Wang Dae Po BBQ

Waitress was very friendly. I knocked out a star because the side dishes leave a lot to be desired. Even the $ 9.99 AYCE spots offer better side dishes.
The cool thing about this place is that they give you fro-​yo after the meal, but the machine happened to be out of service when we ate here.
The ambiance is adequate. It was nice that it wasn’t overcrowded when we went.
I was a bit grossed out that when I came out of the bathroom I could see the packaged chicken sitting by the side of the entrance to the kitchen.
For $ 16.99 AYCE this place was descent.

Meat was good. The side dishes are not as delicious as some other BBQ places we have been to. The wait staff took awhile to get us the next All You Can Eat order. When it did come out, the portions were small. We had to wait longer for the next order of meat. Could have been good for us to pace ourselves but sure was annoying to wait in between. For those who don’t want to eat meat but want to accompany those who do, they will charge $ 8.00 more to the $ 17.99 All You Can Eat deal for the person eating meat.

This place is just HORRIBLE!
My boyfriend and I was actually heading to a different kbbq joint and we came across this one and noticed they closed at 2am too. Scanned reviews on Unilocal and they seemed decent enough. While we were still walking to the place, we actually saw the waiter chase a group that was already outside. We overheard the waiter complaining about the tip, when we heard that we just assumed the customer was being cheap on their end.
Well there was only one other group there besides us since it was rather late at night. The other group were all Koreans and seemed to be friends with the owner as they received incredible service from our observation. Since it was such a slow night we thought that we would be in and out within an hour. It took forever for us to receive our cup of water and menu. Eventually the waiter came to us and asked what we wanted. We ordered and must have waited about 15? minutes before our meat dishes came out. And the amount that he gave on the plate was just pathetic. It was our first round and we barely had any meat. I would understand if we’ve been grubbing for awhile already and they gave us a smaller portion of meat just in case we didn’t finish it. But that wasn’t the case, I glared over at the other table and saw their plate of meat. Nothing like what we received.
Anyways when we finally got a chance to order again. We asked the waiter to bring DOUBLE order of each one that we had asked for. The waiter said ok and returned back in about 10 minutes and then only brought out a single order again. At this point my boyfriend and I were already annoyed because at this rate we’ll be here forever. We just want to stuff our faces and be on our way. They have a service button on the table and we must have pressed it a billion times and the waiter didn’t even bother to come. At one point I pressed the button, the waiter looked at me and ignored me then went out back for a cigarette break. I continued to buzz and nothing.
Food wasn’t anything special and service was beyond horrible. We’ll never be back.

Been coming here for years and it’s always delicious! The sides vary a bit… they don’t always have the same ones.
Saw they added seafood, can’t wait to try!
Music is super random. I wish they’d play movies instead of the news on the tv’s.
Try the rice wine, Geonbae!

My coworkers and I came here to eat after work. We get off late, so our other options for Korean BBQ were closed. I was starving, picked a place at random that stays open past midnight (the hours stated say open until 2am, but they actually closed at 1am the day we were there).
I had a long night and I was dying of starvation. I hadn’t eaten anything all night. At this point, I didn’t care where we ate, as long as we ate. We arrived around midnight-​ish or so. There was one other table there. It looked like they were getting ready to close. I was ready to eat everything on the menu lol (maybe not, but ready to stuff my face with as much AYCE I can). We all ordered AYCE and ordered few different types of meat, — Gopchang, Chadolbegi, Samgyupsal, and Bulkogi. I love gopchang and looked forward to having some (since it’s been a while), but I didn’t really enjoy it here too much. It was just so blah. Gopchang is supposed to be highly flavorful and sooooo good! But what I had here was a disappointment.
One of my coworkers, who is a KBBQ newbie, thought everything tasted great. I guess that is the difference between someone that knows what it should taste like (I’ve been eating it all my life lol) and someone who is a noob.
The side dishes, as many Unilocalers said, were subpar. They were tasteless and lacked flavor. The rice was soggy and overcooked. They did not even serve Kimchi. And as many Unilocalers complained, they don’t provide any wraps… it felt like something was missing not having wraps with KBBQ.
The only thing I like about this place is that it’s opened past midnight.

In the past two months since coming back from Seoul I have been to 4 other Unlimited KBBQ places in/​near Koreatown around Western avenue and here on Wilshire.
I have to say Wang Dae Po left a sour taste in my mouth, and made me feel a bit uncomfortable as well.
Let’s start with the service.
We were one of two tables in there when they opened. By the time we left, we were one of four tables. Not very busy. This to me was a red flag as it was Friday night around 6pm.
But, we stayed and ordered — their most expensive option of $ 25. We ordered the two meats, one of which was shrimp — which wasn’t filling in the least of course and much smaller than the picture made us assume. So we ordered a second round of meat — the cheapstuff from the cheap options while watching LAC rip the nuggets on TV. After our second round, we were feeling a bit full so we ordered just one meat. Much to my surprise shortly after putting in that order the game that we were having so much fun watching was turned to GOLF. I looked around. The one other table was sitting far away from a TV and they weren’t watching. We were obviously the only ones having a great time watching the game… That was the first sign.
Well, after that half round, we weren’t quite full so I asked the waitress to bring us another half order of meat. We were done. However, a waiter came by and took the menu from us! We had given no indication we WERE done even though in fact we were about ready to ask for the check. First shutting off the TV on us, and then taking the menu away from us? Is this truly UNLIMITED? We both left feeling as if we were being marked as fat, greedy customers. Not comfortable at all, and won’t be going there ever again.
We’re not big people — I’m your average 150lb guy and she’s a measly 110lbs. Nor do we usually eat much.
On to the food:
Other places let you pick 3 meats to start with. This place allows you 2.
Other places have at least 15 different meat selections for their BASIC price for $ 9.99. I didn’t count, but I think their most expensive package which we paid around $ 25 for had only around a dozen.
Their wasabi chili sauce was amazing. This was one dish that was unique to their restaurant and I fully endorse it.
Their bacon slice was particularly tasty.

One of the better kbbqs imo. Here’s my thought process of choosing a kbbq:
Lunch — if I have money, Kang Hodong Baekjong. Always. If I don’t have money, 9.99 lunch special at Don Day.
Dinner — Usually Don Day but I can settle for O Dae San since O Dae San is 11.99 for dinner. Don Day is 16.99 all you can eat. I would eat at Kang Hodong Baekjong for dinner but fuck that 2 hour wait.
LATE AS FUCK AFTER CONCERT — here. Always.
As you can see, I’m a cheap bitch.
I sometimes talk shit about 9.99 kbbqs but some are decent. No Castle or Sanya bullshit for me… feels like I’m chewing on meat that has been frozen for 20 years x_​_​x yuck. And being surrounded by loud Filipino teenagers is gross.
This one is open really late and it’s a perfect post concert rendezvous whether you’re at the Wiltern or somewhere else. I came back from an ASAP Rocky show at the Palladium with some friends at 1 am here and they were very accommodating — they didn’t rush us or anything even though we came ONE HOUR BEFORE CLOSING. Super nice. :) and the waitress called me pretty~
pros — OPEN LATE AS FUCK, yummy jumulleok and gopchang ~ my favorites
cons — nothing really.
tl;dr — I never really come here unless I need kbbq super late, but I think that’s part of what makes this place a little magical. Like taco bell’s fourth meal but for kbbq.

I see this place all the time on Twitter on #ktown due to its «Gangham style» billboard outside so my friend and I decided we would give it a try (actually it is the bar next door with the billboard but I see both establishments in all the instagram pics).
I had a good experience here. I am not a big fan of the newspaper on the walls, although I do understand the pop-​culture ambiance. Its also $ 15 for all-​you-​can-​eat so how can you go wrong?
Cleanliness & Appearance: Place was very clean and the staff was smiling at all times. I am not a fan of the décor but it was definitely clean. Also they had more than enough staff to handle all the customers requests. Most of the restaurants in Ktown are severly understaffed, but here it was just-​right. They also came by to switch out the grill we were cooking our food in which was a nice touch since they noticed it was getting scorched.
Quality: Personally I thought the quality was good. But I don’t think the chicken was marinated long enough– at least for my taste. The brisket seemed a little tough. Ironically the appetizers were well-​prepared and had no problem giving us extra potato salad when asked @ no additional cost.
The total bill was $ 50, but we ordered drinks as well so totally understand why it would be $ 50 for 2. Not my first choice, but I would gladly come back because of the low price point.

The quality of the food here was okay. I didn’t have any problems with it, but nothing was special about what we received.
This place was okay. If you want certain sides, you have to request them. It’s easy enough to get the attention of a server. We came on a okay night; all the tables but one or two of the tables were filled. The servers took a few moments before remembering to bring items out. One waitress was kinder than others and more willing to assist us.

Horrible service! I had to ask the waitress at least 3 times to get my water refilled. The owner just stood there and not helping the customers at all. The owner looked mean also.
In addition, paying $ 16.99 for ayce kbbq in k-​town, i expect wide varieties of meat and lots of side dishes. Guess what though? No rice paper! no radish? Is this a joke?!
Definitely not coming back again. Terrible!

No rice paper?! No radish?! We had the $ 14.99 for 9 kind of meat.
We stuck with the brisket, pork belly and chicken. Meat quality was good but not greatest BUT NO RICE PAPER OR NO RADISH to wrap your meat in? Are you serious??? Lol
No waiting! fast and easy. Get in. eat and get out.
Very convenient parking lot in the back for $ 2 or street parking.
Good quality meat but not the best. and without rice paper?.. :-(
Great for late nights! Open until 2am!
A few more side dishes then some KBBQ! Really good potato salad.
Uncomfortable seats
Overall 3.5 stars rounding down! OK customer service, was not too attentive until we gave them a dirty look.
With so many KBBQ in Korean Town, the only time I’ll consider to come back is if I wanted Korean BBQ after 10pm or 11pm because they are open until 2am!

I dont know about you, but I like my Korean BBQ to cook quick so I can eat it fast and be able to order more to stuff my face, but not in this case.
Their pork belly was about 1inch thick, and took about 15min to cook to a nice crispy bite. Aside from the usual thinly sliced beef brisket, everything on the menu seems to be marinated in something sweet, which made the meat stick to the grill at high heat, burning the outside before the inside was even cooked properly. Our grill was changed 4x in a span of 1 hr.
The banchan was not bad, the pickled cabbage, the glass noodles, the egg salad, the seaweed salad and the sizzling egg soup… I did like…
I’m a food LOVER, so i rate the place mostly based on their food, but it doesnt mean the place is bad. The service was fast, servers were friendly. The tables were clean and the overall ambiance is nice.
Unfortunately, Ive had much better meat and Korean BBQ experience in other places, that didnt leave me feeling robbed of my $ 20.00…

+ Delicious, thick short rib (Eedong Kalbi)
+ Baton sized cuts of pork belly (Samkyupsal)
+ Fresh banchan
+ One block from the Wiltern, perfect post concert rendezvous
+ Open to 2am
+ Ample parking in the back ($ 2)
I’ve been wanting to check this new place out since it replaced the old Beer Town and Soju Town establishments (still have to check out next door). In my forecast for the night a Neon Trees, a pretty lady, an empty stomach, and a pair of wobbly knees from dancing. We hunkered down in a corner table with an order of Eedong Kalbi (not in the AYCE menu), a cut of the thickest pork belly I’ve had, and an order of the Potato Pancakes.
Now, if you take your time to appreciate the thick, perfectly marinated Kalbi (not too sweet) you would agree this is some damn good Kalbi. I’ve had my fill of trendy miso and herb marinated pork bellies that makes good for an article in a food magazine but does nothing but oversaturate my palate to bore me out. Kinda like watching porn for more than 5 minutes. What I want is the way it was meant to be eaten. Just give me a good cut. That’s exactly what I got at WDP… get that baby to a nice crisp on both sides with tender juiciness in the middle topped with a strip of grilled kimchi… you’ll be hard pressed in finding a better way to eat pork belly.
The place is pretty spacious and it’s not setup as a galley aisle so there’s plenty of room in the middle for a big group. This also means you want to take advantage of the «come hither» buttons to beckon the servers should you need something… like if you want traditional red pepper kimchi with your pork belly. Which I highly recommend you ask for. You do get kimchi but don’t forget just cuz it ain’t red doesn’t mean it’s not kimchi… ask for the red… the white kimchi is good too. There’s an AYCE menu (surprisingly has items not commonly found in other AYCE) and the standard a la carte menu.
And I gotta say I think I nearly died laughing reading the other review asking for vegetarian options… it’s called banchan… who does this at an AYCE KBBQ?! It’s not NYCE KBBQ (No You Can’t Eat KBBQ).

Pros:
Open late (2am)
Family-​y atmosphere, friendly service
Pretty good quality meat esp. the pork belly
Cons:
$ 17.99 is too much for AYCE. I can think of many cheaper alternatives.
EMPTY — no one was there…
Confusion about how the menu works and what is offered, especially for AYCE
Although I had a great meal there, I can think of many other places that offer me more food and variety for less…

Yummm. Korean Bbq… again
So many AYCE korean bbq places seem to be popping up on every k-​town corner. This one is located adjacent to Mr. Pizza on Wilshire.
The venue is small with dim lighting and is more of a small mom/​pop feel to it. Staff is great and attentive. We sat right next to the front service desk so our orders were refilled quickly. which is always good. For the $ 17.99 price, I’d say its just OK. The meats were good esp the pork belly and the brisket.
What they are missing are the rice paper wraps !! Common every AYCE Korean bbq joint has these ! Except Wang Dae Po. not sure why? But they really should consider serving it. Its like pulling up to McDonalds and ordering chicken nuggets and they forget to give you the BBQ and sweet and sour sauce ! Rice paper or Daikon papers are a must at Korean BBQ’s and eating it w/​out it is not the same.
The sides are good and plentiful, also they provide the usual steamed egg.
Another note, beware of the children’s style chair. My ass literally got caught in it, and felt like I was gonna break it. You guys are serving to adults, lets get some adult chairs !
Overall experience was OK. Not having rice paper was a big bummer. They also close late. until 2am. so if you’re craving the late night korean bbq munchies, you know where to go

Wth! Worst service ever. Everrrrrr.
Didn’t even have the veg options that are on their menu. When I ordered one of them, the waiter said the kitchen couldn’t make it anymore, no other explanation was offered (and he spoke English, so language barrier is not an excuse). We were not given everything offered w our AYCE meals– no Kim chee pancake, soybean soup… and they almost didn’t give us RICE. I had to ask for the rice, but I was told they ran out. It was only 12am and they close at 2. How do you eat KBBQ without rice?! I told them they didn’t close until 2AM, and if they were not going to give us rice they should give us a discount. MAGICALLY, after the word discount was thrown around, they brought out rice, claiming it was from next door. If I wanted food from next door, I would have went next door!!!
Bottom line was, I ended up eating the egg soufflé (they only gave us 1 even though we got 2 AYCE meals), the free potato salad, and a bite of rice. The girls I went with said the meat was tasty, but not the best they ever had. Save your money and head to Genwa instead.
Yummilicious Factor = ?
Service Factor = F–

A wild waiter appears!
My friend: Hey I’m vegetarian, do you have any vegetarian options? How are your noodles?
She might as well have been a Psyduck as this single innocent question sparked a lengthy chain reaction of confusion, finally culminating in her calling over her manager who explained that the noodle dishes were «really bad» and that my friend should order something else. So why are they still on the menu. Overall the service was definitely not their forte, took forever plus multiple requests to get rice and water. I don’t expect to be served hand and foot, or even smiled at for that matter (considering most Asian establishments… ha). But I do expect the most basic standards of customer service.
However, Wang Dae Po redeemed itself by the quality of its meat (well, almost). The marinated ones were tender and perfect, though for 17.99 it’s on the pricer side of the glorious carnivorous fest that is K-​town KBBQ. Not sure if the food is enough to convince me to go back.

I seriously don’t understand how this place has such high ratings.
We wanted to go to Hae Jang Chon but the wait was about 90 minutes. We didn’t want to wait that long so we decided to drive around and find another AYCE KBBQ place.
This place wasn’t crowded at all. There were only 3 tables with customers around dinner time when I walked in. I decided to go in anyways since we were all starving. $ 17.99 per person for AYCE dinner.
There were 10 meat choices for KBBQ but the waitress kinda forced us to order only #1 and #2. There were 5 of us so I said no and decided to order what we wanted. Service was kinda spotty. It was hard getting their attention and there’s no bell at the restaurant. One time I ordered more meats and didn’t get any reaction because the waitress didn’t hear it. They really need to pay attention more to the customers. It wasn’t like it was crowded when I was there. One of my friends was cutting the meat using the scissors there and the waitress was screaming @ him and saying «don’t touch!!» Another waitress was kinda annoyed @ me when I reminded her to cut the meat she missed.
Meat quality was barely 2 stars compared to other Korean BBQ @ KTown. It was honestly a disappointment. My group was hungry so we ordered about 8 items but I could tell they only liked one of the meat.
Banchans weren’t bad but I noticed they didn’t give us pancake like what the menu listed as AYCE package. I asked the waitress and she apologized for not having pancake that day. The banchans were: salad, potato salad, spicy thin radish, seaweed (yum), spicy raw onions, beansprouts (they kept calling it soy beans), and uncut napa cabbage. No kimchi banchan. This is the first time I had to ask for kimchi @ a Korean restaurant.
2 stars!
Wang Dae Po is not yummylicious!

Lackluster.
Agree that the meat quality is better than a lot of other kbbq places. Their beef tongue and marinated beef are my favorites. They give you small portions though per round you order so that was annoying – having to wait and wait for the next round of meat.
No rice paper. No kimchi. None of my favorite banchans. Their kimchi pancake was alright. Just alright.
Open late, but we had crap service throughout the night. The waitress was nice, but she seemed thoroughly annoyed when our party asked for more rice and meat almost toward closing time. Understandable since they were about to close, but if you say you’re open until 2am, have the decency to offer your best services until that time… then you can be pissy at us all you want AFTER closing time. Our party actually felt bad that we stayed past 2am (we left at like 2:10am), but the waitress was ready to kick us out at like 1:45am…
AND we got hustled by the waitress. My party didn’t know what was going on with the bill and the lady could’ve fed us BS for all I know because of her lack of English. She split the bill in a weird way when we specifically told her how we wanted it split. And then she input into her register that we overpaid, but somehow we underpaid instead? So there was missing money somewhere along the whole jumble and when we got ready to leave, she told us tip wasn’t given even though we had placed it on the card, but since that whole mix up happened, miscommunication and language barrier, we ended up paying more tip on top of what we had already given them.
DOUBLE THE TIP FOR LACKLUSTER SERVICE? I PASS. Come back here with somebody who knows Korean.

Really… 2.5 stars. I WANT to give this place a better review… I really, really do because my friends constantly rave about this nice, lady waitress that is always on top of her game, and makes you feel right at home. Unfortunately, it seemed to go downhill when my friends pointed out last night that she wasn’t there…
Maybe it was the timing of our dinner… we went at 11:30PM on a Monday evening for a really late dinner, and since this place closes at 2, we figured it was the way to go. Parking outside is available valet in the back, or you can find street parking (saved us a good $ 1.50).
It is $ 16.99 for AYCE, which is common for most dinner items… however, there were just some things that really bugged me this evening:
1. service was less than sufficient. I felt we weren’t served as much as we could have been, especially when we would wait minutes after all of our food was gone to catch the eye of a waitress. Granted there was a button, but I felt like being the only ones eating in at that time, they would pay more attention.
2. No rice paper?! I was sad, but the lettuce pieces weren’t too bad I guess. However, this was always a staple for KBBQ for me, and not having it this evening just did not cut it.
3. Lack of side dishes… I counted only four really, and when there’s no meat being cooked, I do like to munch on them.
However, our waitress was very nice. It was just the fact that I wish they would have checked up on us more because it really made the experience less than what I expected. Maybe if the call button wasn’t placed below the table and made visible?
The meat quality if decent, but nothing really blew my mind away. Although their marinated galbi was pretty good, I think I’ve had better at other KBBQ restaurants nearby (and they certainly brought the food out a lot quicker IMO)
But on the plus side, they have kimchi pancakes, which were delicious. I would like to come back and hopefully have a better experience… cause when it’s KBBQ, I hate settling for average. ;)