Hannah H.
Yelp
About a 1-1.5: Man, Puzukan - not sure where all these high reviews from these folks are coming from, but this place ain't it.
This place describes themselves as offering a charcoal grill experience, but that's not at all what it was... it was just a metal grill, and there weren't any charcoal used - was super confused about that!
This place seems to have some hype in terms of KBBQ and being 'the best in NoVA', so we decided to give them a try for dinner. Making reservations was a breeze - there's no online reservations, so you call the place directly; we were surprised that one of the days was fully booked already on the day of, but calling a day in advance seem to work out.
The menu includes beef and pork options (a la carte), as well as combinations that come with steamed egg, corn cheese, soup, and rice; a 'Butcher's Omakase', lunch options, and a Wagyu Special menu.
We ordered:
+Cha-Dol - sliced brisket; this was super fatty, but were cooked well with slight crispy edges
+Classic Kalbi - marinated boneless short rib; you could hardly taste the marinade; this was super cartilage-y and tough; they definitely did not tenderize this meat at all
+Prime Boneless Kalbi - unmarinated prime boneless short rib meat; less tough than the Classic Kalbi, this was still super fatty and more on the tough end
Honestly, the meats were just super disappointing - the restaurant made it sound that premium and high-quality cuts are used, but we felt that there was a total lack of quality control in terms of the meats that were served - really not sure how these were able to leave the kitchen? Galbi should never be 'tough', and the Prime Boneless Kalbi should have been melt-in-your-mouth tender.
Also, the galbi should have been used on a mesh grill, rather than the metal grill that they had; there was no asking of swapping out the grills, either, as all meats were basically cooked on one. That was kind of weird.
The banchans were forgettable; the dressed salad had an off taste to them; the jahpchae had hard noodles and were not seasoned well; I did like the pickled sliced radish, though, but some slices were kind of dirty with dark stains - yuck!
You can request ssamjang, but this was definitely more on the sweeter end. I was not a fan of the 2 out of 3 sauces that were automatically provided (the spicy sweet chili and the peanut-like sauce), as they did not complement any of the meats.
When we arrived, we were seated right away, which we appreciated. Service was super friendly and sweet.
The place was super packed, and this seemed more of a catering to the Americanized palate of the locals. Sorry, not sorry.
Glad I was able to give this place a try, but wouldn't return.
Plenty of parking in the shared plaza lot; located in the Yorktowne Plaza Shopping Center, near UPS.
+low-quality cuts of meat T___T
+super friendly service
+reservations accepted via the phone
+located in the Yorktowne Plaza Shopping Center
+plenty of parking in the large plaza lot