Coo.King BBQ & Hotpot — Restaurant in Queensland

Ventured into Coo.King for a pre-Christmas gathering with extended family on Tuesday night. Not sure why, but the Korean hip-hop/disco/loosely termed music was at Night Club level for some reason, as opposed to a background level. So loud, that none of could hear a word the staff said when explaining how the “restaurant” worked. The Menu choices were pay this much or pay this much. Everyone at the table had to chose the same buffet choice, no if’s, no but’s. We were more expecting an option of a teppanyaki type of meal after perusing the Coo.King website and seeing pictures of chefs tossing flaming things into the air and having dined at a Korean BBQ house in Sydney several times in the past, the deal was you chose, the chef’s cook. Hence, a restaurant type of deal. The prices/meal options do not take into account the fact that some people have had surgical procedures which prevent them from eating anything more than the equivalent of a metric cup worth of food. The manager, bless him, allowed my wife to dine for the cost of 12-15 year old, but this was still exceptionally over priced, as she consumed a total of 3 pieces of sushi and a chicken skewer, $35,thank you very much. As for paying the set rate to cook my own meal, not really keen on the price, given the atmosphere. We could not converse due to the night club volume of the very annoying music. My wife ordered the seafood broth, however, the stench arising from the bowl was akin to a four day old bait bucket on a fishing boat. I ordered the Tom Yum broth, but in my opinion, the shaving water brew in my cups canteen from my Army days had more flavour and certainly a better aroma than the “Broths” which were delivered to the table. Not to mention that stomach/bowels had a very violent reaction to whatever was in the broth upon my return to home. All in all, a very poor dining experience, menu choices do not cater for all, prices are too high, the dining experience and atmosphere were very poor and I do not recommend this establishment for dining, nor is it representative of value for money in any way,...

Definitely don't recommend. (Seated and ate at 12:49pm, left at 1:10pm)

While I was outside texting my partner to come look at Coo.King the door greeter came outside and asked impatiently: "Are you going to come in or just stand out in the heat all day?" I thought it was a quirk and gave the benefit of the doubt she wasn't meaning to be rude.

When my partner arrived, we entered she was very inconvenienced at finding us a table for two, and my partner tried to help by saying we were just after a quick lunch before our movie in 45 minutes in case there was a rush to flip tables quickly. She responded "Yeah, well, that doesn't really help me find you a table right now, does it?"

I knew then I had made a mistake in coming into the restaurant. Her rude demeanor continued as she passed us off to our waitress. Thankfully, we were served by Anna and helped by John with the hot buffet. Their service was lovely. I cannot commend Anna and John enough for trying their hardest.

The food is okay. It's not great. You can spend just as much money at the Food Court in Stocklands for the same quality. The decor and set up is the same, pretty much, except with table service from the wait staff who are run ragged. Our water didn't come until we asked twice for it. The different selections of hot food were unavailable as the kitchen couldn't keep up with the patrons, leaving us to wait at our table for about fifteen minutes before John surprised us with food we had already forgotten about as we were getting ready to leave.

I wish I could supply the name of the door greeter, but she was the only one not wearing a name tag. Perhaps she was the manager or maitre d'? Either way, we were really put off from the get-go and eager to leave as quickly as possible. We didn't even order a beer, which is unlike us.

Suffice to say, we won't be back.

tl;dr: They want you to come in but don't want the hassle of serving you. Food is not worth $20 a plate, even with the free sushi it comes with. Go to Hog's Breath or the sushi joint for a...

An excellent experience with a couple of gaping holes. We attended on a rugby league game night and despite being very busy (as the establishment is walking distance from the stadium) it was still easy to get into with no excessive waits to access the buffet tables. Very comfortable seating, with each table spot having a hot pot heater, and a shared BBQ grill in the middle. Extremely friendly staff who look after all their patrons very well.

They obviously but the lion's share of the budget and effort into the mains. More variety than one could every fully utilise with plenty of options for the Hot Pot, BBQ and kitchen cooked options. We tried a sprinkling of all main options and was not disappointed by any of it. (Note - chopsticks are the standard utensils but they have forks on request. They do NOT have knives.)

Where they went all out on the mains, they cheaped out on the drinks and desserts, despite being unlimited offerings. We can't speak to the alcohol as our table didn't order any, but the soft drinks are generic no frills options. This isn't necessarily a criticism but it's worth noting. There are also a couple of juice offerings.

Desserts are also quite uninspired. Mostly little finger sized bites of rather questionable satisfaction. There is a chocolate fondue set up but the dipables are very limited, mostly just small marshmallows. No fruit or nuts provided. Granted - this could have just been what was on offer the evening we were there so maybe this changes. There is also a soft serve ice cream machine, but as with the drinks it's very generic low quality serve, just by looking at it you can see it's the very grainy ice cream mix.

Overall - if you're looking for an amazing mains experience it's very easy to do worse. Mountains of great quality food of all different styles for much variety. Just have expectations in check if you're after non-alcoholic...