Castle BBQ: Fresh, affordable Korean BBQ

Happy Canada Day, and surprise! We're in LA for Anime Expo =D (semi-sad we're missing out on our own 150th anniversary celebrations in the homeland) Had a long day of shoots, and finally finished around 9:30pm. Famished, we decided some AYCE KBbq was much needed to fill our empty tummies.

Restaurant: Castle B.B.Q.

Location: 473 North Western Avenue, Los Angeles
Cuisine: Korean, BBQ, AYCE
Price range: $15-30 per person (depending which tier you choose)

Date of visit: July 1, 2017
Atmosphere: 3/5
Staff/service: 4.5/5
Food variety: 3/5
Food quality: 5/5
Buck worthy? 5/5

I don't know how Adorables found this gem of a place, but we got here and waited around 10 minutes to get a spot. We had a chance to look at their menu outside, they have three options for AYCE ($11.99, $14.99, and $18.99). We got AYCE B which was $14.99 with 21 items to choose from. AYCE A has 10 items, AYCE C has 25 items.

The waitress keyed in my items as I ordered, which was very efficient. It was unclear until we go the bill how many orders of everything I had gotten because we got quite a few pieces (which freaked me out as the meat started appearing in large sizes and portions). The table was already set up with a giant bowl of rice, salad, and six side dishes.

The food arrived super fast, we got all the meats within 5 minutes of ordering then the steamed egg and corn cheese took a little longer. First to arrive was the Rib Finger Meat which was placed on the grill upon arrival. The meat was fresh and tender, evenly marbled, and lightly marinated. Delicious with a bite of rice!

Next was the LA Rib (limited to 2 per person), this was a bit fatty and not great cuts. However, still tender and yummy marinated in traditional sweet soy sauce.

Then the Herb Pork Belly arrived and that's when I started panicking since the pork belly slices were HUGE! And there were 4 pieces too! Oh goodness. The meat itself was very fresh and beautifully marbled layers of fat and pork. This was not marinated, so it got a bit boring to chew on near the end.

Here's my reaction face:

One might ask what Prime Flower Steak is, but for me, I just order it to try because, why not? This was a lean cut of meat with no marinating. I quite liked it since it was tender even though it was so lean. Strong bold beef flavors could be tasted in this cut.

We saw Corn Cheese was a new menu item for an added $2.99 and thought, sure-- best was when we found out it was part of our menu (1 per 2 people) at no extra charge! This was literally cheese on top of corn. Very sweet corn, soft, and an adequate amount of cheese. Great for us especially since we're on vacation-- source of fibre xD

I had to try their Steamed egg as well, which was delicious! Basically steamed egg in a hotpot with some seasoning. The egg was fragrant, fluffy, and smooth. It got a bit filling after a few bites though.

Back to those side dishes that existed on the table before we were seated (freshly pre-placed at the table). Nothing special about them, there was bean sprouts, sliced cucumber, kimchi, macaroni salad, pickled raddish, and rice roll (for wrapping meats in).

The salad was tossed in a mild kimchi vinaigrette sauce, proving to be quite refreshing after many bites of pork belly.

Overall it was a great experience with friendly and quick service, fresh food, and a happy wallet. We paid around $38USD for two people including tax and tips.