria since it so close to our house, my husband’s work, and other businesses making it so convenient.

Shu’s has been in Santa Clara’s «K-​Town» for as long as I can remember… but they don’t get a lot of reviews. Let me tell you why.
Trust me when I say that a majority if not 99% of the people that come here are old Korean couples who don’t even know what Unilocal is. Otherwise, the other 1% are foodies or other types of Asians who eat here because they know about it.
Came here for lunch with my Mom on a weekday and it was not busy at all around 12:30PM-1PM. They are definitely in need of a lot of updating and fresh air cleansing in this typical Korean banchan joint. The ambiance is lacking with the fuzzy reception and unclear hum of one single TV. The space is actually pretty big with tons of wooden tables for parties from 2 to huge, however they obviously aren’t utilizing it to its best ability as presented by its outdated theme. Tea is complimentary too, which is very kind!
The main pluses are their cheaper lunch specials and unlimited/​AYCE banchan «side dishes» in serve-​yourself fashion. I only enjoyed their beansprouts, marinated potatoes, and kimchi sides though. Nothing extraordinary. We ordered their lunch special extra soft tofu soup with seafood which was yummy and perfect in seafood portion, as well as their super oily seafood pancake. The pancake was HUGE and definitely leftover material… BUT the main problem was how oily it was! All together, food was pretty good and I’d vouch mainly for their soup specials.
The one downer was their service. My my my. I’m Asian, so I know how Asian joints are with service – lackluster, to put it nicely. But this place really hits a new low for service. The main two servers were this younger Korean lady who obviously looked too tired to be walking around, and the older lady wearing her pink apron. The older lady was blatantly pissed off and frowning – I never saw her crack a smile! I felt like I had to overcompensate with my smiling and «please» and «thank you’s» just to make her feel better. Nothing will change with service for her though, because its the unspoken code of Asian culture that old Asian ladies do what they want, serve how they want, and all you need to worry about it getting your food to your stomach.
In all, I wouldn’t come back because the quality of the food isn’t worth the tiger lady service and cardboard-​flavor ambiance.

This place is a classic 3.5 ‘tweener. Not quite good enough to crack my regular list of 4-​star places, but deserving of a better fate than 3 stars. These are impressions from our first visit for dinner.
First off, the service was great. We were worried when we ordered kalbi tang that it would be hard to get the meat off the bones, but the servers cut off the meat for us after serving. A nice touch that reminded us of home!
Besides the kalbi tang, we really enjoyed the haemul pajeon. It was large and crispy, and had notably large shrimps inside. Normally seafood pancake just has random assorted seafood, but you could tell the one here had quality seafood in it because of the shrimps.
We also ordered sol long tang. It was interesting, not quite like other places: a bit creamier and also the meat was softer, like ox tongue. This could be good or bad depending on your taste, but it wasn’t quite doing it for us this time.
Overall, the food was good, in a home-​cooked kind of way. The atmosphere was comfortable and the service was warm. Because of the good service I’m leaning more toward 4 stars than 3. The fact that they’re a family-​run business puts them over the top for me. Check them out and decide for yourself!

My coworker took me there because they have all free serve yourself vegetables and other small dishes. Many options.
I ordered BBQ galbi and soft tofu. Both are pretty good. Hard to find a parking spot, so I parked in the backyard.

A few years ago this place was called Sigoljip, and truth be told I’m not sure what the difference is now that it’s called Shu’s, especially since the menu is pretty much exactly the same thing (they even use the old menus that say Sigoljip.)
But the food is delicious. I’ve had the fish egg tofu stew, which is among the best I’ve had (the base is just right — depth of flavor, not too salty or artificial… with plenty of fish eggs!) and the sullung tang (beef bone soup). The sullung tang stands out here because they use 100% beef tongue, which I have not seen at any other Korean restaurant around here.
During lunch, they have a banchan bar which is a novel idea. Rather than serving something you may not like and/​or having to refill the dishes, they just let you get whatever side dishes you want. :) The selection has been good both times I’ve been there, with kimchi, radish, broccoli, potatoes, mung bean jelly, bean sprouts, and my favorite, little omelettes. After taking a couple plates full of banchan, I was worried they might think that I had too much, but after I finished they told me to take more! Haha. So I did. ;)

Yummy and delicious authentic korean food. and the unlimited self-​serve side bar is the best. Some of the best kimchi i have have, it’s super fresh and delicious. Their side bar is self-​serve, you can grab anything you want, pile it on, my favorites are the steamed egg, kimchi, pickled spicy radish, and watermelon! You can get full just eating their side bar, you have been warned, go easy on the unlimited sides!
I came here for lunch and ordered a beef hot stone bowl, the entrees take awhile since its a small mom and pop shop, but the stone bowl was delicious, topped with all the traditional condiments and a searing hot stone bowl to sizzle up your rice. Price is super awesome because of the unlimited holy temple of kimchi, if you love traditional korean food, this is your place! Interior is really plain, but very spacious for large groups and parties. The waiter speaks limited english, so just tell look at the menu filled with pictures and tell her the number.
Yes i will be back for my korean fix!