Soot Bul Gui Rim 2

Okay people! This place is officially CLOSED. They open another business and rename it «Cho Dae Bak»
So Soot Bul Gui Rim 2 is gone. e…eee… forever. I am so sad.
Please be alert that the price at SBGR2 is only $ 17.99 for AYCE kbbq but the new place charges $ 19.99 (not many beef options) and $ 24.99 (premium AYCE with beef and other stuffs). Read my other review about this place.
Otherwise, I love this K-​BBQ spot. No parking frustration. Friendly customer service. And the lady at the counter, she has the unforgettable look. My boyfriend misses his BELLATRIX, a character from Harry Potter.

This place used to be my favorite AYCE place because, honestly, that soot bul taste is irreplaceable. But it got really tiring going in every week and having them be really stingy on the dduk (rice paper). I’ve came to eat throughout all parts of the day and week, but no matter what day or time, they were always supposedly «running low» on dduk, even if I was the first customer of the day. If you don’t eat the dduk and are into the whole smoked meat taste, then this is definitely the place! But if you don’t want to deal with rude korean servers or stinginess, there’s always other AYCE places.

Well this place is officially no longer in existence.
The place is now called Cho Dae Bak BBQ.

Good food and usually one of the few KBBQ spots that’ll seat you right away.
The lady who owns the place (I think she is) looks really angry and has a lot of make-​up on. She serves you with a commanding sense of I-don’t-give-a-damn-ness that’s simultaneously intimidating and refreshing. We call her «Hard Knock Life». One time she was walking around lashing her tongue out in a weird way, like she just didn’t give a damn what anybody thought.

I have no idea how many KBBQ restaurants we contacted, but after discouraging responses of «We don’t take reservations,» «I can put you guys in at 10:30pm,» & «We have a lot of grad parties; you can walk-​in but it would take until 10ish,» eventually we got an easy booking for Soot Bul Gui Rim [2] (pronounced goo-​ee or gwee =/​!?) for Daniel L’s grad dinner – for a party of 15. Little did Lei B & I knew that we were driving to SBGR2, situated at a plaza where we coincidentally used to frequent years ago b/​c there’s also Goldilocks, Island Pacific Supermarket, & this Karaōke-​billiards lounge – supposedly a pristine spot for the Pinoy community =P.
We ultimately settled for the AYCE $ 17.99 deal, which has 16 meat varieties. The banchan delivered looked AND tasted bleh at the very second – for instance, watery, flavorless «sauce» on our bowls of salad that I was only eating the greens to get my veggie diet for the day – but I couldn’t help but devour one of my favorite sides, the slippery Japchae. Lei & I took total control of the grilling since some of our friends, sitting on our side, never had KBBQ o_​O, & (Just a note!) a lesson we learned was to let those metal bars be completely hot before searing our meats – we ended up asking to change those racks, thrice.
As for the quality of the meat… well, certainly there’s variety, but they’re overall cheap, supermarket-​ish. The ones I savored & remembered big time – in order to most delectable – were the Beef Tongue (Yay to me, 1^st time I can actually distinguish the flavor!), Brisket, Marinated Ribs, Sirloin, and Squid. On the other hand, the Pork Belly was way fattier, compared to those typically served; & (in Lei’s & my side) our raw Chuck Top Blade displayed unflattering frostbite marks in some parts of this meat, which resulted in a deep dunk of that cooked blade into my brown sauce.
Finally, at 1^st service seemed inefficient & incoherent, specifically when it came to asking several times to get yada yada meat – & forgetting to bring some of them. However, my annoyed disposition dramatically disappeared when they cheerfully played «Happy Birthday» twice for Daniel’s niece’s 6^th birthday (Oh whattyaknow, 2 different celebrations in 1 night: D), serving a gigantic platter of orange-​colored fruits – yes, it included orange slices xP – & bread-​made snacks.
This may not be my 1^st choice (at all) to eat on my next visit, but it’s certainly a more-​than-​decent back-​up when it’s eventually futile to walk-​in and/​or reserve at other KBBQ restaurants at the 90 ⁰⁰⁵⁄₉₀₀₂₀ area. I give it close-​to 3, &, regardless of those stars, I had a blast dining w/​Daniel, his family & friends, Lei, Tony Y Jr, Vanessa O, & David N!

A large group of us came to this Korean All-​You-​Can-​Eat (AYCE) BBQ restaurant after spending an entire afternoon under the sun. Fellow Unilocalers David N, Fia R, Lei B, Tony Y. Jr, Vanessa O were there too, and together we enjoyed rounds of barbequing at the table before we rolled out of there in style.
Located in a strip mall, the interior has a see-​through window that delineates the dining area in two. The ventilation isn’t the best, and the size of the grill at the table isn’t as large or the most conducive to a group of our size. The AYCE menu is posted on the wall, and separated by prices that covered a range of scales and meats to choose from. After some wavering back and forth, we decided on the $ 17.99 meal that comes with Sliced Brisket, Marinated Ribs, Pork Belly, BBQ Chicken, Boneless Chicken, Boneless Short Ribs, Beef Tongue, BBQ Beef, Pork Ribs, Sirloin Steak, Grilled Squid, Tripe, Large Intestine, Chuck Top Blade, Abomasum, Small Intestine, and Baby Octopus.
Among the number of meat I’ve tried, I liked the Beef Tongue that came with a nice texture. I also enjoyed the Marinated Ribs, Sirloin Steak, Grilled Squid, and Chuck Top Blade. Comparing to other KBBQ restaurants, I thought the quality of the meat was decent, albeit fatty on some of the servings. Interested diners should check out the Beef Tongue and Top Blade especially, but after a while the flavors will lose some of the luster where everything starts to taste alike. Diners should also be aware that the dduck bo som and salad can be somewhat inconsistent as the dduck can be larger with a need for a more refined texture.
The meal also includes 7 different banchans such as picked egg plant, seaweed, cucumber, kimchee, potato salad, bean sprouts, and steamed egg. The flavors of the banchan and sauces were bland and not as excitable as many places I’ve visited. This is the first in a long time that I didn’t care for refills on the banchan, and the steamed egg was too watery even though some sparks of flavors still resonated.
Service was decent with some delays to couple with spurts of efficiency. They were very nice to put together a plate of fresh fruit to help celebrate my niece’s birthday, and our server was present every time we rang the service bell. Overall, this is not the best KBBQ restaurant I’ve visited, but still a decent option for those willing to forgo depth and levels of complexity when quality is considered.
Thanks to all the Unilocalers for putting this dinner together, I had a lot of fun and it was overall one of the most memorable dinners due to the great company all around. With so many other KBBQ restaurants to choose from in the area, I would only be interested in returning when I have exhausted all other possibilities like the night of our dinner.

For $ 9.99 you get 3 different meat choices; brisket, pork belly, and BBQ chicken.
For $ 12.99 you get 4 choices; those mentioned above and 1 more meat choice.
For $ 16.99 you get 16 choices; octopus, squid, bbq chicken, etc.
The service is good, the food is good. My biggest con is the vent they have. It’s too high so the smoke goes to your eyes and around you rather than up.
The place offer’s free valet, but you can park your own car easily.

‘Tis a sad shame when a once great place falls to a lower level of blegh.
Came here a few weeks ago with an out-​of-​town-​kbbq-​obsessed friend and we were so excited to feast on mountains of meat grilled over charcoal. Sadly, what we had instead was a gas grill, amazingly slow service and an overall disappointing time.
As you can see from my original review, this place was fantastic and blew my mind, but now, meh, save yourself the effort and just hit up Road to Seoul. The atmosphere, food and overall quality is far superior and for the price, you really can’t beat it.
Sorry, SBGR2, ya lost me.

Not the best Korean BBQ place in Ktown, but I had a good time here! I thank the superb service from the waiters and the owner lady who resembled Michael Jackson. [I think it was possibly the cakey white makeup and the long jerry curl pama (that’s how Koreans pronounce «perm»)]
Located in a brightly lit strip mall, this place has been around for years! Knocked down one star because ventilation here lacks, I stepped in here on a rainy day and it was very SMOKY indoors. The smoke subsided with the occasional opening of the door.
We had everything on the menu (ha!), and it’s AYCE for $ 16.99. Brisket, galbi, intestines, baby octopi, tongue, BBQ chicken, sirloin steak, pork belly, and much more. Everything was pretty good (but a free meal and drinks always skew my reviews, FYI). The memorable: beef tongue!
We had a baby at our party, and they were super accommodating to him :) but I can’t say that the ventilation and the smoke-​free rules were heavily enforced :(:(
I can’t emphasize enough on the great service! Our group was a bit demanding, ordering 10 things at once (including particular banchan, sauces, salad, meat, etc) and they were like, «OH. IT’S ON, like Genghis Khan wearing Sean Jean in Bhutan!» …eh? just kidding, but they were definitely on it!

Yum!
Love LA because of the fact that there are all-​you-​can-​eat barbecue places all over the place! That’s rare on the east coast.
Anyway, my cousin took us here while we were on holiday in LA and we sat and stuffed ourselves full of really good Korean barbecue. It wasn’t any better than other bbq that I’ve had but it was equally as good but since it was all-​you-​can-​eat, I have to give it 5 stars, especially since prices were perfectly reasonable. You can choose from a variety of meats (including some things that people are squeamish about — like tripe) and they give you plenty or rice, banchan, lettuce, samjang, etc.
Just be wary of the fact that you will leaving the place smelling smoky!

We (more like I) decided to take the fam here for my mom’s bday lunch.
We had the
— Marinated short rib (the best meat on their menu)
— Tongue (the slices were on the thicker side, which I’m not use to… I’m use to thinner slices, which I think I prefer)
— Octopus (my mom ate all of it, so I wouldn’t be able tot ell you how it was)
— Short rib (was decent, but the marinated version is 10 times better)
— Chicken skewers (I didn’t try the chicken because I don’t like chicken, but everyone that tried it really liked it)
— Pork belly (my husband says «the pork belly wasn’t good»)
As for the sides, the glass noodles were the best dish offered. Unfortunately they don’t have sliced radish (which I prefer over the rice paper), instead, they have shredded radish. They also don’t have fish cake, which was a huge let down for my mom.
The round grill wasn’t very efficient because it didn’t disperse the heat very well.
Overall, I would rather visit Tofuya in the Westside, rather then driving out to KTown for Soot Bul Gui Rim 2.

Ok so this place definitely has its pros and cons, one of the cons being VERY VERY smokey, but hey~ this is what kbbq used to be before they started opening big new restaurants with industrial fans… nothing wrong with the good ol’ smokey bbq joints.
Not the best quality of meat, but for $ 16.99 ayce with 17 items to choose from, it’s pretty dayam good. I really liked the marinated pork belly and their kalbi. I thought they were flavored very nicely~
I like their panchan selection and yes they have steamed eggs :)
Their salad was a little wilted and not too fresh which is a pretty big deal for me because I love to eat my meat with a little bit of fresh greens so I don’t get a heart attack…
Overall 3 stars.

Lotsa… lotsa…lotsa meat. And it never ends. It is «all you can eat meat» after all so by the time you’re done eating you’ll feel like… «I think I’ll be a vegetarian for awhile.». It’s a good place to get loud. Poor ventilation though that’s the reason why I gave this place 3 stars. U don’t need to dress up for this place. It’s pretty laid-​back.

All You Can Eat KBBQ! BF’s cousin brought us here, so we’re here, hungry & ready to pig out. You’ll definitely smell like bbq after this.
Place is still great price for just $ 16.99 for AYCE dinner. They have a large selection that even includes WHOLE sirloin STEAKS. Yeah, a whole steak. ***For all those hungry guy buddies, this is probably worth it because you can just eat all the steaks you want.
However, sorry about the low rating. I think I’ve been spoiled with non-​all you can eat kbbq with my mom, and she already orders enough to make it an AYCE for us but with expensive top quality stuff =/​.
Parking: Small parking lot. Each parking spot is extremely extremely small. They do valet for the restaurant too if you want.
Location: Its in a plaza, you’ll see it right near 2^nd street. Its right by a grocery store.
Atmosphere: Local older joint so you’ll definitely smell after getting out of here. Ghetto but that just means its more fun and causal.
Service: With almost more than 6 tables, ½ of them with at least 4ppl… there was only one lady! We’ll theres to lady but the owner is so mean to just have this girl do everything & watch.
Food: Decent but definitely not that great. Good selection amount to choose from. No sweet rice drink after or any dessert.

I actually like this place better than Road to Seoul because they do have regular pork belly. I like to start my Korean BBQ with non-​marinated meat, especially this pork belly and dip it in the sesame oil and salt-​pepper sauce (my Korean friend told me this is the order to eat meat).
The restaurant itself is actually dirtier than the pictures, but I am known for ignoring anything besides the taste of food. So you snobs can go somewhere else if you care.
For AYCE places, really, I don’t want to itemize everything. Just go with an empty stomach and feast yourself. Make sure you go the gym later on. I hate to tell people this, but they would really need it.

If cow hoof was the menu, we would have probably ordered it.
Actually we might have and I just thought it was chicken.
Headed down to K-​Town to meet up w some fellow Unilocalers on a foodie adventure. Watch out cow, you might end up on the endangered species list if Wes S., Yulree C., and I keep this up.
I don’t think I have ever been to a Korean BBQ place where heart and tongue were on the menu. You also had the choice of large or small intestine, of course we tried them all. Surprisingly I really liked the heart.
The restaurant is kind of split into 2 areas, kinda small. Large groups like ours were split into 3 tables.
Service was okay, but then again the place was busy.
$ 2 if you valet in the lot, but you can usually find street parking.
After taxes and tip, it came to a little over $ 20 a person. What a deal. I ate a whole cow for $ 20.
Props to Yulree C. Two of the guys at our table tapped out before we did. I think these AYCE places are going to be in trouble if Unilocalers keep showing up.

For some reason I was expecting a really big restaurant, but it wasn’t to be. It was a lot smaller than I had imagined, separated into 2 sections. I couldn’t believe I saw a guy lit up a cigarette as we were walking in, thankfully, we weren’t in the same section as him.
Our fairly large group settled in and banchan was set on the table. Nothing impressive, just the kimchi, dduk, japchae and a few others not really worth mentioning as they didn’t stand out at all.
This is an AYCE place so at first I was really skeptical because they had so many things to choose from. 16 items in total! I always knew kbbq places in LA were far more reasonable, but I didn’t know how much more until the meat we ordered arrived. Oh geez, the quality of the meat here is even better than the best non AYCE places in Garden Grove. These are moments when I absolutely wish I lived in the LA area.
Sirloin steak, tongue, bulgogi, unmarinated short rib, chadol baegi, squid, intestines and other stuff I don’t remember — everything we ordered was very good. The meat was fresh with bright red hues and very flavorful. At the end of the meal you can get naeng myun if you wanted. I was too full but some of our friends did and they said it was just okay. Their steamed egg dish was fantastic. I loved it.
I would’ve given them 4 stars for the quality and the price had the rest of the evening gone smoothly as well. I think they were deliberately ignoring us because we were sitting there so long. We rang the bell but even after they came out and we told them what we wanted, they chose to ignore us. This happened throughout the evening. Banchan refills required an average of 3 – 4 requests, water refills or meat refills, all the same. I got tired of asking after a while. It was excruciatingly tiresome. I then asked the guys to flag those servers down but it was the same story.
Then, the place got so smokey my BFF’s eyes starting tearing up so severely you could tell she was in pain. The ventilation system stopped working and there was a cloud of smoke in the room.
At the end, when they brought out the bill, they had charged the young man the adult price. WTH. I told them my son was 8 years old, so they went and adjusted it.
If you don’t care about service — which I ordinarily do not at Asian places, but this was just worse than the worse I’ve ever experienced — and are able to sit in a very smokey room without it bothering you, it’s a fine establishment to go to for great kbbq. Go early. When we were leaving, there were loads of people standing in the restaurant even though it was smokey as hell, waiting for a table. Now that’s dedication! Even I have to draw the line at that and I consider myself very dedicated when it comes to good food.
3.5 stars.

Good all you can eat Korean BBQ but service and some of the organ meats were lacking.
Four of us came for lunch and we were one of two tables there during the lunch rush. I thought that was great! I’ve heard stories of how smoky the place can get and with just two tables going it wasn’t bad at all.
Menu;
To start, we ordered the first five meats off the menu but were only given three. The brisket, pork belly, and short ribs were some of my favorites. We ordered the chicken twice but it never came out, which is fine since I imagine it being dull. Second batch, we got some tongue, BBQ beef, pork ribs, and one other. The tongue came sliced super thin and was a little hard to cook without making it too chewy. For the last plate we got more pork belly, a sirloin steak, and some part of the stomach or intestine. We ordered heart too but it never came. The innards were the toughest I’ve ever had, no amount of sauce was able to save them.
Overall the food was good, service was meh, but it’s hard to go wrong with all you can eat meat for $ 17. But I am disappointed at Unilocalers for posting so many useless pics for this place and no one but me posting the menu.

Unilocalers rocked this place last night! We pretty much took over one entire section, loud and raucous as usual. The restaurant staff let us have our fun. I loved the food and having an experienced «personal chef» like CK at our table made all the difference (thanks again).
When Tim ordered a beer, they brought several small chilled frosty glasses so we all could share… a nice touch.
Yes, inside the restaurant it was very smoky and kinda chilly, and all my clothes had to go to the dry cleaners today and my shoes will always smell like meat… but worth it, it was.
I will never forget Dee’s experience with the colorful «gum»…
Thanks, Tim & Masa, for putting together a great evening.

Hell Yeah! Dude, my belly was soo rocked yesterday… not to mention I got it pierced, then I got it fed at this rockin spot.
I came here with my blessed Korean queen Diana. We ordered the all you can eat special. It was so delicious. Boneless spare ribs, pork of all sorts, tongue, and so much more. Everthing was perfect from the sauces to the kim chee. I felt love from our server Antonio and Diana molested that poor man. ha ha… he was feelin the LOVE!
This cool spot got an A rating. So feel good about eating off the floor. It’s all good. So for my first time having Korean bbq in the US. Yum yeah!