Bon KBBQ — Restaurant in Houston

This place was instantly set apart from other Korean BBQ's because the meat and side dishes (banchan) were all self serve. Other restaurants threaten to charge for uneaten food, but since you can control your portions here, there was little fear we would end up with a whole plate full of unfinished food, or some item we didn't like.

The meat buffet contained at least 10 kinds of meat, including pork belly, bulgogi, spicy bulgogi, bulgogi with vegetables, sausage, squid, pork, chicken, tofu, tripe and more. The side dish buffet included, chapjae, pickled onions with jalapeno, kimchi, seafood pancakes, fishcakes, potato salad, spicy cucumbers, edemame, seaweed salad, bean sprouts and more.

As if this list of items wasn't enough, a paper menu at the table listed another dozen or so higher quality meats, including LA ribs (galbi), pineapple galbi steak, thick pork belly, brisket, & hot wings that could be ordered from the wait staff.

The bulgogi with vegetables, had good flavor, was tender, and seasoned well. The spicy pork belly, again, pretty good, marinated well, and actually having some heat to it. However the plain bulgogi and pork belly fell a little short. We tried adding some sesame oil, salt and pepper, but was still left feeling they lacked the flavor compared to other places I've eaten.

The fish cake was bland, and actually tested fishy. Fishcake isn't usually fishy tasting, and I've eaten it many times elsewhere. I commented that the chapjae had almost no flavor at all, and while chapjae doesn't really have a strong flavor to begin with, this really did lack almost any flavor at all..

The food itself was hit or miss, I had hoped everything would be amazing, but the area where this restaurant really stood out, was the wait staff.. We had at least 5 people in less than 15 minutes wait on us. At this point I realized what was going on.. Rather than a single waiter/waitress assigned to our table, they had a staff of at least half a dozen people, who were walking the entire dining floor, checking grills, glasses, and plates at every table. This was the first restaurant I'd ever eaten at that waited on tables this way. Our drinks never went empty, grills that were smoking or dirty were replaced within a minute of asking, and empty plates were cleared within 2 minutes of being placed at the end of the table. Service wise this was nearly as good as you can get. Staff was friendly, joking, and super attentive.

After a few plates of food we decided to explore the specialty meat menu and order some LA Ribs (Galbi). The plate that came out had 4 huge slices of rib meat. We put 2 on the grill plain, grilled them until they started to get a golden tint. These were good, but a bit plain. I prepared a bowl of teriyaki sauce, onion and bell peppers, returned to the table, poured it over the next 2 rib slices and started to cook those. While this created a bit of smoke, the ribs turned out great. We finished up the ribs, and figured we might as well order a single pineapple steak as our last item. The steak was noticeably a better cut of meat, but I personally enjoyed grilled pineapple and could have eaten a few more slices.

At the end of our meal our waitress brought out a few bowls of shikeh. I'd never heard of this item before. It was a translucent looking liquid with small bits of what appeared to be rice in the bottom. I took a sip and realized instantly it tasted like rice pudding with cinnamon and sugar. Everyone at the table finished their bowl pretty quick, It was one of the items listed on the specialty menu that are included with the meal.

Overall the food was decent, I wouldn't say it was the best Korean BBQ I've had. The meat quality was decent, but not fantastic. The service, variety of meat and sides, and way the entire place was setup was where this place stood out.

I would return again, definitely a place you have to go to hungry, but I also have more Korean BBQ's on my list to...

I want to start by saying I love Jin. Every other time I've been has been a 5star experience, and I've been here multiple times since it's opened.

The last time though? It was awful. The food was great, but the experience was horrendous.

First off our server decided it was a great idea after ten minutes of use to come up change our grill (full of raw meat on it by the way) and dump the meat on a new cold grill mid use. We had a mixture of beef and pork on the grill, and were separating the two as to not cross contaminate. That was unacceptable. The next few times we barely managed to stop her from changing the grill(again full of raw meats). She had lifted the grill partially by the time she understood that we did not in fact need a new grill after just ten minutes.

Next issue yelp, google, both the outer and inner doors of this resteraunt all said that the establishment closes at 10. Around 9 our server last calls. That's fine totally reasonable. At about 9:15 she comes over gives us the check for the table (didn't ask us if it was split which it was, but its fine we had cash to pay each other back.) We continue to eat. About five minutes later she comes over to ask us if she can take the check. We say we aren't ready yet. She gets impatient. "Please pay our system needs to close" it is 9:20 at this point. We give her a card without bothering to split because we're being rushed. She comes back and hands me the slips to be signed literally as soon as she leaves a manager walks up and insists that they need the slip right away and stands there waiting for me to sign and tip. The music has been turned off now and everything is being cleaned. Our table is being bussed as we are still eating. We have to ask for the ginger rice drink, and as soon as we get it they say "bye thank you" as we are still seated eating. We get rushed out. Outside there are two other groups just standing and talking in the lot, because we've been basically kicked out of the resteraunt. The time on my phone reads 9:35. Asian resteraunts aren't exactly known for its service, but this...

BEWARE of the grills!!

If I could I would give it a 0 star. My previous review is down below as reference as to this WAS my favorite kbbq place for years..until I noticed my grill and all the grills - I mean EVERYONE around us the temp was turned down low (even though you have it set on the highest). Usually you'll be blasted with smoke, and when you order your thin cut meats for example they would cook up within a second!

Well not this time, and the manager in charge said all the grills were like this now. The other employee came over, and was confused as to if our grill wasn't on, but it was. My waiter was nice enough to have us change tables, but it didn't matter the new table grill was the same as the other. It was everyone's grill that's the issue. It's like someone put the settings low so it doesn't go above a certain temp even when you have it on high. It was horrible! We ordered shrimp, and those were still grey in color after 10+ minutes... We also spent $60+ plus drinks for the dinner price. This has been my favorite favorite place for years... Not any more when we travel from way up north to come to this location - disappointed!!

Below was my previous 5 star review until June 2025

My favorite place for Kbbq for AYCE! The manager (Jason) and staff is always so attentive. I come here a lot with my bf, and my server Jun is always a delight to have! He always gets my orders right away, and knows when to change our grill! Thank you so much for making our experience here great!

They also have a great variety of banchan - my favorite is their salad with sesame dressing! Hot tofu soup is always my go-to! Lots of already cooked dishes as well - my fav is the crispy peanut chicken! So worth the price at lunch!! Dinner is also a bonus with their...