Aato Korean Fusion

This is the nicest Korean joint I have ever been! And I eat a lot of Korean food everywhere in the Bay Area! They don’t use any MSG at all. Because the owner Jennie is allergy to MSG. She used a lot of fruit to marinate the short rib which is not only very healthy but also very tasty! Even the Bibimbop source was made by a lot of fruit!

Short and simple: food was really, really pricy for the portion size and small selection they had.
Boyfriend and I split the beef something bowl and it was delicious! Only annoying part was that we had to pay an additional $ 2 on top of the $ 17 for the dish already just for an extra plate… little ridiculous don’t you think?!
Waitress was friendly, restaurant was really dead for it being a Sunday night on a holiday weekend.
The restaurant is also known to be a «Korean fusion» restaurant… Didn’t see much of that going on either.

NOT RECOMMENDED AT ALL. The restaurant is small and neat but the price is really ridiculous !! They even charged for an extra plate. The waiters just pretend to act friendly but they are very rude. Never going to go back !!

I ordered BBQ chicken with salad and potato. The whole plate was so good. It was a very pleasant surprise. Owner was very pleasant also. The place is clean and conveniently located from the hotel that I’m staying in.

This really is a hidden gem. The kalbi has that perfect flavor I remember from my childhood, but for some reason cannot always find. What is even more wonderful is the fact that the cut of meat is always tender. Everything is cleanly focused, not overdone as with some fusion restaurants.
The actual restaurant is elegant but casual at the same time. Loved the kimchee. Loved the very refined and friendly owner.
So glad this upscale restaurant is on the westside because I can be there in a flash.

Over all experiance was ok, food was good, place was clean, but you get owner/​server combo that don’t work so good, she start being moody after few questions we had etc.

AATO Restaurant is a hidden gem in San Francisco. The food is top notch, the service is charming and kind, and the combined experience is a delight. This Korean-​fusion restaurant really ranks with some of top end San Francisco eateries, but it’s not as well known or located. We found this place by accident because we couldn’t get in Boboquivari’s Steak House (more commonly known as Bobo’s) right across the street. What a fortune thing! While Bobo’s is great, AATO is even better. The Korean steak dish (Galbi, the short ribs) is outstanding; the soup was great as was the salad. We didn’t have room for dessert. If you are searching for a restaurant along the Lombard Street corridor and don’t know where to eat, stop here. You’ll enjoy it.

Really expensive. Small portions. Nice atmosphere. But smelled like dirty mop when we walked in. Food tasted wonderful BUT food was lukewarm. Dumplings were kind of cold in the middle. Owner was very nice but kind of odd.

I live in Orange County where there’s an abundance of great Korean restaurants, so this place was not what i expected. I’m used to more casual Korean restaurants that are super loud, but this one was more elegant– different atmosphere.
Food: my boyfriend and i shared the dumplings and he made the joke that they were Pot Stickers you could buy in bulk at the market, but they were still good. I had the salmon which was tasty, but wasn’t really Korean in flavor. My boyfriend had the bibimbop and he said it tasted fine.
Service: our server was very nice and patient considering we came in an hour before closing.
Price: The food was good, but pretty overpriced considering the dumplings were $ 9 but only came with five.
Other: for some reason the menu we got differs from what is shown on Unilocal.The starters were the same but there were less entrees, not sure if they changed the menu or have different menus depending on the time of the day. The menu we got had less Korean food as entrees.
Overall it has a nice ambiance and good service, but most likely wouldn’t visit again.

The dishes are extremely overpriced. The portions are so so so small in comparison to every other Korean restaurant I’ve been to. Skimpy on the meat. Still hungry after a bill over $ 50 for 1 person. :0/

I always love to go European restaurants due to the exotic flavor and its atmosphere. Today I really enjoyed the full course at Aato. I’d like to evaluate this place as a Europeanized Korean restaurant
This upscale Korean restaurant is Korean version of Tommy Toy’s restaurant.
If you miss the Tommy Toy’s you may enjoy this place as a Resurrection of Tommy Toy’s yet still keep the modest price.
The all organic natural flavor of the fermented seasoning truly taste the soul of Korean’s authentic flavor. Many Americans don’t understand the benefit of fermented food. The fermentation clean and detoxicated the human’s internal system hence it may allow the prolong the longevity. I was able to taste the soul of the slow food of fermentation and so does the owner woman Jennie’s effort that spills over everywhere of the restaurant.
As a talented former musician woman Jennie is really put lots of creative effort into the menu.
I really love the desert she is offering that all organic from the scratch and nothing is processed. When I was having the lime pie that all hand made I almost cry of the fantastic taste that totally new to me.
Certainly it’s a wonderful place for the weekend lunch or dinner.

I used to live above this place on Lombard and I feel obligated to warn everyone away. There is no one inside for a reason…

I really don’t understand at all the horrible reviews. Now this place is my favorite place and is actually one of the best restaurants in Bay Area. The pacific Korean menu was fantastic, and she changes her menu every now and then.
Talking to the owner Jennie who is totally wonderful, she has told me Aato means the «Gift.» Even though I am Korean, I didn’t know what it really meant. Shame on me… The reason why she named her restaurant «Aato» is because she wouldn’t serve anything to her customers that she wouldn’t feed her children.
Important things are the enzymes she makes to pasteurize her food like kimchi and uses for the tastes which are totally slow cooking process takes up to 1 – 2 years minimum. She only uses natural and organically way to make these enzyme which are totally good for our body. Furthermore, she also informed me that she mostly uses organic and also she even grows some of her food. This is the original way the Korean ancestor have made their food for thousands of years ago, and this is only restaurant in CA or even in the US uses this way to cook the Korean food.
Furthermore, she doesn’t use any Dashida (msg based) & MSG. No Korean restaurants in Bay Area, CA or even the USA do that. Name me one if you know any?
I was so amazed how tasty their salad and Korean bbq i really really suggest to try their lemon kimchi and home made desert. Try their lamb… Presentation was perfect and the taste was even better.
The process of the food is totally authentic, and she spends a lot of time preparing her food. Unlike other ethnic cuisine, it really takes very very long time to make some foods. I am talking about years of preparation…
Also try their organic/​none gmo tofu. Totally fantastic.
I will go there again… and i really don’t understand about the bad reviews here… Stop being ignorant. If you don’t know what healthy and real foods are, then don’t even bother…

I’m a Korean American who has spent a considerable amount of time (10+ years) living and working in Korea, who travelled the length and breadth of the country to eat authentic food at the source. I grew up in Koreatown LA, home of the largest Korean population outside of Korea. I’m also a (retired) certified Korean language instructor.
They claim «Aato» means «gift» in Korean. The word for «gift» is sun-​mool, I’m not sure how Aato is supposed to be pronounced, but it is definitely not the word «gift.» I’m not sure that word means anything at all.
Perhaps it is this misguided attempt to con people into a non-​existant word that also guides the food and prices. Portions were stingy, flavors were mediocre, and the food was unimpressive at best. It tasted as if an amateur Korean American cook with very narrow exposure and view to Korean cuisine decided to open a restaurant. Horrible representation of what Korean food can be.
Please don’t judge our food by this restaurant.

For a place named after «gift», I did not receive any. I can’t figure out if this place tries too hard and fails at any attempt at fusion or doesn’t understand how to do so. The menu is mostly classic Korean dishes, such as bibimbap, japchae, galbi, seafood pancake, etc. Although the haemool pajun looked good, it was soggy and lacked flavor even with the sauce and what seemed to be fresh ingredients with bad oysters. However, the chef offers some twists with sweet potato latte, calamari olive oil pasta and sweet corn cakes in honey. None of these variations had flavor or tempted me in looks. The latte was bland. I had a dead clam in my pasta using Asian noodles, drowned in oil oil with chewy, over-​cooked squid. I didn’t think anyone could s crew up dessert, but the sweet corn cakes were like mochi on a bed of honey and oats. Perhaps I should try their brunch, which seems to get good reviews some of the time. However, $ 50 for 2 dishes and a dessert seemed twice what they were worth. This place might try to confuse you with fine dining using a selection of three prefixe menus in a Western setting, but the food just isn’t special enough to fit in.
Service was slow, friendly and not so helpful. The waitress doesn’t seem to know the menu and what is good. The ambiance and décor is pretentious with chandeliers and fine dining chairs, but it doesn’t invite anyone in especially since they are hidden on Lombard even with neon lights. Parking can be tough on the street, but you might as well go across the street for Bobo’s great steaks to get valet parking.

I just had to get up and dance. I danced near our table off and on for a total of about half the meal. What with the ritzy chairs and chandeliers, I know my actions may have come off as a tad obnoxious if not delinquent, but there was such good music playing that I don’t see how patrons would be expected to stay still.
On top of the tunes, the server and owner with whom we conversed were pretty friendly. The owner talked to us about the genesis of the restaurant and where she envisions it heading. She started getting omma on me, telling me how to stir & eat my food. I’m just glad she didn’t grab the spoon and do it for me (I’ve had that — and more — happen).
Yes but how was the actual meal? Well, they had a small but dexterous beverage selection featuring one Korean beer with the rest being European imports. The soju were common items, except for Omija, which I don’t recall seeing at other restaurants. We likened its taste to a soju’ed-up strawberry Calpis.
Among our 3 banchan (side dishes) was taters. At other places, shredded potato is pretty much shredded potato; the stuff here was of the «scattered, covered, and chunked» caliber. That’s right, y’all, I said crisp this up and serve it at a Waffle House, or a chicken ‘n’ waffles place for you chicken ‘n’ waffles folk.
My friend got a crab pasta, which was cool because it included an actual half of a blue crab. I got albap (roe with vegetables over rice, usually in a hot stone bowl). Being a favorite of mine, I figured it would give me an immediate reference point for comparison with the albap I’ve had at restaurants and homes around the Bay.
In that sense, maybe I’d put it in the middle of the pack. I respect the owner’s focus on local & natural ingredient sourcing and whatnot, but there wasn’t even much roe. It had maybe a tablespoon, in contrast to the all-​out 4 rows of different kinds of roe given elsewhere. Would I get this dish here again? Maybe.
At the end of the dancing, talking, and eating came the bill. Now, before I say anything, how much do you think a bottle of soju, 4 beverages, 2 entrees, and a dessert would come to at a Korean restaurant?
Seriously. Guess.
Nope, you weren’t close. It was way more than that, which is probably the only glaring reason why I don’t foresee my rating increasing to 4 stars. Excluding the music and conversation, I could understand our experience costing that much for three or even four people. But there were two of us.
It’s not like this is one of those restaurants where the presence of a doorman and servers wearing three-​piece suits signals that you’ll be paying like a boss. Yet you might anyway. I get that some of the price probably comes from the handpicked ingredients and preparation methods, but goodness gracious.
Ceteris paribus, we’re still going back at some point to try the Honey Butter Bread… and to dance.
*Bottom line* Staff: ⁴⁄₅. Food: 3 — 3.5 /​5. Price: omg /​5.

Wow. My lady loves Korean food, so we decided to give this new neighborhood spot a try. we’ve been to quite a few Korean spots in the city and around California, and I honestly can say that this one is by far the worst. Summary: mediocre food at premium prices with crappy service. It’s not fusion, it’s confusion.
Service. Well, so we spent a bunch of time telling the server that we wanted a certain kind of soup. She brings us something COMPLETELY different. We don’t have time to wait so we take what she gave us. Of course, we end up paying for her mistake because the dish she brought us was twice the price than the dish that we wanted.
Prices are WAY too high. They are charging the same or higher prices as the authentic Korean spots, with tiny servings that don’t make up in neither presentation or taste, presentation or originality. You get the ‘appetizers’ which are also tiny.
Save yourself the money and go elsewhere.

I had such high hopes for this place especially since I have always felt this neighborhood had everything except for good Korean food. When I saw Korean Fusion on the banner, I thought of places like Namu and bulgogi tacos. When my group of 3 actually came, we were all hesitant just from looking at the menu outside. Although it says Korean Fusion, it did not seem like any fusion to me. It was Korean or it was Western food.
The prices are very high. The food was just ok, but for the price, we were expecting a lot more. I think the restaurant can do well if it just serves authentic Korean food, or finds another focus such as a noodle shop or late night place. The service was good, and we had complimentary wine and dessert, but it did not make up for the $ to taste of food ratio.

Stopped by for dinner yesterday since I live in the area. I was greeted right away and the owner came out and talked to me as well, everyone was quite nice. I wanted something to go, so the owner recommended dishes that would be suitable for takeout.
I ordered the Bibimbap plate and it was delicious. The meat was high quality and very tasty, and all the ingredients were very fresh and bright. Looking over the menu, it seemed like they had a lot of great dishes, but my only critique would be that they seem to be a tad on the pricey side. However, i’ll be back and if the service and food are consistent, it’ll be worth it. I always appreciate new, family-​run businesses that try hard to make it, and this is one of those restaurants.
They let me take the brunch menu, served Sat/​Sun from 10am-​2pm, so I thought I’d post it here since their site isn’t up and running yet:
Eggs on cocotte: Two eggs over shrimp, ham, cheese, & vegetables in cream sauce … 14.5
Two Eggs Breakfast with Korean-​Style Hash Browns … 9.5
Denver Omelet with Ham, Bell Peppers & Onions … 12.5
Vegetable Omelet with tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, bell peppers & green onions … 13.5
Fritatta with tobico, salmon, avocado and cheese … 12.75
Boneless Short Rib Steak with Rice & Organic vegetables … 16
Soy Milk French Toast with seasonal fruits … 11.5
Breakfast Parfait with Organic Yogurt and Seasonal Fruits … 10
Man-​Du House Made Dumpling Soup … 13
Sandwiches
Bulgogi Ribeye Steak with lettuce, cheese, green onions, and sprouts … 13.5
Focaccia House-​Made with Garlic and Rosemary … 13.5
Sides
Two eggs … 5
Bacon (3) … 3.5
Sausage (2) … 3.5
Korean Style Hash Browns … 3.5

As you may know, I just stumbled upon on this new restaurant in the Marina district right on Lombard street between Van Ness and Franklin street. They’re kind of open at the moment and looking forward to their Grand Opening on Saturday June 25^th and I will definitely bring some friends over for some nice Korean Fusion dinner! I got a chance to try out their menu dishes and so far the food is DELICIOUS!!!
The décor is very nice and the atmosphere definitely has a chill vibe to it. Might be a new place for me to hangout at especially for the weekend brunch! :)