Buldaegi BBQ House — Restaurant in Cary

my husband and i found this place by accident, while out taking a walk in the area. i have a love for korean cuisine, from family background. the moment i walked into the door, i was thrown right back into my childhood at grandma's house.

i was not disappointed by the food that came out. kimchi pancakes were hot and delicious, to such a point, that we had almost finished off the pancakes before the accompaniments came out, just moments later!

soup and salad was presented next, to which my husband and i did our normal switch (i got both salads, he got both soups) - which i could see confused the waitress, but she just rolled with our oddity, as we used the extra accompaniments to go with the second part of the meal. i was in love with the different types of kimchi, but neither of us could do the celery/radish accompaniment, due to allergies that we had not stated (which is completely on us).

side note about the kimchis... yes, there are different types. and the flavor profile greatly changes based on amount of spice, sweet bean paste, and vinegar used, let alone the types of vegetables the sauce is applied to. for the accompaniments, the standard low key spice, medium vinegar, and light bean paste was used, providing a clean crisp 'pickling' affect. but the kimchi for the pork bulgogi was nice and sour, ie extra vinegar, less bean paste, and longer fermentation. it cut the fattiness of the near bacon quality fried pork belly slices. the second spiced 'salad' was with bean sprouts, and added a light contrast. then top that with simple plain jasmine rice. i just couldn't get enough. NOMNOMNOMNOM!

hubby got the garlic pork bulgogi, which was sweet and savory, and almost tasted like beef. as in, i kept mistaking it for beef, because not only did it look like thinly cut beef, but tasted like beef.

both dishes came served on beds on onions, which to me, was just like being at grandma's house. hubby passed me his onions, which i added to my take-away box. which will probably be my breakfast this morning. :P

we came in for a late lunch, and walked away with full bellies, and taste buds pleased for the rest of the night. i not only recommend this wonderful lunch experience, but i will be back so often, i will probably be known on a first name basis. XD

another side note... IF you have never eaten korean cuisine, or never even met a korean or thai person, please be prepared for a different dining experience. this is not americanized take-out "chinese" food.

korean manners are not the same as american manners, or even chinese or japanese manners. koreans have no problem pointing out that you may not like something, and consider that proper manners. they do not lie to you, and tell you that you will like something, that you probably won't, just to get a 'sell' - as that is bad manners and bad business sense, to them. missy that left a 1star for being told that you probably wouldn't like cold buckwheat noodles, i am talking DIRECTLY to you. it is VERY MUCH an acquired taste. growing up on korean/thai/laos cuisine, even i have to be in a very specific mood for cold noodle soup... and i typically eat everything put infront of me (save things i now know that i'm allergic to). if a thai or korean person tells you that you probably won't like something, take their advice, and go with what they think you WILL like. it is the pride of the chef, that they will know your palette, and prepare for you, something you will find...

Worst Korean BBQ experience ever! Don’t eat here, save your time and money. The way we were treated was simply not right.

As an Asian American, I can empathize with the language barrier. But they just would not listen, nor attempt to be kind or understanding.

Our reservation was for 4 adults. My fiancé was sick, sat for 5 minutes, left and laid in the car for an hour while we ate. The waiters 100% saw this as they continued to serve us for the hour they allotted us and only saw 3 adults eating.

Long story short, we asked them kindly to charge us for only 3adults. But they were quickly irritated and started yelling at us and started to speak to each other in Korean. As they attempted to force us to pay for someone who was not even there.

We weren’t trying to cheat them, steal from them, or not be understanding. We even said “we don’t want any trouble, can you at least charge her as a child?” And they say “NO no nooo, we cannot. You must pay for 4 people because your reservation was made for 4 ppl”. I have to also point out, we were literally the only group eating at this restaurant, the entire place was empty until another couple showed up to eat when we finished. We were the only people they had to be nice to.

They were so concerned about the $35, they didn’t understand if they were kind to us we would’ve given a decent tip to cover that amount, or came back again to eat or recommend friends and family to eat there.

Like I said I’m asian american, my family has owned their own business. But this was not how you treat your customers, or just people in general period. I even asked her “if you were sick at a restaurant, didn’t eat one bite of anything, not present at the table. But they forced you pay for food and service you weren’t there for, how would you feel?” And she didn’t say one word and that’s when she stopped communicating with us at all because she knew she was wrong. They also argued with us while customers were still eating. These are hard times, I don’t want any families or businesses to continue to struggle, but YOU CANNOT treat your customers as just profit. Treat them like people and they in turn will let your business be profitable. I’ve never taken the time out of my day to write a bad review or just write reviews in general, that’s how rude they were to my family.

Sidenote: I’ve eaten at a lot of Korean bbq spots. The food was ok, not terrible. But the electric heaters were only a foot long. You could barely cook any amount of bbq on a electric plate that size in the hour they give you. Go...

TLDR: Supbar at best. Go across the street to a much better option.

This was our first (and last) time at Buldaegi. We had been to Seoul Grill plenty of times (and loved it) but had always been curious to try Buldaegi as it seemed more lowkey but could possibly be a hidden gem. Wrongm

The first thing that should have tipped us off was the fact that it was practically empty, despite their competitor who is literally across the street is packed at the same time of day. I was hoping that maybe we were just ahead of the rush or something or that maybe people were blinded by the dreary decour and didn't look below the ugly ducklings surface and were missing out on good food.

I could talk about how the ordering experience was unintuitive and the poor atmosphere. But all that can be forgiven if the food is good.

We ordered:

Fried Dumplings Japchae (glass noodles) w/ Pork Bulgogi (Beef + Spicy Pork)

The beef was passable. But the spicy pork and dumplings were both bland and under seasoned. Altogether this meal just subpar. Those things alone would've been enough for me to simply leave and chalk to "you win some - you lose some)

The japchae was the real offender. I have had japchae plenty of times in my life and if this were merely an issue of it tasting "bland" or it wouldn't have been a bigger deal than anything else (after all, everything was bland so what's one more poorly seasoned dish). But it actually tasted strange. It tasted like the oil it was cooked in had been reused to many times or something. They assured us it was cooked fresh and I won't call anyone a liar. All I can say is that there was a strange taste that is often associated with oil that's been reused too often. When we brought this up, haven only eaten a few bites of it and asked them to remove it from the ticket (they asked if we wanted a remake - but again, everything else was already bland) they insisted it was correct and dismissed our concerns. That is obviously within their rights and is their prerogative to do so.

Still, we of course will not be back and I also think it's important to warn people off, particularly when a vastly superior option is less than 500 feet away. Do yourself a favor and go to Seol...