Review Il Mee - Auckland Central

Benedict Uy

Came for lunch and decided to come here instead of the other Korean restaurants because it's been there since 1992 (according to the sign). It wasn't busy so I was able to get a table and was able to order when I was ready. Good yangnyeom fried chicken nibbles. It was sweet but not very spicy but did have good crispness. I was quite disappointed with the seafood pancake. It tasted mostly of the frozen shrimps and the batter was a bit dry. It didn't have the crispness and chewiness I've had before. The bibinengmyon was really nice. It is a spicy but cold noodle dish with pulled beef and egg. The noodles had a really nice chewiness and mouthfeel. The soup itself wasn't very beefy but went really well with the noodles with the hot mustard served alongside it. I was actually quite surprised how much I enjoyed it. It is a nice option for a Korean meal in the city as the prices are quite good with most items under $20.

Vivian L

Went to this place as Dae Ga was not opened, however the pork bone soup was surprisingly nice! Great service, kind and polite waitress, we enjoyed our meal today.

Janet Butler

Absolutely yummy food was awesome night out with my Korean lady friend on down town city. Reasonable very affordable to have dinner. Dinner served sizzling on hot bowl. Hot and spicy food. Yummy check it out if you love Korean food

Enchante

If you want fried chicken, this is the place to be. Golden and crunchy yet moist on the inside. The dolsat bimbimbap was also very good. The side dishes could be improved as variety was average and Kim chi was bitter. However, I'll definitely be back.

o o (o)

tasty korean menu with decent portion size meals

Siva

Came in at almost closing time, they still cooked us an amazing meal

Daniel

Delicious Korean BBQ food!

Syed Arafat Husain

Absolutely brilliant!

Ryo

진짜 맛있었어요!!

Rob Reiner Quinto

The Poor Foodie

Food: 4.5/5 Service: 4/5 Overall: 4/5 Popped into this restaurant at a random time 3pm ish and since I wanted some food with soup but not spicy, I chose 콩나물 해장국. Although it’s called hangover soup, it doesn’t mean that you only eat it after hangover. Soup is not spicy and packed with bean sprouts, squid and beef. The set came with a raw egg for you to crack it and put it in the soup while the soup was still piping hot. Seriously the soup was really hearty and not spicy so kids can also eat this. Surprisingly there were lots of squid in the soup. Just think that the serving of the side dishes was a bit small but the soup itself was a big serving.

Dora The Food Explorer

Food was nice and good service. The ambience made me feel like I was eating in a restaurant in Korea. Had the Spicy Fried Chicken, it was saucy but not spicy enough. Also had the Jap Che which was tasty but very peppery and bit too oily for my liking. Overall a nice experience and I would say great place for late night supper. Will satisfy your cravings..

Sheena (Code SHEE7152H For Zomato Gold)

First time to try IL Mee and I ordered the Bibimbap. The taste is okay but nothing spectacular considering the price. My friends doesn’t like it that much as it was too spicy even though they asked it to be the normal Korean spicy — it could be the normal one but they weren’t happy. The staff on the other hand was very, very nice and welcoming hence the 4 star rating.

Wendy

Great service - the lady asked us if we wanted to move from the less private middle tables to the more private and generally better decorated side tables when she saw they were cleaned. Nice and shiny menus - really changes the feel of a place! Also a well-lit menu display outside, with a warm and welcoming, traditionally-decorated interior. Great food - my Chicken Bokkeum was hot, sizzling, and full of flavour and spice. Side dishes average. Would have loved more rice to go with the bountiful dish! OVERALL: Would definitely recommend this place and would come again.

Benedict Uy

Came for lunch and decided to come here instead of the other Korean restaurants because it's been there since 1992 (according to the sign). It wasn't busy so I was able to get a table and was able to order when I was ready. Good yangnyeom fried chicken nibbles. It was sweet but not very spicy but did have good crispness. I was quite disappointed with the seafood pancake. It tasted mostly of the frozen shrimps and the batter was a bit dry. It didn't have the crispness and chewiness I've had before. The bibimnengmyon was really nice. It is a spicy but cold noodle dish with pulled beef and egg. The noodles had a really nice chewiness and mouthfeel. The soup itself wasn't very beefy but went really well with the noodles with the hot mustard served alongside it. I was actually quite surprised how much I enjoyed it. It is a nice option for a Korean meal in the city as the prices are quite good with most items under $20.

Lizzy Yakimova

Tried all on upper queen street, but this one is the best! Maybe not authethic but cmn the food is good!!! What else do we need? Staff is very friendly and attentive! Alwaus go there if craving for korean

Its Me

Just very average Korean restaurant.. I only go if I'm already in the upper queen are and pretty drunk and want to go for the next round.. I wouldn't volunteer to go eat here .. I'm just sayin ..

Michael Wells

We are still a bit shocked how how unfriendly the hostess was. I'll remember this night with a good laugh at the experience. Literally she made every effort to make our visit as uncomfortable as possible. We actually had to leave and find dinner elsewhere. Very disappointing but now we know why IL Mee was empty when we arrived- when all of the adjacent restaurants were very busy.

Gummobear

I love this restaurant. It's small but gosh always packed with people. I've eaten here three times before and still love to come back for another visit. I usually order the rice cake dish teobokki. It's so yum and the little side dishes that come with it are just delicious. The staff is friendly and atmosphere warm. I should try the other meals on the menu but at this moment in time I'm very much addicted to rice cakes:)

Tony Ma

Very very tasty and yummy. I love the korean pork bone soup. Great for any occasion. The meat falls off and is great as a nibble. Cold noodles are my wife’s favorite, add some mustard and chop it up. Chewy and yummy as a cold summer snack. The bbq dishes are good too. Nothing disappoints. Pretty staff too! Bonus! Service: 4/5 Food Quality: 4/5 Food Quantity: 4/5 Presentation: 4/5 Environment: 4/5 Price per person: $20-$25

Tanmay Jauhri

I visited on a Sunday evening with my family. Ambience is good and it seems to be a family run restaurant. They serve good quality Korean food. I personally liked the Chicken-katsu. Will be back soon to try out the other items on the menu.

Tim Shnaider

New owners? Normally solid reliable flavoursome food, todays BBQ Beef was dry and flavourless. I was looking forward to candied kumara and instead got a dry chunk of plain potato. Hope this is just a blip as previously (10+ times) food is good.

XX_Mystery_Reviewer_Xx

Pros: - Large serving sizes - Tasty food - Friendly owners - Clean environment - Quick service and food is sizzling when it arrives - Under $15 for a meal and worth it Cons: - Next to a bunch of identical restaurants Sidenotes: - can be put off sometimes since it seems empty but food is still lit - toilet kinda wack

Aldous Wong

Shit Korean Restaurant! Service bad the food is extremely too hot! The staffs there not very friendly - the way that they talked and the way that she serve me food the staff gave me an shitty look.

German Yakushkin

Best Korean food in town: hands down!

Ray Jay

My regular for Korean restaurants , cosy place with lovely food everything has great taste and the portion sizes are good for the price you pay, staff are friendly you usually can get a table here without booking

Arvin Raymond Dsouza

If you crave some good korean food, this is the place to be. The serving is good and makes your tummy full and happy. The food on the menu is rightly price. I've tried their kimchi jiggae, spicy pork recently and it was delicious. The staff at the restaurant are friendly and greet you with a smile.

Paula Alviola

I love the pork backbone soup! A must try if you guys want to go here. Staff are really nice as well, they accommodate customers immediately and serving of the food is quite fast.

“Dailee” 25% Off Zomato Gold

Another great Korean eateries in the CBD. Reasonable price $15ish, nice side dishes and huge portion. We are really addicted to their little egg roll side dish. Food comes out fast and always busy in peak time. Inside decor quite old, been the same for the last 10 years. Worth going, good uphill walk before eating if you come from lower Queen St, as the eatery is on Upper Queen near K'road.

Ezzz

Was soooo yummy!!! The rice cake was cooked nicely and had noodles, but so spicy ugh!!! The pot was more than enough for 3 people, so full of meats, sausages and veges. It had noodles on which was nice too, could've have not gotten rice tbh. But We got rice, I find it so nice to mix soup with rice hhahah! But the food is soooo spicy man. Hahah will return to try other dishes next time!

Fountain Abbey

Easily the best of the Korean restaurants up this end of town. Delicious spicy BBQ well cooked pork and squid.. The kim chi stew and rice is lovely comforting and we'll balanced. Love it.

Michelle Hwang

My best favorite restaurant on upper Queen street. Average price is $ 13.00 for a regular main soup dish with rice and side dishes. Tasty and satisfied serving size.

Bobby Anderson

Have been told to come here for good Korean food. We ordered dumplings and spicy pork on sizzling plate. The side dishes were less tasty than other Korean restaurants. Mains were good and came out fast

Jihye Kang

Used to love this place, however the quality of all food dropped ever since (Both the main dishes and side dishes) I wonder if its the same place. Will not return.

Aneesh Tomy

Visited Il Mee a week or so back.This was my second visit to the place and as usual..enjoyed the food, the ambiance (you families sitting around..chatting and doing all things a normal family will do at a table) and the staff are also nice and friendly. Bought the fried dumplings. Excellent but would say just wait for few minutes before you munch on it.. I burned my mouth :D.. actually impatience burned my mouth I should say. My girlfriend had Fried Kim-chi and I had Kim-chi soup... both were yummy. The best part of a Korea meal is the little bowls of awesomeness that you get with the meal...slurp slurp. Rating 1. Value for money - 4/5 2. Speed of service - 4.5/5 (better make a phone order in advance) 3.Parking - Its in the city and parking is a pain. 4.Staff - Nice and friendly

Lily

It doesn't look much from outside and it doesn't have all that shine and glamour. But I loved the food. It's so traditionally Korean. The chopsticks and glasses are steel. Beautiful. I ordered the first option in the menu. Beef stir-fry. It was tasty and nice. I loved it. I also tested some chicken stir-fry from my friends dish. Tasted quite nice. They also offer complimentary side dishes that keep coming once you finished them. I'll go there again.

Ryan

Been here a few times, usually get the bulgogi prom or spicy chicken. Fairly standard Koreans and sides, nothing stood out or let down. Most of the Korean places on the Queen St strip are pretty similar. Wouldn't go out of my way to visit but would order again as we live nearby. Not as nice an ambience inside as some of the others, but it was fine.

Di

I went here for lunch today and ordered a kimchi stew with white rice. I really like to have hot and spicy food in a freezing day. Very nice!!!

Shelly

Been here a couple if times, the owner is always very sweet and welcoming. Meals are delicious and hearty and the portions are quite generous!

Super(･_･;Phoebe

I've been here twice for now. Last time I was with my friend，she ordered pork bone soup and I had shredded soup. This time I popped up in this small restaurant again，we had spicy pork stir fried with vege and @pork bone soup. The soup contains 4pieces of bones which is absolutely more generous than a lot of Korean restaurants have to offer. Their kimchi is quite different. Very crunchy and fresh，unlike soft marinated ones，which is an interesting twist for me. Price also very reasonable. I'll definitely be back and order the big pot for two.

Monteil Jones

The best Korean Restaurant I've been to so far!!! Been going here for years now and never seems to dissapoint. The service is good, they are always so nice.

Sarah Jack

My favourite Korean restaurant in the city. Was taken to this place by a friend last year and it has topped all the other places I have been to. Though the service isn't the greatest, they greet you at the door and food arrives quickly. The best part about this place is the side dishes. The pancakes are to die for! They top all the side dishes up if you ask too. I also love the bean sprouts. I come back frequently for their delicious soups and their meat dishes are great as well. Definitely recommend the this place. At first glance it doesn't seem like anything special but you soon realise why a lot of people like it when you go there.

Zoe Huang

【Il Mee】on queen st. I recommend it to you guys because the food they provided was abundant. We ordered stir fried beef and stir fried pork ($13 each). They were both good but the stir fried pork tastes better.

Hungry Hippo

I've been to this restaurant twice with my cousin. The first time was amazing. The second time was shocking. My cousin had ordered the rice cake in beef broth, while I could only manage to finish half of the beef bulgogi. It tasted great; sweet, meaty and savory and loved the side dishes. However, I would have given this a better review if I hadn't found, not one, not two but THREE HAIRS! Two short hairs and one short to medium length! The hair couldn't have been mine or my cousin's because we had our hair tied up, and the hair was BURIED in the bulgogi! Imagine how many more hairs we would've found if we had all of the beef bulgogi, not half! My cousin and I had told the waitress, she had only apologised and they didn't do anything to make the situation better. We're not coming back to this restaurant again.

Clark Valenzuela

Becoming my favourite Korean Restaurante I've been there many times with my gf (she's Korean) and we've been always having the best, authentic and delicious food . Visiting this restaurant at least twice a week love it Thanks for the great service to Owners always treat us so well and make us feeling really comfortable See you soon :)

Kiwi Foodie

At first glance, nothing really differentiates Il Mee from the bazillion other Korean restaurants on upper Queen Street - we must have walked past about five of them at least, before reaching it. Despite that fact, it was doing pretty good business even at 9pm at night, which was when we first visited. We had a Korean friend with us that time, who was visiting us from Christchurch and had requested for Korean food. My experience with Korean food in Auckland to that day hadn't exactly been spectacular, so I put my trust in the many positive reviews for Il Mee, and brought her there. We had their chicken broth with ginseng, which was fairly pricey at $22, but incredibly good - probably the best chicken broth I've had around these parts. As well as fried flounder ($15), which was nice and crispy, and kimchi tofu ($12). The Korean friend vouched for the authenticity of the food, and the bf and I came again by ourselves a few weeks later, ordering the exact same dishes minus the tofu. I suspect this will be a routine of sorts for the foreseeable future. Special mention goes to their side dishes - while the kimchi and veggies served are pretty standard, the pancakes are AMAZING. Slightly sweet, thick, and moreish, I couldn't get enough of them. Seriously, they were as good as the mains in my view. One of the girls at the table next to us seems to have shared this view, for I heard her declare, "I want to marry this pancake." :) The decor is pretty standard, as is the service. That isn't what we come here for, though.

Mira

service 4/5environment 3/5food 4/5cost performance 4/5drink 4/5IL MEE is my favorite korean restaurant. Recommend; BBQ beef, Ojingeo buk, soondubu beak ban)

Genevieve Chunn

We love this place! We've been going here for 4 years now, and it's always good. The Spicy Beef soup is excellent, and it's all a good price too. Don't mistake it for the other local Korean restaurants- Il Mee is the best.

NYNB

new favourite Korean restaurant! The side dishes are varied (more than what other k-restaurants give out), service is ok - nothing to complain or boast about but the food is amazing and comes out really quick! Spicy BBQ pork was spiced up to my liking (not so much the BBQ chicken) but very much enjoyed eating here and will come again soon. Gets busy about 6:30-7:30ish from my experience but you get served quickly and your food arrives shortly after!

Jade Hong

Food is always great taste, and big portions. Value for money is great. The restaurant is almost always full of people at dinner time.

Eva Meiliana

Very good food - the BBQ pork was excellent & spicy beef soup also so tasty. The service was absolutely great as the owner very charming & friendly - and the food was served very fast though many customer inside the restaurant. Definitely to come back !!!

Jesse James .

I went here for lunch last week, it was my first time at a Korean restaurant. Some of the stuff on the menu is expensive, so I got fried rice. They give you unlimited condiments like bean sprouts, pancakes, kimchi and miso soup. It is really good value when you take all the extras into consideration. I found it quite hard to communicate as the waitress spoke extremely limited English. I did not really like the fried rice, but to be honest I blame my own palate for that as I am not used to Korean style food.

Haden Hansen

This place is fantastic! The food is fast, delicious and not dumbed down at all for Caucasian customers. Spicy BBQ pork is actually spicy. Also the fresh Kimchi is one of the most amazing things I have ever eaten in my life.

Allan Fong

One of the best korean food restaurants in Auckland, price is cheap, portions are big and taste is great. Side dishes that come with the main dish are plentiful. Service is fast, food comes out almost straight away. Highly recommended

Rob

This place deserves two thumbs up! the best Korean Restaurant in Auckland.

Asian Fan

Our first choice to go for Korean around home... Very tasty, very kind owner. Side dishes - fresh kimchi is always my fav^^