HALLYU KOREAN BBQ & BAR — Restaurant in Tamarac

Hallyu Korean BBQ opened their flagship restaurant about a month ago in Tamarac a bit south of Commercial and University. From the small and thoughtful details of restaurant itself to the quality of the food, this is the best Korean BBQ we've ever experienced.

The space is very large, with colorful neon sculptures, a giant mural with an ode to every pop culture reference from Korea, and giant screens playing non-stop Korean pop music videos. (Thankfully not too loud, but this is definitely not a quiet night out and more of a party restaurant, so not for everyone). They even have private karaoke rooms with grills to eat and have fun.

The owner Ray Park was in that night, and he was more than happy to talk to us and share his origin story. And what a story it is. He described coming to America in the 1970s with $3.50 to his name to eventually owning the first and only Build-a-Bear store in South Korea.

I asked how that translated to his first foray into restaurants, and he explained that he's been around Florida many times over the years searching for authentic and good-tasting Korean food. He'd been disappointed so many times, he decided to poach one of the top 10 chefs in the Republic of Korea and bring him here to create the menu. His national pride is evident in every aspect of the restaurant.

It's also obvious he put a ton of resources into the entire project, including the tables and round grills built into each. It's really state of the art, as he pointed out the lack of odor you would expect and find at other restaurants where food is being cooked on every table. I'm not sure how he pulled that off. The grill itself takes seconds on each side to cook most of the meats as well.

The menu is simple, but the food is incredible. The left side of the menu is the extra sides you can order. The right side is the $35 all-you-can buffet of meats you can order from, including beef options, pork, chicken or seafood (like squid and shrimp).

Four sides come standard (and white rice), and each was better than the last. The kimchee was more spicy than the others, but layered with spices and acidity. My favorite was the beet pickled radish paper. Thin, crunchy and soaked in this phenomenal pickled juice.

Ray gave us a great personal suggestion and asked us to dunk each meat into the soy pickled onion and jalapeño bowl to give some extra saltine flavors with some very mild heat. He was absolutely right it went great.

The sides that didn't come included that we tried included the baked corn cheese and the steamed custard egg. The baked corn cheese had a creamy sauce that had a surprising touch of sweet, and it was fantastic with gooey cheese slathered on somewhat crispy corn bites. We devoured that. The Korean style steamed custard egg was like an elevated egg souffle. I thought the seasoning was a bit lacking considering every other dish was so rich, but it was still very good.

The fried pork dumplings need their own paragraph they were that delicious. Perfectly crispy, and like many dishes they chose an extra burst of saltiness to go with the very tender pork mix inside.

You're allowed to order three different meats at a time, and each one is visually a treat. I decided to attach precooked pictures because people might cook their own varying lengths.

They bring 3 sauces out for dipping, including a traditional soy sauce. Another is a red soy paste which is very salty and strong in a good way. The last white one is their version of a yum-yum sauce, sweet and a great balance for most of the steaks. However the overnight marinades are so ridiculously good that most of the meats can be eaten standalone.

This is some of the best quality proteins I've ever seen on a menu like this. We tried everything but the seafood. Premium thin briskets perfectly sliced, beef belly with narrow strips of fats that cooked instantly on the stove and added depth, thick sliced tenderized soy-marinated pork belly, chicken thighs beautifully marinated in a special house soy house, the feast went on and on with each meat taking...

Stopped in to have some Korean BBQ and check the place out. First impressions: the inside has a great energy, the music videos and lighting are awesome. They have a 3 different price points for all you can eat, from $35 up to $55. I opted for the $35 as it still had a number of options despite being the most affordable.

Server gave a great quick rundown on keeping the grill clean. Unfortunately after they brought all my food out they realized the grill at my table was broken and I had to move. Not a huge deal but a pain. The bigger issue was how long it took to get some of the items. I’m used to the all you can eat places taking a bit longer to bring dishes, it’s part of how they work. But even my first order came out piece by piece, and there was a lot of downtime waiting for more food. A few times I’d thought they’d forgotten some items but eventually the server brought them out. It was around 3:30 on a Sunday afternoon and it wasn’t very busy, not sure if they were short staffed or what was going on as the hostess took my initial order. Also all of the tables surrounding mine were not cleared for the entire (over an hour) that I was there, again not a dealbreaker but definitely took away from the experience.

Throughout a few orders I went with Thin Beef Brisket, Garlic Pork Belly, Cajun Shrimp, Thin Pork Belly, Pork Jowl, and Spicy Beef Bulgogi. Of everything I tried I’d say the garlic pork belly and the spicy beef bulgogi were the best, though the Cajun shrimp was surprisingly good too. I wish there was the option to get some Galbi without having to do the top tier but oh well. Last thing is I wish there were some vegetables to grill, enoki or potato. I also was disappointed to not get Ssam to have with the meat at the $35 level, I miss having the lettuce and raw garlic to have with the grilling experience.

Overall the food was great, they do have a range of options at different price points, and the interior was pretty cool. Just need to work on speed of service and cleanup, I imagine at peak dining hours there may be a fair...

We came in for soft opening due to an instagram ad. The place was clean and the vibes were there. The manager came to greet us and he was very personable. However, this was a soft opening and they did not have alcohol at the time (understandable). My party and i came to mainly to drink and eat if there was alcohol. But since this was a new place, we decided to order appetizers just to try it out. The appetizers were okay. Some comments i have for the experience:

Mandoo: the mandoos were good. We only received 5 mandoos instead of 6, we mentioned it to the staff but was not given the 6th piece. We even ordered a 2nd order of mandoos, but the staff didn't seem to care to give us the extra one. I feel like since this is a soft opening, they should correct the mistake for us. Seafood pancake: the recipe was there, but they gave us the pancake without cutting it up for us. Most korean restaurants cut their pancakes. Egg custard was great because they put plenty of eggs in there. My suggestion is making it free with the AYCE but using less eggs per order to cut cost. Ttokpokki: the taste was there, but there was not enough pieces of rice cake to justify the $20 price tag. I think we were given 10 pieces and an egg overall. They did add potato noodles, but it was very miniscule.

Overall, I think the place has potential, but what put us a bit off was the server changing her mood when she found out we did not want bbq. She did ask us if we wanted side dishes (banchan) and we said yes, but was never given any at the end. We brought up the missing mandoo, but that was not corrected. Part of the reason why we didnt want bbq was there was no Galbi for the $35 price tag, but i understand this may be due to the menu not being finalized yet.

As a soft opening, it felt a bit disappointing. I do look forward to the grand opening and hope the restaurant will be as amazing...