I love Korean BBQ. I’ve tried many and somehow I always end up going back to Shik Do Rak in Garden Grove (featured previously here). I was really excited to see the glowing reviews on Yelp for Gen Korean BBQ and Yakitori Bar. Many who have raved about it are Elite Yelpers whose reviews I regularly read and trust. Unfortunately, my experience here was nothing like theirs.
The main dining room is ultra modern where as the private room is more traditional with 2 huge Asian paintings on the wall. I didn’t see anyone at the Yakitori Bar at the time of our visit, so I am not sure if it’s open for business yet.
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Although most people come here for the All You Can Eat KBBQ, you have the option of ordering other items from the regular menu. We couldn’t resist on trying the 22-item AYCE option for $19.99. It really looked impressive. We were told we could ask for 4 – 5 items at a time.
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Once we ordered, they started to bring banchans and sauces to our table. Right away I was a little surprised at how little the dishes were. My first thought was ‘I hope they refill them.’ My second thought was ‘Why would the owner do this to his/her staff? Does he/she realize how much more work they have to do to refill them?’ Seriously, these were about 1/2 or 1/3 of the sizes other KBBQ restaurants serve. The varieties also lacked.
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We started off with Kobe Brisket, Marinated Spicy BBQ Chicken, Marinated Angus Prime Short Rib, Marinated Angus Prime Rib Eye, and Mushrooms & Vegetables. We later asked for Spicy Marinated Pork and Marinated Beef Tenderloin. All I can say is that everything was extremely fatty except maybe the Marinated Spicy BBQ Chicken. The Kobe Brisket basically was 2/3 fat 1/3 meat. Once you cook off the fat, they just became like bacon bits.
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I really wished I had taken an Alli pill before hand to absorb all the fat/grease going through my stomach!
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The whole experience was made worse by the terrible grill used here. They were the cheap aluminum (or stainless) grill that had not been brushed with oil and burned as soon as you put the meat on it. We had to ask the poor Amigo to come and change it 3 times. I can’t imagine how many poor Mexican dish washers they have back there and how hard they have to work to scrub these. WHY would you do that to these poor workers and servers with the tiny dishes and cheapo grills????
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The service was friendly but attentiveness suffered as the night got busier. This is by far, the worse KBBQ experience in recent memory. If you think my images make the food look yummy, thank you! But don’t let these images mislead you. Unless you don’t mind all the fat in your meat (which might be the reason why some people thought the meat was tender), come try it. But you won’t find me and Allen here ever again.
Gen Korean BBQ and Yakitori Bar
13741 Newport Ave
Tustin, CA 92780
(714) 505-1800
2 weeks ago I went to gen with my family, 12 people in all. i asked that the manager if he could expedite our wait as my father is in poor health, couldn’t wait an hour. it was 5pm. the manager said he was preparing a table for us. in the meantime, he stared down my sister, kind woman in her 50s, and my son, 12. why? i don’t know, but my guess is he wanted us to leave. i confronted him, asked him for the owners contact info, and he said “I won’t give that to you”. I asked him why he was staring down my sister and son, he wouldn’t answer, and honestly, i felt he would retaliate by spitting in our food or something worse. He got what he wanted, he got us to leave. I have never in my life experienced this, a manager at a restaurant taunting waiting customers and getting customers to walk out the door. i believe their attitude is “we have so much business, i don’t need yours”. their prices for the quality of meat is low, they are undercutting their competitors and hoping to capitalize on alcohol sales. perhaps this is why he wanted us out, we were a large party and we were not going to be drinking alcohol. i sent a complaint to their corporate office, email and fax, no one has replied. this is really unacceptable for a service establishment. i hope others do not get treated this way, but i’ve heard this is not uncommon.
I like going to GEN, but I do agree that they went cheapo on the grills. When they’re an aluminum pan, like they are, it’s more like frying the meat instead of truly grilling it.
Although I realize it’s probably on purpose to prevent meat from falling through, it’s kind of cheesy. Still, you can’t beat 20 bucks for AYCE and pretty good meat quality.