Melbourne Dae Jang Geum Korean BBQ — Restaurant in Melbourne

The Korean restaurant is situated in the heart of China Town, Little Bourke on the second floor. The restaurant was very spacious, bright and clean. The customer staffs were attentive and friendly.

Note: They don't accept any booking for less than 6 people. Personally, we don't really understand the policy why we couldn't reserve a table for less than 6 people. We thought that this place was very busy, thus they didn't want to accept the booking. When we arrived at dinner time and it wasn't too busy. Lesson learnt that you don't need to book this restaurant as it's busy but plenty seats available on weekend and dinner time.

Anyway, we ordered: Pan Fried Kimchi Pancake for $15.00. You'll find a different style of kimchi pancake from other Korean restaurants, it was very thin and crispy on the side. It's a matter of preference, some of us prefer to have the thick while others prefer to have the thin one. It was quite disappointing because the dish was lack of taste, dry and the portion wasn't generous.

Fried Starch Noodle for $10.00. The taste of noodle was average and didn't find any special on it. It didn't have rich taste and the soy sauce was too strong. Small portion and relatively not worth for this value, we'd better to stretch our budget by 30-40% for better and decent taste of Jap Chae.

BBQ Cube Beef Scotch Fillet for $22.00. Marinated Beef for $15.00. The marinated beef was flavourful and well marinated. The beef was very tender and quite juicy. Unfortunately, the beef scotch fillet was tasteless and bland. Mentioned that the portion was enough for two and again it was very small.

If you want to have a quick and spacious Korean restaurant with the big group without any hassle to queue you can go to this Korean restaurants. Personally, I'd put this place in my second option as there are plenty better Korean restaurants on the other side of CBD (10-15 walking distance) from ChinaTown and you'll get better value and taste dishes.

Taste: 2.5 Price: 3.0 Service: 3.0 Speed: 3.0

Yay: Spacious place and you can rock up at anytime, Marinated Beef Nay: The portion wasn't generous and the overall dish was below standard comparing other Korean...

• Attention: Melbourne Dae Jang Geum Korean BBQ management team * I would like to recognize the outstanding service of =Minki=. He is the main reason we will come back to dine here.

Specifically:

When I requested refills of the Banchan (kimchee, etc), Minki went out of his way (restaurant was busy) to place the small plates in the round wooden serving trays they were originally presented. I highlight this because the other servers just handed the Banchan to me directly.

I requested the bbq grill to be replaced but the server said the restaurant only cleans the grill which I agreed to. However, the server (he must have been new) asked Minki for help. Minki came over to show how to clean the grill so that the new server would know moving forward. Minki's tone was calm and professional while showing how to clean the grill.

If every server in the restaurant was like Minki, the place would be perfect.

My wife and I will come back just for Minki's service.

If there is recognition for employee of the Month, Minki deserves it hands down!

He deserves a raise!

Lastly, I post a photo of what was ordered to show we ate there Sunday night (8 Aug 2025 @ 6pm).

Disclaimer: Minki did not provide any free items for this review. He earned it.

Minki - thanks again and we look forward to...

I am very disappointed with the lack of etiquette the staff have, especially the tall Korean male who looked annoyed upon arrival. My family member and I simply ordered our food and ate. I always said “thank you” whenever the food was delivered to our table, but was met with silence. Initially, I thought they were having a bad day, hence the lack of manners, but the restaurant was barely busy. I then realized they were capable of being nice to other customers, particularly those with children sitting across from us.

Even when paying for my food, I said “thank you” as a common courtesy, but I was given my 50-cent change without a “thank you” or eye contact, and the staff member walked away looking annoyed.

Personally, the food was very nice, especially the beef rib soup. However, when it comes to service, I understand that city restaurants can be busy, and servers can get annoyed. Nevertheless, the attitude and lack of manners were unreasonable, especially since they were capable of being nice to other customers. The poor service and lack of etiquette are the reasons I would NOT want to...