미나리 Thảo Điền - Minari k BBQ & Seafood — Restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City

This is a Korean BBQ and seafood restaurant in the Thảo Điền area. Its name, Minari (미나리), means "water celery" in Korean, and their specialty is serving samgyeopsal with fresh minari.

The restaurant is clean with private booths and rooms, and even has a kids' space. A standout feature is their service: for those in private rooms, the staff grills the meat for you outside the room, so you can enjoy your meal without the BBQ smell sticking to your clothes. The meat is cooked on a traditional cauldron-lid grill.

The quality of the banchan (free side dishes) is high, with a wide variety offered. The main Pork Platter features both thick and thin cuts of pork, which are grilled for you along with white kimchi, bean sprouts, pineapple, and a generous amount of minari. Other recommended dishes include the seafood pajeon, which is crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside, and the gyeran-jjim, a savory steamed egg soufflé served bubbling in a...

A 4.7 rating place. Staff is very attentive and refills the banchan with a quickness. They just watch like a hawk and swoop down with refills. Also, like how they serve draft beer in a chilled glass.

Their banchan game is good. They don’t serve a ridiculous amount, but offer a good variety. Especially impressed with their crispy seafood scallion pancake and their kimchi beansprout soup that is a BFF to hangovers. Kimchi banchan kind of sucked.

Pork quality wasn’t the best I’ve ever had, but still above average. One disappointing factor was that they did not use the kongnamul (soybean sprouts) on the bbq, but used a different sprout instead. Soybean sprout is best with Korean style pork bbq.

Conclusion. Pork quality is on a similar level to many other good Korean bbq restaurants, but better selection of banchan and very attentive service. Hope they keep it up.

FYI, they...

A new Korean BBQ restaurant has opened in the vicinity. The quality of the beef is exceptional, and there is a wide variety of appetizers. The flavors are truly remarkable. The service is also excellent, with very friendly staff. The manager is particularly attentive and caring. Overall, it was a wonderful experience. The only potential concern is the lack of ventilation, as the air conditioning and BBQ are...