Maht Gaek

The atmosphere is great. So warming. The food is good, this is my first time here and I loved it. The portions did not disappoint and it was very tasty. Definitely recommend, be wary of wait times.

The beef short ribs are delicious! I had them as a suggestion from my wonderful waitress! The price and amount for the lunch menu was perfect. They give you refillable sides of pickled eggplant, kimchi, cucumbers, and bean sprouts. Also comes with white rice. I sat at a table in the corner and it was perfect for me. I'd return and order the hot stone soup when the weather is cooler. Drop an egg in while it's still boiling! Delish!I like that there is no TV to cause distractions. Nice to ease drop on the conversation around you. It's enlightening! People are strange creatures. They are closed on Tuesday! All other days of the week are fair game!I returned a second time and it was just as good! I'm already craving another night to try something new! This is my new favorite place. July 2024

** One of my favorite all around Korean spots in the area! Especially love their cold noodles and seafood pancake!Maht Gaek has been a regular spot for me and the wife since moving to the area, and we're fortunate to live so close by! It's always been pretty consistent with their food and service. Our typical order usually consists of the seafood pancake, short rib, and cold noodles. For the two of us its a lot of food and we usually have a decent amount leftovers to take home. Their seafood pancake is very thick and flavorful with lots of real seafood and toppings. Cold noodles are some of the best I've had with a nice bouncy texture on the noodles with a perfect sweet and spicy sauce. Maht Gaek is always a consistent place we will bring our friends that are visiting from out of town.

TL;DR - I love this place. Grilled pork ribs are amazing. Small dishes and barley tea are great. --I've been eating at Maht Gaek a long time, mostly from delivery but also a fair number of take-out and dine-in. Despite all that, I realized today that I've never written a review so here goes my attempt at a totally unbiased review of a place where I'm definitely a regular. This location of Maht Gaek is the original one in Dallas and is in the Ranch 99 plaza in Plano. It's a big restaurant inside and has plenty of seating. It's great for big 6+ parties. In fact, there aren't many small tables and it can get kind of awkward when your party of 3 take up a table meant for 6. Luckily a few tables can be broken up into smaller ones. This place is almost always packed around meal times. They close every day at mid-day for couple hours to rest. I generally come here right when they open either for lunch (11 am) or dinner (5 pm) to avoid the crowds. Korean music plays in the background and the restaurant can get pretty loud during busy hours. Complimentary hot barley tea (with refills) is available upon request. This is great for cold days and tastes way better than water. Today I ordered a seafood soft tofu soup, soy sauce grilled pork rib, and a hot stone bowl bibimbap. One of the reasons I love Maht Gaek are the small dishes. They're very generous for take-out and give endless refills when dining-in. I particularly love the pickled cucumbers and kimchi because they're refreshing and the sour/spicy is a great way to balance the big meat dishes. I don't much care for the bean sprouts, eggplant, fish cake, and side salad but my wife likes them so it works out. The seafood soft tofu soup (soondubu) comes with a raw egg. I only get tofu soup when dining-in because it's a pain to deal with it at home. The soup comes out boiling hot (literally boiling) so crack that egg and drop it in. Then stir it ASAP to make sure it gets cooked because it'll cool the soup down really fast (unless you want uncooked egg in your soup). The soup comes with lots of soft tofu (probably half of it is tofu), and one of each of the following - shrimp with head and shell, oyster, clam meat, baby octopus, squid, and a dash of diced zucchini. It also comes with a one-person serving of white rice. Overall, it's pretty good. It makes for a pretty complete meal for one person with the rice and the refillable small dishes. The hot stone bowl bibimbap was alright. The rice is burnt and crusted against the side of stone bowl and gives it an extra layer of flavor. There are lots of veggies but not much protein (which is beef). The bibimbap on its own isn't very flavorful. For stronger flavor, add more bibimbap sauce and mix in the small dishes. This bibimbap is probably good for sharing between 2-3 people. The grilled pork rib comes in two flavors - soy sauce and original (spicy). We got the soy sauce flavor. It's basically a hot plate piled high with grilled pork ribs. It also comes with a one-person serving of white rice but the dish overall is probably enough for 2 people. The pork was chewy, juicy, flavorful, not too salty, and just a little burnt. All in all, pretty good. I generally use kimchi or cucumbers to balance out the oiliness of the ribs. The meat isn't fall off the bone or anything, but sometimes you just want to grab a rib with your hands and rip it apart, ya know? Anyways, this and the LA Galbi are probably my favorite dishes here. The service can be hit or miss depending on when you come here. The food usually comes out pretty quick. However, the waitstaff can become forgetful when it gets busy so don't be afraid to give them a reminder. Today they forgot my barley tea so I had to ask a second time when my food came out. There are no napkins at the table so be sure to ask for it. You can pay at your table when you're done.

Gathered with friends for dinner at Maht Gaek Sunday night in Plano, Texas. The place was quite busy with many patrons. It was decorated nicely with a standard Asian type theme. Our server was pleasant and friendly. The food was pretty good. I enjoyed all the dishes. The seafood pancake was filled a variety of shrimp or prawns, fish, and green onions. The pancake is made with potato starch. It is a batter filled with goodness and then fried. The pancake was a tad thick so kind of not fully cooked on the inside. We had the beef short ribs. Those were very tasty, tender, and flavorful. Next entree we ate was Bim bam bop. It has Korean beef, fried egg, carrots, purple cabbage, and cucumbers with rice on the bottom. The dish is cooked in a hot stone bowl so the rice willhave a hard and crunchy bottom layer which provides a unique texture. All of our dishes were different and tasted delicious. The parking was easy access since the restaurant is located in a strip mall. The prices are reasonable and our experience was great! If ever in the Dallas or Plano area, I will return to this lovely restaurant.

One of my favorite places to get Korean food!! Love love their ribs!!! Their army stew and soups are all good. Honestly there's nothing there that I haven't liked. The service is fine.

Disclaimer: I've only gotten food from here through DoorDash, that being said it was really good and always satisfies my random kimchi cravings bc they have THE BEST Kim chi ever. It's perfectly salty and sour and umami and not that spicy.Here's the rundown on what I've had so far:Kimchi soup with pork: 4/5 sooooo addicting. The only thing is there's not actually that much pork and the few pieces that are in there were kinda dry. But the soup itself was EXACTLY what I was looking for and it hit the spot!Pork ribs: 3.5/5 I know this is what they're known for and they're definitely good, but a little sweet for my likingBeef short ribs: 4/5 Better than the pork ribs in my opinion but again, a little too sweet for me. Still good though. Pork neck bone soup: 4/5 a hearty meaty soup with a delicious broth, similar to the kimchi stew but without kimchi and with a meatier flavor, if that makes sense? Also really addicting. I couldn't get enough.

Had a craving for Korean food on a recent trip to Dallas so I checked Yelp and found Maht Gaek in Plano. It's located in the Ranch 99 supermarket shopping center. We arrived just before the noon lunch rich and got seated right away. They were busy throughout lunch and a constant line of customers waiting for a table. The service is fast and efficient and the food comes out fast. Only downfall is the tables are small and the four top we sat at could not hold all the dishes we ordered. BBQ pork ribs 5 stars their signature dish. Meaty grilled pork stacked on a hot plate. Oxbone soup 4.5 stars great bone broth could have had more toppings and noodles. Sautéed calamari 5 stars large portion spicy sweet. Grilled mackerel 3 stars good portions a bit dryBanchans we're good especially the eggplantService was good. Plenty of parking.

I visited this restaurant at the recommendation of many many close friends and, unfortunately, my experience left much to be desired. The kimchi lacked flavor, tasting surprisingly bland. The temperature inside was uncomfortably hot, making it difficult to enjoy the meal which was almost mostly hot food. I will give them the fact that their food presentation is pretty excellent. The taste of the food itself was really nothing too special either. Shout out to the servers as well as they were very attentive given how crowded the restaurant was at the time.

Brought some new diners and they were all smiles!!! Really enjoying great food and excellent service!!! Had to introduce them to the house special of course! That's the go to for anyone I bring to Maht Gaek for the first time! Never a let down! Ever!