There's no menu. It's an "all you can eat" kind of setup, but no buffet - they just start bringing…read moreyou stuff once you sit down and keep going until you stop - and you can ask for "refills" on any dishes that you like.
First up, the usual array of dishes of ban chan arrived first. A nice selection, our favorites were the just barely poached octopus with chili sauce (really mild though), and the chili tripe (also very mild). Disappointingly, not a spicy dish in the mix, and no kimchi. But then we saw a Korean family arrive and they got a much bigger array, including kimchi and other dishes. We flagged down our waiter and asked, and he sort of mumbled a bit (he's actually quite charming and speaks flawless English with a clipped British accent) about not thinking we'd want that stuff but then promised to get it for us. Despite asking again a bit later on, we never did get the spicy dishes.
More small dishes showed up, with decent dumplings, some really good grilled fish, tofu, and a few others. We continued to munch away happily.
I should also note, we were happy to find something besides the ubiquitous selection of Quilmes and Stella Artois beers, with Tsing-tao on the menu (why not a good Korean beer? I know they have them in Koreatown, or at least used to, so they should be available). A single small pancake for wrapping things up arrived - a little surprising that we didn't get one apiece, but so be it. And, rice finally arrived on the table.
At about the same time the first of the items for grilling showed up. A bit earlier our waiter had brought a small basket of hot coals which he placed under the grill element and then turned on the gas, which I guess keeps the coals hot, but seems a strange mix to me - maybe it's always that way at Korean bbqs, I never noticed. Here we got frozen slices of pork belly and frozen shrimp. It's fine, by the way, that they're frozen, it's actually kind of common - you drop them straight onto the grill and cook them to your tastes. The pork belly was good. The shrimp were freezer burned and pretty tasteless.
Really good, plump oysters drizzled with a slightly sweet chili sauce were brought to the table - I could have just sat there and eaten those. Delicious!
As we'd finished off the pork belly and shrimp, our next grilling selection arrived. Marinated shaved beef, differently marinated pork, and squid tentacles garnished the plate, and we tossed them all on to get them cooking. The octopus were the best, but all were good. A plate of lettuce leaves was on the side for wrapping, along with various dipping sauces. I think we'd have appreciated, at some point, a little info on what we were being served, but for the most part, service was wordless unless we asked questions.
And finishing off the meal with two different soups, a really excellent seafood broth, and a good, but less spectacular, meat broth filled with greens.
