"How was it?" What you listed are the right words to use (except one). They all come from 어떠하다 (how it is - used in a question), which usually shortens to 어떻다, and further changes form depending on the tense and other contexts. - 어떠셨습니까?: (=어떠하셨습니까) Formal-polite. -셔- is the honorific suffix to the stem. - 어떠셨어요?: (=어떠하셨어요) Informal-polite. 습니까 is formal(stiff), 어요 informal(familiar). - 어땠어요?: (=어떠했어) Informal-polite. No -셔-, so less polite than 어떠셨어요. - 어땠어?: (=어떠했어) Informal-plain. The most casual, between friends or to someone younger. * The parenthesized version is almost never used. * 어떻었어요 doesn't exit. It should be 어땠어요. * If you go to dongsa.net and type in 어떻다 in the box, it will show you all the other related forms.

I think it is not bad to say "어떠셨어요." or "어땠어". I mean it is grammatically and contextually Okay. But we seldom separates our experiences from our emotion or feeling. So when you talk with Korean, you can feel how it was. :)