New Korean B.B.Q. Restaurant     新高麗苑韓國餐廳  

Dinner gathering, 12 of us with 11 were working in Shanghai for years and "repatriated" at different phases, while missing the old good times in Shang, partying and partying; we choose to come back, this is home. So lovely to meet up.

I'm not a fan of local style Korean BBQ, because it means "meat and meat" for me, and putting different food in the pan, mixing all the tastes means you can't taste what you are eating after a while. However, the purpose is to have fun with the old friends, so food quality is not the main concern.

The original booking was 7pm, but some of us misunderstood it's 7:30pm, and the restaurant set a rule to release the table for next round at 8:30pm...after clarification, they were nice to let us releasing the table at 9pm, at least, we could have 2 hours time to have our reunion dinner Understand that they have to do this because it's very popular as I saw when I entered the restaurant. Full house with a queue waiting for tables.

Buffet style, beef ribs, beef, ox tongue, lamp cops, chicken wings, sausages, fish heads, mushroom, shrimps, mussels, etc. Ox tongue and chicken wings are my favorite, not bad especially I was hungry at the beginning after happy hour; for sure, my friends BBQ techniques count a lot on the final "result".

Seafood (shrimps and mussles we had) was not that good. They served salmon sashimi, but I didn't dare to eat as it's buffet style with lots of people walking around the food table.

They have Pork leg with vinegar and ginger, I like it very much. However, the one they made does not taste very original, anyway, as I haven't had it for a long time, craving for it so it's nice.

Kimchi, the only Korean food I like, we picked a little but not very nice. It doesn't have the "taste", not spicy at all. One of my friends and I were so happy to know they have jelly, dessert, but we had it in between chicken wings and all the meat. Whatever...

The place is quite big but because it's full house, it's rather noisy; service is quite good and pleasant in such a busy environment.

We were actually sitting 2 tables side-by-side, when it’s almost 9pm, the waiter asked us to settle the bill first and half of us had to leave earlier, because another group of customers were waiting. Really popular this place.

For this price, it's a good choice for a group of friends for casual dinner. Located on Lockhart road, easy to have some drinks nearby after dinner.

Initially wanted to try out their all-you-can-eat but it was lunchtime on a weekday; AYCE is only availble at nights and weekend + public holiday lunchtimes.

Since I came with my waist-conscious dad, I basically finished 2 lunch sets - we ordered the grilled beef (already cooked from the kitchen) and the bibimbab (mixed rice) without stone pot.

Variety of lunch sets is commendable. Portion sizes are so-so, but for the price we paid it is what I would expect.

The sauce for the beef tasted more Chinese than Korean - it lacks the sesame oil smell and taste; I can hardly taste any garlic; the sauce is WAY too thick, it is definitely more Chinese-style than Korean.

As for the rice, I liked the sauce for the pork, it has more 'Korean' taste to it - sweeter, more pungent; but it was a bit greasy.

Banchan variety is big. I enjoyed the napa cabbage kimchi; they served celery which is definitely not what I would expect to find at a Korean restaurant. Chinese zucchini was also served.

When I asked for GOCHUJANG (Korean red pepper paste, you know the one that's slightly sweet and often served with bibimbap) and was initially given a puzzled look; when I asked again I was given Chinese XO chili paste in a dipping dish.!

And don't expect you'd get fancy rice or barley tea served at real traditional Korean eateries. Black tea was served.

Also, they have 2 types of rice - the plain rice that came with the bulgolgi beef was long-grain jasmine rice (the one served at most Chinese restaurants); the rice in the bibimbap was short-grain pearl rice (usually found in Korean and Japanese and Shanghainese restuarants). I personally prefer the latter.

The soup served looked very cloudy; it did have beef strips, egg strips and thinly sliced daikon. I wonder why it looks so cloudy though; it is supposedly a clear broth.

Love this restuarant for its 'eat-and-go' attitude and CHEAP price; but in terms of authenticity....read my other reviews.