The Meat Bros - Korean BBQ — Restaurant in Fort Lee

This placed used to be my go-to kbbq place but the quality and especially SERVICE has seriously declined since covid. Came here around January this year and the service was one of the worse I’ve encountered in recent memory. First our grill was supposedly turned on but there was no fire. It took about 15 minutes to get someone to help us (some waiters were just standing and looking at us while we were waving our hands but we were ignored.) Someone finally comes and then hurriedly turns our grill on and left immediately. Guess what, the grill still had no fire and our meat was just sagging in the grill uncooked for another 15 minutes! We were trying to get help as our time was being wasted and were paying $60+ for this! We tried to turn the fire on ourselves but couldn’t figure it out, many waiters passed by us clearly seeing we were trying to turn the grill on with uncooked meat for 30 minutes and calling for them but they completely ignored us even though I’ve waived my hand and looked at their eyes whenever they passed. At that point I lost any respect I had for this place and immediately knew I will not be coming back for a while. When we finally got someone to help us I was very mad but contained myself and they turned the fire to MAX level. Now our meat was burning very quickly and couldn’t figure how to contain it. There was a lot of smoke coming out and after a while our grate was charred black and needed to be replaced and had no meat left on the table, and yet staff passed us by even though I tried to talk to them. Even then, they should’ve seen that they seriously needed to replace the grate and ask for our next order! I just couldn’t believe it, I dare say there was prejudice involved since I was not Korean. It felt like they were doing this on purpose as I saw them servicing customers who were Korean multiple times while we had a dead grill and then a burning grill for 30 minutes with no one helping us even though I’ve tried to make eye contact, waive my hand, and talked to them as they passed by. I tried to get someone’s attention again because our grate was charred black and we have had nothing to eat for a while and the staff completely walked by me. I then decided to try my hardest to get this one person’s attention as he passed by and he just looked at me and saw our grill black burning and he just made a face gesture asking me if I needed anything...as if I had to say anything since our grill was fully black and the fire was uncontrollable with smokes! We told him we needed the grill changed and he dared said “okay” and then proceeded to casually talk with another staff and waited another 5 MINUTES or so before he changed our grill! In the end, this other Korean staff with long hair started to attend to us and he was much much better. Still gave 10% top on a $64 bill for two people just because of the last staff. I have now been going to other kbbq places since. If management is reading this, please take a careful look at your staff. I saw that recently there have been many reviews that staff were inattentive as well and it’s ruining your business. Also the quality of meat has also declined, I have a good feeling their meat supplier changed sometime during covid. I would still eat here if only some of the staff changed. Used to eat here once or twice a week with my friends but this particulate visit left a bad taste...

I used to live in Koreatown in Los Angeles. My favorite AYCE place there, called Bulgogi Hut, costs $24.99 for the most expensive menu and it contains about 40 items with at least 15 different types of meats listed. The quality of the meat is fantastic, they include a drink with free refills, and for that price, I mean, come on.

I have been looking for something similar in New Jersey for about 4 years now with no luck. I tried Mr. BBQ a few times but they're super pricey and their selection is very slim. The Cast Iron Pot is ok but their parking is a pain, they are always crowded and also a bit pricey. Then my friend suggested we try The Meat Bros.

Let me start off with the price. $30 for Menu A (around 20 items or more) and $35 for Menu B (around 6 items, plus all the items on menu A). They also pretty much demand on the receipt that you leave a tip starting at 20%. Neither menu includes a drink other than water so add more money if you want a drink. I have gone here twice now. First time with a group of 4 and we all went with menu B and got drinks. It was almost $200. Today I went with just 1 friend and we went with menu A. With tip and just water it cost us about $72.

It's become clear to me that there's no way an AYCE is ever going to be able to come close to the price I got in Los Angeles. With that said, I still think the prices in this area are a bit insane. Now let's talk about quality.

The first time I visited, as previously stated, we went with menu B and we pretty much stuck to eating the 6 items on it. Honestly, for me, they are not worth the extra $5. I found them all a little chewy. Today, on my second visit, my friend and I decided to go a little nuts ordering from menu A. The brisket was delicious but it was so cold that it stuck to the plate and I had a really hard time ripping it off lol. We also tried the curry chicken which was yummy as were the beef patties and bulgogi. As a result, I'm ditching menu B and sticking with menu A from now on.

Now let's talk about the buffet bar. So I appreciate their selection hustle. They go above and beyond really and most of the items taste very good. My issue is that the hot foods have been cold on both of my visits. They have these wings there that are sooooo good yet not warm enough for me to wanna eat them. I guess I could use the grill to warm them up lol. Maybe I'll try that next time and see if I get dirty looks or not. But yeah, that's my main issue with the buffet bar, the food that should be hot is cold.

So basically, in conclusion, they have a lot of delicious things, hence the 4 star rating. The quality of the food is mostly amazing and I would even venture to say that they are the best AYCE Korean BBQ spot in the area. However, some stuff could be better as in their pricing, starting tip percentage, and the hot food issue. In my opinion, if they included fountain drinks without jacking up the current prices, and started tipping at 15% then I would be like heck yeeeeeeeah! But for now, this is gonna have to be a spot I visit once every 3 or 4 months cause I got...

Honestly giving one star to this place is extremely generous especially after my last visit, today around 12pm. I try coming here as an annual thing with my bestfriend to basically treat ourselves and just have a girls day with one another as we dont get to see each other a lot. Now before even coming here we were price checking to see if there was a price increase on the menu as we came here last when the pandemic was at a high, we knew they had lunch and dinner pricing but wasn't sure what the exact price was it used to be 24.99 for lunch and 29.99 for dinner, they changed it now to one menu $36 but it didn't say that online from what we saw. When we got there and asked about the lunch pricing we found that it was out of our budget but since we traveled the 40 minutes from our houses we decided to just split the bill since we knew it would be a large amount. The experience overall was actually very nice, though a few judgmental glances from other patrons it was very calming, the ambiance was perfect and the food was great like always, however, when we asked for more brisket they gave it to us and it was basically a frozen brick it was all stuck together. Now when we got our almost $90 bill we split the bill, my friend used her card to pay and I zelled her. Since it was so out of our budget we didn't end up leaving a tip and went to the bathroom before properly leaving. Once we came out our waiter and another female worker were looking for us and trying to force us to tip. I know that we should have tipped but honestly we spent more than we were expecting and just didn't really have it to give this time (We always tip no matter where we go as I have worked in a restaurant and she has as well but this time we just truly didn't have it to give). When she said "Yeah I don't have enough to give you a proper tip" They tried to force us, they were in front of us blocking our way out to the car and did this in front of a fully booked up room. My friend put down a $3 tip as they pressured her and seemed to be getting angry. However, it didn't stop there like we had hoped. The older woman actually took the receipt from the waiter and began following us to the door angrily. She wasn't screaming but her tone was very aggressive, she kept saying how we "couldn't do this next time we came there." and how we should "never come back here again." We were truly shocked at how unprofessional the older woman had been with us walking out the doors. I don't think it was fair of her to yell at us and try to disrespect us in front of others after forcing us to leave a tip and when we did, getting mad about the price. Needless to say we will never be coming...