Cho Dae Bak BBQ

Writing this review a few years too late it seems. RIP CDB.
Wasn’t really impressed w/​the selection of meats offered. many cuts were really fatty. which is delicious, but only to a point.

DO NOT EAT HERE! They serve old meat especially to foreigners (Non-​Koreans). I never leave reviews but when you feed me POISON in exchange for my hard earned MONEY, you deserve a bad review. This place is filthy, tables and menus were greasy. I can only imagine how bad the kitchen is. I’ll be calling them and demanding my money back or I’m calling the FDA!

Good, you get full, sweet staff! ENjoy

Came here twice
1 good experience; 1 bad experience
bad experience overrides the former though
took FOREVER to bring food; had to order multiple times
SMH

Terrible service. Dirty tables, floors, and menu.
We were hurriedly seated on a Saturday night. No long lines, just a stressed out server who wanted to get us seated – nevermind the meat on the floor and wet table. A wet menu was placed on the table, and we decided on the «top tier» selections at $ 18.99 per person because my son is going through a seafood only phase… don’t ask.
After miming for some glasses to pour the water from the container placed on our table into, three wet glasses were placed on our table – there were four in our party. The banchan came out and we proceeded dig in. I looked around and all of the other tables had rice and salad. I tried to get the attention of the server and he said, hurriedly, «Give me a minute».
You have to ask for rice and salad, apparently, because when I finally heard back from a different server, I was told you have to ask for it. For $ 18.99 per person, you’d think a small bowl of rice would be included automatically. I’m not even talking about refills, just a bowl of rice per person. And a salad, family style. $ 18.99 pp! But I digress…
When the food was finally cooked our banchan was all finished. I looked for a server. Ours was out of sight or helping other tables. Finally I rang that obnoxious bell at the end if the table to call for service — there’s something inhumane about that thing. We asked for more meat and refills on the banchan. 15 minutes later, nothing. Other tables were being served and I was pissed. I stood up, ready to leave and a server came over and asked if we wanted more meat. Arrrgh!
I was done. I won’t come back. I’m not surprised about the B rating. I was so focused on the lack of service, inflated price, and the uncleanliness that I didn’t even notice if the food was decent. I hardly ate any of it anyway.
As the $ 75 bill was paid, the server said, «sorry». Yeah buddy, me too.

Ok I have some very good and some very bad things to say about this place.
Let me set this up with a little bit of information for you. I LOVE KBBQ. I mean with a passion this is one of my favorite things to go eat, but I dont do it often as I end up eating way way way too much. Just as I did here. However I was very very disappointed in several things while here.
They have absolutely deplorable customer service!
*We were told, when we requested more of the garlic soy dipping sauce, that we could only have more when we finished what we had. Well that was finished in about 5 or 6 pieces of brisket. This put things on a very very bad footing. Since we then had to let our food get cold before we could eat it =(
*They do not have rice paper here
*They sometimes ignore you when you are requesting something
*We asked for several items that they forgot to bring us (soups) since they didnt write anything down
*They have two styles of grills, the style with massive grates were all smoking horribly around the restaurant, whereas the type that we had was great.
*They have the AC cranked down to like 50 inside and its nigh impossible to eat without your jacket on. I love the cold and I was freezing in here!
*There was no consistency on the quantity of grub that they brought out to us on any request that we had.
*They are not able to tell us what all the items are in english. For example abomasum was clueless for what it was. I think it is cow stomach, but I am not sure about that. Regardless it was not tasty.
*They brought all the inital meats on one tray with chicken in the middle so that everything must be super cooked since chicken blood/​juice was circulated across everything on the tray
Pro Tip: They do not accept AmEx but they do accept Discover, Visa, Mastercard, and cash.
Parking was an absolute breeze in the strip mall that they are located in. There was no wait to get seated. However we did have to wait a bit to get some grub.
The good:
*We were seated immediately
*The soy dipping sauce was outstanding (ohhh to have had rice paper to go with it)
*The brisket was sliced extremely thin allowing for great taste
*The griddle at our table did not smoke at all even on the 4^th or 5^th helping of food, without changing it!
*They had super thinly sliced radishes included in the banchan.
*The bulgogi was quite tasty for the beef (the chicken had zero taste)
*The onion heart was extremely tasty after being grilled
Overall this place had good tasting food for the most part. But the poor service, the lack of attention from the serving staff, and the absolutely frozen demeanor/​environment has made me and my friend who went with me decide that there is no reason to go back regardless of the great brisket and bulgogi beef.
Too bad since its always a great thing to find a nice $ 9.99 kbbq without a crowd. We had thought that we had potentially hit the jackpot here… but apparently not.

Oh boy. I took my dad here for the All-​You-​Can-​Eat dinner for his bday, and the moment I sat down, saw the dirty tables, and the menu, I knew I made a mistake. I should have driven down a little further to Moo Dae Po 2, but my choice was made since it is so conveniently right off the 101 freeway…
Here’s the problem with this place. There isn’t much banchan, maybe like kimchee, potato salad, and just a few other side dishes. The food is very low-​quality. The kimchee was old (and that says ALOT since it’s KIMCHEE), as the meat wasn’t good either. The pork neck and belly were a little too fat laden, the beef, I had to spit it out a few times as it was a little too chewy.
If you’re going to drop $ 18.99 for all-​you-​can –eat, it is much worth to drive a few extra miles for better food, livelier atmosphere (many BBQ restaurants will have some fun TV), and cleaner area. This IS «B» grade.
I do up it a star (one star total), because the waitress does try to help with the cookin’. Maybe it’s cause she has more time on her hands however and I’d trade being the chef for quality and taste anyday.

Not the best quality meat, not the best service, and certainly a crappy parking lot. Not a lot of banchan, but they do refill. Aaaaand they refill egg — boom! Slow service, and slow for the food to come out, and you won’t get the same quality meat every time.
However, for a Laker game, and for $ 10, we’ll take it.
Group tables are for no bigger than 6 or 8, so if you’re more than that, you will have to split tables, just an FYI. We’ve never ordered above the $ 10 level, so can’t say how the rest of that meat is, but the brisket & marinated brisket are good enough to keep us coming back every few weeks or so.
If you can find parking, give it a shot. It’s definitely not as packed as other AYCE places.

Went for a friends bday. Everyone loved it! The BBQ thing is embedded into the table so that you don’t have this weird obstruction between you and folks across the table when talking. All the little sides were great
The menu is not very veg-​friendly, but that shouldn’t be expected at a Korean BBQ. Since the little plates are endless, you will survive:)
So if you eat meat and love it, this is the place for you!
The menu has 3 – 4 categories or levels. Each one is a different price depending on the meats that you want so that makes it really easy to pick what you’ll have. Since it’s all you can eat, everyone at hte table has to get the same category/​level.
It’s a family owned business that just recently opened. Kinda random but worth noting, the inside walls are cute

I visited this AYCE KBBQ after a hike with my boyfriend because we all know that the best thing after a hike is a lot of good food. I was actually really surprised that this place wasn’t as crowded when we first came in, but by the time we left the place was popping.
This place gives you three different deals with varying prices. We chose the cheapest one because we don’t really care for the more premium choices and it filled us up. The side dishes were really interesting and I tasted some stuff that I haven’t seen before. There was dish cilantro salad that was off the hook but maybe that was because I love cilantro. There was also this tomato salad that was delicious. This place is also unique in the sense that they give you this steamed egg that finishes cooking at the table.
The service was excellent. I bothered my server like crazy because we were devouring everything and needed refills constantly. One bad thing was that, they didn’t have anymore rice paper left for the meat. I mean how could they run out of that? But they were nice enough when I requested some lettuce leaves instead.
Super solid AYCE KBBQ place without hurting your wallet or that long of a wait. ⁴⁄₅

This place is solid for AYCE Korean BBQ. They have great deals and varying price levels for those looking for the basic meats versus those who want things more top-​grade. Even the cheapest option brought us plates upon plates of fresh meats. The sliced beef brisket, pork belly, and marinated short rib were amazing. There was also large chicken breast and thighs, as well as marinated chicken. The marinated chicken didn’t look too great. The banchan selection was superb, even if lacking in bean sprouts when I went. From what I can remember, there was boiled spinach with sesame, cilantro with dressing, tomatoes with dressing, pickled daikon and carrot, pickled pink radish, kimchi, bok choy kimchi, dried anchovies, pasta salad. The salad was nice and fresh too. One thing I wish they had was lettuce leaves for wrapping.

Premium AYCE: $ 24.95
Plus:
1) Prime Outside Skirt (highly recommended-​tender & juicy with its unique flavor)
2) Tongue
Okay:
1) Ribeye (They say Prime Ribeye, but it’s def not!!! It’s tender but doesn’t have marbling like USDA Prime Ribeye. I think it’s just angus choice ribeye or something. Don’t BS!!)
2) Kimchi (literally it’s just ok compared to other banchans)
Bad:
1) CAB Short Rib & CAB Soy Marinated Short Rib (Too thin. Too much fat. Is that really Certified Angus Beef??? or kitchen staff doesn’t even know how to cut and trim short ribs properly?)
2) Jowl meat (Cheek): Fat part should be trimmed well. After trimming with scissors by myself, then meat was as big as my pinkie.
3) Service: only 2 servers took care of the entire tables for lunch time (they were about 40% packed.) service was slow and a waitress even dropped a grill right next to my friend’s feet! they made us so anxious every time they replaced grills. F***!!!
Worst:
1) 3 Flavored Premium Pork Belly (flabby and marination failed)
2) Seafood Noodle soup (basically a lot of hondashi + jalepeno slices soup)
3) Banchans: Terrible period.
4) Grill: burned so quickly and couldn’t transfer heat appropriately.

Solid AYCE experience – and I am not generally a fan of AYCE Korean BBQ places.
We got the 2day coupon thing, so got the Premium menu for $ 18/​person. Meat quality was all good – above the typical scary AYCE «parts» selection. For us (with two teenage sons whose gullets need filling), this place is a great balance of AYCE value with actually decent food.

Decent meat, lots of choices but…
So we got the coupon from
for the premium selection. I was excited and was eager to try the soy marinated crab… One of my favorite dishes of all time. All the different choices like the steamed seafood, acorn jelly dishes and kimchi fried rice made the place seem very appealing.
When we arrived, there was only one other table seated… We had to wait and ask for water and then wait again for the banchan, however the service got better as the meal went on, and ironically as the restaurant started filling up.
The banchan was okay. They had my favorite butter cheese corn (like from the bars in Ktown) so I was excited… My 2 year old loved it too. They had 2 banchans that puzzled me, a marinated cilantro dish and a tomato cilantro salad. Koreans don’t cook with cilantro so it was interesting. They had a broccoli salad, radish salad, kimchi, macaroni salad, and jap-​chae as well.
The meat selection was large, I would say about 28 different choices. However a lot of the choices were the same meat with marinade and without. We started off with the chadol or thinly sliced brisket and it was very good. The meat came on a huge tray beautifully plated with a veggie shish kebab as well. The Ju-​mu-​ruk was very good, the marinade was awesome.
The marinated Gal-​bi was meh– the meat was sliced too thick and the marinade had too much ginger. In fact everything was overpowered with ginger. The soy marinated crab was so gingery that it numbed my tastebuds.
The pork was very delicious though and can’t remember what we got but it was very well seasoned. We didn’t have room to try the pork belly bc I wanted to try the other non meat dishes so we switched over to the non meat dishes on the menu, from 29 to 30 something. I would say about 6 choices including naeng-​myun which wasnt on the menu… But available
The steam eggs come in an old school yellowish tin «ramen» pot and is finished at the table over a sterno burner… It was so good. Very soft and custardy.
The kimchi pancake was just okay. As was the bi-​bim naeng-​myun, it was good but not great. We were too full to try much more… I wanted to try the spicy rice cakes and the acorn jelly… But I just couldn’t. I almost want to say there were too many choices. I wish they focused on a few items and did them properly versus doing too many choices but most of them were just okay. I almost felt overwhelmed with choices.
We noticed we were like the ONLY Koreans at the restaurant… And I laughed to see a table grilling their soy marinated crab ON the grill. Overall I would say the quality of the meat was very good, although sometimes the way it was cut and marinated ruined the overall taste. The banchan was okay aside from the strange cilantro ones, but given that there were more non Koreans there… It might appeal to the Spanish or Filapino population. The non meat dishes were average or over average but there was just too many choices.
I gave it a 3 but my husband gave it a 4 so its more of a 3.5 rounded up

Do you like
green eggs and ham?
I do not like them, Sam-​I-​am.
I do not like
green eggs and ham.
Then how about green pork? No thanks.
Also for 19.99, their selection wasn’t great. There were more marinated meats (I prefer non-​marinated to taste quality). I was particularly craving beef tongue and to get something basic like that, you have to opt for $ 24.99.
…Have you really checked your surrounding competitors in ktown?
They carry «Sam Saik» [3 flavors (colors) of pork belly]. Using 4 of the same meats, but in different marinades as your meat options. quite a rip off.
RIP Soot Bul Gui Rim 2!

Okay this place replaces my old SBGR2. I went there a few months ago and the place was under construction, so I thought I would come back to a new look of the restaurant. But NOOO, the same place is now a different place, but it still serves AYCE k-​bbq.
However, there are a few important things you need to consider before coming here.
We sat down and took a look at the menu. There are two menus for dinner.
My boyfriend took one menu in his hand, turned to me, and said «the price went up to $ 19.99». Looking at the number made my heart stop a beat. I skimmed through the rest of the items on that menu and saw no bulgogi and beef tongue. I turned to my bf and asked him for clarification. Indeed, there was no beef at all. We were a little shocked. Suddenly, I remembered and grabbed the other menu. This one was premium and it costs $ 24.99. OMG! We were this close to stand up and leave the restaurant. but we thought to ourselves, «well, since we are here, might just stay and try their food». There are 31 items on this premium menu, choices from beef, chicken, to pork. Also, they serve unlimited kimchi fried rice, dukbokki (spicy rice cake), steamed egg, veggie pancake, etc… these items fill you up fast, so we only ordered once, except twice for the pancake.
We went with the $ 24.99.
They don’t really have bulgogi here which is my most favorite Korean beef dish. They serve a similar kind but lots of fat tissues. Ewww! Marinated kalbi is very much tender and delicious. Kimchi fried rice is flavorful. Some of their banchans I’ve never seen before and they taste great. They don’t have kimchi. OMG. Minus 1 star. What kind of Korean restaurant that doesn’t have kimchi in their banchans?
Customer service is a okay-​good during such busy Friday night hours. Attentive and fast.
Overall, the experience was all right. A 3-​star worth dining. With the same amount of money with tax and tips, we could have been paying for 3 people, but now it only works for two excluding tax and tips. So I end up giving this place 2 stars.
CDB is wayyyy tooo expensive for a AYCE K-​BBQ place, unless you want to pay $ 24.99.

I live very near this restaurant. I was used to going all the time when it was under the previous owner. I was a little off put when I first went for dinner there because I was used to the old place and I did not know they changed owners.
The service was very good. The waiters were kinda handsome too =)
It is a little more pricey than what I am used to. The lunch specials are pretty affordable and great, but dinner is $ 19.99 and up. However, it is worth it. The meat was all prime cuts, lean, fresh and delicious. The bulgogi was perfectly marinated.
Panchan was mostly good. I was not a fan of the kim chi there and the steam egg could have been better. However, they offered great kimchi fried rice, glass noodles, and other dishes that are normally not included with AYCE KBBQ. It also includes shabu shabu.
TL; DR: I definitely recommend it. If you don’t want to deal with a noisy crowd, come here. This place is a better quality, even if it costs more. Nice, fresh, prime cuts of meat, nice crisp vegetables and side dishes, good service, etc.

I have been to this place for lunch.
They had 5.99 soup and korean dishes such as bibimbap, jjikae and other kinds of soups.
We chose to have 7.99 sauteed brisket. and my sister ordered thin-​sliced-​pork
We were able to see what is cooking in front of us and their banchan (sidedishes) looked okay and servers were atttentive.
Other than spicy sauce they put in the pan, the food we ordered were good.(with little bit of noodles, leeks, sweet potato, rice cakes)
Other options for lunch are 9.99 bbq (not all you can eat)
and 12.99 All you can eat.
I think this restaurant draws a lot of Philippinos since the mall they are located in had a lot of Phillipino supermarket and restaurant.s.(wait. are those Vietnamese? I am little confused. anyways.)
For lunch, they have good food at reasonable prices. I want to try their AYCE at dinner next time;)

You’ve all tried various AYCE Korean BBQ and have a favorite restaurant, but I personally LOVE this place.
High quality meat, very tender and delicious, restaurant with lots of good banchan.
If you are looking for cheap $ 10 AYCE with lots of fats and chews like rubber band, this isn’t place for you!

This place just opened replacing the old SBGR2. I think theyve been open for a little over a week now.
I was somewhat excited to check this place out since i was a regular at the last restaurant[i was the duke :(].
I finally got a chance to check it out and was hoping for something similar to the last restaurant but a bit refreshed. What i got was pretty much the same place with the glass in the middle taken down, lights added and table grills changed. Pretty much everything else looked the same including the same chairs and tables.
I actually never got to sample their food. The problem was that the prices were much too high. I really think they need to add some lower priced options like most all the other AYCE KBBQ places in ktown do. From what i remember, the lowest priced option was 19.99. This was an absolute shock because i was used to paying 10.99 for the 4 meat option just a few weeks back. The 19.99 option included a LOT of different kinds of meat. If i were to guess there were almost 20. I eat at most 2 – 3 different types when i go so this was pretty useless for me.
I felt bad but i had to get up and leave as i am not about to pay 18 dollars (for two) extra for stuff that i would not be eating.
Hopefully they will change up their options in the future since they just opened and they may be tweaking things.
oh btw, i was hoping that they would have kept the old wait staff but i’m guessing they did not as i did not see any of them that night.
*changed it from 2 stars to 3 stars since the place is so new.
**geez, what’s with all the fake reviews? all the 5 star reviews are people that are friends with each other and with only one or very few reviews. :|