Korean Bar-B-Que

Solid choice and good bang-​for-​the-​buck if you’re craving AYCE Korean BBQ in the north peninsula area. You won’t be wowed by the quality of meat or banchan, but you get a large selection of items! The marinated meats and banchan are well-​seasoned and tasty, and they offer rice upon request. Plus, they actually use charcoal grills!
This place gets busy fast during primetime dinner hours and only accepts reservations for groups of 8 or more.

Best all you can eat Korean bbq in the peninsula! Be sure to maximize on Kalbi. This is the go to place if you are hungry and it’s super inexpensive to boot for what you get. This establishment offers a salad bar style buffet with variety.

I went here because it was close my my house and I didn’t feel like going far… it was my roommate’s first time trying kbbq and we were starving.
I called before we left and the guy told me there was only one table waiting to be seated so we rushed over. The place is pretty hidden so you have to look out for it. Street parking available so we had to park in some lot and walk over. When we went inside it looked pretty empty but I noticed some of the tables didn’t have grills on it or they were bigger tables so they didn’t want us to sit there. It took a while to be seated actually so we weren’t too happy about that. When the guy told us where our table was we put our stuff down and went to get food… when we came back someone else was sitting at our table? I guess the staff weren’t communicating and were seating people at the same table.
I like that you can see what foods they have and get the portions yourself. Some places give you way too much of something you only want a few pieces of. They have a lot of options from seafood, meats, cooked food, soups, and sides. It makes it easier and faster to eat and cook when you can get just the stuff yourself. Because of this I expected service to be a bit faster and better but no one really checked up on us, no one took our extra plates… I ended up either piling them or just reusing them. No one asked us if we wanted more water either.
The one thing I really didn’t like here was the cooking system and the ventilation. I’ve never smelled THIS BAD before! The grill is pretty sketch as they just put it on top of this tray with coals. It never stays still and the grill is never oiled. Pretty much any thin piece of meat you put on there will just stick and burn… when you try to pull anything off the whole grill will shift and you have to make sure that thing doesn’t fall off or burn your hand! If they can get this down I would definitely come back… otherwise food is good, service is meh, and cooking tools are terrible and dangerous!

We came in on a Sunday early afternoon in March. A couple tables were occupied. My wife noticed a group of flies hovering over our table as we were seated. Not a good first impression. Cooking grill is small and easily slides off charcoal pan. So if you bring small children keep them far away! Not a safe designed cooking table. Server did not seem welcoming and seemed unhappy. So you can imagine how our service went. Maybe because he was 1 of 2 employees? Bulgogi tasted like charcoal fluid. In small print on a flyer on the wall «2 short ribs per customer ask your server.» Nice! if I can find him. JAP CHAE was good though.

Came 1.5 hours before closing after picking up my cousin from the airport. The meats were probably sitting in their marinade all day+, so they came out really salty. It’s a bummer they only allow 2 slices of short ribs per person, since it’s the best meat there. Using coals is a plus though.
The grill was a little tricky since it sits on top of the coal pan, not locked in. The grill tends to move around when you’re not gentle with the meat flipping, so watch your arm hair!

No line, different kinds of delicious meats you can bbq yourself. Other korean dishes you can eat. (kimchi, seaweed salad, gyoza, etc.) Place looks a little dated.

AYCE what else you can ask for?! Marinated just right, very flavored spicy pork and bulbugi! Plus unlimited side dishes. Self serve! More like buffet style AYCE. Second time around and I’m still salivating.
The owner and her son are very attentive and friendly. Whether I go there for the food or the service I’m still buying it.

First off, I was reading a couple reviews about this place and all the people who rate this place 3 or less stars all claim to have experienced bad customer service… But ask yourself was it bad customer service or was it because the place was busy and they couldn’t attend to your nitpick-​y needs?
We came here Tuesday night for dinner so we didn’t experience a long wait or «bad» customer service. Yes, while it is true that we did not have one specific waiter/​waitress I do believe that the rotation of service is based on time/​needs of customer.
If a place offers a certain food upon request, ALWAYS try it first especially if it’s an AYCE. For this spot, it was 2 pieces of short ribs/​adult which in my opinion was the best tasting meat.
One thing that sets this restaurant apart besides their use of charcoal is that they have a buffet style for their appetizers/​meat so you have a choice of which appetizer you can splurge on. I always feel guilty going to Korean restaurants for not being able to eat all the appetizers they set on the table, but this restaurant is guilt free.
While it’s true that I have tried better quality AYCE Korean BBQ, I believe this spot is a good place to try if you’re in the San Bruno area.

$ 25.99 all you can eat, short ribs are limited two slice per customer!
don’t wear anything nice cloth, you come out smelling like a bbq: P

Poor poor poor customer service. We were there Saturday night, 3^rd group on the wait list. We were party of 3, & the other parties before & after us were groups of 2 & 3. We waited one whole hour. The party of 2 came after us spoke Korean to lady working there & got a table. Really! There was a party of before us, but they did not get seated. One hour later they ask who was this on the list & my husband said we are next. Before you know it, they let the people after us party of 2 sit down. WTF We Are Out Of Here. Rude restaurant. They were doing this in front of us. Never coming back to this place Ever again.

Yum yum yum! Super satisfying.
Plenty of 2hr street parking just right outside the restaurant which is great!
We walked in and felt like we went into another paradigm. Every thing looks really dated and old, it was a pretty sad looking place. Immediately, we both had doubts.
The server immediately came up and asked if wanted to have the buffet or ala carte. We asked for price which he said BBQ is $ 25.99 per pax. It’s not written anywhere on the walls or menu, so can’t tell if there’s a different pricing for other timing.
Promptly seated and served with water. The buffet table looks rather small from a far, but when you get close to it. You realize they have quite a variety!
Lots of side dish options, Kim chi, pickled veg, pot stickers, etc. They have a great selection of meat too! The bulgogi beef, spicy pork, short ribs are so so so good!
Every mouthful was just so flavorful. The charcoal grill probably helps to enhance the flavor.
We had 5 cups of the sweet rice dessert drink — sweet and tasty, huge plate of the sweet fresh tasting orange.
Service was prompt and friendly. Overall, we had a wonderful dinner. Very close to the ones we had in Korea. Will definitely be back! Kam sa ha meda!

Saturdate night (11÷21÷15) was supposed to be sushi but the wait time at the restaurant we were going was 2 hours and hubby do not want to wait, so we ended up looking for another place to eat. We stumbled this place while driving and based on the Unilocal reviews, it was good. We found a street parking (meant to be?) immediately and the place wasn’t packed yet so we got to sit right away.
The grill took a while to bring out and to find out they use a real charcoal which is better than the «fire grill». Using charcoal makes a big difference in grilling, it tastes better.
They have great selections of meat and sides and other food to choose from. Though the short ribs are limited to 2 pcs per person. At first, they’ll only bring out 2 pcs and if you want more, you can ask the rest of the 2 pcs. It seems like there’s only 3 servers so asking for a soda took about 15 mins!
Be prepared to smell (hair and clothes) like BBQ with all the smoke! But definitely your belly is full!

Gave them another shot. This time the restaurant was almost full, on a mid Saturday evening.
The young Korean man (not the old Korean man who, I assume, is the owner) running the waitlist gave me a table and I ate well.
The old man kept checking on me. As soon as I hit my last round, he took the grill away («You are done?») to accommodate a group of four waiting for my table.
I still believe I was racially profiled the first time, given the circumstances. I’m 90% sure I would not have been seated if the old man was running the waitlist. Hooray for the younger generation.
On the bright side, the kalbi (short ribs) was delicious.

Finally have a chance to write a review about this place.
My cousin & his girl came down from Washington. We had. Double date. Went to k1 go kart racing and then wanted Korean after. While looking through Unilocal,I found this Korean place. Thank goodness! My cousin and his girl has never been to an AYCE kbbq place where you can cook your own food. They loved it! Although it was hot in there, the food was worth it!
Place — It’s a cute small kbbq joint. Not that fancy, but definitely makes you feel like your in a Korean movie (no offense) I loved it!
Food — The food was amaaaazing! Coming from someone who’s loves Korean food this place was yummy! They had like a salad bar setting where you grab a plate and put whatever meet & side dishes you want. You could bring the meat back to your table and cook it on your grill. They had my favorites — japchae, tempura, beansprouts, potstickers & many more. Can’t remember, but they had all the side dishes you normally get at a Korean place. Just thinking of the food we ate makes me want to go back. Keep in mind grab only what you can eat, because if you have extra meat left over you have to pay for it.
Price — if Remember it was like $ 24 – 26 each per person if you were to do AYCE kbbq. Call them and make sure what the price from eating in is. Although it’s a lot it’s worth it if you’ve never experienced something like this.
In all the people were super friendly! Cheers to the boy waiter who kept helping us! You the real mvp. We all had a good time & I know our bellys were satisfied! Me and my boyfriend will definitely be back if we’re on that side of SAN Fran again!

A few friends of mine, and my wife joined me for dinner at this restaurant. Having never actually had KBBQ I was moderately scared of salmonella related death. Fortunately this was an overall great experience.
The restaurant isnt really decorated. The seating areas are small, with holes burnt into the table. In the middle of the restaurant sits an enormous buffet full of meat, vegetables and deep fried amazingness.
You sit down, they out a tray of charcoal in front of you, and you cook whatever you want. Don’t forget to ask for the short ribs, arguably the best option for eating. We tried all of the meats, and most of the rest. The meats were all very well seasoned, and the spicy selections were actually spicy. Amazing. We cooked meat for roughly two hours, eating beyond anything that resembles a norm.
Service was great, good was great, and everyone had a really awesome time. I will be back for more meat.
Oh yeah, nobody died due to raw meat consumption, always a plus.

This place has been here for so many years and definitely needs to remodel but it does not take away from the delicious food.
Every meat they have is so much flavorful than YakiniQ and their banchan selections are much better. My favorite meats were the bulgogi, rib eye, spicy pork, and the Kalbi. The Kalbi is limited to 2 a person and you do have to ask for it, but it is sooooo good. They had a good variety of banchan and my favorites were the japchae, sweet potato, fish cake, spicy cucumber, and kimchi. Everything is so good and flavorful that you really do not need any sauce at all. But if you ask, they do have sesame oil with salt and pepper and Korean hot sauce.
The service was amazing and the server was so nice. He checked up on us and filled our waters without asking. I have no complaints there but other people probably received bad service based on the server that was working. So service could be a hit or miss?
The only con is that the fire from the grill is so hot that it will give you a face oil massage. You’ll smell like bbq for sure and your pores will be yelling at you.
After your delicious meal, finish it off with their sweet rice drink. It’s so good that I had 3 cups even though I was stuffed. It is really refreshing and much needed after consuming bbq!

Good value compared to Palace BBQ where we’ve been several times. And it’s manageable to get a table unlike at some places in SF. The selection is a little smaller but still hits the spot. Some of the meats we enjoyed were: bulgogi, spicy chicken, spicy pork, marinated chicken and of course the Galbi. I enjoyed the spinach, jap chae and potstickers from the prepared portion of the buffet.
After we asked to get the grill cleaned, they brought out a new grill and did another time as well. There was a time where the galbi needed to be refilled, but other than that, they kept on top of it. I want to say on Memorial Day for dinner it was either $ 24 or $ 27 per person. Not that bad. I know people rave about Yakiniq in the city but I’ve heard the $ 20 AYCE is very limiting. Also beware that here they will charge you for leftover food. 3.5 stars rounded up. And of course, you will totally smell like bbq at the end of the night!

It is a busy Friday night.
Service: friendly but a little slow,
Food: tasty and homemade style
Parking: easy to find one spot
25.99/per person for all you can eat
These items are personally recommend:
Spicy pork, all kind of kimchis, Beef short ribs and sweet rice dessert drink.

$ 25 AYCE. Ok as far as AYCE korean bbq joints go. You serve yourself buffet style. The meats are ok, ranging from bulgolgi, to pork belly, squid, and marinated chicken. Disappointed that they don’t have beef brisket though. They have an even better selection of banchan, most notably chap chae, fishcake, kimchee cucumber, regular kimchee, kimchee radish, pickled daikon, pancake, potato, and more. The temperature of the buffet table seems properly controlled. You have to order kalbi separately though, and there is a limit to 2 pieces per person.
Overall, the restaurant looks hella dingy though… I initially questioned its cleanliness. The grills also cook really unevenly, and get dirty rather quickly. It’s one of those portable grills that they bring to you with the coals, instead of a regulated grilltop. Ventilation is terrible, so you will smell like bbq long after you leave.
Service is ok. It wasn’t very crowded when we went, so it wasn’t difficult to grab the staff’s attention. They do not serve rice paper, but you can have regular rice on request.
It pales in comparison to korean bbq in K-​town, LA, but for the Bay Area, it’s «A-​OK.»

Celebrated a friend’s birthday here last weekend. I’ve probably had korean bbq less than ten times in the past — personally not a big fan. This place gets smokey, so leave your nice cloths at home unless you want it smelling like charcoal and marinated meat. It’s all-​you-​can-​eat except, the beef short ribs — limited 2 per person AND upon request.
Most of us showed up on time and one was running late, but they wouldn’t fire up our grill unless we were all here. I just started to nibble on some cooked items from the self-​serve bar.
Service was mediocre at very best. We requested the short ribs multiple (4 to be exact) times before actually arriving at our table… and when they finally arrived, there was only enough for one per person. We put in another request shortly after.
I enjoyed the short ribs and spicy bulgogi; the other meats were forgettable cause they were quite flavorless. All in all, not a bad experience; at least I’ll know the items I like on my next visit. Make sure you order the short ribs right from the start.