Yakiniku Camellia II

I’ve been here once and that was a few years ago. But never got a chance to write about it. So I came here with a friend because she had coupons for here. It was like $ 14 – 15 for the meal if we used the coupons.
I’m not a big fan of eat as much as you can. But this place was alright. There was a lot of food choices from meat, veggies, dessert and rice… i think.
I just thought service wasn’t good. They don’t refill your drinks. and they pretty much don’t care about you after you sit down. So I like to play with stuff when it comes to eating out. Like the grill was burning because we had no food on it. I turned it off or done something by accident. We tried asking someone to turn it on again because we didn’t know how. So we had to walk up to the cashier and ask him. It took awhile until he came to us to fix our grill. I think he was like the only one working.
One thing I don’t like about eating yakiniku is you get a smell after eating. Your bag, shirt, hair has a scent of burnt food. Nasty. I had to wash my bag after.

A Yakiniku buffet, this place offers a plethora of meats to choose from for the carnivorous being. Marinated chicken and beef are amongst the favorites of this particular restaurant. You pay your fare of around $ 20+ and eat everything in sight. They do offer things like rice, seafood, and sushi a newer addition to this restaurant). A selection of assorted fruits and veggies are also available. The meat is always flavorful and I always enjoy grilling my own food and mixing it to make my own fried rice! Just realize that you WILL go home smelling like meat.
However, I did take off a star due to the cleanliness factor. This place is getting older and it’s starting to show. The floors are a little dirty, and I have seen some flies buzzing around… and a roach once… I suppose my camping gritty self wasn’t too bothered by it.
The staff is friendly, and always willing to help you out with the heat, changing plates, and refilling your drinks. That was definitely a plus.
Overall, this restaurant gets a solid 3-​stars from me. I enjoy coming here to hang out with my friends and getting my fill of meat.

The food here is so so. Try not to waste food or they will charge you. Of course I ate as much for my money’s worth though. They don’t have a wide selection of food but they have a decent assortment of food available.

This review is kinda late… like 6 months late. That being said, this place is being gutted out and being turned into a new buffet place apparently.
Spur of the moment place we went to eat at one day with my best friend. We walked in probably a little after around opening time because the only people in there were a local Hawaiian couple and the 3 Korean workers.
What I noticed about this place is that it’s a lot more brighter and spacious than the other yakiniku buffet, also the workers here are a lot more friendlier too. I liked that this place has sliding doors to protect the meat, and also the vegetables which is a good thing in my book. Lesser chance of flies going in to my meat.
One of my favorite things about this place was the grill. It wasn’t like a hibachi style with the flame roaring out at you and worrying if you’re going to catch your chopstick on fire unlike the other buffet. I liked that YC II’s grill was evenly heated and not having to shove all my meat on side of the grill to get it cooked.
The meat was really good here. My favorites were the kalbi, spicy pork and chicken. The spicy pork had a nice bite to it but was also flavorful and the kalbi, holy crap that kalbi was good! It was sorta like buttery melt in your mouth taste, sort of like a Kobe beef. Did I also mention the kalbi wasn’t as fatty or chewy too which another plus. My mouth is salivating right now just as I write about it.
Overall I think this is my new spot for buffet style yakiniku, the other place doesn’t do any justice. To me everything about this place from the nice ajuma workers, the food and the big spacey booths will definatle make me a regular! Sorry Camellia Buffet, Yakiniku Camellia II is forever set in my heart.

4.8!!! Yes Yes! All you can eat seafood, side dishes: especially Kim Chee, veggies and grill your own meat with wide selection of meat.
Seafood includes Cooked Shrimp, Tako, Varieties of Sashimi, Aku poke, and Tako poke salad: YUM YUM YUM
The food here taste awesome as well. I definitely recommend any visitor to Oahu to try this place out and you won’t regret it. The prices is very reasonable you will definitely get your money’s worth =)

This place is listed as Yakiniku Camellia II but in reality is Yakiniku Camellia Buffet. The difference between the «II» and «Buffet» makes a big difference to me when you are talking Korean yakiniku.
The big names in Korean yakiniku are Seoul Garden, Shillawon, Han Yang, Yakiniku Million (aka Million Restaurant), and the up and comer Sikdorak. There are some notable differences between those yakiniku’s and the yakiniku at Yakiniku Camellia Buffet.
My gf and I got invited for dinner last night at Yakinuku Camellia Buffet. Three Korean women and one young Korean boy (The 19 year old son of one of my gf’s friends) and me getting together to celebrate the Korean boy graduating from high school.
As soon as we sit down I lift up a spoon and say: «OK everyone. This is a spoon. Everybody say SPOON!»
I put the spoon down and I lift up a fork. I say «This is a fork! Say FORK! …FORK!»
I put the fork down and lift up a knife and say «This is a…»
One of my gf’s friend’s interrupts me and says. «Adeshi! We all know how to speak English. We don’t need English lesson… Pabo!!!»
Me: «OK! If all of you know how to speak English; then speak English! Every time you ladies get together, you start talking only in Korean. I feel left out and all I keep hearing are „adeshi…pabo…(laughter)…pabo…adeshi.!“ I know you guys are talking about me and laughing at me because I know what „pabo“ in Korean means!»
…There was silence for about three seconds and then all the Korean starts flowing from their mouths…“Pabo!!“
Back to the review:
This place is an all you can eat «buffet». The other places are just all you can eat restaurants. At the other places you order and they bring the meat to you. Here, you stand in line and pile on all the ban chan, meat, soup, rice, salads you want. That is what «buffet» means here.
This place has an ad in the Friday and Sunday paper in the Dining Out section. Be careful! This is not Camellia Buffet, which is on McCully. You get a 10% discount if you bring the ad. They are strict about this and have to bring the ad. Seoul Garden and Shillawon do not have ads or discounts.
Dinner is $ 22.95. Seoul Garden, Han Yang, Shillawon are more expensive. Only Sikdorak is cheaper.
Dinner hour is from 2:30 to 10:00 P.M. The time of start for dinner is important because the lunch price is $ 15.95 from 10:30 A.M. to 2:30 P.M. Sit down at 2:31 and your meal cost more. But then, there are more choices for the dinner.
On the negative side: IMO, the ban chan here is not as good as at the other places but they do serve jello… very chewy jello.
Again on the negative side, this place does not have beef tongue or intestines or tripe like at Seoul, Shillawaon or Han Yang.

But on the positive side: This place has aku poke; tako poke, sashimi and boiled shrimp. There isn’t any seafood at the other places.
This place has a choice of Japanese miso soup or Korean seaweed soup. The other places only have Korean miso soup.
This place serves this azuki bean and rice mush. Koreans call this patjuk.
This place has soft serve «something». It is kind of like ice cream and they call it ice cream but it definitely isn’t Dairy Queen.
This place has a Filipino floor manager. This is somewhat hard for me to get used to because he seems so out of place. He does have de ak-​cent!
This place has a narrow buffet aisle. It gets really congested when the Samoan church members are standing in line after their Sunday service. My advise. go Saturday’s because they stay loooonng!!!
This place in not in the Star * Advertiser, Best of the Best for Korean food; or buffets; or ice cream; or romantic restaurants; nor Filipino foods; or best dry cleaner or dentist. But think about: Just because you don’t see your dentist listed in the HSA — Best of the Best doesn’t mean he is not the best to you.
This place is one of the best Korean yakiniku places if price is a concern to you. If you like a more wide variety of foods to choose from; Yakiniku Camelia Buffet is definitely worth considering.
P. S. They did start talking in Korean; leaving me out. My gf said they said: «Adeshi (Val) is a nice guy; but the hip hop shirt he is wearing tonight make me think he is pabo!»
P. P. S. That is why they laughed!
P.P.P.S. Oh! And «Pabo» in English is «idiot».

this place is great for all you MEAT eaters out there and wanna get your money’s worth, lots of meat selections and they do have some seafood. What I do like about this place is that they are always fully stocked with fresh vegetables that you can add while cooking your meat, seaweed soup and miso soup is good! Great place to have group parties or any occassion. Price is pretty cheap with lots of selections to choose from.
but I hate walking out here smelling like Yakiniku!

Congratulations Cameillia, you are my 109^th review. One review for every pound I gained eating here last night.
It was a terrific experience, the meat was great the veggies were great the service was adorable and I am still sort of astonished (to say the least) that I have never been to a Korean place that was ALL YOU CAN EAT!
Too amazing for words, that concept. So I’m done here.

The good: Lots of choices for grilling, and lots of sushi/​kim chi to eat too. Lots of free parking next door for customers.
The bad: While waiting for all the guests to arrive, I saw and killed three small cockroaches under my own table. During the meal, I killed one more and saw another dead one on the floor near the entrance. The bugs were all moving very slowly, leading me to suspect they had been poisioned. Another problem I had was that they charged us for 5 adult meals at $ 22.95 each on the check ($ 114 total), but submitted a credit card charge for $ 144! On top of that, when my wife pointed out their mistake, they denied it and we had to get a manager involved to acknowlege the mistake and void out the incorrect charge.
Avoid this place until they clean up their act, literally and figuratively.

I like this location way better than the one in McCully. It’s brighter and more inviting and seems cleaner. Not to mention there’s more of a selection here too. In addition to the various meats, this location also has shrimp as one of it’s cook your own items. That’s a big plus in my book because I love seafood! T
he quality of the meats may not be as good as some other places that aren’t all you can eat, but the trade off is that you have the chance to try more variety. For the same price for 2 people going to a non-​all you can eat place, you probably would be able to get only 2 different types of dishes.

Hmm… funny how the McCully location seems to be more popular than this University location? It seems odd because the Univ location is actually better than its counterpart. Not only does it draw more foot traffic, but the food is better. The meat quality is top notch for an AYCE (all you can eat) Korean BBQ. I believe these are the only two Korean AYCE’s in Hawaii, unlike LA where there’s an abundance of ‘em.
Dinner is when you want to go because the food selection is enormous. For $ 21 you get access to all you can eat beef, pork, and chicken. And the meat quality is pretty darn good for the price. Not only do they have galbi and bul gogi, they also have joo moo luck, which is tender morsels of steak marinated to perfection. Yum. All the meats are marinated Korean style so you get that sweet soy based flavor. The spicy pork rocks too!
All the veggies and fruits are fresh including the banchan. The sam chu sam (lettuce wrap) is always nice and crispy and waiting to be filled with rice, beef and kochu jang (spicy Korean paste). There’s also sushi! Oh, and I forgot to mention that they do have an ice cream machine too! All this for $ 21?! You really can’t go wrong.
Only negative is during primetime dinner, it can be hard to find parking.

This Korean BBQ Buffet has a slight edge on the other one I reviewed (which we went to several times). We came here once this year (Feb. 2010) — because I thought that they were owned by the same company, but that’s not the case. Apparently the other one copied this one, according to the manager.
The edge was for two good reasons: sliding doors to protect the raw food (great idea) and shrimp was one of the marinated meats to grill. I think that my husband likes this one better and I agree. Great selection of marinated meats (chicken, beef, pork and shrimp are best), fresh raw vegetables (onions, peppers, and mushrooms), and salads (kimchee, seaweed).
Again, pace yourself– get enough to cook and eat. If you’re still hungry, get another plate. Like I said, I like a balance between the meats, veggies, and the salads. I’m not sure if this one has an extra charge if you leave a large amount of uneaten food on your plate. Better safe than sorry. And I don’t care about smelling like food– this is a driving day and we are usually out all day and get back to our room after dinner or even later. If we visit a new beach (which my hubby likes to do), we do some swimming, hence problem solved.
Excellent Korean BBQ buffet– my favorite buffet here and I look forward to it; there are a bunch back home, but I don’t know which one to trust. But I suspect we’re coming here again next year (yay!).

Part of the fun in eating at a good restaurant is taking a person (s) to a restaurant you like and seeing if they like it too. Camellia is one of those places that is almost a sure shot. Unlike the McCully Camellia, this Camellia has sliding doors to get your food from the buffet line. It is kind of irritating at first but you get used to it. There are many varieties of Kim Chee to choose from. Some are good and some are OK. I think that Kim Chee is kind of a preference so you would have to try it for yourself to know. There is also tofu and fresh veggies to eat cooked or raw and soup. I appreciated the fact that there were other types of seafood like shrimp and sashimi but I wasn’t there for the seafood, I was there for the meat.
Kalbi is a good as it gets. Yes, you have to cook it yourself but come on, there has to be some way of slowing us carnivores down. The meat has a good marinated and is soft. I’m not fighting with it like cutting a piece of shoe leather. The Barbecue beef is good. Just like what you would get at a plate lunch place but more tender. There was also flap meat but it was just OK. Needed more flavor. Now my second favorite was the spicy pork. It was spicy, yet a little sweet. I think I ate almost ask much pork as i did Kalbi. Ice cream, gelatin, and fruits made a nice finish to this Korean feast.
Now going back to what my friends thought… they loved it. Especially the Kalbi. I have taken many people here and I haven’t heard anyone complain about the Kalbi. Its fun taking people to this place and seeing their reaction.
Service –ok.tonight they seemed overwhelmed but other times it was good.
Ambiance — Ok. like one person said, it looked Middle Eastern.
Do I recommend this place? Hell Yeah. My friends with me told me that their friends always recommend Sorabol. I sick of people people saying go to Sorabol… even my Korean friends avoid that place. I’m always hungry when I come out of that place. There is absolutely NO way you come out of Camellia hungry. I highly recommend this place.

oh — ask for sesame oil in some aluminum foil and put on the grill and make a bubbling cauldron to cook your garlic in. delish!
this is my first all you can eat korean bbq buffet ever so i’d give it a 5 but if i find someplace better i won’t have anywhere to go so that’s the only reason for the 4. yeah it looks like some strange middle eastern denny’s on the inside. yeah there’s no ambience. yeah there’s no ventilation so you smell like meat down to your underwear when you get home. but who cares?! all you can eat korean bbq grilled at your table for 20 bucks! crazy endless banchan, soups, rice! sesame balls and ice cream for dessert! i concentrated on the spicy pork and kalbi. i’ve been trying to convince everyone i know to come with us again so i have an excuse to pig out. i just can’t say it enough — this place is awesome. now what would make it perfect is if they had naeng myun to have as a refreshing 2^nd course to round out the wonderful experience that is korean food.

I should start by saying that I am not a fan of restaurants where you cook your own food. I know I know… I am just not one of those people.
So as cook your own food places go this is OK. I have been here a handful of times (my brother likes it) and it has been the same every time. The various meats are seasoned OK. I mean when I see Kalbi I usually get all excited and fantasize about tasting that sweet meat. LOL. Well their kalbi is OK, not the best… not even close to the best, but OK. The bulgogi was eh… The chicken was unseasoned as was the shrimp so I don’t see how you can screw that up.
The one thing that this place has is a lot of Korean vegetable sides. I am a big fan of kimchee, Taegu and choi sum. There about a another dozen or so sides available. But the best side they provide is this…
JELLO. mmmmmmmm

I rarely come here but when I do, I always go effin’ apeshit. While I was plating raw meat for our table, the guy next to me said, «Brah, gotta po-​zishen yo self fo grab em’». HA! I got something for you to grab there, BUBBA!
It’s a buffet, sure. Also a novelty to cook your own food OR to took cook for others, like I, a once polite Catholic boy now creepo, was doing for my friends. The idea of raw carnage and hissing pans with hissy fits is awesome! Though people, if I could recommend you stick with meat that can cook fast and eat bloody. Also make sure to be mindful of your chop sticks (ones your cooking with and will be putting into your mouth), esp when cooking chicken and pork. Last thing you want is this Korean experience to go Mexican, a «Ye-​e-​pa Y-​e-​e-​e-​ppa!» comin’ out your you-​know-​what.
Spicy pork here is great, as with a lot of their pans of raw goodness. The cold selection: a great variety and even HOT on a lot of fronts, their kim chee especially. Seaweed soup = a’ight. Their fried rice is simple but tasty and god forbid I venture into ice cream after a stomach full of marinated fried stuff. What I thought tasted wierd is the sauce that goes with their lettuce wraps. It reminded me of a bad spicy and meaty (and probably fishy) tomato paste.
A great place to feed your face, superficially cook for your date dinner and to bond with stainless steel.
$ 13.95 for lunch buffet
$ 20.95 for dinner (cept a few entrees, not much diffrent from their lunch selection)
3 ½ stars
Camellia Yakiniku II on Beretania St.

Ok lets do dis, first of all da place look all bus up on the inside. but pretty comfy. Saw one cocaroach running for safety when da fire went light up. Overall though da food was pretty good. All my friends had at least 2 pounds of meat in them. The kalbi was very tasty but the gas burner cause the meat to taste a little gassy.
The selections were pretty good and the ice cream tasted like soft serve. It was fun to cook and to see my friends have a good time burning da meat and killing themselves. I would recommend this place to anyone. Just hope and pray NO COCKROACHES!!!

Go early, because yes, like everyone says, the parking is tight.
I go here when I want to stuff my face, relax, and have a good time. I bring out of town guests here who find it quaint and fun to cook your own meats. They usually love it.
Must try– tofu in ko chu jang sauce. I am craving it right now!
My friends and I have a system as we usually go there hungry– get all the meat you want, slap it on the grill, and then go back and get all the cold delights. That way you don’t have to wait too long to eat everything!
Love it!

Every couple of years, me and my family head to Hawaii to visit my aunty and cousins. And we at least go to Camellias once throughout the trip. I’m a sucker for Korean BBQ. So when they took us here for the first time, i can’t lie, i was excited.
The place is a nice buffet style yakiniku place with it’s own small little parking lot, but at times can be jammed packed with locals. The place is also a pretty darn good deal for an all you can eat joint, especially all you can eat KBBQ. So for about $ 21, including tat and tip, a head, you can gorge on all the marinated kalbi, bulgogi, marinated pork, chicken, banchan and other foods you want.
Also since this is a grill it yourself place, it makes it all the more fun to cook. So for those who don’t know about grill it your self places, you just get the raw meats or veggies and cook it on a tire hubcap looking grill, and when it gets too charred from all the burned meat leftovers on the grill, the ladies will take it away and put a fresh one on. So don’t wear your fanciest clothes, and be prepared to smell like smoke and KBBQ
Every time I eat at an all you can eat place, I unfairly judge it by this standard that has been set for Camellias. I kinda want to hop on a plane right now and just eat there. But alas, I have to wait on the next family get together.
Pros:
–ALL YOU CAN EAT KBBQ
–Very good price
–Bomb marinated meats
–Grill it yourself is always awesome
–Little hole in the wall
Cons:
–Small parking lot
–Kinda hard to find, which can be a good thing
*****

Sadly, I havent been here in a while (~2 years) so I dont know if it’s changed or not. My next break in Hawaii, I will make sure to hit this place up. From what I remember, all the meats are most likely put in the same marinade, but that’s okay! Because it’s a great marinade! All you can eat kalbi and meat, how can you go wrong when you’re a fatty like me? lol. It’s relatively cheap as far as buffets go, and it’s probably the best one you can go to, seeing as how you cook your own food, you only have yourself to blame if something goes wrong.
The only bad part is when you’re done for the night you come out smelling like smoke. Probably not a good «date» place either. Unless your gf is like mine and is impressed by how much you can shovel into your mouth=D.