Shik Do Rak

There actual closing time is 11:00 pm not midnight. Arrived here at 11:10, Drove out of my way to come here and eat. The open sign was still on, very disappointed. Won’t be back because there’s more reliable options.

Good thing first. Quality of beef is very good and other meats too.
But.
1. Venue is outdated, compared to other BBQ around Irvine.
2. Service is fair except you have to ask for various kind of sauces ie chili paste and soy.
3. Price is also high compared to other newer establishments.
4. Parking is bad here, very congested.
5. Bathroom could be cleaner.
Lunch special with the limited choice of meat is the best deal.
PS: Cash price is lower than credit card price turns me off… your choice.

Excellent customer service and the wait was surprisingly not too long on a Friday night. The choices on the menu offered quite a different variety of choices so do definitely try everything if you have the time. The $ 17.99 and $ 19.99 menu didn’t have too many different items so if we could do it again, our group would’ve definitely opted for the $ 17.99. The small cut items are a great option if you don’t want to wait too long for the meat to cook, some other places don’t have this option and when the flavor is lacking just dip it in the sauces given for that extra kick. The unlimited sides were also definitely a plus since they weren’t stingy on this at all unlike some other places. Overall the quality of meat is ⁴⁄₅ and experience was ⁵⁄₅.

I love this place! Great food! Worth the wait! Well worth my 45 minute drive. Yes when you come expect to wait. I love the sides. Wish they would bring back the potato salad. I have been to other places and I still keep coming back to this one.

I called Shik Do Rak after being told that the wait at Gen for my party was 1.5−2 hours! The host on the other line asked how many we were, «7» I replied, and she said she could seat us if we arrived in the next 12 minutes.
We promptly drove over, and true to his word, Shik Do Rak seated my party. I was thoroughly impressed since there seemed to be a wait to be seated and it was a busy Saturday night after all.
I’ve frequented Shik Do Rak the past two years, as it is has always been a go-​to spot for my team in Orange County. This time I took my out of town family and friends for their first taste of AYCE Korean BBQ. No one was disappointed! The bulgogi was thoroughly addictive, and the service was quick and attentive.
Finally, I advised everyone to take advantage of the complimentary free fro-​yo. Blueberry tastes delicious and is a good way to end the meal of stuffing your face. Thanks Shik Do Rak, never a disappointment!

Overpriced for the quality of the meat. This place is pretty small as well and the staff are not that attentive.
I only come here when I am really craving kbbq and don’t want to go to Gen Kbbq or All That Barbeque.

One of the more cheaper Korean BBQ options in Irvine. Quality of food matches other BBQ places and I personally love the wide variety of banchan (side dishes). Their seaweed and fish cake sides were particularly good. Meat was fresh and I really liked their brisket.
I knocked off a star for their service… It took FOREVER. After waiting 30 minutes to get seated, I was starving. However, the table that got seated 5 minutes later got served before we did. It took a good 15 minutes AFTER we placed our order for the meat to come out. By then, we finished off TWO rounds of banchan (yes, we were that hungry!). Requests were ignored more than they were satisfied. No spoon for the kimchi stew, no water after asking MULTIPLE times… it adds up.
Overall, the food was good enough that I will return but finding yourself waiting on long periods of time ruins the experience. Hopefully our next visit will be better, service-​wise.
***Before you leave, don’t forget to get your free yogurt!

The host here is awful at seating and has OCD. He literally stands there and obsessively counts the number of tables open without making any changes and seating new parties.
We called ahead and asked how long the wait was for TWO people. They said there was no wait. Show up 10 minutes later and there’s a couple of names in front of us under the section for «small parties» — fine.
People continue to leave and tables clear. No one gets seated. The common theme is that they open up a lot of tables next to each other to seat larger parties first, so they can claim the 18% gratuity charges and screw you over.
In total, we waited 1.5 hrs for a party of two to be seated at a table. There was a couple ahead of us who were here even before us and I’m sure waited even longer than we did.
After we got seated, service was terrible. I asked for soup 3x before I finally got it. Food was subpar for kbbq, I’ve definitely had better for about the same price. And when we were paying, we were asked how much tip we were going to leave — rude. I don’t plan on coming back here.
TL; DR: if you are a in small party, do not stay and wait if they tell you to wait even if it’s short. Leave.

I’ve been here quite a few times. okay maybe more than a few times, and this is personally my favorite place to go for good quality Korean BBQ.
I ONLY go after 9:15PM, when it’s 14.99 a person, but the quality and consistency is great. Brisket, bulgogi, pork tongue, chicken, etc. It’s all so good! And if you’re complaining about lack of taste, just dip it in sauce or drown it in brisket sauce. I think it’s perfect!
The banchans are incredibly tasty, and they always have tons of them to refill for you if you want more. I absolutely am IN LOVE with the fish cakes! It’s so delicious and I’ve refilled it more than 10 times each visit. The daikon, radish, kimchi, bean sprouts, and others were tasty as well. I’m so glad they always refill the rice paper, too. If you don’t like rice, you can eat KBBQ with rice paper and I assure you it’s SO GOOD.
I always get a bowl of rice, though. Or two. Or possibly three. Also, they’re so generous with their portions and will refill your iced water as often as necessary.
They split checks too if you have a big party! Tip them well, because the customer service is so friendly, attentive, and overall perfect. There’s some small flaws that prevent 5 stars, because some days are better than others, but hey it’s still great.
Free ice cream (very small cup but hey, you should be full from KBBQ) at the end!

Alright so the wait at Gen was 2 hours long. Don’t cry, come to Shik. During my time in Irvine, I along with my gluttonous roommates ate here once a week. There were weeks where we would come here three times. One particularly ugly roommate came here three times one day once. So it must be good right? You’re 100% correct.
I could make a meal out of the little fish cakes they have alone, although don’t because they’re cuts of meat are going to send you into a blissful meatcoma. (I haven’t found the fish cakes at any other kbbq place for the record) The bolgogi here is the best bolgogi in town, yes even better than Gen in my humble opinion. The fried rice and the sides overall are excellent and again better than Gen’s. As far as choice of meats you’ll have a smaller selection, but the cuts are quality.
The service out of the 50 or so times we went was excellent. One of the waiters looks like he’s training to look like Goku, that guy is the best. We only had one bad server ever and it was because she was overwhelmed, so again it was understandable.
The yogurt at the end really wins me over. No matter what, even if I feel like im pregnant with twin 6lb brisket babies, I still have room for the yogurt.
Last but not least, drinking here is reasonable price wise.

Tbh I come here for the frozen yogurt at the end. Peter is always a great help and my favorite is the brisket! This is my go to KBBQ place but if you go on a weekend night, prepare for a long wait.

Shik Do Rak is on the short list for Irvine’s best Korean Barbecue.
The Korean District in Garden Grove threw Irvine a huge culinary bone by opening a second Shik Do Rak in central Irvine in 2012 and if the lines are any indication, the venture has been both successful and lucrative. The environs and service are both a no frills affair which suits me fine as I do not expect a Michelin rated experience for Kbeebz. In fact as long as the meat quality is good and the Banchan is great, who cares?!
Shik Do Rak offers your usual «all you can eat» KBBQ menu starting at $ 17.99 and goes upward to $ 26.99 from there and, of course, they come with all of the Banchan you can eat for free, usually with 4 – 6 varieties to nosh on. I tend to stick to the base package offering as is offers the staples such as Certified Angus Beef Brisket, Bulgogi, Boneless Short Ribs, Marinated Pork Belly and Marinated Chicken and see few reasons to shell out more for any more options. The quality of all of the meat is quite good and so long as you order at least 3 meat dishes the value proposition is solid. The only glaring omission on the menu (thanks to Gen) is Beef Belly.
Oh — All meals demand Hite Beer and Jinro Soju.
The chief complaint I hear about Shik Do Rak is the long lines and there is little the restaurant can do to combat them, they are the simply most popular KBBQ in Irvine. Of course you will come out smelling like a fireman as you would at any Kbeebz joint and if you are the one cooking the meat you will most definitely go home with the dreaded «Galbi Fist» but these become small hinderances once you have that first bite of cooked Bulgogi and a bit of Kimchi.
If you are in Irvine craving Korean Barbecue, Shik Do Rak is a sure shot.

YES. I love coming here, especially after 9:15 for their special.
**Pro Tip: it’s no longer $ 13.99 … I think they raised the price slightly.
ALSO! If you pay with cash, it’s cheaper than paying with card.
I’ve been here several times, and they never failed to disappoint me, both on the quality of the food and the fantastic service.
Whenever I ask the waiter for something, I always think that they forget because there’s too many people putting in orders, but somehow, they always pull through. In addition, they’re always really good about changing your grill or asking if you want more meats.
Favorites:
–Pork Belly
–Brisket
–Large Intestine
** definitely want to try the Beef tongue next time (part of the dinner menu)
My favorite is the little cart with side dishes on it. They can just roll on over to you and fill up all your sides.
If you’re up for dessert, they have some yogurt that you can ask for before you head out.

I am not a Korean BBQ regular but one of my friends highly recommended this place but as I live in Asia I was in doubt whether the food/​quality could rival similar restaurants in Asia.
Oh boy, I was proven so wrong, this place is great! The only reason I am not giving it a 5 star review is that we called in for a reservation and were told when arriving at the agreed time (even 5 mins earlier) that they forgot to note down our reservation so we had to wait for 30 mins. Additionally the service was not completely flawless: we ordered an extra bottle of Soju which never arrived but was listed on the check — however, it was taken off without discussion once we flagged it.
But the food was simply awesome — we opted for the all you can eat formula of $ 19.99 and as you can see from the pics, the meat platters are huge and they ensure that there is always sufficient so you can grill without waiting or interruption. They have all the essentials such as beef brisket, thinly sliced pork, different types of marinated pork belly and the general consensus amongst our group was that it was too hard to pick a favorite. The side dishes provided are varied (the kimchi is a must try) and complement the grilled meat nicely.
We drank beer and Soju (rice wine) with our meal which turned our evening in a real feast, I highly recommend this place for groups of meat loving friends!
One tip tough: the restaurant was on the cooler side but remember that whatever you wear will smell like Korean BBQ afterwards!

Been here more times than I can count on my ten fingers… and yet I’ve just decided to write a review now. Let me just say, if you go to UCI or IVC you have to make a trip here if you have kbbq cravings… and really don’t want to deal with the traffic and drive up to LA.
Staff is extremely attentive and friendly – always super responsive to orders of meats, refills for side dishes, and patient – I don’t know how they deal with it at dinner hour because it’s always so busy and PACKED (there’s practically a crowd, not even a line, outside on Fridays and weekends). Tip: call in around lunch/​afternoon and make a reservation to shorten the wait time BUT be sure your whole party has arrived so you can check-​in.
Prices vary depending on lunch/​dinner and the plan/​combo you selected. My friends and I always default to the $ 17.99 option because it includes all the selections of meat we usually get – brisket, pork belly, marinated short ribs, squid, and neck. Quality of the meat is great and definitely has been consistently fresh – I’ve never had a stomach ache after eating here. Great selection of side dishes (can vary night to night) including bean sprouts, broccoli, fish cake w/​sesame oil, pickled radishes (spicy and sour versions), kimchi, and more. For sauces, you get your typical gochujang (spicy sauce) and sesame oil w/​salt. You can even request the special chadol (brisket sauce) which is on the lighter side and kind of tastes like the Japanese soup base/​soba sauce.
The place is relatively sanitary and enough seating so that wait times aren’t super crazy – I’ve never had to wait for more than an hour (but I guess Gen is an exeception…). I definitely think this is a great alternative to Gen as well because it’s closer (for my Irvine peeps) and CHEAPER (Gen for dinner is $ 24.99+tax and wait time is 1 hour +).

Still a favorite AYCE Korean BBQ joint near my home. I usually order their $ 20 tier which include prime brisket and beef tongue. Whats new in this review is our Server Austin. They younger face but has great attitude and much better grasp of English. He was very top of his game making sure to our water bottle was filled, asked frequently what we wanted to order next, and most critically changing our cooking plate when it got way too burnt. And if you ask him he may even show you a magic trick ;-)
Still make sure to ask for salad since this doesn’t seem to be default. The pickled cucumbers and sliced radish are my favorite banchan though this visit the radish seemed to have less bite/​watered down. Their chilli sauce is still pretty good as well as their brisket. The beef tongue though seem to be cut slightly thicker which changes the entire experience of eating them. And of course their tarty yogurt at then end is a great way to end the dining experience

My coworkers have never had kbbq so came here since it’s the closest place to work. Went for lunch and there was a crowd waiting to be seated already. That’s fine since they came first, but the worker asked us if it was okay if she could seat us later and went on seating the group of 10 people that came in after us! There was only 3 of us of us too! Finally we got seated like 15 minutes later and service was horrible the whole time…
So we did the $ 15 ayce lunch deal. Choice of brisket, bulgogi, pork belly, intestines, and chicken. Brisket was okay and my coworkers seemed to like it. Bulgogi was my favorite since it had the most flavor. Pork belly was our least favorite.
As for the banchans for the day we had marinated seaweed, marinated cucumbers, marinated bean sprouts, spicy marinated radish, kimchi, fishcakes, rice paper, and radish paper. Fishcakes was my favorite even though they taste all the same at every place…
Service wasn’t good at all. Had to remind them so many times if we wanted a refill of the banchans. Didn’t check up on us much and replaced the grill once. Never coming back again.

I can’t believe this place is less than 2 miles from where I live and I’ve never been until last night! I came with a party of 12 people and the wait was about 45 minutes. However, we did call in ahead of time to put our names down on the wait list for a large party, so the 45 minute wait was after what we had originally told the restaurant we’d be there.
We all got the $ 19.99 option, which is the mid-​tier and includes 21 different meat options. We tried the brisket, marinated pork belly, thinly sliced pork belly, squid, and beef tongue. My favorite was the squid! There were 6 side dishes (kimchi, seaweed salad, radish, bean sprouts, fish cake, and cucumbers), and all of them were good! They’re also very generous with the refills.
I wished we had 1 grill to 4 people though instead of 1 to 6. The service was slow, but it was also a very busy night. Most of time time, you can just stand up to grab your own sauces and napkins if you need a refill.
Don’t forget to request the soybean sauce that comes with jalepenos and garlic slices! They don’t automatically give this to you.
We also ordered many bottles of beer and soju and our grand total after tip and gratuity was under $ 400! Amazing.

Starved myself starting from 3pm so I could come here at 9:15pm to stuff myself with the 14.99 AYCE deal! The deal also works for lunch on weekdays, and it has 10 items on the menu. There is a pork belly and a THINLY sliced pork belly option, and I like the thinly sliced one WAYYY better. Dip it in the brisket sauce. yesss.
I got there around 10pm, but I didn’t expect it to be a full house because it was only a Wednesday night! The wait wasn’t too long though, my party of 4 waited for only 20 minutes. I’ve been to this place other days right at 9:15 before, and we beat the crowd on those days with as little as a 5 minute wait to get seated.
It was a really busy night, so it was hard to flag down a server sometimes, but we could tell that they were working their hardest to serve everyone.
Overall a good experience. Fresh rice paper too.

A strong 4 star. I wasn’t sure what to expect at first. When we walked in, we weren’t greeted. We wrote our name down on the waiting list. We were called and stood up and the man helping us told us to sit down. He had to set up our table.
The service improved after we were seated. Our server was attentive and smiling. She asked us if we wanted refills on our banchan (side dishes) a couple of times. When we had requests, she said yes and worked on them right away. Our group of 4 was happy with the attentiveness, although we had to ask for bowls of rice. My friend who has gone there before said they usually give it to you in the beginning to fill you up so you don’t order too much.
The brisket was great with good flavor. Shik Do Rak provides a chili sauce that another friend of mine says is made in house. The brisket goes well with this mildly spicy, flavorful sauce. A sesame oil with salt is also provided. The AYCE at night is $ 17.99 (as of ¾/​15). I’ve heard that at 9:15PM the price drops, although I am not sure if that is still the case. You might want to call and ask if you get hungry later at night.
The bulgogi was pretty good, maybe a little too sweet. It is thinner than some of the bulgogis I’ve tried at other KBBQ restaurants such as Byul Dae Po (Star BBQ in Garden Grove), and other KBBQ places. Still, my friends and my husband were happily eating it and got seconds on it. The fresh pork belly is good, but a couple of pieces had a little bit of a crunch to them.
I liked the side dishes. One of our party has celiac disease and oden, the fishcake, is a no-​no for her but she likes it so much she ate it. She finds that it tastes better to her when warmed up on the grill. I hadn’t thought of that. The kimchi is solid. I liked the cucumber, upon which sesame seeds are sprinkled. SDR provides both rice and daikon wrappers. Daikon has anti-​inflammatory qualities, so you can feel good about eating it. I would be happy to visit SDR again and think $ 17.99 for AYCE is a good deal in Irvine.