The Moon Korean BBQ & Hot Pot – All You Can Eat in Hackensack NJ — Restaurant in Hackensack

Last night was my first night having both discovered and had dinner there for the first time. I didn’t plan on dining there, but I was familiar with restaurant that had been there beforehand and was actually looking to go there. But to my surprise; it has since changed to this establishment and so I figured why not give it a try since I was already there? From initially walking in; I was immediately greeted by a gentleman who appeared to be the owener. He was welcoming, friendly and efficiently escorted me to my table. From there, my waitress (Anna) whisked herself over to my table and immediately greeted me, welcomed me proceeded to take care of me from my start to finish of dining. She thoroughly explained how the menu worked, hot pot and bbq option for me. I’m familiar with both hot pot and Korean bbq, but it was nice of her to break it down for me as if it was my first time. From there, I placed my order with Anna and she began to setup everything for me. I then ventured into the buffet style food area where I was able to begin selecting all of my items for them hot pot and/or bbq. The selection collectively was overwhelmingly large (in a positive way), everything appeared to be fresh and tasted as such. The option I went with was of the highest price point and included everything/unlimited options within a large timeframe. Anna immediately whisked back in to help me cook all of my food options and even created her “Special Sauce” for me to try as a condiment to be paired with all food and it was absolutely delicious! Anna kept on top of the orderliness of my table from start to finish as well. Truthfully, I over-ordered, but was okay with it because I got the full-experience. Now, I know how to better order for myself next time. Also, the entire restaurant was very clean and orderly. The staff ran a very tight ship so to speak and the owner oversaw everything by everyone! Honestly, it was Anna who made my experience as a whole. She was the friendliest, sweetest and warmest person that I’ve come across in a long time and that was heartwarming for me. Especially, during a period of time in my life where/when I need it most! It was as if I was meant to dine there, meet her, etc. All in all, I left with my stomach full (basically about to explode), a smile on my face and a heartfelt feeling of warmth within me. God, knows I needed that! In conclusion, I will eventually return in the future, but most likely with others joining me next time around because of the amount of food that needs to be consumed! I hope that Anna is still working there then and I get to see her again in the future :)...

Where do I even begin....

We were a party of 6 + 1 baby. We were given an oddly long table (basically 2 tables put together) with 2 grills. While I appreciate that they were thoughtful enough to give us 2 grills, their table design was very awkward. With the 2 tables put together, it was about 15ft long. One grill on each end. Our party of 7 was separated in such a way that there was no way for all of us to converse while we ate. Passing food around required us to get up and walk over to the other side. They only gave us 1 bottle of water, which we had to get up and pass back and forth. It would have been better if they had a table that was designed with 2 grills.

We chose the option of BBQ only. Out of the meats that we ordered, only the kalbi was marinated and tasty. The other meats didn't even have salt on it. Very bland. For K-BBQ I'm surprised they didn't even have ssamjang. The crab wasn't fresh. Didn't try the other seafood. The buffet definitely had more options for hotpot. You'd have to be real creative to find stuff to BBQ with. There's not a lot of prepared food. The japchae was bland, no salt, can't taste any sesame oil.

Tbh, the only thing we really liked was the self serve bingsoo. We had fun with it and had seconds.

18% gratuity was included for our party size. But I'm just saying.... nobody came by regularly to check if our grills needed to be changed. We needed to wave forever at this server, who was literally right in front of us, to get her attention. It was kind of obvious at some point she was just avoiding eye contact. And then when she finally gave in and heard our request, she came over to check if our grill really needed to be changed before going to grab a new one. Why would we lie to you for? The grill was already completely charred. Scissors (to cut the meat) weren't given to us until halfway through. It was so hot in there. Ventilation was bad. My baby was sweating the whole time. We were fanning him with a hand fan. It wasn't until the END of our dinner, that a kind new server I haven't seen before came by, saw us fanning him, and proceeded to turn a big fan on and pointed it towards our table. Ain't nobody cared to do that for us the whole time we were there. Smh. Thanks to the server who randomly passed by at the end.

Oh and here's an extra. The highchair that they gave us was the dirtiest and stickiest highchair I have ever encountered. I've seen dirty, but this was visibly dirty and STICKY dirty. My mom asked me if I want to clean it first. It is NOT my job to clean this restaurant's dirty highchair. No thank you. Had my baby sit on our...

Unfortunately, I am quite simply not going to recommend this place, although I was excited to see a new place open in this location. I knew this spot originally as a Brazilian churrascaria, and the space is clearly fitting for a buffet restaurant. But after the churrascaria closed, a rather substandard buffet place opened in its stead, which only confirmed what’s wrong with so many buffet places that have a variety of types of dishes: nothing ever stands out as being incredibly good.

But this place seemed a lot more promising, and I still say it’s a far cry above the buffet that used to be here. With their hot pot, you get a choice of type of broth, which boils at your table. You can get meat to cook in the broth, and there is also a buffet of various options you could also cook in the broth or have on the side, from kimchi to noodles to vegetables to seafood to rice cakes. For afterwards, there is the self-serve ice cream, Jell-O, cookies, various fruit. They even have a couple of robot servers!

Here, of course, comes the bad news: I had the pork broth, as I thought I would start with something basic, though there are various options that go up the spicy ladder. And unfortunately, I found the broth exceedingly bland. In fact, it seemed like I was just boiling things in water rather than getting any flavor from the broth itself. They do have their own barbecue dipping sauce, which helped relieve the flavor washout of cooking in this bland broth. That was a disappointment.

Still, there might be other options that work out far better. I am just simply not inclined to go back and experiment further. Part of the reason comes with my other warning, which is that I would suggest doing your research of the menu and pricing before you go, if you’re going to check this place out. I was a little shocked when I got my check, which was about twice of what I thought I was going to pay. When I saw the bill, I could then backtrack and see how I had actually ordered things that added up to this price, but ultimately the menu didn’t really make it clear what I was adding onto my bill as a first timer. sure, I could go back and try more and be a little more wise about what kind of tab. I am adding up for myself, but there are many more options in the shopping plaza and nearby elsewhere to really draw my attention to this place again.

One person‘s opinion, of course, and if you decide to go, I do hope you have a better experience than I did, because I do think it is an interesting place, but it simply didn’t really impress me enough to make a concerted...