Sharon L.
Yelp
I've been curious about Wonder Pig for a while, but a few factors ultimately left me a bit disappointed with our dining experience here.
We came as a party of 9 for a Sunday lunch, right at opening time. Highly recommend reservations because they filled up rather quickly after opening, and it was for lunch! The weekend lunch menu is the same as the weekday dinner menu, so there was a good variety of meats offered. As soon as we were seated, the waiters immediately began bring out various banchan and sides (including steamed egg, beef & radish soup, rice for all, and japchae). Not sure if this was intended for good service, or as a means to get you full before you even start ordering meats. We placed our meat orders, but didn't get a chance to specify the portions. This led to almost overwhelming portions of pork jowl & pork belly, even though we had only intended for smaller portions. Some of the more popular beef cuts (like galbi & bulgogi) were held back until the very end, and we were given quite skimpy portions of those. Surprisingly for a primarily pork KBBQ spot, they also didn't have radish wraps, & only limited pickled banchan offerings. It would've been nice to have additional pickles to help with the grease. The doenjang stew is pretty good though, and has a nice kick to it.
Service was disappointing to say the least. I've perhaps grown accustomed to other AYCEs changing out the grill as soon as the marinated gunk starts to burn on, but Wonder Pig did not change the grill once. Towards the end, everything tasted burnt because of the caked on marinade. Our waiter also looked annoyed every time we put in an order, or if we needed a water/banchan refill. They were difficult to get ahold of, so we consolidated our asks as much as possible too!
Total price after tax & tip came out to about $50 per person, so it's on par with other AYCE spots in terms of pricing. Overall variety & quality is decent, with quite a few beef/pork/chicken options. Service really could've been better, since this is a driving factor for meats/banchan orders for an AYCE.
Would maybe come back, but not rushing to be back any time soon.