Seorae — Restaurant in Hong Kong Island

With the diminishing number of KBBQ places in HK, I'm happy that Seorae's food, especially their specialty pork cuts, remains delicious. It's not cheap, but for KBBQ i think it's a pretty reasonable price for the quality.

This commentary however is about their laughably bad dining policies. We made a reservation for 6pm on a Sunday - no deals or anything. When part of our party was a bit late (10 min), we were sharply told that we had to be seated by 6:05 or the reservation would be voided. This is relevant because there is a STRICT 90 min time limit per table, and we were rushed off our table at 7:20. So 5 minutes of leeway for late arrivals and 90 min seating for KOREAN BBQ.

Since the place is Korean-run, they surely know that KBBQ sessions do not run for just 90 minutes - you leisurely order plates of meat over hours, drink copious amounts of beer and soju; it's an event more than a meal. Their current policies are ridiculous. We were rushing the whole meal, and barely got to savor the meat or the company.

If this is a temporary thing during Covid, I get it - times are tough, you need to maximise turnover. I don't think this is temporary though, and what's the point of delicious food if you don't have time to enjoy it? If this was a lunchtime cha chaan teng I'd understand, but a meal here is over 300/pp and you certainly aren't paying for the ambience (which is famously bad).

We won't be back until these policies are...

I just went there with my family for lunch. I won't comment on the meat coz my personal preference is lean meat with very few fat, which many people have different preference at all.

But I only focus on their service which is UNQUALIFIED at all.

As their break time is 3pm, even there was 10mins to reach 3pm, one of the male staff with eye glasses talked quite loudly to his colleagues that he was going to kick the people out of the restaurant, the exact wording in Cantonese is “我就黎趕哂佢哋走，咁多人仲坐哂係度。” since we were sitting next a table that the staff setting up their lunch, the male staff told me once again that we had to leave by 3pm，“你地3點鐘就要走”。 To be honest, I went to many restaurants before n had late lunch, some of them had break time as well, but I had never been to a restaurant with this manner!!

I truly don't think that it is JUST his manner, it must be the culture of this restaurant. Being rude and disrespect their customers!!

I would definitely NOT recommend a restaurant with such services to others, no matter the quality of their food, in which with such a price point, I have so...

Seorae has always been one of my favorite Korean grill restaurants in Hong Kong.

Their egg custard was outstanding. Served with chopped kimchi on one side and cheese on the other, the egg with cheese would certainly impress anybody because it melted along with the eggs. Tasted best with runny eggs!

Beef belly was served with their signature seorae sauce in thin slices. Good amount of fat. Tender meat. Sweet pear flavor of the sauce that also gave the meat a nice char.

We also ordered a kimchi stew with pork to clear our palate between meaty dishes. Slightly sour and spicy, rich taste of kimchi but not oversalted. Such a heartwarming soup. So appetizing and made me wanna have more meat!

The makgeolli they had was a brand I tried for the first time - Neulbom Enjoy Slowly Rice Wine 늘봄 느린마을 막걸리. Tasted very calpis, yogurt and easy to drink. Perfect for neutralizing the greasiness of grill.

Would definitely keep visiting because of their fair prices, wide range of meat cuts, delicious egg custard on side and amazing...