Wangbijib Myeongdong Central — Restaurant in Seoul

TLDR: Don’t go here and don’t rely on the positive reviews. Food is mediocre and there are much better options elsewhere.

I would recommend going to another restaurant for BBQ. The 5-star reviews on Google are all from the restaurant’s offer to give diners a free side dish for writing a 5-star review.

You must order 1 dish per person and the portions are generally small and pricey. The quality of the meat was just OK - not great. There is an all you can eat BBQ restaurant on the next block that gives better quality beef and pork for a similar price as a 1 dish here. Also, consider going to Majang Meat Market for some great 1++ Hanwoo beef that you can BBQ on-site at good value.

The servers cook the meat for you here, but they don’t do a great job. The meat was either burnt or undercooked. Also, they do not have dedicated scissors and tongs for cooking at each table and use the same ones across multiple tables. We had cross contamination with the table next to us because the server was trying to cook at both tables with the same tongs. Our table neighbor couldn’t touch beef for religious reasons and the tongs that cooked our beef had been used for her pork. Because of this, she couldn’t eat any of it and the waiter didn’t even apologize.

The galbi was decent in flavor and portion, but nothing special. This would probably be the only dish worth getting. It was served undercooked and we had to finish cooking it ourselves.

If you’re looking for bulgogi, I wouldn’t come here. Portions were very small and not enough for even 1 person despite the high price. The quality of the beef was not good and was chewy. It was soaked in marinade all the beef flavor was masked. Half of the plate was burnt because of all the marinade and how close it was to the coals.

The seafood pancake was mediocre too. The base was nice and crispy, but the middle was soggy and undercooked.

The banchan / side dishes were ok, but again nothing special. The best dish was...

tl;dr Great Place for charcoal grilled meat, slightly smaller meat portions, mid-price range, great service.

Was a bit skeptical at first because of the sheer amount of reviews on Google. But decided to give it a try! 📍Located near the edge of Myeongdong, the restaurant is above ground. Making it less busy as places around. Lines might build as the night goes on. Try to aim for 6pm for quieter times but 7pm is only at most gonna give you a short wait.

💵Pricier than most local places, since the price only gets your one piece of meat. The quality is definitely up to par and with staff cooking it for you, it makes it that much better. Atmosphere, ventilation, and temperature also makes up for it.

🥢Service is great since staff was able to communicate in English AND they grill the meat for you so you don’t have to worry about the doneness of beef, as well as if your pork is ready yet. If you’re able to find “Jin Guang Zhao”, he was our server will definitely be able to help you.

🥩Taste of everything is pretty good for the non-marinated items. If I have to nitpick, I’d say the tartare is on the sweeter side (sweet chili sauce as opposed to sesame oil), but that’s about it. The menu has a good indicator of what each cut is, and what fattiness and tenderness you can expect from it. Pork Belly was surprisingly good even if you had it without dipping any condiments.

Overall, great place to try out if you’re around and want an above average experience and...

So on SM, this place came up a lot for Korean beef bbq. And figured, this it is, what with all the good reviews. Didn't realise the good reviews posted was so that one could get complimentary dish.

But let's dive right in to my own experience. This is my own review, so bear with me if yours differ.

So the portion of the meat presented was small. Not enough to feed this foodie's tummy. But thank god for the side dishes which helped to fill up the hole in my tummy.

Now onto the beef. It is said that Korean beef is better than wagyu. Unfortunately, if it is your first time trying Korean beef and want to marvel at what the rave is all about, skip this place. There is a much better alternative and it is in Myeongdong in one of those street market carts which cost a fraction of the price. DM me for the location, because the beef at the cart is like butter with marbling!!!!

I did appreciate the servers grilling the meat for the diners since we definitely did not want to mess up the meat. However, it tasted no different than a regular steak you can cook by yourself that you've just bought from a supermarket. Maybe my expectations were far too high for this restaurant, but if you want to experience Korean beef bbq, please find other alternatives.

The only thing that I liked about this place was the number of side dishes as well as the waiters grilling. Other than that, for the money spent, it was not worth...