Camellia Buffet

Everything was good, staff very attentive great price too. I am here for 3 more days and I will be back to eat here.

It’s a great place to get yakinuku for all you can e as t. They have great Korean side dishes, soups, and meat and vegetable options. They always change the grill when it gets dirty and make sure the containers are full.

Been eating this place for many years basically not thing change but getting less now! Also child over 8 years old charge as adult 27.99 because they don’t provide children price ! May be thats why they lose so many business from locally ! Also I notice they have tour buss bring in tourism and they don’t paid as regular price as we do, so owner might cut some corner on foods! but service still good !!

The quality of the meat for the bbq is good, but unfortunately we spent more than half an hour trying to get the bbq thingy to heat up, which was annoying and then after that only one side of the heater was cooking.

The lady said tip not included in tab payed at the register. told her I left it on the table. so glad it wasn’t going to her. food is good service is good but that lady kinda ruined for me bleh.

Despite the negative reviews, i went here for the first time.
Be one of the first ones there and the food is great.
The closeness of the raw to cooked food is a bit scary in a buffet scenario. If you come later in the day, be careful, as some people do not consider the possibility of cross-​contamination or just dont care.
Regardless, i consider this place a hidden gem in our area and we will definitely be coming back.

Terrible service, food selection was ok, poor parking, for the most part over priced and overrated. Can’t see us going back.

I’m so glad they got rid of the person just standing by and distributing the meat. I only eat pork belly and he wouldn’t give me more until I ate what he had give me (maybe 6 pieces). I starve myself before I go to yakiniku so I can stuff my face, okay!
But anyway, I like that you CAN take what you want. Gets rid of the possibility of being charged for more than what you can eat (like in places that serve in pre-​set plates). I mean, if you take responsibly, anyway. We came in after the marathon last week and 4 of us had run. On the first lap around the meat and sides stations we probably had about 10 plates (and got more later). They let us stuff our faces and came back to change our grills a few times. Left us with water pitchers since our party of 6 frequently needed water. Some may not like that, but I like being left alone to stuff my face with meat after running 26 miles. They’re also a bit cheaper than some other yakiniku places. Also, they have sekihan and self-​serve ice cream!

Forget this place! I got the worst food poisoning I’ve ever had at this gosh darn place! Seriously! Puking for over a week straight. The crazy thing is I’m a vegetarian and only had the veggies and starch. I got really ill from the wakame I’m thinking because I was puking green all week.
Food poisoning is just the worst.

It’s not the best Korean yakiniku place, but for lunch, I believe this is the cheapest place that serves pork belly and thinly sliced beef brisket ($ 18.95 currently). At this price, it’s 3 stars. However, they’re running a coupon in the paper and online where lunch is $ 14. I’ve been going here more often because of that.
Likes: Decent selection of meats during lunch (no kalbi). Good selection of sides, and since it’s buffet style, I don’t need to ask the waiter for refills on my sides. They also give you sesame oil.
Dislikes: They don’t give tongs at the table for cooking. The tongs in the meat area are questionable, as I’m sure they’ve dropped in the meat. I always wash my hands after getting meat and before I proceed to the rest of the buffet. It can get really smoky here if they get busy.
Favorites: Pork belly and brisket.
Get the coupon. For $ 13, it’s a really good deal for all you can eat yakiniku. Just be wary of the tongs in the meat section. Going close to opening is better too since it’s not smoky yet and not as crowded.

Only 2 stars because they ripped us off.
Had a coupon going on now on their website for $ 23 dinner instead of $ 28. They still charged us $ 28 per adult. AND it was my dads 80^th birthday and we asked for the discount when you have 8 or more people (we had 9) the lady lied to us and refuse us a discount saying we needed 10 people. THEN why does your website state 8 or more!?!
Ugh get with it

All you can eat plus cook your own meat. This was a great place for an awesome price. Maybe a little changes on the seafood section. But overall they had a lot of variety food to choose from.

When my husband & I took a trip to Oahu for the labor day weekend to help celebrate our new marriage with our friends & family I planned a get together brunch with them.
Due to having a big group I had to put down a deposit of $ 100 to reserve a section, I live on Maui so I had to call it in & use my credit card to hold it.
When we got there I was really excited to see everyone & eat of course (lol), there wasnt much food selection & no ice cream (only dinner time). we had to cook our own meat with no tongs so instead we used chop sticks ?! but the good part our waitress came by couple times to change out the plates on our grill. They didnt really have good selections on the fruit either, pretty sad. Dont eat the Jello over there, it tastes awful, The kids wouldnt even go near it.
I am very upset with the customer service over there mostly towards the Owner of the place. Everybody was paying their own bill until the owner got into it with my mom & sister about their bill, on their check it was party of 4 but it was suppose to be 2 & the owner still wanted my sister to pay the extra 2 even though it was already paid by my 2 friends that left early.
When it was my turn to pay for my bill (3 adults & 2 kids) the owner got into it with me about the issue with missing 2 earlier from my sisters bill, she would not back down admitting that she was wrong & started talking shit in Korean with her other waitresses. I will not stand for that kind of attitude, at the end of that she finally dropped it but it didnt stop there my $ 100 deposit i wanted to put it towards my bill & again she gave me that look like she doesnt know what i am talking about. She told me she has no record of that until one of the waitress told her that i did put down a deposit (not organized). She expected me to pay extra on top of that the missing 2.
I will not be eating there again due to bad customer service, that is a shame. I will be trying the Stadium Mall next time.

When my older sister flew down from Maui, she decided to hold a friends and family gathering here at Camellia Buffet at McCully for lunch. Because my sister was reserving for a large party, she had to put down a $ 100 deposit to save our seats. It’s been years since I’ve been to this location and I remember it being a little run-​down, but how can you say no to an AYCE yakiniku for under $ 20 for lunch?
Right off the corner of McCully St and Algaroba St, their parking lot is tiny and the road is pretty buss up. Luckily, they weren’t as busy for lunch when we went, so we had the pick of the litter for parking. Before we got the go to start grabbing food at the buffet line, our waitress took count on who was on each check. Because we were all on separate tables, but in the same area, I made sure to let the waitress know I was covering both myself and my mom who was sitting on another table. To verify she got it, I held up 2 fingers and pointed to the lady I was talking about who I was going to pay for and the waitress shook her head, confirming she understood what I was requesting.
We then headed to the buffet line where there was a variety of uncooked meats, vegetables, cooked foods, soup and rice. Unfortunately, their ice cream machine was closed since it’s only available for dinner. Boo. But due to that, diners are allowed to bring their own cake.
After getting all our foods to cook, we realized they don’t even have tongs. We were told we had to use our chopsticks to cook. How you gonna have your diners cook with wooden chopsticks? Wood vs. the fire in the grill… not so smart. But whatever, we were hungry so we just cooked with what we got. Our waitress came by a couple times to change out the plates on our grill, which was good as it got charred pretty quickly. The quality of the meats here were just ok. And there was nothing special about their cooked items.
As we were getting ready to check out, the waitress had laid out everyone’s checks on the table. But I couldn’t find mine. I then checked the table my mom was sitting at, and in front of her was a check for a party of 4. The couple next to my mom didn’t have a check, so we assumed it was them that was accounted for the party of 4. That couple had to leave early before the rest of us, so they paid the cashier without a check before they left. As I went up to pay a little after, I explained to the cashier that there was a mistake on my check and that I was only supposed to pay for 2 people, not 4. And that the other 2 were possibly the couple that paid earlier. She then started to argue with me that I had to pay for 4 people. I’m assuming she’s the owner since I saw her face on a magazine that was hanging on their wall behind the cash register. She was rude, unprofessional and kept yelling in Korean. My mom then got involved and we continued to tell her we were NOT going to pay for 4 as I had specified earlier that I was only paying for 2 people. The waitress then had to go back to our party to take count of everyone. After she realized she made a mistake on my check, she crossed off the 4 and wrote 2. I then went back to that rude lady to pay and she still gave me attitude as she asked «so you’re only paying for 2 then?» ah obviously the waitress crossed off the 4 to correct her mistake!
If you enjoy mediocre korean yakiniku with really bad customer service, then be my guest and give them your business. As for me and my family, we refuse to ever come back… the Camellia at Stadium is soooooo much better!

Went there last night with a group of friends. I mostly ate kalbi, with some of the other beef products they had along with lettuce, some veggies and miso paste. The food tasted pretty good.
The priceing though was fairly expensive at 29 dollars a person an any kid older than 9 is considered an adult and cost more so tell your 9 – 11 year olds to say they are 8.
What was not enjoyable was from about the 2.5 hours after I left, all the way through the night and into mid morning that I spent pissing out my ass from food poisoning. That was not enjoyable at all. Needless to say I won’t return to that location. This is coming from someone who has eaten street food, in foreign countries including several on the Asian continent so it’s not like I have a weak gut.
Needless to say I won’t return as it’s not worth the risk, and yes all of the meat was cooked all of the way through and I was using separate utensils for eating and and cooking the food.

I met up with some co-​workers for dinner here. This place was just ok for me. They had a variety of foods but most of it just didn’t appeal to me. I mostly ate the kalbi, pork belly and squid which you had to cook yourself on the grill. The kalbi was marinated in a tasty sauce. The pork belly and squid weren’t marinated at all. I cooked it on the grill and just dipped it in a miso and shoyu sauce combo.
They also had fried chicken, orange chicken, onion rings and some other noodle dishes that were already cooked. I didn’t try any of it because it didn’t look too appetizing. My husband ate the orange chicken and said that it was soggy. Yuck!
For dessert, they only had vanilla ice cream from the soft serve machine. I added some pineapple slices to it and it was perfection. They also had this sweet, rice and ginger drink that most Korean places serve you after dinner to cleanse your palate.
The guy that showed us to our seats was really nice. He came a couple of times to fill our water and change out the plates on the grill. However, the guy standing behind the cashier had a snotty attitude. I wasn’t feeling him at all. He didn’t smile the whole time. When he brought the check over, he just gave me this smirk when I asked for separate checks. We just ended up paying one big bill. I won’t be back here anytime soon. The yakiniku at Stadium Mall was so much better.

My parents like to come here and often will call me to invite them for dinner. The location is easy, a few minutes off the freeway on mccully. Parking is kind of sketch, watch out for reserved stalls so you don’t get towed.
The tables here are pretty clean. The staff changes out the stove tops when it starts to get too dirty.
You have to cook your own food here.
The cold section selections are OK. Mixed fruits, salads, different Kim chee, jello, traditional Korean side dishes: bean sprouts, cuttlefish, seaweed, potato.
The meat selection is different now. Due to health codes, you have to be served the different meats by a restaurant worker. It’s no longer grab your own. You can always ask for more than what they give you. Side note: if you waste food, there will be a surcharge, so don’t overdo it.
I liked the spicy pork. I wish there was more fat on the meat. They also had pork belly, bulgogi and chicken.
Dessert is just soft serve ice cream. No condiments.
Staff is pleasant, they keep your cups filled and take plates away frequently.

During my lifetime I have been to Yakiniku Camellia exactly one thousand times. Well, perhaps not quite that much but that’s what it feels like. It was a family favorite.
WAS.
A few days ago we had visitors from Fiji who were dying to have some kalbi before heading back home. Apparently Fiji has no kalbi. There’s actually a LOT of things Fiji doesn’t have. It does have lots of coconuts. And huts.
Anyway.
We went down to Camellia despite it’s current $ 19 cost for lunch so we could have a feast of unlimited Kalbi. But guess what? They no longer have kalbi during lunchtime! Is it on their website? Yes. Is it in their buffet line? No. No it is not. They want you to pay $ 18 to eat mediocre chicken and bulgogi or what looked liked a Panda Express-​esque Chinese spread, which I suppose would be worth it if you ate lots and lots of food, but is definitely not worth it for me. Or the rest of my family who always only ate kalbi at Camelias.
Besides that, they wanted to charge me $ 15 for my FOUR YEAR OLD. What?!! My four year old can eat, maybe, three-​fourths of a piece of chicken. You’re going to charge me $ 15 for a one piece of chicken and half a scoop of rice? What are you, the Neiman Marcus of Korean food?
Suffice to say we decided to eat elsewhere and will probably not return. Ever. Unless it’s free.

Don’t do it. Went there today for a late lunch after a doctor’s appointment. My friend suggested Camellia’s since we’d been craving for Korean food and hadn’t been here in awhile. I jumped on Unilocal to see what time they closed and the time advertised was 230pm we had 10 mins to get there. The advertised sign also said they reopened at 3pm so we decided to take our chances. Once there the sign on the door said open from 10am — 10pm. My friend asked the waitress about the time and was told they’re open just that they charge dinner prices $ 25.99 from 230pm. Seems a bit excessive to be charging dinner prices at 230 in the afternoon but oh well.
It’s your basic all you can eat buffet. Pile your plate up with different seasoned meats & raw veggies to grill. There’s also your standard side dishes you’d find at any Korean restaurant. Seaweed soup, miso soup, rice and brown rice all sit in a cooker. Plenty of tables that will accommodate large groups. Ambience is casual. Wear something casual cuz you’ll smell like Korean BBQ after.
There were a few tables occupied when we got there but it looked like they were finishing up. By the time we got our plates of food, the restaurant was empty except for us. The plates were sticky on the bottom like they hadn’t been scrubbed properly. Kinda grossed me out. My grandmother use to make me scrub the bottom of the plates in her restaurant and she would check to make sure it passed her standards. Maybe that’s why I have a problem with plates being sticky on the bottom. Thanks obaachan.
The unseasoned kalbi was frozen and so was the pork belly meat. At least I knew they weren’t sitting out forever so I went for that. I asked the waitress for some sesame oil and salt dipping sauce and was met with a sourly «it’s on your table». Sheesh, someone was having a bad day. When I went back to our table I saw that they did put the dipping sauce on our table but it was barely enough to dip a couple of pieces of meat.
Service straight up sucked even though we were the only table there. Not once did they come over to refill our waters or drinks nor did they take away our dirty plates or change the grill like they do during dinner service… oh wait technically it was dinner service. There was a young kid there who I assumed was one of the waitress’s son since he was calling her «omma» more like yelling it at the top of his lungs. He was running around the restaurant and she was shouting at him. Then 2 waitresses were arguing in Korean at least that’s what it sounded like.
The one and only time anyone approached our table was to tell/​ask us if we were done cooking and before we could really answer she turned off the grill and took away some plates. Great customer service skills. I didn’t want to eat anymore after I saw what happened.
What happened… a waitress was sweeping the floor and took that same broom and swept a table. My friend had pointed out about her sweeping while customers were eating and when I looked over, we both saw it. My jaw hit the table. Really? Do you realize you have customers dining and can see you? Another waitress was adjusting her socks & shoes, ran her hands thru her hair and then started touching the food without washing her hands. Eeww. My friend said when he came out of the bathroom the employee that was in there didn’t wash his hands either. So we surmised nobody who works there washes their hands nor do they care.,
I have a problem with restaurants who don’t practice good sanitary habits. It tells me they’re lazy and don’t give two cents about their restaurant. It also tells me that it’s probably very dirty in the back of the house. After witnessing this, my advice is to stay away. Sure it’s all you can eat and you can try a variety of things but for the price you’re better off going somewhere else with a few friends and ordering ala carte to share. I’m disappointed. I use to like coming here but now it’s just not worth it.

Four Stars for Camellia Buffet. This restaurant has been a family favorite for years. It’s an AYCE Korean BBQ Restaurant that offers generous selections of foods. Adults $ 25.95, Children (younger than 12) $ 17.95. Be sure to check your Wednesday paper (Mid-​Week Section) and get the 10% off coupon.
For the meats — they have a wide selection of «kalbi», bulgogi, spicy pork, pork bacon, chicken, and marinated boneless beef (chuck steak cuts marinated). The meats are well marinated and sits upon a nice bed of ice to keep it cold (and safe).
** Not the highest quality of meat (especially galbi, which was thick slabs of tough-​ish meat), but what can you expect from an AYCE restaurant.
For the panchans — HUGE! They have summer kim chee, two kinds of regular kim chee (made with Napa Cabbage and regular cabbage), wakame /​seaweed, cucumber, bean sprouts, potatoes, and the list goes on! There must be like 25−30+ different types of goodies to choose from.
** Love the panchan section, as there is something for everyone.
For the veggies — I love it how they have a large bin of clean whole romaine lettuce so that you can wrap your meat and panchan. There are also onions, mushrooms, bellpeppers, zucchinis, etc.
** Fresh veggies, and a lot of them.
For the desserts — they have the Korean Rice Drink, cherry jello, orange jello, fresh cut pineapple, oranges, and soft serve ice cream.
** Not my favorite — the jellos were warm, the soft serve was tasteless.
If you come here for dinner, go early! There are often tour busses that drop off hoards of visitors.
Service — I’ve always experienced very quiet (and somewhat grumpy) Korean ladies that work here. This time, there was this super cool and friendly local guy who provided really good service. He pampered our mom throughout her meal. I learned that they share tips, so I slipped him an extra 10% of our bill tab (in addition to the 25% that we left for tip for the crew). Thanks brotha!
Food Grade: B/​B–
Service Grade: B+ (Don’t forget to tip your waiter if he is good.)
Worth the Money Grade: B
Overall Impression Grade: B