Seoul Garden Korean BBQ and Hotpot — Restaurant in Brisbane City

TLDR, this reminds us of Sizzler.

It's been a while since I've experienced Korean BBQ. My fond memories have been of a tightly packed room filled with the smell of burning charcoal, grilled meat, everyone else speaking Korean and older gentlemen laughing whilst downing copious amounts of Soju.

Seoul Garden is different. New different. The plaque on the wall is a direct transliteration of "garden" into Hangul but Koreans don't use this word to refer to an actual garden.

Since this joint appeared on my wife's social media, she's been itching to try it. You can't book for less than four people in advance but the gentleman on the phone stated that you can simply rock up and "scan the code" - so we drove from Toowoomba on this premise.

Hasn't Market Square changed! The car park is now multistory and less challenging to navigate. Seoul Garden is on Level 2 and upon scanning the code, my wife received a WhatsApp notification that our table was ready. The well presented gentleman at the front handed us over to a waitress in order to be seated. Both of these kind employees deserve appreciation.

Right, basics first. You have 90 minutes. The clock starts ticking... now. I did a recon first and came back to the table with large excited eyes. Our waitress was kind enough to explain the grill. Don't set it above "3", and the hotpot sits on a separate burner on the table. A drawer underneath holds chopsticks, napkins etc.

Let's start with the KBBQ. Awesome selection of meat (including my favourite pork jowl), and a mind blowing array of condiments. I chose ssamjang, gochujang and I did my own gireumjang. It's oily but works with fatty meat, oddly enough. A little disappointed in the tiny array of ssam on offer - it was essentially a couple of lettuce varieties - no perilla leaves! Tongs and scissors available at stations - and the scissors actually worked!

Whilst I cherish charcoal and cooking on open fire, I appreciate fire safety regulations may have an input in this venue's choice of electric grills. It wasn't half bad - consistent heat and the extraction system was well designed - no smoky atmosphere. We were darting back and forth as the restaurant started to become busy.

Service was attentive - a little too attentive. Seoul Garden uses disposable plates and cutlery - I'm happy to keep using the same couple of plates for a 90 minute sitting - but this business burned through about 20 plates and 8 pairs of chopsticks unnecessarily by constantly clearing our table. Just give me stainless steel chopsticks, a spoon and two plates - I'm happy. Kinder to the environment and your back pocket.

My wife was disappointed that the hot food buffet was lukewarm. I didn't have this issue but we have very different tastes on the buffet. My concern was the beef quality - for Wagyu with that amount of marbling it wasn't good. But the pork and chicken did make up for this transgression.

You can choose a pre-made hot pot or DIY - of course I chose the latter. With a wall of veggies this makes the process overstimulating but whimsical. I love my veggies and this made it into my design. A couple of hot dishes later, we were ready for dessert.

Our waitress handed over our bill with the note that we had 20 minutes remaining. This was our cue to raid the dessert bar - great choice of ice cream, toppings and pastries. When we paid, a beautiful lady handed our receipt over with both hands (how very Korean) - and we finished our experience.

We definitely will return. Amazing value...

Seoul Garden Korean BBQ and Hotpot A Rushed Feast in a Crowded Space

As an avid foodie in the Sunnybank area, I was eager to try Seoul Garden Korean BBQ and Hotpot, a massive 300-seat restaurant in an area packed with quality competition. Seeing a huge line at 11:20 am filled with eager diners, I assumed I was in for a treat. However, my experience turned out to be less about enjoying the food and more about navigating the logistics of dining there.

Booking Frustrations and Initial Confusion One of my first hurdles was trying to make a booking. Despite multiple calls, no one ever answered the phone. I later learned that they only take bookings for groups of four or more, so smaller parties have no choice but to try their luck with walk-ins.

Once I arrived, I joined what I thought was the regular queue, only to find out after waiting for some time that it was for reservations only. That meant rejoining the correct line and waiting even longer.

Service: Efficient but Impersonal When we finally got inside, the front-of-house staff was friendly but firm, immediately informing us that we only had 90 minutes to eat. This set the tone for what felt like a rushed experience.

The staff’s limited English made it difficult to understand the process, and they didn’t seem particularly eager to explain how things worked. While I’m comfortable with Korean BBQ, first-time diners might struggle with figuring out the system on their own.

At the one-hour mark, a staff member came by to remind us that we had only 30 minutes left, which added to the feeling of being on a timer rather than enjoying a meal.

Food: Variety but Crowded Buffet On the positive side, the range of food options was impressive, with a great selection of both meat and vegetarian choices. However, the all-you-can-eat station became extremely congested due to the sheer volume of people. Maneuvering through the crowd to get food was frustrating, making it feel more like a chaotic scramble than a relaxed meal.

Another downside was the use of only paper plates and spoons, rather than proper ceramic dishes. For a restaurant of this scale, it felt like a cost-cutting move that detracted from the dining experience.

Would I Return? While the food selection was solid, the rushed atmosphere, lack of clear guidance, and overcrowding made the experience less enjoyable. If I’m paying for Korean BBQ, I prefer a more relaxed setting where I can savor the meal rather than watch the clock. Sunnybank has plenty of smaller, more intimate Korean BBQ spots that offer better service and a more comfortable dining experience.

However, if you're only interested in yummy tasting food, then this is the...

If you are someone being bribed to give a 5 star review, that is just sad.

Yes, all AYCE places are a risk for bad quality. But I have never felt so sick to my stomach like this before.

Food is sub-par, huge variety and on the surface it looks great. But quality was so bad. Usually my partner and I can eat a lot of food at buffets, and considering we starved ourselves and went to the Zoo beforehand we were so excited to eat. My appetite was completely lost once my partner picked the ox tongue with this weird pus looking growth on it. When I asked one of the workers if this looks right? They looked at it funny too, took it away and went "to check" (no apology) damage was already done, I honestly was about to vomit. I always order Ox tongue at every buffet/ or normal a la carte KBBQ, JBBQ that was just gross and I refused to eat any meat afterwards.

Service wise - look it was decent, cleaned plates not timely but good enough, changed grill once that was fine. But the constant reminder that our time was about to be up was just horrible. Most AYCE buffets I've been too we've either finished before the limit is up or we will leave when its about the limit.

Got given the 30 minute mark which was nice. That was great. I told my partner and we quickly cooked the rest of the meat we had (which my partner ate since I was so disgusted) and we got our desserts. A little girl put her hand into the MnMs bowl and picked one and ate it. So new trauma added to the list.

While partner and I were eating desserts (Literally ice cream and cube cake) that was all that was left. We were clearly done and had turned off grill and hotpot plate. Just finishing off the Desserts. Reminder at 7 minute Reminder at 5 minute Reminder at 3 minute (Another worker) reminder of 3 minute mark.

I was so shocked and felt so rushed i literally just didnt finish my ice cream and got up because I couldn't handle being in this environment. My partner practically sculled his still hard ice cream because he felt rushed from me standing up.

I'm glad I'm not from Brisbane so I never have to be in the same state as this restaurant. Cannot wait to get back to Sydney and have Kbbq.

P.S. There were at least 3-4 other tables the same size available and the queue outside was so long. Like rushing me if the place was completely packed E.g. all tables filled maybe it's fair. But if there are 3-4 other tables free while you're coming every 2 minutes to remind me to leave... what...