Chodang Tofu House AYCE KBBQ — Restaurant in Austin

Won’t be back. Surprised because our experience was completely the opposite of Neil’s. It was our first time doing the all u can eat bbq with them. They didn’t really explain much. But they asked which “3 meats” and so we ordered our first 3 meats and we finished all of that. They were about a medium size bowl each I would say. Then we ordered our 2nd “3 meats” and when one of them was finished we ordered 1 order of the baby octopus. In the end we had a lil bit of chicken left. (It was very little and we didn’t even order everything that was available to order there! There must have been another like 3 or 4 types that we didn’t get to try). I asked if I could just take home the few pieces left, it’s like the size of my small hand and I don’t really like throwing away food. Server said we have to pay if we wanna take it to go. Since it wasn’t all that good, I said it’s ok we don’t have to take it home. But in the end she charged us anyway because of the small leftover. I complained, I said the reason why we ordered the all you can eat was to try the different meats ( which we didn’t get to anyways coz we were already full and didn’t wanna order the other meats and waste it, I really am not a wasteful person!). Her answer was I should have told her that I just wanted to try. What?? No one explained that to us. It said up there all you can eat. And the leftover was really small. And the first server only said, “which 3 meats do u want?” in the beginning. She said we should have known, it was written there on the menu. I looked again and sure enough in very small letters (and it was dark in there!) it says they will charge for over .25 lbs leftover. Ours was about that much. That’s like 1 piece of hamburger patty!

Anyways, it wouldn’t have been so bad. I would just be annoyed at this normally but not mad. BUT the service was not good either. Asked for extra sauce coz what they gave was so little and the unmarinated meats were completely bland like it was not even salted, which was fine coz I’d rather have it bland than too salty anyways, but the sauce never came. Had to ask twice and it finally came but we were almost done eating. Found out they won’t serve you the soup that were listed unless you asked for it. Again, if they had explained all this in the beginning, that would have helped. And it takes forever for someone to come to our table. Was not even sure who exactly our server was. Had to grab other people for questions and orders etc. I might as well have just stood up and walked to their kitchen to tell them what we need. I could go on and on. I explained all this to the server and to the hostess but it seemed they couldn’t care less. “It is what it is” I guess lol.

Would rather spend more $ and have a positive dining experience than the amount we paid ($100 for 3 people) for this kind of experience. We’ll just go back to Gyu Kaku in Austin even if it’s further! That’s it, that’s all.

Upon reading the other negative reviews, this appears to be a common theme - the inattentiveness of the waitstaff when you opt for the all you...

For months now I have been stalking their "Coming soon All you can eat KBBQ" sign and finally Charm is open! It was 6:30 prime dinner time when we arrived. When i walked in, I saw about 9 empty tables so i thought oh good there wont be too much of a wait. Little did I know, when the rest of the group arrived (within 5 mins) we come to find out that it was over a hour wait for the all you can eat tables. Charm only have 13 tables that are for the all you can eat and about 12 tables for the standard menu order guests. If part of your group doesnt want to do all you can eat then that becomes an issue. I get it, they dont want the non all you can eaters to eat their friends food, but this seems like it could be a bit annoying. Simply because one of our friends wanted only Galbi and the rest wanted to do the all you can eat. The lady's at the front told me that we cant sit together then. What the?? The whole point of going to a restaurant as a group is that eating is a social event for us! I said well you can just keep an eye on our table and we are not going to share food. She wasn't quite sure about it all. Anyways, I dropped the subject and just decided with my group that we will just do the menu order to avoid the hour wait and if we all just order one meat, we can share it all family style.

The waiter came by really quick and got our drink orders. We ordered Kimchijeon (kimchi pancake) as an appetizer. For our meats we ordered Dwaejibulgogi (spicy pork bulgogi), chadolbaegi (thinly sliced beef brisket), and 2 plates of Galbi (ribs). Their complimentary sides are kimchee, radish kimchee, cucumber kimchee, japchae (noodles), and pickled radish and jalapenos. The waiter told us that the kitchen was super swamped so the food may take a while. We waited about 20 minutes for the food and the whole time he was so apologetic. We didnt mind because we also ordered a bottle of peach Soju that was so dangerously delicious! I had two shots of it and i was pretty red, granted I am a lightweight but it tastes like peach candy! The Galbi stood out the most to me, it was marinated perfectly with fresh onion slices and the meat was juicy when you bite into it. The kimchee was still very fresh but the radish and cucumber kimchee was just right for me. If you plan to make lettuce wraps with the korea bbq, you have to ask for it and it does have a small charge. Our ticket for our party of 5 was about 80 bucks. I think it worked out better than doing the all you can eat. However, I would definitely come back again, perhaps during more of an off peak dining hour so the wait wouldn't be as long so i can gorge in the all you can eat! Oh and...

Fantastic experience. Friendly hostess when we walked in, good sign, seated right away despite concerns we’d had about maybe needing a reservation after reading yelp reviews and getting conflicting information calling the restaurant on different days. Our waitress was clearly rushed (there’s a hiring sign out front) but she was so friendly, and we never ran out of yummy things to grill. They changed our grills out several times to accommodate the char from different marinades without us asking. The food was pretty good (lowest tier) but you mostly pay for the all-you-can-eat aspect and the experience. Our table got garlic pepper beef with every round of meat, my absolute favorite, great with opaque sauce they give you. The pork shoulder was also quite good. We got spicy octopus, which is HILARIOUS to watch cook! Highly recommend this little bowl of baby octopi if you have someone REMOTELY squeamish in your party and want some schadenfreude with your meal. The little tendrils curl and uncurl as you turn them on the grill. The overall meat grade was okay. It feels like we definitely got our money’s worth. The sides were okay. They brought out less variety than I expected, I wonder if they were low on stock? Other tables were a bit low too. We were able to ask for some things which were brought free of charge with the meal, like their yummy steamed egg dish, it reminded me of a shrimp custard I had in Japan. Following suggestions from Google, I put a bit of kimchi on the grill, and some pickled onions too. That was pretty good! It made the kimchi a more tolerable spice level for me (I struggle doing week 2 of Torchy’s August tacos, but order my Tarka medium heat, for context of my spice tolerance). The corn side was a bit weird but the seaweed salad was good.

One note for management - one boy kept coming out to the floor to retrieve grill pans who attracted the wrong kind of attention. He’s either s rude person or was really having a bad night. At one point, he actually shoved his empty cart into the cart we were being served from while the waitress was with us, then rolled his eyes while he had to wait for her to work with us. Our waitress was so sweet and working so hard, I strongly disliked that boy’s attitude. If he can’t even pretend to be nice in front of customers, he probably shouldn’t be allowed on the floor.

Tl;dr: Service early on a Monday was friendly & efficient, if not chatty - A+ in circumstance. Protein was pretty good if you chose the right things and mixed it with the right sides - B. Sides were okay, most were great grilled. Average to B-. General restaurant vibe is humble, friendly, ample...