All That Barbecue — Restaurant in Irvine

I usually don't associate Irvine with amazing Korean BBQ, but All That Barbecue has definitely changed my perspective on that mindset. Usually, I'll make the trek to Koreatown for Korean BBQ because where else would you go? There's Road to Seoul, Hae Jang Chon, etc, and ever a whole slew of non-AYCE BBQ spots. Nonetheless, during this specific weekend, I was down in Irvine, and my lazy friend did not want to make the hour or so drive up to KTown. Per his suggestion, he said that All That BBQ is just as good, is only a 5 minute drive from John Wayne Airport, and there isn't the infamous KTown AYCE 1-hour wait.

With that being said, I was sold. All That BBQ is located with in a huge Chinese plaza that, of course, has a 99 Ranch Market. Parking here is hit and miss because these plazas are always packed with people so it's really a roll of the dice. When we got inside, I was surprised that for a Thursday night, we only had to wait 5 minutes. This is due to the fact that my friend stopped by earlier to put our name down, left the restaurant, and then came back with me 30 minutes later. This definitely plays into the whole equation because who wants to wait an hour to eat a meal, and what restaurant allows you do things like that?

Once seated, the experience was just like any other AYCE Korean BBQ spot in SoCal. For dinner, the price per person is roughly around $20 which is just around around the median price point. With your meal, you get the usual Korean banchan, as well as your BBQ additions such as the rice paper and different sauces. As far as their meat choices, they pretty much offer what you'd expect. From brisket, to tongue, to chicken, All That BBQ has it all, and the meat quality looked and tasted pretty decent as well. I did find it funny that All That BBQ has these interesting names for their meats. I suppose that's because they want to cater to the clientele in Orange County who can't pronounce words like kalbi or bugolgi.

Service here was pretty good as the staff here are pretty attentive. I did miss the little service button that they have in many Korean restaurants, but I digress. I'm not too sure if All That BBQ is the absolute best AYCE spot that I've had in SoCal, but it's definitely up there. The restaurant is clean, service is on point, the wait time is more than reasonable, and the price point is perfect. Now, something needs to be done about the...

I’ve been here couple of times and really like the food here. Nothing fancy but extremely good deal for the price.

BUT, the service here needs some improvement. I was here on 5/16 around noon (I pointed it out so maybe the restaurant could know who’s on the shift). There were 3 servers, a lady and two gentleman, serving the entire place. During our meal (around an hour time) they never came and asked if we need any more meats or anything, we had to raise our hands and waited for at least 5-10 minutes to get some attention from the server to order/ask for help every single time. It’s hard to even ask for some napkins or a straw. None of those really pissed me off (maybe needs some improvement but I understand since it’s busy lunch time). BUT, the two gentlemen servers are the problems. I felt super bad for the girl who seems to be extremely hardworking and ran her shoes off to help as many tables as she could and took all the requests with big smiles, while the two guys were disappeared half of the times in the kitchen or standing chill next to the fridge chatting or just wandering around slowly, acting not caring. Like I mentioned, since it’s really hard to get their attention in time to order meats, we have plenty of “free time”, AND I’m not really satisfied with the service. Thus, I watched the servers working closely during the entire meal. The girl would run from tables to tables, take their order, help with their needs, while the only thing I see one of the guy did was giving checks. And then the guy would standing near the fridge daydreaming for sometime, chatting with the other guy, slowly walking around, not seeing two tables that were looking for help, and disappeared in the kitchen. It was like that the entire hour.

I don’t normally leave reviews this long, but I kind of like the place and REALLY feel bad for the girl. I just wish to speak true about what I see and hope the restaurant could do something about this. I still gave over 15% tips but the credits were all for the girl. I would give 0 for those...

I've been holding back from coming here for so long but after a really big craving for kbbq & a lack of interest in driving down to Garden Grove for cheap AYCE, my boyfriend and I found ourselves at All That Barbecue.

WAITLIST PLEASE utilize the yelp app! This allows you to put your name in line even though you're not physically present at the restaurant which will significantly cut your wait time. Once arrived, do check in at the front desk as this is how they verify who is present and who is not. For us, it was about a 30-45 minute quoted wait time and we checked in at 8:30 PM on the app on a Sunday. We were seated at 9:25pm, so the wait was just slightly longer than expected...

• PRO TIP: LAST CALL IS AT 9:50PM SO PLAN ACCORDINGLY *

AYCE MENU There are only 2 options: lunch and dinner. Please be aware that the dinner menu is $25 but will have significantly more options to choose from, thus making it an extremely good value.

Some of my favorite entrées were: Beef brisket Beef tongue Beef bulgogi Filet mignon Beef belly Pork belly (thick slice only) Corn cheese Steamed egg (they'll do one per person)

• THEY DO NOT HAVE A LIMIT TO HOW MUCH FILET MIGNON YOU CAN EAT, SO FILL EM UP! *

SERVICE Relatively quick and managed to refill our waters when needed. Given that it was the end of the night, I figured that the server was kinda over his shift but to be fair, he did speak to us really nicely whenever we were ordering food.

I also liked the fact that the salad and banchan were already on the table before we got seated. The salad has dressing mixed in and there's a lot of it for the table. The sauces were great and my only gripe is that I wish they had a littttttle more salt and pepper.

Overall, I enjoyed my meal here and would certainly return. This is definitely one of my favorite premium AYCE locations and would highly recommend...