Ren Yakiniku — Restaurant in Brisbane City

When your friends feel like Japanese, but you want Korean BBQ.

Food: (2/5) I ordered the regular all you can eat BBQ buffet where you can order from a list of meats, sides and food from the salad bar. The selection of meats available was rather average compared to nearby Korean BBQ places, however the menu does contain interesting items such as chicken hearts, giblets as well as Yukke/Yukhoe (Korean raw beef salad) on offer. I would recommend the larger pieces of meat so they do not fall through the grill, in particular the Wagyu beef intercostal was nice, with a tender, bouncy texture. I do not have complaints about the quality of the meats, but the marinades and sauces they have was quite limited in variety.

The grills used in this restaurant are cheap disposable wire grills rather than the heavy plates in other restaurants. This has a tendency to burn the meat, lose pieces through the grill and build up burnt residue.

Side dishes were generic Japanese/Korean style which appeared frozen and store bought rather than hand made. Highlights include the haphazardly chopped kimchi, deep fried instead of pan fried gyoza, and bland takoyaki with minimal actual octopus inside. The agedashi tofu however was a pleasant surprise with a soft silky texture and a light delicate sauce. I did not eat anything from the salad bar as there was only a small selection of 6 salad/pastas and it looked like it had been sitting there untouched for a while.

Service: (3/5) I was greeted on entry, and was shown to a table immediately with instructions on how to order and get food. Instead of a traditional buffet where you collect your own food, this restaurant works on an order system using a tablet to select the food with the waiter delivering it to your table afterwards. The food arrives fairly promptly, but service may be slower - taking several minutes if the restaurant starts filling up. To be honest, I would prefer a more traditional buffet where you can physically see and select the exact foods you want as well as picking up your desired quantity. Unlike other Japanese restaurants in the area, there was no thank you and farewell as I paid for and left the restaurant.

Setting: (4/5) Initial impression was good. The tables were spacious, and the seating was a mix of modern and traditional Japanese design, with private booths in addition to usual open tables. The ceiling was high which was to its advantage since it made this restaurant less smokey than other KBBQ restaurants. I recommend seating further away from the kitchen if you want to avoid chit-chat between the staff (in Korean). Be careful if you have long legs to avoid burning your knees on the hot underside of the grill when you’re sitting down.

Value: (1/5) For $38.5 per person for the regular all you can eat BBQ buffet option, I felt that this was overpriced considering the choice of food you’re getting. Needing $1 extra per grill change of disposable grills is ridiculous when other places regularly change grills free of charge. The only way to get your money’s worth is to order large quantities of meat or seafood (only prawns were included in the regular buffet) and even that’s difficult considering the small serving sizes on each plate delivered. I do not recommend ordering dishes a la carte if the serving sizes from the buffet are anything to go by (e.g. $7.5 for 3 small pieces of tofu; $4.5 for a small bowl of boiled beans) as you are likely to rack up quite the bill in order to have...

Got the most expensive option (deluxe) priced at almost $70 per person. There were a lot of options but most of the options were of quite low quality.

I didn't expect high premium quality from an all you can eat place but from the hype and raving reviews I expected a bit better. The meat was good when we ordered at the start but when we ordered seconds it was very frozen and tasted off, even though it was the exact same cut of meat that we ordered earlier (short ribs).

The sashimi didn't taste very fresh and had lots of tiny bones in it, it wasn't dangerous but definitely negatively affected the taste.

The edamame didn't have any seasoning, just tastes extremely bland.

We got a few other things that was okay like the mini bibimpap but to be honest we can get better for cheaper if we were after other dishes. The main star which was the Yakiniku was a big let down.

Most importantly, at around 1:30am while I was asleep, I had an intense stomach ache that involved a lengthy toilet meditation session, which I heavily suspect was due to the sashimi or off tasting meat.

I normally don't bother writing negative reviews and just opt to not go back, but the let down, expensive price point vs quality of food provided and the physical pain it caused me combined made me decide to write this review.

Credit where credit is due, the staff were all friendly and nice, albeit the restaurant was very packed and they were very busy, so some empty plates took a while to be cleared.

Overall I would not recommend this place for dinner, maybe the half price lunch would be slightly better value for money on a lower tier course, but as it stands, you can get much better quality meat at other Yakiniku / KBBQ restaurants in the south side for the high price point...

There are 3 buffet options for the all you can eat. Prices starts from $42.90. We went for lunch and there was a 10% discount (not sure if this is an everyday thing or how long is the promotion for).

There’s a good selection of meat and seafood for the bbq, along with cooked food and we loved them all.

The strip loin was really good quality but you still have an option for wagyu (deluxe package at $69.90). Their kimchi and the pork with herb is a must try!

There is a 100 minute time limit for the first two packages and you will be asked to place your last order at the 70 minute mark, to allow you time to cook and eat within the allowable time.

The deluxe option have no time restriction but last order is at 2:30 for lunch.

You can get Ren special spicy sauce, soybean paste and sesame oil in the package but you can also pay for other sauces you might want to add.

There’s a selection of drinks you can choose from for an extra cost.

You will also have to pay extra should you wish the grill to be changed so I suggest leaving the flavoured meats to the end to avoid sticking or you can have one side for flavoured meats and the other for plain.

You can order from the ordering pad on the table which makes it super convenient. They serve your order so quick too so no need to worry about them taking their time while you have a time limit.

Make sure to only order what you can eat as there is an extra charge per 100grams for food wastage.

The only thing that we didn’t like about the experience is they disable the ordering pad once you have placed your last order so you can’t order additional drinks anymore even if you pay extra for them.

Overall was a good experience and...