Seorae Jib

Visited this Korean restaurant for the first time, and unfortunately, it was a disappointing experience. I was initially drawn in by the “4th Place Culinary Class Wars - Cooking Maniac” photo displayed outside, but after trying the food, I honestly questioned how someone with such credentials could serve dishes of this quality. From the start, the service felt cold and unwelcoming — none of the staff were smiling, which made the atmosphere feel tense and uncomfortable. We weren’t informed that we had to collect the side dishes ourselves and only found out after asking. When we encountered issues trying to sign up for the membership program, we were told it was managed by an outsourced party and not their problem. The only solution offered was to try again using an Android phone, which none of us had. It honestly felt like they weren’t interested in gaining more members. As for the food, it was very average — comparable to or even worse than food court standards — yet priced similarly to much better Korean BBQ restaurants elsewhere. Overall, the experience left a bad impression, and I won’t be returning. This visit also left me wondering if “Cooking Maniac” is really as skilled as advertised. Anyway, this is technically a paid review — they offered free ice cream in exchange for leaving one. But even with that, I felt it was important to be honest.

I was having lunch and had the unlimited BBQ buffet at 12:31 pm. After my first round of BBQ at 1:17 pm, the server came and cleared my BBQ plate and charcoals. I was expecting a new set of BBQ plate and charcoals to be brought back, since the time was still within the 90 minutes. When I asked the server, he replied in a rude tone, saying, "If you want, I can always put the set back." The food was good until that point, but I lost my appetite finishing the remaining meat.

I tried their 90-minute buffet. Do check your bill properly; I was charged for an extra drink ($3.90) when my table only ordered two! Disappointing. The service isn't fantastic. The meat quality and taste are fine. Everything else is just average. Service speed isn't fast, so take note. I suggest ordering more in the first round... from being seated until I finally started barbecuing took almost 15 minutes... Expect oil splatter and the BBQ smell on you after the meal. You can try it if you haven't been before, but I'd need to think twice about returning.

Standards have dropped a lot from the past. The kimchi pancake tasted like it was made with regular cabbage rather than kimchi. The rice ball didn't have any flavor. The à la carte options don't come with any protein, so it's recommended to order barbecued meat for protein. We also had to cook our barbecued meat because they were understaffed, and the restaurant wasn't even full.

The food was not good, and the portion of egg was very small, not like what you see in most Korean restaurants, where the egg is high and fluffy. I feel that this place is overrated. The service did not meet expectations — we ordered several items, but the staff kept forgetting them, and we had to repeatedly check on our order. On top of that, there was a dining time limit of 1 hour and 30 minutes due to the long queue outside. Given the delays and poor service, we ended up cancelling our order since it wasn't enjoyable, especially with the dining restriction.