Munchie Adventure: K-Town Korean BBQ

Almost the new year! =) So we planned to go to Toyotomi... but didn't reserve a spot, so no table for us =( Oh well, we moved onto Ninkazu, same there, no luck ><" Finally, stumbled here since we had a $5 off coupon (which we forgot to use in the end haha). And there were spots with no wait (should've suspected something though haha). Oh well, we were famished and just wanted food, how bad could it be? (It wasn't that bad actually, but pricey)

Restaurant: K-Town BBQ
Location: 4151 Hazelbridge Way, Richmond
Cuisine: Korean, BBQ
Price range: ~$30 per person (for AYCE)




Date of visit: December 30, 2012
Atmosphere: 4/5
Staff/service: 2/5
Food variety: 2/5
Food quality: 3.5/5
Buck worthy? 2/5

Couldn't quite decide b/w AYCE and set menu, cuz two peeps weren't hungry, and about four were famished. Doesn't matter what I feel, since it's about the same amount I eat regardless xD So. AYCE won. It looked pretty good, only limited item were the LA ribs, 5 per person.

First things first, we get 4 cards to write 5 different items on it, and they will give us the "right" proportions. We had already made a list of things we wanted (basically it was almost everything on their menu), so now we had to split our orders =( Anyhow, got their side dishes to start off. This was quite simple, potatoes were the only thing I tried, they were pretty good. However, not enough for the amount of people we had.

Then came a TINY salad (like a one person portion). The server noticed the mistake and brought us two large ones right after. Glad she did that. I liked the salad, pieces were a bit big, but flavor was good.

Next came deep fried dumplings. The picture made them look so good, but the actual thing? Fresh, but SO HARD. Taste was good, but I didn't like the hard skin.

Then bulgogi with veggie soy bean(miso) soup came. They gave us two big bowls of it, but we had to ask for bowls to share this... VERY SALTY. Didn't like it.

I didn't really enjoy their Seafood pancake. Mainly because it's not very crispy, too much flour, and not a lot of ingredients. They also only gave us one large one for 10 people... cut into 8 pieces =.= Although I think some people really liked it.

Here was the meat-- for us to stare at, or try pork sashimi =P No place to cook this! I would've liked it more if they could've thought of this beforehand and had the pans first, then the meat! Pork belly looked very fatty, but after cooking, it looked very good! (I only saw, cuz I'm refraining from proteins for the sake of not getting a scar)

Now this is their fatty beef, thin slices that were bulgogi style without the sauce.

Heres the pan, pretty cool =) Except for the fact that it slides around >.>

They did end up giving us "sauce" which was salt + oil and a soybean-based sauce.

I was excited about the stone bowl bibimbap, because these are usually quite pricey at other stores, and this was pretty good! It was very hot, flavors were a bit lacking, but might just be the mix of it I got =P

Surprise surprise! These were the limited LA ribs! They cooked it for us! Maybe they were worried we would burn it and waste good expensive food haha! First sizzling plate it came in, we were skeptical, since the server told us only one more was coming... and this one only had 10 pieces. Were we getting scammed?? Nope, the other one was JAM PACKED with 40 pieces =P They were very delicious and a nice cut. Not fat at all and cooked to perfection! Made the meal all worthwhile!

Guys were starting to get full, so we ordered the few last items we wanted to try. One was their deep fried chicken in sweet and spicy sauce. I liked it, crispy and flavorful. Perfect balance between spicy and sweet/sour.

The deep fried chicken was very fresh too! Very nicely seasoned, everyone seemed to enjoy these.

We also got to order their pumpkin soup. I thought this was too sweet, after a few spoonfuls, it got sickening. Most of the people who tried it, thought the similarly.

To finish off the night, we just had to try their hot pot as well. We ordered the bubgogi with veggies hot pot. It was uncooked, so that took a while to finally boil :P

Under was vermicelli, and I really liked the soup base, rich and went really well with the veggies and vermicelli. A little on the sweet side.

The food did take a while to arrive, and we did get a "warning" from the server of the penalty of unfinished food (he didn't seem too nice about it, more like, he was trying to scare us). Service wasn't that good, but the food was good. I probably won't come back for the AYCE again, but maybe their set menu. Didn't feel like a lot of MSG, cuz I wasn't thirsty afterwards =) We all paid $31 in the end, JC treated me though =D Thanks again~~ Awesome night!