Ma Dang Sae

Ma Dang Sae definitely is not my first choice for Korean BBQ, but it’s pretty cheap for all you can eat, e.g., squid, pork belly, & beef brisket costs about $ 10 per person. However, the quality of the meats are rather average and the service is really slow, including too infrequent grill changes. If you are hungry in the Lakewood area, stop here. Just don’t expect a great meal, just a decent one. You definitely get what you pay for at Ma Dang Sae.

Idk why people are saying that it’s close I went to go eat here after work lol the have new owners! Wow what a difference Great customer service!!! Good job to the owners!!! Almost everything got remodel! The waiter keep on checking up on us every 10 mins to see if we were okay! Wow what a huge difference changing ownership can make!

This place has semi bad quality meat but the service is solid. Good place if you don’t want to wait for hours at another good ayce Korean BBQ place.

The new owners slapped on a new coat of paint on this old war horse and did minor cosmetic changes to justify the $ 14 they now charge over the $ 10 they did under the previous management.
Is it worth it?
I think so. For an extra $ 6 a head you could go to Gen but we both know why your cheap ass is coming here instead.
The cuts of meat are still on the cheap side but they have better brisket and more protein selections. The banchan are just as subpar as they’ve always been but who can complain about free shit?
Service is still fucking awful but as a frequent patron of Asian eateries, expecting stellar service is an exercise in futility. Go in, order your meat, say please and thank you, don’t act like an asshole and the staff will be courteous. And don’t forget to tip.

Tried it for the first time today and I have to say as a Korean American who lives in LA I was extremely impressed at the service and satisfied with the quality of the meat. Most definitely going to go back there next time I am around in town.
Kudos to the new management there and the changes they’ve brought to the restaurant!

Pro:
Open until 11pm
AYCE price starting at $ 10
Large space, more ventilation for all that smoke
Plenty of parking
Free soft serve ice cream at end of meal
No wait
Con:
If you want marinated beef with AYCE, price goes up to $ 13
Most of their banchan are marinated in vinegar
Cook yourself, regardless number of people
Requires patience to get service
Radish paper, garlic, onion… all extra cost
Repeat customer? If I’m craving ayce brisket past 10 pm. Definitely.

At $ 10 for all you can eat, don’t come in here expecting great service. This place seems to be perennially understaffed.
Also, don’t expect this place to apologize or show some empathy if they make a mistake. They make it clear to let you know that if you don’t like something, you can get out.
Only reason i gave his place a 2 star review is because you really do get to AYCE for $ 10. It’s a great deal if you’re not expecting much.
It should be noted that I’d rather pay a little more for better quality and to be treated like a human being.
You can find better Korean BBQ options in the area. Recommend them all over this.

Decent kbbq.
Come here for that sweet potato but it usually runs out during the evening!
$ 10 for an AYCE Kbbq.
Service can be wishy washy depending on who’s your server that day but the ladies are always quick when it comes to payment.
This place fills in that craving if you just want brisket.
The place needs to be updated and clean.

This is my first time here and I have to say it’s got great tasting food along with great service. No nonsense hype and the price is great! We will definitely be coming back here again. The restroom is fairly clean, not dirty or disgusting like some Asian restaurants.

New management = new changes.
The brisket was good and their pork steak are thinly sliced pork which is awesome. Other marinated pork are ok.
9.99 is good and parking is easy. Service was okay but not bad.
Might be the go to place now since red palace became bad palace.

Been going here for 10 years and it only gets better. The owner’s always greet us. Very good food better service always my choice to go there. Last night’s service was on point made me think about how much I’ve grown there and seeing the look of joy when we came in made my wife’s night. Cheers thanks for making our anniversary one to remember

You get what you paid for.
Not anything above ordinary or below. Just okay.
If you’re looking to fill yourself up, have a Korean BBQ craving, and on a budget this is the spot for you.
There was no wait at all although I arrived around 9pm.
You have 4 different sides, in taste it’s alright. The best of them was the cucumbers. Salad was decent (it’s kind of hard to mess lettuce up) I just wish they didn’t drench it in sauce… The bowl was an inch thick in just sauce :/​too much…
Brisket: tasted fine, but a little on the thicker cut, seemed more like roast beef to me.
Pork belly: had a pungent smell even after it was cooked so it wasn’t to my liking I couldn’t get myself to eat it.
Squid: no flavor just washed out and bland
Spicy pork: a bit flavorless… Just a tad spicy
Everything was just okay. I was content with my meal but nothing I can really rave about.

THEY SUCK! AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!! Food is HORRIBLE. Service is a JOKE. Gratuity added to my $ 40 bill, REALLY? With that type of service??? HELL NO!!! Short haired asian lady is the RUDEST of them all. She runs the register and if you dont leave a tip, she starts bad mouthing you in her language, lol, PATHETIC! They should close this place down, PRONTO!
IF I COULD LEAVE IT AT 0 STARS I WOULD.

Food is good, service is always terrible but we saw inexcusable behavior today. This is where they keep your water you drink. In a bucket, on the floor, uncovered. We also saw them take a pitcher from a table when people were done and dump the remainder in here

Ma Dang Sae has pretty good food. I like the flavor of the meat, especially the brisket in comparison to some other KBBQ places I’ve been to. They normally give you a good amount of rice paper and sides, which is nice because I dislike having to wait several minutes to get a refill on sides while the rice and meat gets cold sitting on my plate.
The service is a hit or miss. There have been times when the servers have been attentive and fast at replenishing our all-​you-​can-​eat items, and other times when they have been slow and unwilling to come to your table even after you’ve rung the service button a couple of times. I know this mostly has to do with how busy they are, so no biggie.
Some things I don’t like about Ma Dang Sae:
1. Their grills. hate the way their grill is shaped! The first time I went there I had never eaten at a Korean BBQ place so in my ignorance and naïveté (with regard to KBBQ grills) I thought it was a lid (it looks and is shaped like a lid) and I ended up burning my fingers pretty badly when I tried to lift the «lid» off the grill, lol. Took 2 weeks for my skin to heal. Funny but I can’t help but think about other people and especially kids who might think the same thing and end up touching a super hot grill. It’s the only KBBQ place I’ve been to with grills like that. Every other place I’ve been to has grills that look like more traditional barbecue plates with grates or is flat (not dome-​shaped with a protruding piece that looks like a knob on top, like the ones at Ma Dang Sae). I hope one day they change out those things.
2. The restaurant could also be cleaner. It’s always greasy and pretty dingy… caked on dust around the tables and windows, etc. The cleanliness of a restaurant could be an indication of how clean the food is, so be careful and drink a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar with water after eating to kill off any germs in your stomach, lol.
The food and service are still pretty good for $ 9.99 if you want a filling meal on the cheap. I might go back for the brisket.

$ 9.99? How can you go wrong?!
I came here on a Friday night at around 8 PM. Prior to this, I dropped by Red Palace and put my name down. turns out, there were supposedly 75 parties ahead of me. So what did I do? I ended up going to Target and Unilocaling another place to eat at. I found Ma Dang Sae. Since I only eat brisket, Ma Dang Sae was perfect for me in the sense that I only have to pay $ 9.99.
When we got here, there were 4 parties ahead of us and had to wait for about 20 minutes or so. The service was SOOOOO slow! BUT! I’m not mad at the employees because they did their best to accommodate everyone and I’m not a very high maintenance person in a restaurant either. They were definitely understaffed and overworked. Management needs to step up their game and either schedule more people or hire more people. When we got seated, it took about 3 different people and 20 minutes to even get a grill and the sides. I was sooooo hungry that I ate all the sides before I could even find another worker to get me some meat!
(Based on other people’s reviews, I see that people complain about the service. For me, it’s not difficult for me to wave over employees to get me what I want due to my experience at asian restaurants. However, there are buttons that you can press for their attention… so… PRESS THEM if you need help.)
After we got the meat, it went quickly on the grill! I was surprised to see the fat to meat ratio was 10% and 90% ! All I saw was red on the plate that they brought us. However, the meat tasted a bit differently than what I was used to. a bit chewier. When I would leave brisket on the grill for a longer period of time, I would see the meat crisp up but this meat didn’t.
At the end of your meal, you receive a bonus card! You can cash out your bonus card for a free meal after you get $ 10 in bonus money. What? $ 9.99 for your meal AND you get a bonus card/​frequent buyer card?! COOL!
Overall, not a bad experience, I’d come back if other cheap kbbq places are packed, but this wouldn’t be my go-​to.

«Meh» pretty much sums up the experience we had last night for dinner. We’ve been here before many years ago, and I remember enjoying it much more back then. Last night’s visit left much to be desired.
First off, we go knowing full well this won’t be top quality KBBQ as it is an AYCE, bargain basement type of place. Their «A» set is $ 9.99 and offers choices such as brisket, pork belly (samgyupsal), spicy pork, and pork steak. We choose the A sets all around and wait. The banchan and our first order of meat comes fairly quickly, and the server turns on the fire, but there’s no grill top. So we sit waiting, and waiting… still no grill top. We ask two different servers and finally our grill top is delivered.
The brisket is nice and lean, however the taste IMO isn’t great. The slices were cut a little thicker than I’m used to and it was a bit chewy. Not a fan. The samgyupsal was better, but not great. Banchan was standard and the cucumber kimchi overripe.
The restaurant was semi-​full and it took a lot of flagging down to get a server’s attention and long lags to get items that we requested. They charge $ 1 extra for a bowl of rice (sacrilege!!) and they give you small paper cups of vanilla/​chocolate soft serve with your bill.
Overall I would personally like to spend more at a KBBQ place where you can get better quality food versus sheer quantity. I doubt I’ll want to return to MDS after this last experience.

An extra star for the amazing memories I’ve had here.
My first experience here was in high school. As a student, AYCE kbbq for $ 10 was the best thing in the world. I’m pretty sure there were times in high school where we would come here every week. EVERY WEEK.
During my college years, I insisted that we come here for my birthday a couple of years in a row. My friends, being the great friends they are came anyway. LOOOL.
The quality of the food isn’t the best… And it isn’t the cleanest place. The service isn’t always the best either… Parking is also pretty bad here.
They give the best vanilla/​chocolate swirl icecream at the end of your meal. It’s so good. My friends would rejoice if we ever got an extra one. Haha. For my birthday they would give me a huge icecream in a glass bowl.
Overall though, I would not recommend coming to this place. The reason I came so often was because I’m a sentimental person. With all these kbbq places around with a better variety of higher quality meats, better customer service, and cleaner facilities. You definitely have better choices.

MDS, a little AYCE KBBQ that you could easily miss if you drive by fast. Located in a strip mall style shopping mall with a few other places for dining pleasure. Inside were tables fit to accomondate an intimate dinner to a larger party.
For under 10 bucks, a person for a party of 2 you can enduldge in a trio of meats, brisket, pork belly and squid. But for the bigger and hungrier carnivore like me and 2 bucks extra, one can enduldge in 5 meats.
Chicken and marinated beef are added to the mix. But again, its party of 2 and up. No solos here, Im sure they would just double charge you.
Lets talk about meats baby. For years I dined on chicken only. But, Im a white meat sort of girl, and the chicken here is dark meat. Chicken, if you call it that, because it didnt look like chicken. The server even said so himself. So I didnt try it. The beef brisket was okay. A few pieces felt like they were getting stuck in my throat. Maybe I need to learn not to stuff so much in my mouth. The marinated beef was the best option out of the meats. It was the most flavorful.
With all AYCE, the sides are included. 6 sides plus salad were brought out. Onion s and garlic are available at no extra cost. Roasted garlic baby! Put it into the rice paper, with some marninated beef, salad and that sesame oil and its a party in your mouth.
So heres the deal. We are talking about $ 12.99 a person, you cant expect it to be high quality meat. The service was served with a smile. You come, you eat, and are hopefully happy.
If your not a happy eater, maybe the ice cream will make it all better.
3 stars… just okay meats… good service and ice cream.
Fiona was happy cuz her momma snuck out a few extra bites.

I thought I wrote a review for this place already… I went here with Josh a few months ago for my birthday fatty time.
Seriously though, are there any good KBBQ restaurant in the Long Beach/​Lakewood/​Cerritos area?
It started off with ⁴⁄₅ worthy quality food, but it went downhill fast. I understand that with more servings of meat, the quality will slightly go down (I guess to get rid of us faster), but WOW. First plate of beef was A-​OK, then the second one was inedible. Usually it takes 4 – 5 plates of meat before I surrender, but here, I gave in quickly. I was done.
The plus star is for our server. He was wonderful. He probably overhead us talking about how nobody likes you when you’re 23, so he knew it was my bday. I got a big cup of their ice cream. I think they’re known for their ice cream. It was just okay. Josh likes it a lot. It’s too… icy for me… I prefer my ice cream to be rich and creamy.