The Sister House - Hayward

This place is a hidden gem. Maybe not so hidden anymore because it's always packed these days. Great Korean BBQ dishes with authentic taste. Excellent assortment of banchan too. All wrapped in decent, affordable prices. Whenever I have a craving for Korean food, this is where I go.Parking: Ample, free parking in the lot. It's never full.

My friend and I came on a Saturday at 5pm because we were craving some Korean food. I 've ordered takeout from them before but have never eaten at the restaurant. When we got here, the location has a large parking lot so it was easy to get a parking spot. The space was small with very limited seating. We got lucky coming in before the dinner rush! I ordered a spicy beef soup with noodles and my friend ordered the dolsot bibimbap. After ordering, they brought out the banchan for us. I didn 't like that they brought out the rice for us before our food came, but maybe some people like to eat the banchan with rice? I prefer to eat it with the food I ordered. I wish they at least had a lid to cover the rice so it didn 't get cold if they were going to bring it out right away. What 's nice was that food came out quick! I was pretty surprised with how quickly the food came out. It probably came out within 10-15 minutes of us ordering. Food was good and average compared to other Korean restaurants I 've been to (which is a good thing! . All the tables were filled midway through our dinner! And there was usually one party waiting outside for a seat. But with their food coming out so quickly, there never seemed to be more than one or two parties waiting outside when I went there. My husband was craving Korean the next day so we can here again. We ordered the spicy tofu soup with beef, galbi, and spicy rice cakes. I wasn 't too big of a fan of the spicy rice cakes and I wish there was more to it than just the rice cakes and fish cakes. The spicy sauce was a bit off to me but I can 't point my fingers as to why. Otherwise, the tofu soup and the galbi were good!Service is hit or miss. Since there 's only two people working the front, it can take awhile to get their attention. They seemed to be stressed when there 's a lot of people so may come off as a little rude sometimes. I flagged her down when we were ready to order, which was relatively quickly after we sat down since we usually order the same things at a Korean restaurant. But when she came over, she told me she 's going to take the orders of the table next to me first because they sat down first, which I didn 't like. They didn 't ask for a server to come and seemed to still be looking at the menu but I was actually ready to order! The party next to me sat down 3 mins before we did. The waitress also forgot our water when we asked for it after ordering so we had to flag someone down again. They never came around to check if we needed a refill on water for both days I went so I had to get their attention each time we needed water again. Another instance, I raised my hand to ask for the bill and when she saw my hand, she said ok ok ok ok ok in an annoyed tone and motioned for me to put my hand down. Jeez, just wanted to make sure you saw me so I can pay! So, due to service at times, I had to knock down a star. I understand that it can be stressful when it 's rush hour time but restaurants should always be mindful of their attitude and customer service.Lastly, important to note: they charge for to go containers! I was surprised to see it on my bill!

I've been here a few times for dining in and to go. The wait is long around dinner hours, try to avoid that if you can. The restaurant itself is small with around 10 ish seating tables. If you call in, on a busy night it'll take around 25-40mins for to go. Their kimchi banchan in my opinion is not good. A few times I've had it, tasted super sour...really really old kimchi. It tasted better in the soondubu. Seafood pancakes are a hit here. Almost every single table ordered seafood pancake when we dined in. Really big portion. All of their soondubu are great! Spicy even when we get mild lol...all the same spiciness level. Spicy pork is really good and I don't usually eat pork. The bulgogi was a bit disappointed. It did not look appetizing at all and tasted funny. Overall definitely give this place a try.

Good service, good atmosphere, easy parking, decent food. Price could be better, but big portions. Seafood pancake was good.Food: 4/5

We live in Castro Valley, and the Sister House has been our go to place whenever we crave for Korean food, which is pretty much almost weekly. We used to have a go to Korean restaurant much closer to us which closed around 2018, so we have been going to Sister House almost regularly since.The food are good. You will not go wrong with whatever you order from here but our favorites are the seafood pancake, spicy pork, galbi, tofu soup, ramyun, and the spicy chicken from time to time. You can tell that it is good Korean food by seeing it crowded with people of Korean descent including some regulars.The service is excellent but it is a small restaurant amd quite popular, so it does get crowded mostly at dinner time. That is when the service gets iffy which is understandable. What we do is we come early before dinner.Do try Sister House when you crave a good Korean food and if you are around the area.