From the outside, this place looks nice! The streamers and signs were up to celebrate their grand opening. For a Friday night, the wait was 20-30 minutes for 2 people which I found to be pretty good.
We went with just the KBBQ option. 7/16-7/22, there's a deal for 20% off all day dinner. At first glance, the grills seemed new. The tables themselves don't look very clean. They also have a buffet section which was not clean.
On their website, they advertise corn cheese but we didn't find any there. In fact, the only "appetizer" I saw on the iPad was rice. No steamed eggs or salad as well which is frequent at similar restaurants. Don't get me wrong, they have vegetables but they don't provide kimchi, pickled radish, cucumbers, or anything of the like that I'm accustomed to with a traditional kbbq spot.
The buffet section's layout was weird. In the back from left to right, you have one section for sides (wings, dumplings, snow crab legs, corn on the cob, etc..), one section for drinks/ fruit (lychee drink, passion fruit drink, watermelon, etc...), one section for desserts (cubed cakes: chocolate, coconut lemon, etc..), and one section for all the sauces. Every section was missing food, was dirty with sauces or crumbs spilling out, or were missing plates/cups so I couldn't even serve myself. Oh and in the middle of these sections is a freezer with thinly sliced lamb, beef, etc.. for you to self serve which seemed odd to me when there's an option for other meats through the iPad. The freezer also had popsicles and strawberry and vanilla ice cream cups. I was surprised to not see chocolate. Rocket bomb pops were there which was nostalgic!
The sides had crispy wings and dumplings. The corn was small but was very juicy and tasty! I have to say, though, all the "warm" buffet foods were rather cold.
The fruit/ drink section was random in my opinion. The drinks seemed watered down or just on the lighter side with sugar.
Desserts were small and okay. They weren't dry. They were just kinda there.
Looks like this place is either missing plates/cups or they're figuring out their sauce system. When I first got sauce, it was a plate with 3 sections so I got multiple. When I went back for a 2nd time, there were just bowls. The sauce section is so messy and a nightmare tbh.
The meats that were the most flavorful in my opinion: spicy bulgogi, spicy pork belly, galbi, wagyu. I kept reordering the spicy bulgogi. Their portions are quite small. The wagyu is extra $$$. A staff member dropped it off at our table. I told the waitress that I didn't know what it was because we didn't order it! Our waitress explained what it was and told us to enjoy it, no extra charge.
The meats that were mid: pork belly & garlic brisket. The garlic brisket was so mid. Too chewy. The pork belly lacked flavor.
The meats that we would not order again:
Beef tongue, rib eye. Both had a gamey, metallic flavor. Neither of these cuts are supposed to taste like that which is incredibly strange.
The iPad: unsure if there was a stand option. But I don't think there was. There is a strap for your hand but I thought it was annoying to keep going from one thing to another.
The staff was attentive!!! They were on it with timing. Our server got us extra napkins and refilled our drinks when necessary.
Finally, the fire alarm went off near the end of our dinner. Staff reassured us that there wasn't actually a fire. I guess it got set off by accident. The firetruck did show up.
Overall, I would be hesitant to come back to try their hotpot just because things were not as clean or uniform. Their KBBQ experience was not unique. In fact, I think they have missed some of the basics. read more