Gaya - Genève

If you like Korean, this is a good restaurant for everyone. The portions were generous and fresh ingredients. However, it was very expensive and staff on the spectrum between indifferent and rude.

Visited the place with woman and two young children. We ordered separate plates for the meat, and they were generously filled (top with two plates for all four of us). The meat was very delicate and tasty. The gyoza were slightly thin, but perhaps this is only the Korean way (I am used to Japanese foods), they were still very good. The waitress was very friendly and attentive. The place was child-friendly, and it was easy to rest a child, but they might want to add a few more options of non-carbonated drinks for children. Quality at price ratio is very good, we spent less than 150 CHF despite several drinks and we were full after that. But our children are not heavy eaters. A meat plate for the BBQ is CHF 27-30, while other meals are in the CHF 20-35 range.

Beautiful atmosphere... 3. Visit even if the place is old... Large korean bbq in the middle of the table with a paper that is used not to have too much smoke. It loses a bit of the beautiful float of the actual bbq tool. All litthle salads were nice, service was nice, korean beef marinated was good,the spice octopus with noodles was delicious:D

My local friend picked this restaurant out and I was a bit worried having seen some bad reviews on Tripadvisor but frankly I was delighted with our meal. FOOD (CHF51 GBP40 per person) We opted for the cheaper of the two set menus priced at CHF48 and honestly it was all we really needed. We had a kimchee pancake and drumplings for starters. We then had a Korean BBQ pork and beef for main meal, and then ice cream and rice cakes for desert, all of which served with tea. Everything was good but without being amazing, the food tastes good but more for your average meal than your birthday anniversary meal kind of thing. The starters were also vegetarian I believe, thus it felt like they would put the cheaper pancake and dumplings in the set menu but fine it was still good. The meat came raw so you can cook it in front of you in the BBQ installed within the table. I quite like this concept as it allows for a longer meal, time to indulge your food and conversation properly. The BBQ part comes with a lot of side condiments including pickles, kimchee, cucumber, slaw, ... there must have been 5-8 different side plates. The condiments were ok, not everyone's love affair but the meat was very good and came in a very large portion in my opinion: my friend couldn't finished and I barely could. The Asian deserts were very interesting, I would recommend over the ice cream. Tip: if you like spicy, ask for their spicy sauce, its awesome! STAFF SERVICE Very friendly staff proficient in English, French and Korean. The food arrived promptly without wait and the layout of the restaurant makes it easy to grab the staff's attention when needed. ATMOSPHERE LOCATION It was a Monday night and frankly the restaurant was a bit dead but my friend told me that it gets very busy over weekends to the point where the smoke of all BBQs start fuming the place! Personally I liked the quiet and really enjoyed the square tables with benches around a BBQ installed within the table. It makes for an enjoyable dinner. CONCLUSION: I WOULD RECOMMEND AND RETURN mainly because its great value for Geneva whilst offering good and tasty portions.

We were actually heading out for a meal in Bains de Paquis (fondue) but it was raining so much we decided we wouldn't walk from rue de Lausanne so someone suggested we try Gaya. I'd not tried Korean cuisine before and was looking forward to it. The restaurant decor is nothing out of this world, and the table we sat it had benches on which to sit but they weren't as close to the table as we would have liked but that's really only a small niggle. For starters I had beef with vermicelli noodles and that was okay but the beef could have had more flavour. Others had dumplings in soup and a sort of salad. For the main, four of us went with the calamari and they all struggled with it as it was so spicy. I went for the spicy pork and whilst it was nice, it could have been more spicy as I like hot spicy food like the calamari. The meal was accompanied with a nice Hite Korean beer. Prices are a bit steep for what it is. Geneva is an expensive city but given that asian meals are so cheap to make, I think Gaya is over priced. Having said that, 6 francs for an imported Korean beer is reasonable. The food quality and portion size are spot on and the service was good. I would return here but next time I would try the barbeque option which I wasn't aware of until after I had ordered and saw a couple at an adjacent table eating it. I think this could have been promoted better. For a first taste of Korean cuisine I'd say it wasn't bad and intriguing enough to make me want to try more.