HeeBeen Asian Bistro

Came by this part of town on an errand and happened to notice their doors were closed, the place was dark, and no one in sight. Not even a sign that indicates they are closed, possibly permanently. I went to their website and no indication of this location being closed. I then found out from talking with the FedEx people who share the same retail building with them that the restaurant has been closed down for a while now.

UPDATE: HEEBEEN IS CLOSED
got a letter from my condo building confirming that Heebeen has shut their doors and vacated the property.

If you like all you can eat sushi, this is the place to be. Not just the cheap rolls either! They had the good stuff. No dirty looks when you pile your plate up with enough sushi to kill a small dog.
The day i was there, they had kalbi and pork belly. I ate a TON! Felt fantastic!

Visited HeeBeen Asian Bistro on Glebe Rd just south of Crystal City for their lunch buffet. Unfortunately, it is overpriced at $ 16 for lunch buffet (no drink). However, the cleanliness and quality of the food helped me accept the higher priced lunch. I was able to gorge myself on an unlimited amount of Kal-​bi, their marinated short beef ribs which were cooked to perfection. In addition, they had pork bulgogi which I didn’t try because I am not a big fan of pork. In addition, they have numerous varieties of sushi. I stuck with my typical tuna roll which tasted very fresh. The also have various salad-​type dishes to compliment the hot food and sushi. All of the lettuce appeared to be very fresh and not wilted.
Unlike, the HeeBeen in Alexandria, VA this location does not have hot cooking plates at your table, which may come as a disappointment to some. For me, it didn’t bother because for the price, I prefer to leave the cooking to the chef.
I will definitely revisit this very clean Korean Buffet when I am in the mood for a pricier lunch. Unfortunately, because of the price, this will not be somewhere I will frequent on a regular basis.

I’ve been to Hee Been… again! I arrived right when they opened for lunch at 1130. No wait, no line, just myself, and four other tables occupied.
The variety of sushi, salads, and dishes were still prevelant and tasty. I tried the pad kee mao (drunken noodles). Upon picking it up with the thongs I noticed the stickyiness of the noodles and immediately had a bad feeling. The noodles were indeed over-​cooked, e.g. noodles were too soft which resulted in stickyiness when smushed. Nevertheless the sushi was awesome as usual! The variety and freshness sets them apart from typical buffets offering sushi.
The best part of my follow-​up lunch was their willingness to accept my expired coupon. Yes, I’m a slacker when it comes to using discounted food coupons in a timely manner. Nevertheless, they honored the valued I paid for ($ 18) and only charged me tax. I think one day I’ll get my soju on during a happy hour. Who’s down?!

I write this with the caveat that I haven’t been to the Alexandria location so I’m not comparing them,
Came here on a rainy Sunday with a Korean friend (she suggested it), and we were stuffing ourselves silly with the selection of Korean and Japanese foods. It’s been a long long time since I’ve seen Japanese veggie tempura in a buffet. As someone who’s allergic to shrimp, pretty much all of the tempura elsewhere is off the menu for me.
Some of the other reviewers have said that the selection of sushi wasn’t extensive, and the pieces were small, but hello, this is an all you can eat buffet! So you can go back and get more of what you liked!
I had the basil fried rice and thought that was an interesting take on standard fried rice.
The hot food entrees were pretty good, especially the spicy pork bulgogi.
Empty plates were promptly removed, and when I asked for a refill of hot water, I got it, and the waiter also decided to ask our neighboring table if they’d like any refills.
I’m surprised at how empty it was on a Sunday, even if it was cold and wet outside. My Korean friend was surprised that aside from her, there were maybe 2 other Koreans dining there, the rest were a mix of other Asians and non-​Asians. The price wasn’t too expensive as well, according to my friend, the other location costs $ 24/​person, while it was $ 18/​person at the Arlington location. My friend and I both ordered hot teas to go with our meals. I think that’s the only con to me — I’m used to having hot and cold drinks freely available.

Ok, so unlike the great location in Annandale, this place barely has a selection. There is no barbecue, which is definitely a downer and there is a very limited selection of their other buffet items as well. Also, the chefs do not make traditional soup that can be brought to your seat. On top of all of that the location has a sterile atmosphere.
One of the best things about the Annandale HeeBeen is its atmosphere and food which are more traditional, unfortunately this is lacking at the Arlington location. Not sure what they can do about it now, but I could not rate it high for this reason.
As for the two stars they were given for the friendly staff who endured having to work at the undesirable location.

($ 70 for the dinner buffet for 2, a small bottle of raspberry wine, and a diet coke.)
Thoughts by Irene F.
Wow– it’s so sleek and modern looking in here!
Ok the communication barrier on ordering the wine was painful.
OMG I ordered a whole bottle of wine? Uuugh. Great. (Atleast it’s a twist off cap! I’m taking this home!)
I am STARVING let’s dig in!
Hmmm where do you get the plates from? Ok well, I guess down here under the buffet– how awkward.
Skipped 10 platters before taking my first item.
Presentation is very pretty…
First few items, tastes ok, but everything is room temperature or cold!
Sushi is dry and tasteless
Raw oyster — on second thought– I think I’m gonna skip it… looks dried out and old
Well– I guess I’m done with plate #1– and half the food is still on the plate. I hate wasting food– but it’s really not worth the calories.
Oh cool– sizzling plate of bulgogi and a mini bowl of dolsot bimbimbop FINALLY some hot food!
Hm…the meat is strangely cut into rectangles… the dolsot is blah…
Ok well– onto plate #2…looking around for something that I want to eat seconds of… ok nothing… looking for something i haven’t tried yet that I’m into… nothing…
ON TO DESSERT then! they are SOOO cute and precious looking!
Took one of each mini cake. Snap a pic.
Tried a bite of each one. The only thing that comes to mind is BUTTER. Every bite tasted like sweet butter! BLEH. Sick.
Sigh. Well– I guess I’ll go for the crab legs to end the meal. You can’t get those wrong!
Hm…apparently you can. Cold, watery, salty. Tasted like they cooked, and then sat in a vat of ice water for an hour before being served. Hardly even tasted like crab.
The good thing is, the wine was tasty and the refills on the soda were constant. I think in 1 hour they refilled it 10 times.
I guess, I’ll try the jello because THAT is impossible to mess up… I mean right?
Wrong again. Might as well have been plain gelatin with food coloring.
Can you validate our parking? No? Oh… we parked in the wrong garage? bye bye another $ 5…where was the entrance to the right garage? Don’t park in the building with the LA Fitness…
This Heebeen couldn’t be more different than the original one. What an expensive disappointment.

Okay, this time we tried dinner buffet.
I didn’t know this at first. I just happened to overheard other people ordering from their server. Other that the buffet items you see, you can get steak cooked the way you like it. You need to let your server know that you want steak and how you want it cooked. Then the guy behind the glass start cooking it and your server will bring it to you when it’s ready. You can get as many steak as you want. I guess this somewhat makes up for not having grills on each table like the other HeeBeen???
You can also ask for bibimbob or dolsot-​bibimbob. Again, let your server know that you want this.
Lunch buffet didn’t have sashimi (just sushi) but dinner buffet did. Although, they were kinda slow in refilling sashimis. They did have several other seafood items such as crab legs, oysters, and etc.
Overall, we liked it way better than lunch buffet. But then again you pay way more too so. Good thing we had a groupon coupon because I don’t know if it’s worth like $ 80 (with tax & tip) for a couple.
Since both HeeBeen restaurants are kind of out of my way anyway, I’d rather go to the original HeeBeen restaurant. You can cook at your table, more Korean dishes, and etc.

Had a Groupon/​LivingSocialicious/​Gilt/​somethinglikethat voucher for this place. And for the price, this was a very good value.
The Crystal City location had a very impressive sushi offering — usually I’d be wary of a sushi buffet, but the rolls and nigiri were constantly being refreshed, and they kept the amount of sushi on display at a minimum so things didn’t stagnate. You can even order at the sushi section and they’ll bring it to your table. Thoughtful.
Thoroughly enjoyed some salmon and white tuna nigiri.
The rest of the food was hit and miss… but the hits are so strong that they more than made up for any lackluster dishes.
For example, the pork bulgogi was unbelievably excellent… The regular bulgogi, not so much.
But the pork bulgogi was so amazing that I really didn’t care at all. They also had lettuce, rice, and everything to make the kbbq wraps, which was nice.
Absent and dearly missed was galbi, those amazing short ribs that I love so much. I believe they have them at the Annandale Hee Been, so I’m looking forward to trying it there.
Our waiter also informed us that with our buffet came a steak and/​or Dolsot Bibimbap. This made for a nice, «Wait, what?» moment. I really don’t know how they make money here — it’s a buffet, yes, but the food is very good. They can’t possibly have good margins here.
Anyway, given the choice, go for the bibimbap, not the steak.
Having a Korean restaurant in this part of Arlington is fantastic. Having a Korean restaurant of this caliber offering so many food options is even better. It’s not perfect, but it’s well worth trying — especially if you can snag one of those online deals.

My wife and I were really excited at the prospect of having a Korean restaurant in our neighborhood, so we’ve been eagerly anticipating the arrival of Hee Been. After our first visit, unfortunately, I think we both left a little disappointed.
We stopped in for the weekend lunch on a Saturday. Not too many people, as it is a reasonably large space, but not empty either. About perfect for easy access to the buffet without feeling like you’re in a ghost town.
The selection was okay, but it wasn’t overwhelming particularly when it came to Korean food. No bulgogi or kalbi on the buffet, though they did have spicy pork belly and Korean-​style sweet and sour chicken. We knew that this Hee Been wasn’t going to offer grills at each table, but I figured there would be more traditional Korean BBQ meat on the buffet; perhaps this is handled differently at dinner. More importantly, none of the food was especially tasty. Most of the offerings were pretty pedestrian and I didn’t think the sushi was very good.
Overall, for $ 18 a pop at lunch on the weekend, I wasn’t impressed. What it came down to for me is that I’d probably rather drive a few extra minutes to hit up Oegadgib in Annandale for some ridiculously tasty AYCE BBQ for less money and enjoy myself a lot more. At some point, I might go back to see if I just caught them on a bad day, but my initial impression was pretty meh-​tastic.

I’ve been here a few times now, and I holded off writing my review until i went a few times. The first time — I wasn’t that impressed. I mean its Sushi Buffet with other foods. Well I went for the second time, and the food selection changed. So therefore, I think before you write a review you should go to this place more then once because the food changes. Like last time they didn’t have Bulgogi but this time they did. Its very clean, the waiters are SUPER nice. They kept on refilling our drinks pretty regularly and pretty fast. My BF ordered sprite and the waiter kept on putting water in his soda. But they fixed it by putting a black straw. Make sure if you have a clear soda you have a black straw.
The price is pretty steep… but the quality and selection of choices make up for it. Try it for yoruself!

HeeBeen Arlington is no where the same as the Heebeen in Alexandria…
Cause Arlington Heebeen is a lot better in multiple ways but sucks in one way
Pros: Clean Modern Décor with transparent style Kitchen and service bars, seeing the food being cooked and the clean areas are always a plus in my book, it lets me know that food is being prepped and cooked properly.
Food is buffet style but in a good way, they don’t put a huge ample amount out and let it sit… nope they put out enough so the food stays hot and fresh and cooks more when it is about to be done with.
Also the same goes with the fresh sushi.
Service here is awesome and very accommodating, I usually dine with my vegetarian GF so sometimes its hard to find a place to dine out at that can be accommodating to both a meat eater and veggie eater, this place took care of us, they cooked her a fresh plate of food that was veggie person acceptable and also made her fresh sushi that was good for veggie people too! Items included different types of Veggie rolls, some hot noodles with a brown sauce with veggies and others it was quit taste and she loved it!
Ok now for the downside… :-(no table top grill to cook your Korean BBQ on :-(but they do have it all cooked up for you at the buffet line.
I would definitely go here again
parking is available underground for free, just use the same garage as Harris Teeter and elevator is by the Harris Teeter entrance

We went to Hee Been for a weekend lunch and were impressed with the quality and selection of choices. Most Asian buffets we’ve visited have been much less classy so we were pleased with the freshness of their options. I did find that there were less choices than I had expected, but what was there was tasty and filled us up. We found the staff to be incredibly attentive– our drinks were always full and they were pretty good about removing dirty plates quickly. Who I am assuming is the owner/​manager came to our table numerous times and was genuinely concerned if we liked the food.
They offer discounts for residents of the surrounding Condos, so be sure to ask if that applies to you. We had a 15% off coupon for their grand opening on this visit, and recently picked up the Groupon and will be testing out the dinner as well. They didn’t have any crab legs for the lunch buffet, so we’re hoping they deliver on the dinner. If so, we probably won’t be able to resist returning for a tasty AYCE option in an area with generally mediocre Asian options.

This place is wonderful. They have only been open for 3 weeks in 2012 and I found them thanks to a ScoutMob discount. They are a buffet restaurant but the food quality was excellent. A great mix of salads, korean bbq and sushi. Oh and desert!
The only downside is that its difficult to find since the building is new. Google Maps will get you lost. Just remember to stay on S Glebe Rd. and the restaurant is in a newish high rise business building.

We had trouble with the navigation on our iPhone to find the restaurant initially but we found Harris Teeter and parked in the garage after a few wrong turns. Once in the garage we took the wrong elevator and got out in the lobby of the condo unit instead. Lol oh well, we are directionally challenged I guess.
Anyways the highlight of this Heebeen is sushi sashimi and more sushi and more sashimi. Don’t come here expecting kalbi or any other grill meats that make the Annandale Heebeen awesome. This one do have bulgogi but it’s precooked and not that great.
Loved the different sushi rolls here. I’m never a fan of buffet sushi rolls but this place is amazing! There are 20 some rolls and I tried 10 at least and enjoyed all of them. Sashimi they offered tuna, salmon and red snapper and we ate as much as we wanted.
They have raw oyster and crab legs which I passed as we had a toddler with us and I didn’t want to deal with the mess. I skipped all the cold food and the only hot food I tried was the fried shrimp roll (good) and my toddler son ate the chicken teriyaki with white rice (he loved it).
Dessert the tiramisu was awesome! And another lemony cake was good too.
The only thing I tried and didn’t like was the miso soup… no tofu or seaweed in the soup and it tasted weird.
I had a Livingsocial deal of two dinner buffer for one ($ 29). So it was definitely worth that. However without the deal I would only go if you love sushi and can eat lots of them! I would not go there and pay $ 29 if I don’t eat sushi!
Service fine. Servers all very friendly. They had highchair for my toddler and they were nice.

Selection: 2 out of 5
Quality: 4 out of 5
All of the wonderful stuff I’d read about on their website and on Unilocal were nowhere to be found at the $ 15 lunch buffet. No sashimi, no uni, no unagi, no crab legs. Understandable, I guess, but definitely worth considering should you decide to come here.
What little variety of food they had available, though, was of good quality. They didn’t skimp on the fish for their nigiri, and they had tasty chicken teriyaki and beef bulgogi.
I might have enjoyed dinner more, but I’d rather take my $ 30 and spend it at a regular Japanese restaurant.

Thank You HeeBeen for moving closer to me! No longer a need to travel into Annandale to grab some tasty grub. The manager even stopped by and gave me some grand opening coupons. Now about the spot:
Easy location to get to. Free parking in the garage next to Harris Teeter. Staff is friendly and will go out of their way to please. Upon entering, I was greeted by the hostess and was asked if I would like a tour of their new location Sure! The sushi was fresh and plentiful. Nothing was dried out or had the look that it had sat. The sashimi was nice and thick. What an array of maki rolls. Goodness. About 15 different types to choose from.
Great new place to dine in crystal city. And it’s a good AYCE joint. Yum.
Take a taste! You won’t regret it.

I am definitely a fan of the new place. Free Garage Parking is available under the building. However, one very notable difference between this HeeBeen location and the Alexandria location, is that it doesn’t really do KBBQ (i.e. — there are no grills at each table). They did have meat dishes (bul-​gogi, spicy pork, teriyaki chicken, etc.) but no grilling at your table.
They had salmon and tuna sashimi, and the typical spread of sushi, and a large variety of maki rolls as well. I thought the salmon sushi was very well made and delicious, long and thick. Sushi was freshly made, partly because it was restocked little by little but often (except for the sashimi). The hot food was good and I didn’t really bother with the cold stuff.
There is a small bar area with 3 large flat panel TVs, but it didn’t look like it was ready just yet. The waiter also told me they will have a regular menu for take-​out for those that don’t want to do an AYCE buffet. There was additional seating in the back. There’s lots of wall mirrors here so it does look larger than it actually is. Bathroom was nice and clean. They didn’t have high chairs, but they did have booster seats. I’m guessing they’ll order some sooner or later.
Very happy with the level of service which was very attentive. As for price, we used a Specialicious voucher which made the deal that much sweeter, but if you’re expecting the same experience as the Alexandria location, you’ll probably be a little disappointed as they lack certain notable things.
I’ll be interesting to see how they adjust over the coming weeks and months, but having their grand opening less than a week ago, I’m sure they’ll iron out all the little things.

After almost one year of anticipation, Hee Been Asian Bistro opened tonight with full force.
I live in the condominium above the restaurant (lucky me) and upon my return from celebrating Christmas with family out of town, I noticed that the place was surprisingly packed. I went inside to inquire, and they welcomed me with open arms as soon as I entered. They talked me into sitting down, and advised me that because tonight is only a «soft opening,» dinner would be free of charge.
I’ve had horrendous experiences even in the weeks preceding soft openings at other local restaurants, but Hee Been did not disappoint!
The cuisine was plentiful, undoubtedly fresh, and exceptionally scrumptious. Moreover, the entire interior was comfortable, attractive and spotless.
I wish I had taken pictures, but I’ll undoubtedly be back. I highly recommend the place, and am already looking forward to eating here again. For those of you fearful of parking here, the parking garage (which also serves Harris Teeter) is directly underneath, free, and never overcrowded.
Welcome to the neighborhood, Hee Been.