Doni Don BBQ

Big fan of this place! This has become my go-​to spot for Korean BBQ.
Food: PORK JOWL. Easily my favorite cut for korean BBQ but hard to find in the Bay area. If you like pork belly, then I highly recommend giving pork jowl a try. Also enjoy the steamed egg they pour in the sides of the grill and you can ask for refills too. The 2 meat combo is about just right for 2 people. The banchan, however, is somewhat limited compared to fancier places.
Service: Very friendly staff. They are pretty attentive in helping you work the grill. (Granted it’s never been crowded when I’ve been so that probably helps).
Overall: Will definitely continue to come back for some pork jowl!

We were going to eat at the CRAB HOUSE next door, but Crab house has a small menu that is mainly seafood while one of us was allergic to fish! So we decided to switch to Doni Don BBQ as we saw on Unilocal that we could order some food from crab house anyway!
So that’s what we did! We ordered the $ 75 BBQ combo meal that came with pork belly, marinade beef and sliced pork AND we ordered 3 small abalone sashimi ($ 5.99 each) and raw blue crab in spicy red sauce ($ 29.95) from Crab House. There were three of us and we ate until we couldn’t eat anymore ahahahah so much food!!!
The bbq was very delicious and the portion was BIG… the waiter helped grilling the items. Our favorite was the pork belly AND the marinade beef. The bbq came with variety of banchan… the kimchi was way too fermented for my taste but we really liked the FISH CAKE SOUP!!! it was very light and hearty.
If you want meat… come here and eat their bbq! btw, we really love their cute pig logo, soooo cute!
Our waitress was this korean girl who speaks little english. she’s super sweet and didn’t mind our constant «woaah, wow, mmmmmmm» lol!

My girlfriend and I happened to find Doni Don when we were deciding where to have our late night dinner on a Tuesday. We both left extremely satisfied with the service, quality and quantity of food that was provided.
Our waitress (whom I failed to ask for her name, you were awesome) was very attentive and helpful, made me feel like I was dining at a Michelin rated restaurant. She made sure that she was around enough to assist us without being intrusive. They were even kind enough to cancel one of the entrée we ordered at the last minute because our eyes were bigger than our stomach during the time of ordering.
The food. you must order the thick cut black pork belly, hands down my favorite out of all the Korean bbq restaurants I’v eaten at due to the way it is prepped (you can cut it into your desire thickness). The grill they used were one of the best I have seen anywhere (besides the stone grill I had in LA) due to it’s unique surrounding spaces for resting meat and for the steamed egg.
Definitely a new favorite for us, looking forward to bringing my buddies here for some bbq and soju!

I give this place one star for several reasons. For two people, we paid almost 90 dollars for horrible food. We ate only a third of everything we ordered. The kimchi was extremely sour and soggy. In my family, we usually throws it away at this point or makes soup with it. The menu states that when you order meat, miso soup is served. After we ordered, the server informed us that they have replaced the Korean miso soup with fish cake soup. We had to pay full price for the Korean miso soup, which was extremely watery and disappointing. The fish cake soup was even more disappointing (please see picture). If they don’t have the basics right, it will be hard for a new restaurant, like this one, to succeed. The only good thing was the service. However, that is definitely not worth my visit back to this restaurant.

Very clean, very organized. Service point is there. Hipster place definitely. Side dishes sucked; Kim chi not fresh. All the red meat was on point. All around maybe come back because it’s close to home. Me being from Las Vegas I think locally To Bang Korean BBQ is best locally. Hipster Korean BBQ great place for the younger generation.

Went back a few more times after! Still loving it!
Still my top choice when I crave for korean bbq!
Their side dishes changes a little bit but I still enjoy it very much.
Owner is super sweet, the server is very fast and polite.
Don’t forget to check in for the beer :)

Whoohooo! I love this place. Because I can order some food from crab house too!
Doni don is a brother store with crab house. For the price and the quality are good!
The server helped us to grill everything. And a combo for 2 is a great portion, me and a gf came back out with a huge tummy.
Price was around 40/​person for bbq only. But we ordered live I octopus, it was about 20. I love it, I had a hard time to find those octopus!
–1/​they are always out of octopus!
REMINDER: call ahead to make sure they have octopus!

This place has some of the best Korean BBQ meat I’ve ever tasted. Their portions are not what I am use to, they are significantly larger then most. Their pork Jowl, beef tongue and non marinated Kalbi is really really good. Give it a shot you won’t regret it!

I came here few months ago with my 2 coworkers for a birthday celebration on a week day at around 6pm. The restaurant was pretty dead, but we tried anyway. And ½ thru our dinner, more people came in.
This place is pretty cool but nothing much different from other typical Korean bbq restaurants. It is not a AYCE restaurant. I liked about this restaurant is that it was (at the time) the only kbbq restaurant that serves radish as a side dish. I love to use radish and a green leaf (im not sure what it’s called) to wrap my meat, dip in the sauce and eat. Yum! However, everytime we asked for more radish, they just gave us a lil bit more, and we had to keep asking. I hate this so much. Why can’t they just give us a big plate to save work for them and customers don’t have to ask again and again. Anyway, their meat was good. There’s nothing to complain about but nothing to rave about either.
They have several combo options to choose from which definitely give better value. It depends on what you want and how many people you have, so I don’t recommend any specific combo…
Service was alright and pretty fast.

I love Korean BBQ. This place meat was good.
We orderd Wagyu and pork belly.
I have been Kang ho dong’s Beakjung similar grill here. Oneday i wanna go to like Beakjung’s grill korean bbq but i couldn’t find out in San Jose.
Im glad find out here. (Just lil different)
Side dish (banchan) was just ok.
Lil disappointed Miso soup.
I hope they will make good quality soup.
Dofu was not square. Looks like bean curd refuse.
Hope use to more many ingredients in miso soup.
I like fried rice after meat ;)
I will be back here. for blue crab (when i was here late nite so couldn’t eat blue crab)

I keep coming back here because of the awesome hospitality of Ivy.
Oh…and the food is yummy!
Do yourself a favor and check this place out. And also order the Pork Jowl and their kimchee fried rice.

Wear the most trashy clothes you have to this place because the BBQ smell can be all over you, your purse and even the car you sit in! However, hidden from a low profile exterior building, the interior is cute, clean and chic.
We tried combo D with beef brisket, pork belly, beef tongue and wagu beef. The portions are just right for 2 families and all meat qualities are very good. We also loved the steam egg that got poured on the side. The kids love the glass noodle side dish. The service was responsive. Overall it was a very good experience!

I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT DONI DON !!
It has only been 4 months since they opened, but they know how to run a business here ! My boyfriend and i have been here 4 times already. All the workers here are extremely sweet and nice and all the meat are high quality and tasty !! The prices are reasonable for the qualify of food you get here.

I have been here three times already since opening. Over all very impressed with this restaurant. As a newer establishment, Doni Don has potential but really just needs the opportunity to be popularized.
Meat quality is slightly better than other Kbbq restaurants, in my opinion. Service is usually beyond spectacular, but I have yet to see how they will manage when the whole restaurant is full.
I prefer Doni Don over my other go-​to Kbbq spots because: compared to Gooyi, it is very spacey and vibes off comfort rather than clustered. It is just a tad pricier than other places but I think it evens out with the quality you are getting.
I will be back.

The meat quality is so-​so but I feel like that’s just how it is everywhere in the Bay Area.
I have yet to find a place with really good quality meat.
The grill is similar to Kang Ho dong Baekjeong’s grill which has a little moat around the grill where they put the egg mixture for steamed egg custard.
Got the combo A which has 3 different kinds of pork for $ 65. Thinly sliced pork, black pork belly, and pork jowl. Also ordered boneless «wagyu» short rib chuck, and «wagyu» beef sirloin. The pictures were deceiving because the meat, especially the beef, did not like as marbled as the photos. Not as much marbling means that it did not melt in your mouth. But I guess for $ 35, you can’t really ask for much.
The pork belly is really thick! Not bad. The pork jowl is usually my favorite, but it was ok here.
The banchans were not good.
The service wasn’t bad.

Needed a later dinner option after a talk at SCU and a large group of us ended here. Got combos which had steak, pork belly, pork jowl, octopus, brisket, pork loin. on they edge they pour the egg custard which cooks while you grill. You get a series of veggies and ban chan plus soup and fried kimchee rice too. It’s a good amount of food. The staff are really friendly and generally attentive but this place gets pretty busy. For the price it’s pretty good value too for what you get. Definitely will try some of the other items too when i get a chance to return

My friend’s been raving about this place. Finally, a couple weeks ago, we made the trip down to Santa Clara for Korean bbq!
*Banchan
My favs were the fish cake, sprouts and greens. We also got japchae which was nice. I love yam noodles.
We ended up getting Doni don’s combo menu D ($ 109) which serves up to 4 people. Each combo includes House miso stew, Vegetable sides to grill, Steamed egg and Kimchi fried rice. Our combo came with the following meats.
*Beef brisket
*Wagyu beef sirloin
*Fresh beef tongue
*Fresh black pork belly
I loved all the meats! The beef brisket was a nice starter. Thin and light. The wagyu & pork belly were my favs. The wagyu was nicely marbled and just melted in my mouth. And the pork belly? Thick slabs of meaty goodness! As if four meat dishes weren’t enough, we added Pork jowl ($ 23) to our combo. Super tender. They end the meal by making a kimchi fried rice, so if you have any leftover meat, go ahead and mix it into the rice.
The roommate ended up meeting us after we were basically done with our meal, so I ordered him some things to go. One thing being the Spicy baby octopus ($ 22). They had mentioned that we could cook it at the table, but I figured it’d be easier if they cooked it in the back. They said okay, but I wish they mentioned that the meat wouldn’t get a nice sear by being cooked in the kitchen. The stuff the roommate ate wasn’t nearly as good as the bbq we had.
Hence a 4 star review instead of 5. The octopus especially didn’t get any love from the grill. At least now, I know. Don’t order take out from here. The rest of the bbq is delicious though!

(: Boba-​Foodaholic Says :)
My order: Combo A ($ 65)
I went there week day night after realizing that this place finally opened. I was wondering to try out this place since they had the construction going on. So I went there around 6PM when they just opened. There were quite few tables already full. So we sat on the 8 people table. It was kind of uncomfortable because I had to move all the sauces and tissues towards me from the end of the table.
***I would recommend that they should have more 4 people table instead bigger tables, because table for 8 people is too big for 2 people.
There will be 3 sauces that you can use, but I totally recommend that you don’t put that into the plate yet, until you get the separate sauce they give you. Because I feel really bad for putting all 3 sauces into my plates and never got to use them, because I loved their sauce better that they give you separately.
The service was really good I can say. The worker kept check on us on how we are doing and refilled our side dishes even though we didn’t asked for it. Also, she grilled the meats and cut into pieces so we can eat comfortably. Furthermore, the services was the best that I got served because she knew what she was doing. Also, I saw really good communication between the workers and owner, who work constantly to make things work.
Honestly, this place is not for two people because their menus are BBQ that it’s hard to eat with 2 people. Even though it is pricy, the quality of the food and meat is up to the standard that I ever tried. I think this place is the best BBQ place in El Camino right now. I can’t compare to other places!!!
*** Remember, if you didn’t finish you meats, you can put and mix it with Kimchi fried rice at the end. So don’t try to finish your meat and miss the fried rice. However, their miso stew and kimchi fried rice is not Korean style that you usually taste other Korean restaurant. It is more Americanized in a way that they are trying to make non-​Korean people to like it.
Overall, I would totally recommend it and visit again :)

Best kbbq i’ve been to so far. The side dishes, meat, and veggies are fresh, creative, and delicious. They bring out the dishes as if on a schedule and the menu is easy to order from because the meats are grouped up in meal. Definitely is more than enough for their serving size suggestions. My friend and i ordered the brisket, pork belly, and chuck flap option. They came out with the side dishes, soup, and the meat and veggies… then they started cooking for us! It was a little weird because i guess im used to self kbbq cooking at restaurants but our server was very friendly and attentive and contributed to our convo at times. I guess thry have a method of cooking that makes the bbq taste better because everything was amazing.
They put all your leftovers in a fried rice dish for you, but towards the end my friend and i were stuffed. Pretty good experience. I recommend all kbbq lovers and those who are new to it to come and try this place out!

Decided to check this place out with some friends since it’s new. It was ok, but probably not my new go-​to KBBQ spot.
PROS:
— clean
— attentive service: servers also come around to help grill the meats
— good meat quality
— combos come with salad, miso stew (we totally didn’t get this and I just realized it!), steamed egg, and kimchi fried rice
CONS:
— kinda pricey: We got the Combo C which is supposed to feed 3 – 4 people. $ 85 for a plate of brisket, 3 large slices of pork belly, and a plate of wagyu beef. We had 4 people and it definitely does not feed 4 people, and we even ordered a la carte sides. Maybe better for 3 ppl.
— not many side dishes: seaweed, radish, cabbage kimchi, bean sprouts, fish cake, and potatoes
— kimchi fried rice: They bring it out at the end of your meal and put it on the grill to reheat and crisp, but it’s already pre-​made and pre-​mixed in the back. :-/​
It was a decent meal, and I might come back if the wait is too long at the other KBBQ places on El Camino. But not my first choice due to price and value.