Kogi Asian Buffet

Permanently closed for some time now. When they first opened they were great, went downhill rapidly. No great loss, still vacant.

I have been going to Kogi since it first opened. At that time it was wonderful, with awesome variety and quality. Then there was a period of several months when I didn’t go. So I went for lunch and there was a banner saying they were under new management and I thought uh-​oh. I had lunch and I was SO disappointed. The food was bland and mushy. They didn’t refill a dish until it was all gone, which resulted in a lot of cold unappetizing food. I don’t know what happened to the «old» management, but the «new» was not an improvement.

We came here as part of a very large group of 100+ people. There was plenty of room to accommodate the group, however I found that some of the food took alot longer to come out such as meat items. Lots of food and even drinks and cups were running out. The food was not the most impressive but we weren’t disappointed either.

Came here once before and it was fine. But it’s just before dinner and everything I’ve taken off the buffet that should be hot is just lukewarm. Food is sitting in congealed grease. Somehow my wife is able to eat her food but I really would rather not get sick.
Spicy beef: kinda hot
Some kind of breaded sauced chicken: warm
Kung pao chicken: warm
Mussels: warm
Kimchee: cold (yay!)
Soda (without ice): cold (yay!)

We were a little reserved about this place when we drove up and there were hardly any cars in the parking lot. But we are on a mission to find a oriental place in Anchorage that we love. The buffet is a particularly good one. Things are labeled very well so you have to guess but I am a very picky eater and got a large selection of food to eat. The atmosphere is really nice and since it’s not super busy you can have a nice conversation in the quiet. We really like this place!

Never again.
I was debating on where to go for dinner last Friday night and I was thinking of trying something new. I was goofing around on Unilocal and remembered Kogi. One thing led to another and I happened to look at their Facebook page which was proudly advertising their Grand Reopening, complete with new chef, new menu, new staff, etc.
I ate at Kogi back in June with a co-​worker. While the food was not outstanding, I didn’t necessarily think it was bad. Grand reopening can have a lot of bad connotations but in my mind (i.e. the restaurant was failing), but in my mind, if a restaurant is going to serve really outstanding food, it’s going to be at their opening (or in this case, Grand Reopening).
I could not have been more wrong.
The restaurant was absolutely packed with families and screaming children. There was one… ONE…server on duty who was both trying to run the register and wait on tables. We arrived at about 6 pm and at about 6:30 another server showed up. I think maybe one more person showed at some point after that.
The serving utensils handles were covered in food, the floors were sticky and the bathroom was filthy.
The selection was poor and many of the trays were completely empty. At one point, they brought out more egg rolls (which were beige and not completely cooked through) and within seconds it was empty again because they only brought out a few. It’s a pity because the egg rolls tasted like they came frozen and they were one of the few edible items served. I won’t go through every single dish, but here are some key words: badly seasoned, undercooked, overcooked, ridiculously spicy, tough, chewy, fatty, stringy.
And yes, later that night I got to deal with stomach cramps from the food.
Never again will I eat there. They really should just do the community a favor and close the place down if that’s what they’re serving. This is by far the harshest review I’ve ever given of a restaurant but it was by far the worst restaurant to which I’ve been.
The owners should be prosecuted for the slop they were serving – or better yet, forced to eat at their own restaurant for a month.
To add real insult to injury, the cost was $ 16.99 and you pay as you walk in. I should have been smart and looked at the buffet before paying because within seconds of seeing it we realized we had made a mistake. Save yourself and your stomach and avoid this place like the plague.

I keep hoping to give Kogi another try. But until there are more than 4 cars in the parking lot (which are probably just employees) I am going to keep on driving.

Don’t come here, Go somewhere else. Horrible food. Slow service. Food rarely comes out from the back. Food on the buffet is cold, and they have potato salad just sitting there. That can’t be sanitary.

Eh. It’s ok. great place to satisfy a kalbi craving because most Korean rest. charge $ 20+ for kalbi. so for this, it’s good. And there a variety of Korean side dishes. The pork ribs, sushi, chow mein, and tempura shrimp are yummy. And I love how they have barley tea. But other than that, that’s about it. the dessert bar is a joke. Seriously, I think it’s stale dessert loaves from Costco. and the soft serve cream is tasteless. The cookies are hard. I’d think they benefit from just having one fresh dessert consistently then the stale variety they have now. But like I said, good place for some main courses.

Go! Great variety and family friendly atmosphere.

Update: We gave Kogi another shot on Sunday. I was little scared when once again I grabbed that last 3 broken crab legs from the dish… but! A huge new batch came out of the kitchen 10 minutes later. Woo hoo! The Kalbi beef was amazing, but once again the middle island is full of mac and cheese, fried chicken and mashed potatoes. Sad face.
Both the husband and I tried the miso soup, but abandoned it because it had a bit of a funky taste. Also, we can’t put our finger on it, but something he ate from Kogi gave him a slight case of the food poisoning… he was up all night and most of the next day being quite ill. I gave them another star, but we won’t be back.

Not impressed. They didn’t live up to the hype they generated with advertising — there are very few choices, not much food, and for $ 20 lunch on a Sunday I expected… At least more than I got. Very average. Nice staff, but it didn’t change a whole lot from what this place was before — Royal Fork. I won’t be back if I have a choice.