Star Daepo

I came here last night for the first time in probably a year or two. Their AYCE options has increased to $ 16.99 which provides brisket, pork belly, pork neck and chicken thighs. They have another option that is a little more pricier but provides more meat. Last time I came, the AYCE option was about $ 13 but I can tell the meat quality has improved. I enjoyed the brisket the most. The pork belly was very thick and a little too chewy. They also serve the rice sheets that Honey Pig does. The salad that you eat with the meat was rather bland but not a big deal. The food overall was pretty good.
But I think the service was just okay. The servers did seem annoyed when we were asking for more meat.
I prefer Star Daepo over Iron Age because of the noise level. I can actually hear the conversations I am having (though there is music being played).

We came here on a Monday night with a group of 11. We chose the unlimited option B since we wanted a variety of meats. I was super stoked that they had rice paper sheets and the circular pickled daikon since other Kbbq locations no longer offer these items. Even though I was happy with those two, I felt like the other ban chan they had weren’t enough. I’m not sure how they thought a few tiny bowls of veggies would feed 11 people.
The quality of meat is alright. Nothing blew my mind but the sauces they give you can be used to marinate the meat. It definitely gave the food a bit more of an oomph.
As the night wore on, it began to feel as if the servers were trying to pace us. Every time we asked for things to be refilled they would take forever to get them. There were times when no server was in sight and our plates and grills were all bare. We were the only table full of customers by then and it was nowhere near closing time.
I’m not sure if I’d come here again unless I just had to have the rice sheets.

We had a 5 person group and made reservations prior, so we got a booth immediately upon our arrival. The interior is dimly lit, furnished with wooden booths and counter-​tops, walls lined with empty soju bottles and kpop playing in the background. Together, the restaurant felt really cozy and comforting, delightful after a cold winter day.
There are two options for AYCE, a cheapter $ 18 option which includes beef brisket, pork belly, chicken thigh, and pork neck. The more expensive option included tripe and intestines, but we were only here for the brisket and belly. The prices seem like they have gone up, but 18 dollars is still a pretty good deal for all you can eat KBBQ.
Our meat quickly came, as well as our complimentary sides. The beef brisket was decent, the thickness was consistent and cooked pretty tender. My only problem with it was that the amount of fat varied quite a lot, but I guess that’s hard to control. The pork belly was sliced a little too thick for me, which was hard to cook evenly throughout without becoming too chewy and tough. Instead of providing salad leaves to wrap up the meat, they have a salad instead. I thought the vinaigrette was a bit on the heavy side (which I think was soy sauce based); wished that they chose a lighter dressing instead. The complimentary sides paired well with the meat, pickled vegetables and kimchi cut through the richness of the brisket and belly, really balancing the flavors.
Since I’m still relatively new to KBBQ, I can’t really compare this to other establishments in the area. It was a solid and decent meal, just a few spots here and there that were lacking. The staff and waiters were very nice as well, will definitely check this place out again.

Place is freaking awesome. Great food and service.
All you can eat kbbq place, I appreciate the reasonable prices.
Would come again, great place to come with friends.

We tried Star Daepo for the first time today. We were there around 4:15 when they first opened. We were probably the first customers for the day. You could see them cleaning the restaurant and hear people in the kitchen preparing everything for the day.
We are a big fan of Korean BBQ and go to Iron Age majority of the time. We have also tried Breakers a couple of times and other Korean BBQ places.
Today during our visit we enjoyed the AYCE Course A for $ 16.99. That option gives you the choices of beef brisket, chicken thigh, and pork belly. They give you several different sides which we loved. I’m sure I’m missing a few but some were salad, kim chi, rice cakes, bean sprouts, several radishes, soup, and steamed egg. I do have to say I didn’t enjoy their salad as much as Iron Age’s salad. The seasoning/​sauce on the salad at Iron Age is much better.
The service was good when we were there and didn’t have any complaint in regards to that. They were attentive to what we needed and wanted. If there was no one around I rang the bell at the table and someone came right away.
Since we only eat beef brisket at AYCE Korean BBQ places we thought this place was very fair in pricing compared to everywhere else we go. I think we have found our new korean bbq spot!
Thanks Star Daepo!

I love some Korean BBQ and been at a few place like 678 which is still my favorite because of the actual charcoal grills.
But Star Daepo is my good to spot when the 678 has a super long wait. I like this much better than Iron Age. Service can be iffy but it’s not bad, but like a lot of authentic Asian places it’s more about the food than the service as long as it comes out on time and you get what you need.

Had the $ 16.99 ACYE deal which includes beef brisket, pork belly, chicken, and pork neck. I wasn’t a big fan of the pork neck, but the quality of the brisket, pork belly, and chicken was pretty good. The banchan included kimchi, bean sprouts, broccoli, radishes, glass noodles, salad with preserved onions, and a light soy sauce dressing. The steamed egg and soup were pipping hot and good. They also had the thin rice wrappers and thinly sliced radishes to wrap the meat. I really liked the sauce selection — spicy red korean sauce, sweet brown sauce, salt with sesame oil, and peanut powder (which really tastes like PB2 powder).
Service was decent, but my friend does speak Korean fluently.
My favorite part was the kimchi fried rice at the end with seaweed and cheese… I know it sounds weird but it was absolutely delicious. We crushed the fried rice even though we were already stuffed. Definitely get the fried rice! I think you have to ask for it though.
Will definitely return!

Awesome place for korean BBQ! Atmosphere is nice and chill and service is great! There are plentiful sides from kimchi, to radish and a seasoned lettuce that compliments the fresh meat from the grill. For a different taste other than the pork belly I recommend trying the pork neck. Get it charred up on both sides before diving in and prepare your mouth for heaven!

Star Daepo
Overall: 2.5÷5 (rounded down due to service)
Food: ³⁄₅
Price: ⁴⁄₅
Service: 1.5÷5
Atmosphere: ³⁄₅
Overall: I had the all you can eat for $ 20. I did not like this place compared to Iron Age across the street. The meat was not better and the service was very poor. I will recognize that they do offer a wider variety of meat cuts.
Food: They offer a variety of meat cuts that are not offered from direct competitors such as beef belly, beef neck, tripe, intestines etc. I was not as adventurous so I only tried the beef brisket, porkbelly and chicken. Comparatively, the meat was not as «juicy», flavorful and they did not offer marinate options. The side sauces were ok. They did offer a variety of free small dish pairings (salad, kimchi, rice paper) and soap (steamed eggs, tofu soap).
Price: $ 20 for all you can eat meat? Definitely fair. Just wish the quality was better.
Service: Pretty bad. Our server did not speak english. Meaning it was very difficult to communicate what we wanted or what meat this was. Our sauces and water took forever to get refilled after multiple requests and they kept bringing out the wrong selection of meat.
Atmosphere: Its a bit crowded. I was elbow to elbow with my unknown neighbor which was a bit werid. If you come here ask for a booth.

I’m pretty sure everyone goes to «star daepo» for their AYCE menu. so if you’re looking to read about their regular in-​menu items, then just stop yourself now.
AYCE menu includes 2 options:
option A – beef brisket, pork belly, chicken, and pork neck ($ 16.99)
option B – all of the above + tripe, intestine, and beef rib ($ 19.99)
I don’t care for tripe or intestine, so option B would not have been worth it. therefore, option A was right up my alley; even though all I care for is the pork belly and beef brisket. I wouldn’t say the meat quality here is all great, but it’s average for a low-​key korean bbq joint. the brisket is standard when it comes to size and shape. their briskets are thinly shaved and have low fat ratio, just like other korean places. as for the pork belly, they’re brought out like thick bacon strips, but with higher fat content than other competitors. neither of these 2 meats are marinated. I can’t speak for the chicken or pork neck since I didn’t care to try those.
the sauces here are a little diff. from their competitors as well. you receive a trio tray for sauces. the «sauces» include 1) salt w/​sesame oil, 2) some soy sauce based (brown) dipping sauce, and 3) soybean powder. the sesame oil and the soy-​based sauce were both a tad diluted. I had to mix some sauces up to make it more flavorful.
banchan here is quite diverse compared to other korean bbq places — pickled pink radish slices, kimchi (hot AND cold), spicy beansprouts, caramelized potatoes, korean sesame salad.
they also brought out the korean egg soufflé and soybean-​tofu soup without us having to ask. kudos to that.
I would have to say they are very quick and responsive when you ring the service button. they filled most of my requests, but they did slack a little at times.
overall, I’d go here for a cheap fix and when I wanna avoid long waits at those other popular korean AYCE joints.

~$ 20 AYCE Korean barbecue of reasonable quality. I’ve heard that Star Daepo used to have $ 10 AYCE Korean barbecue, but this is no longer a menu option. But at the current price it’s still a decent value.
There’s an option A and a option B for AYCE here. My group chose Option A, which includes beef brisket, pork neck, pork belly, and chicken thigh. Option B, for a few dollars more, includes beef and pork intestine and abomasum (cow stomach). From Option A, my favorite cut of meat was the pork neck. It was juicy, tender, and relatively lean. The plate of beef brisket had an assortment of fatty and lean pieces. Pork belly was of average quality — I’ve had better cuts elsewhere.
In terms of service, there are enough servers moving about the restaurant that the typical «call button» is unnecessary. For the most part, though, you will be flipping and cutting your own meat. Banchan had more variety here than in some other local barbecues — on the day I went, there was a plate of seaweed, bean sprouts, and japchae along with the typical staples of salad, radish, and kimchi. The salad is lightly dressed and comes with a good amount of jalapeño peppers.
The restaurant is dark. Also, it gets a little warm in the summer.

Decent food: 2 all-​you-​can-​eat options or you can order from regular menu. TERRIBLE service (slow & rude):
— Made 8 of us squeeze into 2 tiny tables when there are empty tables around to add on. Those tables continued to stay empty for the rest of the night.
— Didn’t even ask what kind of meat we want; instead, the server put chicken, pork, and beef all on the hot plate to cook together.
— Refill on everything took forever when it wasn’t even busy on a Monday night
— Nobody stopped by to check on us let alone cooking the meat unless we pressed the service button. Of course, service charge was included even though we did everything ourselves.
— 1 server in particular had some serious attitude problem. It was really uncomfortable to the point where I wanted to leave before we got our food.
Located off of Mall Blvd right by Gwinnett Mall. Private parking lot.

Came here after a long time last night because my cousin wanted to eat here for his birthday. Unfortunately my experience was disappointing to say the least.
We ordered Unlimited B option which included brisket, pork belly, beef rib, intestines, and chicken. Of those we had brisket, pork belly, rib and large intestine.
First, brisket was just a low quality meat they froze to the point that it almost seemed like it had a freezer burn. Second, it made me wonder how old the pork belly was because the meat spewed out some type of old musky stench when I bit into it. Third, beef rib was chewy and rough that I felt like i was chewing a rubber.
On top of everything, our server treated us with a horrible service with a look that clearly showed he didn’t want to work. He forgot multiple orders and when he didn’t forget, it took him considerable amount of time to bring it out to the table.
Only thing good last night was a bottle of soju and fried rice they gave after.
I recommend that if they are going to raise the prices (which they did), they should improve the quality of the restaurant overall as well.

Star Daepo is probably my current favorite option for AYCE Korean BBQ due to the value, meat options, and banchan offered. Service lacks, but I will explain that part later on. We usually get the unlimited «B» option for $ 18.99 which includes beef brisket, beef rib meat, large intestine, abomasum, and pork belly. Banchan include iced salad, pickled bean sprouts, shredded daikon, red daikon slices, Japchae, soup, egg soufflé, etc.
Experience-​wise, it’s a little iffy. I once came on a Friday night and the place was fairly full. Service was pretty good since we had several different servers, but they were nice, accommodating, and generally pretty quick with our requests. I have also been here on a Sunday at 4pm when they opened and service was the complete opposite. We were the only ones there but the service was terrible. The guy literally dropped the plates of meat on the table and walked off without putting any on our grill or asking us if we needed anything. Rice is free if you ask, but avoid coming when they first open. They will serve you old, mushy rice from the night before.

A group of 20 of us dined here on a Saturday night for dinner with a reservation two hours beforehand. The restaurant was not too busy, so I imagine it was easy for them to accommodate our party at the same table. When we arrived, our table was ready and waiting for us. I’ve been to Star Daepo once before and didn’t like the quality of the meat, but this time, I believe they bought their A-​Game. The food was great and the service was excellent – they enthusiastically met our every request and seemed to really enjoying servicing our group, no matter what the demand. I’m glad I ventured here again and I would gladly go back!

The food is about 4 stars which is about average for korean BBQ, the servers is about 2 stars, cuz our server only helps some other korean girl next table which piss me off… Lucky I know some kinda cooking so don’t need their help but still…
I guess the tip for this place would be if u are pretty girl, you sure can come. If you happens to be a guy like me… go somewhere else then.

Star Daepo is a Korean BBQ place. We came here on a Saturday night at around 8pm with no reservation and had about a 30 minute wait. Pretty good considering other Korean BBQ places in the area had a 2 hour wait. We were able to call and put our name down on the wait list 10 minutes prior to arriving so that was nice.
Service, otherwise, was almost non existent. Our serve was pretty polite, but he was running all over. Seems this place suffers from not having enough servers. Think we waited about 10 minutes after sitting down just to get our drinks and another 5 – 10 minutes for the guy to come back and take our orders and bring us our banchan (which was meh). Refilling our small ass water cups was an ordeal. He did come as we were running out of meat to ask if we wanted more, so that was only positive.
The menu options weren’t too exciting for me. They have 2 options for AYCE.
Option A:
Pork Belly
Brisket
Pork Neck Meat
Chicken Thigh
Option B was pretty much the same, but I believe there was some sort of intestines added.
Everything was ok I guess. Nothing really special here. No plans on coming back.

«If your reviews are looking like essays, start a blog. I can’t read your life story on my phone before ordering from the menu»
Time & Date of visit: 8pm, Tuesday 12/​30/​2014
Party Size: 7
Location/​Ambiance:
Pretty Loud, especially if you have a big size party and are seated in the back. Well you know what happens when you get the soju flowin’.
Service:
I think the servers were understaffed this night, or maybe it’s pretty much «cook yourself with out our supervision». I don’t really have a problem with this, since I prefer most of the meats fully cooked any way but not actually burnt (which I notice some KBBQ servers do by putting the meat in the middle in lumps and heat on high.) I even got up to cut up the pieces of pork belly and chicken.
Though waving them down or using the service button to ask for water and other dish refills was never a problem. They are pretty fast paced tending to all tables as best as they can.
Food Highlights:
I should have asked my Korean friend who accompanied us for dinner as they now added three sauces for dipping, what was the other one. I still favor the sesame oil and… um, yellow powder?
The salad was really filled with thick cuts of onions on each refill though. But big enough to just pick out.
Since it’s been a while since my last time here, the menu options have expanded some what. The $ 16 option A; gives you more than just brisket and pork belly, also pork neck and I believe chicken.
Though the guys who sat with me on our end just really only cared for brisket. We just kept ordering plates of that, while the girls side ordered the other meats that cooked slowly. Trade and barter, friends! Quality of cuts where pretty wide slices, no scraps here. I’m glad that Star Daepo has improved and expanded their selections. I was never really that fond of Iron Age, and definitely would come here over the latter with out hesitation.
I can’t say much for the side dishes as the guys on our side of the table mainly just made sure to have the meat cooking steadily.
Summary:
KBBQ for under $ 20 before tax and tip, hell yes and bring me more brisket!!!

Depending on the day I am 4 or 5 stars on this place. Like other have mentioned, I tend to come here on weekends when after making a prime-​time trip to Iron Age and seeing the 45 – 60 minute wait. At $ 16.99 for Brisket, Pork Belly, Pork Neck, and Chicken it remains a good value. Beer prices are also very cheap.
At these joints I tend to gorge myself on beef. Pork, and specifically Pork fat does not agree with my stomach like it seems to with others. That said, I do feel this place has better Pork Belly then Iron Age, or Oh My Samgyupsal, or Cho Won.
As others have mentioned, this place is much more akin to what Korean’s would find in Seoul. The layout, the semi private tables, and of course the button for service. The servers all tend to be younger guys who seem to be recently in the US from Seoul. Service has always been good here for me though. When I start I usually tell them no Pork Neck meat and no Chicken, as I like to stay focused on the beef and later their thick cut Pork Belly.
The Brisket comes out and I swear the first few trays I receive always seem to be leaner then the ones later in the meal which seem to be VERY fatty. The dry peanut butter paste is a nice touch. Overall, I always leave feeling the place is a good value, and I never feel rushed like I do sometimes at Iron Age.

Star Daepo no longer offers $ 10 unlimited Korean BBQ. It’s been that way for a while. I posted a tip with updated pricing on 10÷8÷2013, but thought it’d be worthwhile to write an updated review since my original review is partially outdated. $ 10 all-​you-​can-​eat BBQ is a thing of the past. Prices have trended upwards in recent years and this includes all of the popular, unlimited Korean BBQ restaurants like Iron Age, Oh! My SamGyupSal, Cho Won Buffet, Gobawoo, Song Do BBQ, and Sun and Moon Café.
Among the aforementioned restaurants, I’ve revisited Star Daepo the most. I like its low-​key, laid back atmosphere, good service, and late-​night business hours. The servers are generally polite and attentive. Some speak very good English. Service at the other restaurants can be spotty, especially at the restaurants with older servers who speak little to no English. That’s not to say the service at the other places is bad — Star Daepo’s service is just more consistent.
Star Daepo’s current pricing for unlimited BBQ is still a good value. The two options are:
Unlimited «A» — $ 13.99
Pork belly
Beef brisket
Pork neck meat
Unlimited «B» — $ 18.99
Beef rib meat
Large intestine
Abomasum (tripe)
Beef brisket
Pork belly
There are also set combos which include Korean alcoholic beverages like soju or baekseju for around $ 40 each. If unlimited isn’t your thing, a la carte meats are available. The unlimited meals are what this restaurant is known for and probably what it does best. They’ve got it down to an efficient process.
The most basic unlimited meal now includes pork neck, which is a thicker slice of meat. It’s obviously not as fatty as pork belly, but still has a good bit of marbling. In raw form, it almost looks like a small cut of steak. When cooked, the meat is tougher than pork belly, but leaner and heartier.
A pair of scissors is served with the meat, which you can use to cut the pork belly and pork neck. They aren’t required for the beef brisket, which remains my favorite. Some batches of brisket are fattier than others. At this price point, I’m not complaining.
As described in my previous review, the banchan (complimentary Korean side dishes) remains mostly the same. The dishes include green salad, kimchi, pickled bean sprouts, seaweed, tofu skin, pickles, shredded daikon, and sliced red daikon. While basic, the banchan is typically fresh. I’m a big fan of the crisp green salad. Piping hot soup is also served and cooked kimchi is optional.
Meat condiments include salted and peppered oil, Korean soybean powder, fermented soybean paste, sliced jalapeño, and raw garlic. Korean hot sauce is available upon request.
As always, each table is equipped with a call button for quick service. And don’t forget — Star Daepo is open late, every night. For additional thoughts and comments on this restaurant, please refer to my original review below. Except for pricing, most of it is still accurate.