Gangnam Korean BBQ

Decided to try this place out because Gen was packed.
$ 14 per person and it’s pretty good!
On a Saturday night, no waiting list when we got in.
Although it was really busy, the workers were really hands-​on and helpful.
Simple menu along with the typical side dishes, but they have yummy japchae!
#1 Black Angus Prime Beef Brisket and #3 Thin Sliced Pork Belly were the ones we really loved!
Another good kBBQ joint!

I really enjoy this place now that they’ve change ownership. They upgraded the interior and the service is more customer focused. I only go to this location for KBBQ.

This place is well priced and tasty. Recent renovations make for a great, clean environment. Servers, though slightly inattentive, are friendly, patient and polite. We enjoyed our meal, but would have enjoyed it even more if the ice cream machine had been working. :(
P. S. The salad dressing is bomb.

Really good, but not much meat selection like other Kbbqs, very clean and cool atmosphere. A little pricey but on the plus side they have 2 of my favorite beers on draft which most kbbq places don’t and they give u soft serve ice cream at the end

If you’re on a budget, this is the place to go! $ 13.99/person for a good, simple variety of meats and side dishes. My boyfriend, friend, and I arrived right at 11 when they open. To our surprise, there were other people already seated and starting to eat. We were seated immediately, however it was a bit awkward. It wasn’t the hostess or waiter/​waitress, but the cleaning man that directed us to our seat.
We were given salad, rice paper, macaroni salad, cucumber salad, bean sprouts, Korean potatoes, and jap chae (korean stir fry glass noodles). The potatoes and noodles came out hot as if they just finished cooking it. Noodles were delicous. Usually when you go to a kbbq joint, the jap chae is hard and cold. I actually ate two servings of this. I was disappointed with the cucumber salad as it didnt have that nice bright color or crunch you expect. My bf ordered their tofu soup which was surprisingly tasty! It was a good mixture of the bean paste soup and soon do boo. Would definitely recommend trying it! Oh and the best part… the condiments are already on the table so there’s no need to waive down a waiter to refill it!
The meats: brisket is delicous! We ordered 3 plates of that and devoured it quickly. It came out fresh — not frozen and was neatly presented. We also ordered the pork belly. The slabs are cut in half from the usual size, however we found it to be a little on the thicker side. It took longer to cook and didn’t have the nice crispness to it. It was good, but would definitely prefer them to be sliced a little bit thinner.
Customer service: Waiters and waitresses were pretty attentive for the most part. They filled up or side dishes quickly and even have us more than enough rice paper without even requesting it. Towards the end of our visit, we noticed service started lacking and we ended up walking to the front to pay for our bill. We were not given any free ice cream as others have stated so that sucked. But other than that, would definitely be returning when I don’t want to wait in ridiculous lines to satisfy my brisket cravings!

I normally don’t give reviews because I am lazy. But I want to share my experience at Gangnam. We were there on a friday night! Day were so busy. But we were sat quickly. Our server was so efficient, fast and super courteous. For 13.99 they had so many selection. I’d rather come here than other places that charges $ 20.00 and have you wait for an hour. We felt like everybody was our server. They were very attentive to us even though we were sitted all the way to the back and did I mention they were extremely busy. I highly recommend this place. You get your money’s worth and they are not overrated. Love love this place. I think our real server was Tim and he was really awesome.

This place is pretty awesome for kbbq. They renovated earlier and it was pretty okay. But now that they got a new name and menu, it gotten better. I like their choice of meat and they taste decent. I love their kimchi pancakes though. It’s like the only kbbq spot I know that gives them out. It’s really delicious and I suggest you guys try them out. I like their ambience. They play kpop music which I kinda liked and the staffs were pretty okay. Overall, I would come here again with my friends if I feel like wanting some kbbq with kimchi pancakes.

I went here before they changed ownership and was disgusted. Now, it’s definitely a place that I’d go to if my first choice KBBQ joints are too packed.
FOOD
The meats are decent quality. The brisket is good, but their bulgogi (marinated beef) is on point. It’s so good, tender, flavored just right!
The banchan (side dishes) is good. They have all your typical stuff. Just wish they had fish cakes. Maybe they do, but didn’t have ‘em the two times I was there.
Don’t forget to ask for their brisket sauce. They don’t give it to your automatically, so flag down your waiter and ask for it. It’s really flavorful and is a great dip for your brisket (or any other meat).
CUSTOMER SERVICE
It’s your typical asian restaurant, so, the service is sub par. The waiters are running around, and you never really know who your waiter really is because random people come to your table and different times. But, I can look past it for the cheap, good quality food. LOL.

Service so slow it makes Comcast look like Google fiber. Standing here for an hour and everybody who came after us has been seated. Our name got crossed off the list and we weren’t seated. Waited for a total of 1 hour and 30 minutes and was told that there would be another 20 minute wait and ended up leaving. Seated 2 other parties of 6 before us even though they came at least 30 min after us. Ended up leaving extremely disappointed and hungry. Wouldn’t recommend coming with a party of more than 4 people. They had many tables that they could have held until another party left so we could be seated, but they seated smaller groups of 2 – 4 instead of catering to us, who waited for an hour and a half

This place got rebranded as «Gangnam KBBQ» probably because the new ownership thinks the term «Gangnam» is more hip than its previous name which was Ma Dang Sae. The price is fairly reasonable at $ 13.99 for around 12 different types of meats/​seafood. I will say that the meat itself is alright. I was disappointed in the fact that they open at 11:00am but the rice wasn’t even ready until 12:30pm. Your food needs to be ready to go when you open. Finally, the complimentary frozen yogurt you receive at the end of your meal was disgusting.

Standards weren’t too high given it was $ 13.99/person. They have those annoying metal grills that meat immediately sticks to, so that you end up either burning everything or scraping up meat bits. Service was also seriously lacking. It was hard to flag people down and even had missed orders.
Meat quality was OK, their bulgogi was actually pretty solid. We ended up getting a few orders of that. Otherwise, you get the standard side dishes along with rice paper and salad.
They finish the meal off with some vanilla soft serve, nice way to round out the grease: P Overall, great place for a meal on a budget. But if you’re looking for some good KBBQ, I’d go elsewhere.

Service was very slow on a Wednesday night. I understand it was busy, but me and my friend dined in for an hour and half and that was because service was too slow. We literally had to catch the servers attention every time, they would never check in with us. It took at least 5 minutes to catch a servers attention, and at times, they would ignore me.
AYCE is $ 13.99 per person. Not a bad price, but all they have is brisket and marinated meats; or cheap meats like pork belly and thinly sliced belly. I know salad, rice paper should be side dishes but it was on the menu because their menu was just horrible and i guess they wanted to make it seem more «filled».
I wouldnt say anything if the meat quality was fine, but it was just whatever and i dont think it was worth $ 13.99 for those selections and for such slow service that was provided for us.
I say, change the menu, bring in some more meats, at least pork cheaks, rib meat, and etc.,
And have a little better service.
Im usually generous about giving 5 stars, but this restaurant seems over rated and they should really improve.

I LIKE THIS PLACE!
Gangnam serves up simple and inexpensive Korean AYCE barbecue in Lakewood. Their meat menu is limited and concise. There’s no seafood options, or crazy premium marbled beef here. So if you simply just want plates and plates of brisket and bulgogi beef… Gangham is the place for you! I enjoyed the salad and rice wraps here too.
On our visit here, we had a male server who admitted it was his first day here. Despite some minor mistakes, he tried hard to refill our orders on a consistent basis and offered us refills on our drinks. We were pleased with his service. I was surprised to receive complimentary vanilla soft-​serve ice cream in mini cups towards the end of our dinner.
For $ 13.99, I enjoy coming here instead of Gen because I don’t eat enough of Gen’s premium stuff to justify the extra costs per person. It sure also beats driving 30 – 40 minutes up to Central LA and dealing with the traffic!
note: Gangnam used to give free sodas to customers if you checked in on Unilocal,but I guess they aren’t running that promotion anymore.

Today was a miss.
The food: 1) Rice paper was poorly prepared, very hard, like cold noodles at the Asian market. Bugogi marinated meat was too sweet didn’t want to try to cook it 2) Brisket has way too much fat and too crispy and too much oil when cooked. Horrible.
3)No hot tea just hot water. Writing this with a headache from all the oils I consumed.
The Service: 4) 2 female that don’t really need jobs were Working, they were afraid to ask me if I wanted more when I see them look at my table and I was the only customer in there!
For $ 15.25 per person it is not worth coming back.
P. S. I hope they read this.

This place is such a hit or miss. More misses than hits lately. Some of the old staff have come back leaving the service to be the same bad service as before.
Last night at 9pm my boyfriend and I were rejected/​turned away at the door because they were «out of plates» and «out of water». I’m not kidding! I thought the waiter was joking waiting for a reaction but he wasn’t. Everyone inside was still eating and plates were being passed. We were at a loss for words! So we left. Took our business to another kbbq down the street.

After reopening as Gangnam Korean BBQ, I’ve been back plenty of time. I have to say, this place is the ultimate hit or miss for me. Sometimes the food and service is GREAT! Other times. Not so much.
A couple weeks ago my friend and I came in. We had placed our orders, received our meats, and have already begun eating. This is about 10 – 15 minutes into sitting down. We have not received any sides or even cups for water and our server was no where to be found. We were never given our salad or scissors for our pork belly and the server kept forgetting to refill items we asked for.
This passed week we went, the brisket was dry and the bulgogi was unbearably sweet. Our cups arrived at our table greasy (and I mean you can still see the oil dripping on the inside of the cups) and we didn’t even get a water jug. Worst of all, our server basically just ignored our table 85% of the time we were there… (when he was at our table… His demeanor told us he probably was hating his job and maybe even us…)
All things considered… they have a lot more choices of meat and dishes (at $ 13.99/person)which is a definite plus. The décor is pleasant to the eyes, less cramp, more modern. When they get it right (which at this point is about 2 out of 5 times) it definitely keeps me craving kbbq and coming back. They still have the best hot sauce, thinly sliced pork belly and macaroni salad.
Let’s hope they start picking up the slack and getting their act together!

First of all –1 star for having fake reviews and baiting me into believing this place actually got their stuff together. The staff is the same as before they repackaged the old place (Ma Dang Sae which got horrible reviews). The selection of meat is decent, but they should have kept a $ 9.99 option instead of forcing you to pay $ 13.99 for a selection which at best is alright and is probably inspired by Gen. The thin sliced pork belly is really good though I’ll give them that.
The service still struggles as they still had 3 people trying to service a place that was half capacity and they couldn’t keep up to save their lives. Good luck to who ever they hire as they have never lasted too long beyond these 3 or 4 same people who have always been there since the old place opened. Imagine going on a weekend during peak? Pass.
The grill setup is a little nicer than before, but the ventilation at this place is like non-​existent so it gets very stuffy /​smokey pretty fast.
I don’t have it out for this place, but I really expected a lot after they closed down and opened up again to come back to the same exact experience with some new paint.

This review is more like 3.5 stars.
We decided to try this place since we wanted decent, cheap Korean bbq. At $ 13.99 for AYCE for dinner this puts it right in between Red Palace and other Korean bbq places like Gen, Star, and CSG in terms of price. For $ 13.99 you get a choice of 9 types of meat, jap chae, Korean seafood pancake, soft tofu soup, vanilla ice cream, and all the usual Korean bbq sides. It’s like budget friendly Korean bbq since you get more sides and meat options than the $ 9.99 ones, but the quality isn’t as good as the $ 17+ restaurants.
My friend and I tried the following. Since it was only us two we only survived one round of meat since they give you a lot on each plate.
Chadol (brisket) — Tasted good, hard to mess up brisket.
Thinly sliced pork belly– The pork belly was ok, I just wish they didn’t leave the cartilage in since most places cut the cartilage out. I guess if you like cartilage this wouldn’t be an issue.
Bulgogi (marinated beef) — Bulgogi was my favorite of the three meats. Better than Red Palace’s bulgogi.
Overall the meat quality was better than Red Palace since it felt cleaner and less fatty. Also comes with jap chae, soft tofu soup, rice, rice paper, salad, and Korean seafood pancake. There was no kimchi in the side dishes. Side dishes included macaroni salad, spicy cucumbers, fish cake, bean sprouts, and pickled white radish. I noticed other Unilocalers got more side dishes that we didn’t get at all. I’m not sure if it’s because they ran out or they forgot, but that should be consistent. The soft tofu soup is probably a medium level spicy.
Service was good. They brought out everything very quickly and changed our grill even though we were almost finished eating. Location is in a small shopping plaza on Pioneer. The restaurant itself is clean and spacious.
Overall the experience was good and I would come back, but it’s still not my favorite Korean bbq place. I would rather pay a few dollars more and get better quality meat and more options.

Among all the 9 Korean BBQ Restaurants I’ve tried around the area of Cerritos, Artesia, Norwalk, Hawaiian Gardens and Lakewood. I must say that this is the typical one I’m searching for.
Considering the fine choices of 9 types of meat from Black Angus Prime Beef brisket, Pork Bulgogi, Pork Belly, Marinated /​Spicy or non spicy Beef, Chicken and Pork plus Marinated Teriyaki /​spicy or non spicy Squid etc.
Side dishes includes Macaroni Salad, Green Salad, Spicy Radish Salad, Kimchi Pancake, Fish Cake, Rice Paper, Bean Sprouts, Jap Chae Noodles and even the Soft Tofu Soup and steamed Rice is included in the package with no extra charge. They even gave us a delicious complimentary Vanilla Ice Cream for dessert .
For the price of $ 13.99 per person it’s definitely worth it.
The service was great because the waiters are attentive to our needs. They offer to change the grill pan frequently when it’s already getting burned and stained.
The ambience was clean and spacious enough for a Korean BBQ restaurant. The tables are big enough to place all the food items. The tables are made of marble too.
Over all I’m satisfied with the experience and for sure will be coming back again.

$ 13.99 per person.
Increases of 40% but overall, better selection than it was $ 9.99
Will be backkkkkk