Hansong Buffet

First, this restaurant has a HUGE parking lot: major plus since its in LA. Food selection is good. Food is fresh and not salty (something that I find to be often the case of buffet food).
Its a great place to have get-​togethers.

Been here twice, once on a week night and second time for a first birthday banquet… Big beautiful place. Service is mediocre. Food… well not much to choose from…
I mostly ate california rolls. It’s REALLY crowded here on the weekends with tons of first bdays party… so be prepared for the crowd!

This place is under new ownership… and has changed the name to Secret Garden.
Location is not that great… kinda in the ghetto between k-​town and spanish town.
Outside looks kinda ghetto… but interior looks nice.
In regards to food… its okay… i went there for a lunch buffet and it has what you need but not the best.
If you want to eat alot but dont care about the quality then this is the place for you.
Overall: Theres better buffets than this one in LA… just ok… your not missing much if you dont come here.

Ew… this place blows.
Came by for my bf’s uncle birthday. We had made a reservation so ended up getting one of the private rooms for larger parties. The location is prime spot in Koreatown. Large parking (which you have to valet), easy to find and clean. A large patio area that can hold a moderate sized wedding reception or, more often than not, a babys first birthday, which is HUGE in Korean culture, equivalent to a quinceanera or a sweet 16. When I came they were holding one such birthday in the outermost private room. An asian-​infused garden stocked with a mini creek (dirty) and bridge adds to the ambiance that gives the place some promise.
I race over to the buffet line and start off with some sushi, the usual: salmon, tuna, yellowfish. Unlike most buffets, however, this place has sashimi (rawfish without the ball of rice beneath), displayed in the most unappetizing fashion. PASS. The sushi wasn’t terrible but basically you have one criteria that most buffets miss… freshness. They also have the shucked oysters (which I just can’t get myself to touch at any buffet) and endless crab legs that are always a hit. EDIBLE
Moving on, the traditional korean variety of japchae, bossam, korean pancakes, fried yams and potatoes. EDIBLE
The salad counter was fine. they actually had a bit of variety when it came to toppings, but I got pretty cheesed they had only 3 types of dressing: sesame, italian and ranch. Wheres the thousand island? I’m at a buffet… isnt thousand island a staple in these areas? SMH
Now we move on to the brazilian food. I should’ve just waited for them to cook up the new batch because the tenderloin I got was tough as leather. The salsa was a bit too sweet for my taste but the cheeseballs were decent. EDIBLE
Soups… clam chowder tasted like cheese. Udon is just heated up water. BLANDDDD. Mulnengmyun (cold noodle soup) was just cold water. BLANDDDDDD. I’ve had better prepackaged frozen varieties than this. AVOID ALL
Chinese food: fried rice, green bean chicken and orange chicken, were the most neglected of all the stations. It came as no surprise that they have been sitting out there for a bit. PASS
My favorite part of a buffet is the desert section. This one would be laughable if it weren’t for the mochi and the frozen yogurt, which were both tasty.
This place has been around for years and years and years but probably under some other name. My review won’t make a dent in their customer base since the place is largely for old timer koreans and big group gatherings such as a funeral, wedding and birthdays. The part that is mind boggling is the price… any buffet upwards of $ 30 should taste better than this crud.

If you ever want to know where all the old Korean folk are on the weekends, here’s your answer: they’re all HERE at Hansong gorging on the buffet.
I had never heard of this place before, but I went with hubby to meet his family there for a birthday celebration. The place itself is huge, tons of tables plus private rooms. They also have a fancy garden when you walk up to the entrance. I was told a lot of funeral parties come here to eat after services… interesting.
We had a private room for our party of about 12, so it was nice and intimate. Now on to the spread!
There actually was a lot more food than I thought there would be: short ribs, sushi, crab salad were among the most memorable. Hubby said the quality of the food has gotten better, since it was my first time, I didn’t find it to be bad. They had mini green tea cupcakes and froyo too for dessert. Service was alright, we had plates taken away and tea glasses refilled pretty regularly. I guess the biggest complaint is the price, though I have to say, it’s about the same as those other Japanese buffet places where the food is horrible. at least the quality of the food is better here.

I came here after a long absence, and to my disappointment, found out that they got rid of the grills at the tables! That was their only saving grace! The food is relatively fresh, and the place is always clean, but really, that’s just about it. The food selection (thanks to them getting rid of the BBQ grills) has decreased SIGNIFICANTLY. I just didn’t think it was worth the price.

I came in for dinner expecting more, especially for the higher price for buffet and also after walking over to the buffet entrance with the nice grand entrance with a little bridge over the water (Nice atmosphere).
This place is honestly gear towards Korean in that they serve all you can eat Kimichi, tongue, and pig’s feet to name a few; I feel like I was in Korea. However, they do serve Seafood as they stated, including crab leg and many varieties of sushi, but honestly the overall selection was slim when I expected way more. One thing I didn’t really like was the lack of vegetables that was offer, either salad or fermented dishes; I felt like I was going to an AYCE KBBQ place but they cook it for you here.
Only plus they have are the many private rooms, which is good for large parties. which is primary the reason I came here. Also, there is valet parking, but you can park on the streets right outside from 8 AM to 8 PM for 2 hours (if there is room) and all night after.
My advice is that if you want to eat AYCE Korean side dishes, then come here… ELSE go to a Chinese buffet for half the price since they serve the same food, but with more vegetables.

We just decided to check this place for lunch one afternoon, they are right when they said that people come here after the funeral because we have encountered a crowd too… lol
There are few selection about the food, the price is higher than other buffets, the only thing we like in here were the kbbq section and the salad. that’s it. but we’ll not gonna be back here for sure.

This is a mediocre buffet. It’s on the pricier end for a place that doesn’t have as much variety as I would have liked. Maybe this is because I have seen the buffet’s in Vegas and it just doesn’t compare.
However, this place does have some good food. I’m not sure if you want to pay $ 30 per person if you don’t like everything that is there. They do have private rooms for different events (i.e birthdays and meals after funerals). I’m not sure if I would come back unless I had to (and my meal was already paid for).

Pretty decent but nothing that demands a repeat visit.
The food was somewhat creative (read: deviates from traditional Korean dishes) but not screaming for attention aside from the initial surprise at finding it in their buffet. The ambience also does not exist. Feels very much like a warehouse with a few walls erected here and there to create the illusion of rooms.

I enjoyed the experience, service and food.
This is the second time I’ve been to Hansong. The last time was for a friend’s father’s post burial dinner. The staff was ultra courteous to our rather large party and sat us in one of the larger dining areas. We were not all split up, so some pre-​arrangement must have been made.
There’s a ton of choices to eat. Of course, the more expensive stuff is at the end like sushi and cooked to order fish. The buffet area was kept very clean by the staff there and they were all very courteous. No attitude. Someone up high mustve trained them well.
The dishes that I really liked was the fried soft shelled crab in some kind of mildly spicy but sweet sauce and the kalbi chim. The sushi was average. There was so much variety. On the food scale, i give them a 4 out of 5.
I would go back again for sure.

The place opens at 11:30AM.
We arrived around 11:00.
What do we do?
Waiting, waiting and waiting.
Actually there was a long bench type chair along side the wall,
and tons of Korean newspapers also.
The place looked pretty clean. We got a room for ourselves.
There were 3 or 4 different food bars, salad, Korean banchan and meat, dessert and little bit of sushi and some Chinese food.
The whole set up reminded me of medium class Vegas buffet.
I don’t know why. Something tells me this wouldn’t be the best buffet, meaning authentic Kalbi or sushi not included here.
Service was pretty nice, cause we’re in a large group, and early for lunch.
Food was ok. Just an ok.
It was too expensive, $ 16.95 per person is way too much for the quality
they’re serving at Hansong.

When I told June K. I went to Hansong for lunch, she said, «Oh, that place people always go to after funerals?» My parents had in fact first mentioned the place after going to a funeral, but the occasion I went for was an 81^st birthday party for my grandmother, firmly on this side of the dividing line for quite a bit longer, I hope.
My grandma has more friends than I do, and my mom and I joined her and over a dozen of her church friends for a birthday lunch. Hilariously, she split her friends up into two groups and went back to Hansong again the next day. I kind of get why. Hansong isn’t a spectacular restaurant, but it’s a solid Korean buffet, with plenty of options for every Korean palate. Halmonis can be finicky, but apparently a buffet suits them all.
I don’t love buffets in general, and though this one was better than average, I didn’t think anything was particularly tasty. There were, though, tons of options, and nothing looked like it had been sitting out for very long. The place was well managed. We got a room with a big table, and drink orders were taken quickly, and plates cleared as needed.
The buffet was plentiful and offered a pretty decent meal for $ 16.95 a person. I piled a lot of food on my plate, and though nothing tempted me for seconds, it was all perfectly fine. My favorite part of the meal was the janchi guksu, which was made to order in small bowls with little bundles of noodles in an anchovy broth. Chopped kimchi and scallions were available as toppings, and I made good use of these. The noodles were overcooked, but otherwise this was very satisfying. I also really liked some firm tofu with soy sauce, and there were some fair muk, or acorn jelly, noodles. The buffet also had some meat in it. Kalbi and miso pork belly were pretty good, as was some cold steamed pork.
In addition to Korean standards, the buffet had a selection of cheap sushi and seafood. I liked something called «seafood dynamite» that I didn’t really recognize as anything. It was tasty, though, with some sort of seafood, some sort of mayo and spice, and some sort of tofu-​like base. Appetizing, I know. In the cheap seafood department, there was also a fair selection or grocery store grade sushi. I had some squid and inari, which tasted fine. I ignored the salmon and a few others that looked the wrong color. The sushi section provided little dishes of soy sauce with wasabi, which were a nice touch. I was disappointed in a sashimi salad, which didn’t taste anywhere close to fresh. I also had some crab salad, which was better because the artificiality mattered less.
For dessert, I skipped on the large variety of little cakes and jellos and opted for a serving of frozen yogurt. The consistency was on the icy side, but it was tart and clean, a really great way to cap off the meal.
Hansong may not be able to compete with many of the delicious non-​buffet restaurants in Koreatown, but it’s pretty good for its class. I had a good time at lunch with my grandma and her grandma and grandpa friends, and I’d recommend it for a hassle-​free meal with lots of Korean options.

I’m always kind of surprised that people come to AYCE buffets expecting to eat 5 star meals… If you expect to eat that level, expect to pay that level… Considering places like Chosun and Park’s BBQ charge like $ 30 for 1 serving of meat… this isn’t a bad deal. Everyone can pick out what they want. Nothing is stellar, but enough to keep you happy. They even had some basic sushi in the mix…
While the servers aren’t formally there to take your food to you, they’re very quick to offer to clear your tables, and are also quick to get you whatever you need.
The best person for this spot if you really care about bang for your buck? Probably an adolescent son with an endless appetite, who still manages to stay stick skinny… Otherwise keep in mind Korean food tends to be pricey, and you’ll leave happy.
Parking is easy, and is managed by the valets who literally run to your car and charge back to get cars back and forth as quickly as they can!

THE FOOD SUCKS!
The desserts are ok.
The garden is really pretty.
Therefore, 2 stars.
Seriously, this place reminds me of all the reasons I don’t like buffets. It’s all about quantity and not at all about quality. I’m sorry, but the photos that the restaurant posted on Unilocal are just deceiving. Nothing that tasty was available when I was there. I spent about $ 30 with tax and tip. It was so not worth it. I probably had $ 5 worth of food, $ 5 worth of dessert, no service whatsoever, and a $ 3 tour of the garden. That’s the value I place on the meal.

For some odd reason, we’ve had a succession of company lunches here at Hansong in the past month. So, it goes to say that i’ve had a good number of times to taste their wares for lunch. i also thought weird that for Koreans being such penny-​pinchers, we don’t have many buffets in Koreatown. Hansong is the latest reincarnation of a predominantly Korean-​based pan-​Asian buffet to make its home in its location on Olympic Blvd. There have been other buffets here before it, but they all went the way of the dinosaur
They have a private valet parking lot. One thing that i find confusing is that they have a sign that says «Complimentary», but we give tips anyway after they retrieve our cars? If not valet, you can opt to park on the streets, but of course, be mindful of the time and day you park
The location is a rather large place with a nice outdoor patio section — two large areas as you enter. The interior is nice (buffet-​wise), and it has many large-​group rooms for private parties. There are smaller, individual tables as well
As for food, it is mostly Korean food mixed with Japanese (sushi) and Chinese-​type dishes. i personally would rate their flavour as a little bit better than catered Korean food. Being a buffet, you shouldn’t expect 5-​star quality… though it is a bit on the pricey scale. However, they are trying and rotate their offerings; when i went yesterday, they were doing an Oktoberfest theme (four types of sausages). There is also a salad area and dessert table. Not quite sure, but they claim to bake their cookies and cakes in-​house. Tastes pretty nice, actually
i’m not much of a buffet fan much these days, but if i’m being treated out, i wouldn’t necessarily refuse either!

Park your car around the back with valet and then enter through the magnificently traditional Korean gates of Hansong. Walk through their manicured garden complete with a man-​made river and over the bridge to enter the buffet.
The buffet is large and clean and consists of a soup and salad station, a cold appetizer section, the warm meat section, the seafood section, the miscellaneous cooked section, a sushi section, and a dessert and ice cream section.
There’s plenty to eat but it’s a bit hit and miss. The Korean food is yummy, especially the Yuk Hae (Korean raw beef), the whole chili peppers with their awesome Sam Jang, their Kimchee, and their meats. The sushi counter could use a lot of work and is not something that I enjoy there at all. Their baked desserts are meager and dried-​out but two thumbs up to their fresh fruit and soft serve + froyo machine!
Pricing is a bit stiff for what you get.
–Lunch is $ 16.95/person.
–Dinner is $ 25.95/person.
With so many delicious dining options in Ktown, I find it hard to pay the prices at Hansong for food that’s not always so consistent.

I took my mom here for her birthday. Combine this with our disappointing meal at So Hyang last year for Mother’s Day, and I wouldn’t be surprised if my mom thinks I don’t love her.
For $ 26/​person, I expected more from this restaurant. And by more, I mean a bigger selection of food and better quality. The sushi section was definitely subpar, the galbi jeem was tough, the selection of BBQ was limited to pork belly and galbi and nothing else was even worth a second look.
The restaurant itself is clean and extremely spacious, including plenty of private rooms for parties and such, but they’d better work on their food if they want to fill up the restaurant. Granted I went on a Monday night when business is typically slower, but I don’t see how they can pay the rent if people aren’t spilling through the doors. Either lower your prices or upgrade your quality and offer more of a variety.
BTW, when the parking lot is empty (which is probably often the case here, sorry to say), there’s really no need to have mandatory valet service. You’re just trying to squeeze as much money from us as possible and that’s just not cool.

Really good buffet. Sort of a scaled-​down Vegas, Korean/​Japanese style. Very clean, the food is fresh and not oily/​greasy, a lot of the dishes were surprisingly tasty (the bulgogi was delicious!).
The landscaping outside is quite beautiful, especially in comparison to the surrounding area.
Worth a visit, but definitely on the pricey side for what you get — the biggest downside.

Why did the first reviewer spell it «BUFFETT» instead of Buffet? I’d hardly think Jimmy would be happy to be associated with this establishment and the restaurant itself did not misspell it.
Anyway, after some nagging on my parents’ end (I don’t like buffets), I decided to check out *Hansong Korean BBQ & Seafood Buffet* with them so I can rub it in their faces that this place is just like every other Asian buffet (i.e.Todai) in Southern California, no matter how much you try to snazz it up with fairy dust and gold.
Well, I was proven wrong. Todai is SO much better (and I don’t even like Todai).
The reason I give this place a 3-​star rating instead of a 1 or 2 is because the waiters are attentive, the restaurant itself is clean, and there’s a lot of seating. The restrooms are very nice with an attendant and everything! Fahhhn-​say! There’s valet parking outside for $ 2, and you have the option of making a reservation if you have a large group plowing through. Otherwise, you have to sit at the front and take a number from the gentleman wearing a suit and two splish-​splashes of the new, eau de Pretentious.
Now for the food!
I really can’t support what James D. has to say about the «great» selection of food because I only came here for lunch. I HOPE they serve all of that for dinner because the lunch menu left SO MUCH to be desired. (I know lunch menus are usually sub-​par compared to the dinner menus but I was more focused on the quality of food rather than the different types they serve.)
Seafood:
For an establishment that calls itself a [Korean BBQ and] seafood buffet, I was seriously disappointed with their selection. Seriously? Even Todai offers more of a variety for lunch. They had 2 – 3 types of sushi, california rolls with different sauces drizzled on top (this does not make for variety!), and Inari (which looked completely flaccid and dried up, much like the looks of my hopes that this restaurant would prove itself worthy.)
Mussels? Dried up and bland. Spicy-​sweet fried shrimp? Heart-​attack inducing but NOT in a good way. Come on people, give me something to work with! If you’re going to send me to the heart doctor, give me a good reason to go!
Korean BBQ:
Miso Pork belly and Kalbi. Yeah, that’s it. Some of the older Korean diners were complaining about the lack of choices Hansong has in this area. What does Korean BBQ stand for here? Korean barely-​beef-​quotient?
Pasta station:
So I read on this site that the pasta is OK. Against my better judgment I decided to try a little bit. The Korean guy working the station didn’t seem to understand that for my spaghetti, I JUST wanted the pasta with tomato sauce, nothing more. He stood over the toppings station for a good minute wondering why I didn’t want corn, or egg or whatever on top of my pasta. Hello?! Am I missing something? The end result? I could’ve made better spaghetti. With my toes. While fully inebriated.
What did my parents think? My dad is not a picky eater so he just shoveled all of the «expensive» stuff in his mouth at the behest of my mother who kept telling him, «You can eat baked salmon at home! Get the good stuff!» What good stuff? My mother, who is even more picky than plantation workers during the summer, said the pumpkin gruel is A-​supreme. I figured she was just trying to make the best out of the situation.
For the three of us, it was $ 62.20 (including two sodas). Was it worth it? No. Are buffets usually ever worth it? Maybe in Vegas. Would I ever go back? If someone else is paying, why not. Maybe I’ll give the dinner menu a try before I completely [X] this place out of my mind but for now, safe to say I won’t be recommending people go try their lunch menu.