The Grill Story

I give it a solid 3.5 Stars round up to 4 stars for the great service
I see the reviews are split… It’s funny how the reviewers with less than 5 reviews are the most extreme.
Let’s see I have had Korean food in most cities in the US and a few times in Seoul (that’s in Korea for those with less than 5 reviews;-)
First the service was AMAZING. The restaurant itself is well decorated and very clean.
This is also one of the only Korean restaurants in Bay where I have found you can cook at table.
The owners are very pleasant and we came with a few people and we ordered several dishes of the AYCE and we received no attitude whatsoever.
In fact they wanted to make sure we had enough and wanted to do another round of meats.
A side note… All the side dishes were OK not great. But the meats were fresh and well marinated.
But for the restaurant choices in the area this is definitely worth coming to judge yourself.

I should have known to come to a new establishment that had less than ten reviews and 4 solid stars. It was too good to be true! First moment I knew it wasn’t going to be a good dinner was when I showed up to an empty restaurant at 6PM. When I entered, a group of wait staff stared blankly at me. Wild customer appears! It must have been shocking to see someone walk through the door. Anyways, without any greeting, I was asked how many people, and then I was told to sit at a nearby table. I waited for my friend to arrive. Between that time, another customer appears and they were much friendlier. I don’t want to pull the race card here, but is it because she was caucasian?
My friend arrived and we ordered. We got two Kimchi Tofu Stew and shared a Seafood pancake appetizer. The Seafood pancake was decent, the seafood inside was miniature sized and full of green onion pieces. It had good texture and but there was minimal flavor. It came with a soy sauce dipping sauce, which helped the taste. However, for the price, which was $ 13. It wasn’t worth it. Now on to the main dish, the Kimchi Tofu Stew. This is where mainly my rating is based on. First off, $ 14 dollars for Tofu Stew? Are you kidding me, you are $ 2 – 3 dollars over priced, especially for some tofu. Second, where is the kimchi in the stew? Third, where is the flavor!!! There was no kimchi taste, no salt taste, no spicy taste! I ordered mild, not bland. Get it right here. My friend and I discussed and we both had the same conclusion. There was no flavor. I wasn’t sure how to fix it, so I asked for some salt. The waiter had the nerve to condescendingly tell me no one asks for salt. Korean food is salty and flavorful. I wouldn’t have asked if it was salty and flavorful.
This was the worst Tofu Stew I ever had. I wish I can get my calories and money back, but unfortunately I am left poorer and majorly unsatisfied. I am very glad I didn’t waste $ 30 for Korean BBQ.
There was one good thing, the business looked clean.

Food: 5
Service: 4
Ambience: 5
Price: oh hell no.
So I come here for lunch and was seated right away. The ambience is calm and very private. Lighting is sufficient and there’s ample space for large parties.
I was pleased with the décor, not overly abundant, just right. Though the small TV thats connected to the laptop was a bit odd. Music was slightly loud.
The banchan; or Korean small plates of awesome; came first. So I’ve had my fill of Korean food… and experienced many different places. This is the smallest I’ve ever seen given. They give you 6 small plates, none of which inclduded my favorite glass noodles: japchae. Not even pickled daikon and carrots. This made me sad. Even more so, when many Korean places give unlimited banchan, this place will charge for additional after 2 small plates.
This would explain why both servers, though very polite, never refilled or asked to refill any of the plates. This also explains why, after receiving my galbi, then tended to their phones. I was never asked if I needed any water or anything else. Though they did look up once… and got the bill immediately once they saw that my plate was done. The bill came as fast as the food.
My plate arrived less than 5 minutes from ordering. Pleasantly surprising, as it was sizzling on the plate. It smelled great and was ample for one person. It wasn’t worthy of the price: $ 15. I have had amazing galbi wherein the meat was cooked very nicely, almost buttery, and was priced 7 dollars less than this place. The meat was good, was okay. but again, i would not pay this price for galbi. I also do not mind paying for more if the food would be epic… which this was not.
Overall, the service was better than the food, the food was better than the ambience and the price was the worst I’ve seen for Korean food.
Oh well… good try, folks.

I absolutely love this place. From the food to service, everything was A1.
Food: $ 30 for ayce dinner. What I love is that all their meats are different. You know how most ayce places, all the meat start to taste the same. This place, everything was distinguished and tasty. Marination was good. Slices were good. Quality was good.
Service: what really got me. They are SOO friendly! The owner actually took the time to talk to us and interacted with my baby. At the end of the meal, we were about to leave bc my baby was getting fussy so it was getting hard to eat and you know what? One of the employees offered and actually carried her while we finished our dinner. Talk about excellent hospitality! From that act alone, I’m gonna be a repeat customer for sure.
$ 30 seems like a lot for ayce, but you get what you pay for. Soo happy we tried this new management out!

Why haven’t I found this place before? It’s seriously a hidden gem!!! I was craving Korean food this evening and was even desperate enough to wait in line at gen– San Jose! But thanks to my Unilocal buddies I simply Unilocaled Korean BBQ and this wonderful place showed up close to my home! We got here right at dinner time on a weekend– we were easily greater and seated! The ladies that were helping us was very nice! Place when you sit down is very nice and clean! They even got an all you can eat BBQ deal!!! We ordered combo a so that we can get the soju! Once we ordered they recommended the citrus soju! I love love the citrus soju!!! The BBQ and the server was very tentative to our needs and practically cooked our meals the whole time we were there! The best part there was no wait! At least when we came! There is tons of la galbi and their bulgogi is very very tasty!!! I even got hot tofu soup which was loaded with tofu!!! This place if you have not been is a must try!

New owners are very friendly and the food is GREAT! Only been there once but will go back to give it more chances.

Don’t fall for the 5 star reviews. If you know anything about KBBQ in LA, you know you can eat as much as you want.
The staff at this restaurant will appear nice and friendly initially — talking to you a lot, grilling your meat, etc. Wait til you order more (like anything after 2 plates of meat). They will give you attitude, take 20 minutes to give you your meat, basically anything to slow you down. Everything they do is aimed at slowing you down from ordering more, and oh, you’ll pay a fortune for just a measly several plates of meat. Not worth it. AT. ALL. Avoid.
Their selections are pretty good, but honestly just not worth the price. You’ll give the same review if you go.

So perhaps «all you can eat» is not the way to go if you haven’t starved yourself all day… we had good intentions.
So we ordered the all you can eat– sooooo much meat, so little room in our bellies! We got through a plate of 6 different meats, decided to push it and order two more meats just for good measure. I stopped eating long before the others in my party. The waitress was super nice, helped us with the grilling– she noticed we were struggling and second guessing on whether the meat was cooked or not. The sides were good– loved the house sauce, the Kim Chee, cold noodles– so we loved them all. We asked for multiple sides, they were so yummy!
We will definitely be back– maybe not for the all you can eat, but definitely for the food and experience!

Great place to have dinner with friends, family, or co-​workers! I came here a week ago to celebrate my birthday with some friends. I LOVE korean barbeque and this restaurant fulfilled my expectations.
I got the All You Can Eat served with side order of Tofu Stew. The food is outstanding. The service was phenominal! The new owner is really nice and I will definitely be coming back for more!

This was easily the most satisfying korean barbecue I’ve ever had. The owners are super nice, they cooked the meat for us and gave us some soju on the house while making friendly conversation. The actual food was amazing, I can’t remember when I’ve had a better Kalbi.
Service is great, food is great, easily deserves 5 stars!
Also note: this restaurant got new ownership a few months ago and the old restaurant name (Ginseng Korean BBQ) is still on Unilocal.This review is for the new one.

Amazing service! Our group got the large combo plate with the beef tongue, brisket, and short ribs (plus some bonus pork belly! Awesome surprise!). The dipping sauce was very good too. Steamed egg is a must and definitely buy the Good Day soju. It complements the meat well! Will be coming back! (New owners started here three months ago. Restaurant was previously called Ginseng Korean BBQ. Under this new ownership this place rocks my world!)