Soot Bull Jeep

Soot Bull Jeep
3136 W 8th St
Los Angeles
213-387-3865

Having been a couple "all you can eat" Korean BBQ places, like Manna Korean BBQ and Road to Seoul in Koreatown, I wanted to try a non all you can eat, Korean BBQ restaurant. So I went to Soot Bull Jeep.

I've heard about Soot Bull Jeep, because they are one of the few Korean BBQ restaurants that use charcoal instead of gas grills. So, on a rainy Sunday afternoon, I decided to have lunch at Soot Bull Jeep.

Everybody tells me the major difference between all you can eat and ordering off the menu, is the quality of meat. The meat at the all you can eat places are a lesser grade of meat compared to the order off the menu places, or they are suppose to be.

I was surprised at how limited Soot Bull Jeep's menu is, they had about 13 meats listed, but that included two different types of beef, squid, and pork, a short rib, chicken, honeycomb, beef tartar, and eel. Where is the pork belly?

BBQ Pork, $18.99. This was marinated with some paprika, soy sauce, and salt and pepper, it had a bit of a kick. (I was rudely informed that they use chili flakes, not paprika. But, a closer look at the meat, I think they use chili powder, not chili flakes. I don't see any flakes on the meat, but I certainly tasted the spiciness.) This was pretty good, but it had it's share of gristle and fat. I mean, $18.99 for a good sized portion, but the meats is about the same quality as all you can eat?

Ok, the charcoal added some flavor but not worth this price.

BBQ marinated sliced spencer steak, $19.99. Spencer steak are suppose to be from the rib eye, which means not that much fat or gristle but plenty of marbling. Well, this wasn't a spencer steak, it wasn't from the rib eye, more along the lines of sirloin and it was a cheap grade of beef, select.

This was marinated in a sweet sauce, maybe some honey or sugar, and tasted very much like bulgogi. But, again this wasn't any better than the meat from the all you can eat places.

Service was pretty good. The server was nice and friendly.

Honestly, I wasn't impressed with Soot Bull Jeep at all. Ok, the charcoal is different, but everything else is about as good as the all you can eat places I've been to. I can't believe I paid about $40, for two meats, when I could have paid half the price, and gotten more meats that were the same quality!!

There is no reason for me to comeback to Soot Bull Jeep, overpriced, average quality meat? Why bother!!

Sanya Korean BBQ Restaurant

Sanya Korean BBQ Restaurant
2897 W Olympic Blvd.
Ste. 105
Los Angeles
213-383-1144

An all you can eat Korean BBQ for $9.99? Sounds like a good deal. But, as with anything you get what you pay for. Sanya Korean BBQ is filled with college aged kids, looking for a cheap meal. That should have told me, that the quality of the meats isn't going to be that high.

There are a few options for all you can eat, at Sanya. The $9.99 options includes brisket, marinated beef, pork belly, chicken.




Brisket- I'm not a fan of brisket at Korean BBQ since it is not seasoned or smoked. I'm not big on dipping meat into sauces. Hell I would bring a bottle of A-1 steak sauce than dip it into some of the sauces I've seen at Korean BBQ restaurants. This brisket was sliced very thin, so it cooked very quickly and was pretty good. I put it on top of rice or wrapped it in lettuce and dipped it into soy sauce.




Marinated beef- This had a sweet marinate to it. Not the best quality meat, lots of fat and gristle. But I trimmed off some of the fat and this was a pretty good item.



Potato salad-This was the highlight of the dinner. A smooth and creamy potato salad, with very little to no mayo. This had some raisins and carrots mixed into the smooth, very well cooked potato. I really enjoyed this dish.



Pork Belly-Another non marinated meat. The only time I've ever seen pork belly with some of the bone attached. Very fatty, yeah I know it's pork belly and suppose to be fatty. But the actual meat wasn't good. I only ate one piece of this.




Chicken-The chicken has a light hint of marinate, some soy sauce and some sugar. Most of the meat was dark meat, I believe thigh meat, and this cooked up pretty good. It was a tender but lacked flavor. You can tell this was a poor quality chicken.

Another thing that was poor, was the service. First it was raining that night and where we were sitting, the ceiling was leaking. The server, who maybe the manager or owner, tried to downplay the issue. Well I don't like sitting at dinner and having water drip on me. So after some discussion, we wanted to move to another table.

The banchan, side dishes are meant for the entire table, not for each person. That's fine, but the banchan is served in very small portions for the entire table. I mean a scoop of potato salad for three people? Yeah, that's going to work. They were very slow in refilling the side dishes and they had attitudes when you asked for refills!! At our table, we just had the potato salad and left most of the other side dishes alone.

The general attitude of the server is really bad. They are rude, not helpful, and lazy. They have a rule that any leftover meat is charged at $6lb. Since they were very slow to take away empty dishes, we stacked the dishes and when the server finally came by, she actually checked each dish-most of them were side dishes, to make sure we didn't leave any meat. Yeah nice.

I wouldn't go back to Sanya again. Poor quality meats, terrible service, and bad attitudes.

BonChon-Closed

BonChon
3407 W 6th St
Los Angeles
213-487-7878

After going to Kyochon, we stopped at BonChon to find which Korean Fried Chicken is better.



We split two large orders of soy garlic and the hot wings, $16.99 each, which was about 10 wings in each order.

BonChon does a much better job frying their chicken. So light and crispy and moist. The chicken was huge, among the biggest pieces of chicken I've had.

The soy garlic wasn't as flavorful as Kyochon, but still pretty good.

But the hot, was so much better. The hot had enough heat but wasn't so hot, it burned your mouth.

Service was pretty good, much better than Kyochon.

Overall, I liked BonChon better. I liked the fact that the chicken was more crispy and moist. If you could combine the soy garlic at Kyochon and with the chicken at BonChon, you would have an almost perfect chicken.

Kyochon Chicken

Kyochon Chicken
3833 W 6th St
Los Angeles
213-739-9292

Kyochon and Bonchon, are two of the more well known Korean Fried Chicken restaurants. I noticed that Koychon and Bonchon are with a mile of each other on 6th St. So I went to Kyochon frist and then Boncho to see which place is better!!




Six people split the large order of 10 wings, $16.99, half soy garlic and half spicy. They screwed up and gave us all soy garlic, then later, realizing their mistake gave us the spicy.

Korean fried chicken, actually, most Asian fried chicken is a two step process. The first step is to render out the fat, to make a nice crispy skin. Then cooked again to fully cook the inside!! So these wings take 20-25 minutes to cook, so prepare to wait.

Kyochon did a good job of frying the chicken. Nice cripsy skin, moist inside. The soy garlic had so much flavor. I really liked this chicken.

The hot was HOT. If you do not like hot, do not get this. It is among the hottest chicken I've ever had.

Service is so slow and bad. It took forever to get water, one person in our group didn't get his water until we were almost done with our meal and 3-5 reminders. Drinks were not refilled, they took forever to take our orders. They really need to work on customer service.

The only good thing to say about them is that they self corrected their mistake and brought us an order of hot and spicy. But there is no excuse for slow service, you can measure the amount of time they took with an hourglass.

I would only go back to Kyochon, if I placed my order in advance. I won't put up with their bad table service.

Cassell's Hamburgers-Moved

Cassell's Hamburgers
3266 W 6th St
Los Angeles
213-480-8668

I first heard of Cassell's Hamburgers after reading this, LA Times Story. The writer seemed confused because from the pictures Cassell's isn't a gourmet burger, it is a diner style burger, much like Apple Pan or Russell's. I consider gourmet burgers to have all these fancy toppings, like, truffles or gruyere, not regular American cheese, or iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, or onions.

Anyways I decided to try Cassell's and judge for myself. As I walked in, I knew right away this wasn't going to be a gourmet burger. This is your standard diner-style restaurant. Nothing fancy or gourmet about it. The burgers are cooked on a special double broiler, with the heat coming from the top.




I ordered the #23, a 1/3lb American cheeseburger, $6.95. With each order, you get their "buffet" which is really their condiment table. There are many choices on the table, including a relish that was very close to Bob's Big Boy; your standard mustard, mayo, and very fresh veggies. I got the relish, lettuce and tomato. The burger is big but not thick. They are cooked well done, which is fine, but the burger was dry. There was no flavor to the meat at all. There wasn't anything special about this burger, certainly did not live up the hype of that LA Times story. The toasted bun was a nice touch, the relish is almost exactly the same as the relish on the Big Boy double decker burger, and the veggies were chilled and very fresh. But I couldn't get over the dryness of the meat.

Service is good. The cooks greet you right away and you place your order with them. They are nice and helpful, if this is your first time. The cashier, who I believe is the owner, is also nice and helpful.

I wouldn't go back to Cassell's. The burger is ok, but certainly not outstanding. Also my first reaction; Cassell's is not gourmet burger, proved true.

Road to Seoul

Road to Seoul
1230 S Western Ave
Los Angeles
323-731-9292

Road to Seoul is a very popular Korean BBQ restaurant in Koreatown. This place was packed on a Friday night with 30 minutes the norm and lines out the door. I came with a group of about 12 people and we had six people per grill.

We got the all you can eat option, $16.99. They start off with a very large, fresh bowl of romaine lettuce with a light Korean dressing. This salad was great. So fresh and tasty. Now when I go to any Korean BBQ, I'm not into all the side dishes, I don't touch them. I'm there for the meats!!!

The meats included brisket, short ribs, bulgogi, chicken, and bacon.

Maybe it's me but I don't get the brisket at Korean BBQ places. Why do they serve frozen sliced brisket with no seasoning or marinate. The brisket is sliced very thin but not that flavorful and I only had a small serving.

I loved the beef short ribs, which I believe are called galbi. Very well marinated in a light sweet sauce. The ribs were moist and very tender. Nice flavor. Maybe my favorite meat at Road to Seoul.

The bulgogi was very sweet and flavorful. But it has too much fat. The beef was also a bit tough and chewy. Not a good quality meat.

The chicken was also marinated, in a mild soy sauce type sauce. Both white and dark meats were included. Pretty good flavor and tenderness.

The bacon was pretty bad. Lots and lots of fat, not marinate and not flavorful.

Service was OK. We had trouble with our grill because the heat wasn't hot enough. We asked the server to turn up the heat but at times the flame would go out. It makes it hard to grill up meat when this happens.

But they were pretty good about getting new meats and changing the grill. Side dishes were replenished quickly and we also had water bottle at our table.

The thing I've learned about Korean BBQ is that the meats at all you can eat places, can vary but is usually low quality. I found the meats at Road to Seoul to be low quality with too much fat, not tender or flavorful.

I would not go back to Road to Seoul again.

Manna Korean BBQ Restaurant-Closed

Manna Korean BBQ Restaurant
3377 W Olympic Blvd
Los Angeles
323-733-8516

Another all you can eat Korean BBQ. I've come to the conclusion that most Korean BBQ places are just OK. All serve the same meats, some use better quality meats and some use better marinades.

Manna is an interesting place. Most of the seating is in an outdoor patio. For $16.99 they serve all you can eat bacon, brisket, beef short rib, beef bulgogi, chicken and pork.

I thought the brisket was just too fatty, I cut away a lot of the fat and got a small amount of meat. The brisket isn't marinated and is pretty bland. Not impressed.

The bacon was also full of fat, unmarinated and bland. Not impressed.

Beef short rib was well marinated, in a sweet marinate and we very good. Maybe my favorite meat at dinner.

The beef buglogi was also good. Well marinated and not too fatty. My second favorite meat.

The chicken was all dark meat, not fatty but again pretty bland.

The pork was again pretty bland but not that fatty.

I don't eat any of the side dishes at Korean BBQ places. Most of them just don't appeal to me. I don't eat kim chee, I stay away from potatoes, I don't like spinach. I just usually get rice and dip the meats in soy sauce.

Service for a group of about 40 people was pretty good.

Of all the Korean BBQ place I've went to, I think Manna has the worst quality meats. Most were bland and fatty. I would not go back to Manna again.

So Kong Dong

So Kong Dong
2716 W Olympic Blvd Ste 104
Los Angeles
213-380-3737

So Kong Dong is known for their tofu. Now I like tofu but I rarely order it. But the Korean style of tofu isn't my style and I decided to try something else.

So I got the beef bulgogy, $12.99. This dish was filled with mushrooms and onions and was so flavorful. Much more flavorful than the Korean BBQ. The beef was OK. There were some fatty pieces and most pieces were fairly tender.

Service was OK. They do not speak much English so it's almost like point and ask. They were slow in being our table the sides, which I never eat, and taking our order. Oh instead of water they give you ice tea though they must use one part tea is 20 parts water, one of the most diluted teas I've ever had.

My issue with Korean food is that it is expensive!!! $12.99 for the bulgogy? Not that good of a value when you consider an all you can eat Korean BBQ place may charge $18.

Overall it was a nice experience to come to So Kong Dong but I don't think I would go back.

Taylor's Steakhouse

Taylor's Steakhouse
23361 West 8th St.
Los Angeles
213-382-8449

Ever have high expectations about a restaurant? How do you feel when those expectations aren't met? Well I had high expectations about Taylor's Steakhouse. Many people have told me that Taylor's is one of the best steakhouses in LA. So I finally go there to see what the hype is all about. Well I found out that Taylor's is all hype. Taylor's is an old fashioned steakhouse, complete with red vinyl booths and very low lighting.

I made 7:30pm reservations. They seated us even though we were about 15 minutes early. So a good start. The hostess walked us to the upstairs dining room. But the location of our table was terrible. It was like they found an extra space and figured they would put a table there. Right above me was a shelve that had nothing on it but was so low, I had to be careful not to hit my head on it, every time I got up. I should have asked to move but I didn't. So that is my fault.

The waiter takes our order and I ask for the NY steak, medium rare. The steak quickly arrives and I'm impressed with the size. I cut into the steak and it's cooked just right on the inside. But outside is a little charred. Not a big fan of tasting charred steak. But the steakhouse wasn't anything outstanding. It wasn't the most tender or flavorful. It wasn't anything special and sure as hell wasn't worth the $28 price. I think I could have had a better steak if I bought a prime grade steak and put it on the grill. And it wouldn't have cost $28 to make.

Service was acceptable. But our server had such a heavy accent, I could barely understand him. I realize that LA is being overtaken by Spanish speaking people. But I would think at least Taylor's could hire people who spoke English better. But he did his job. Again nothing outstanding but nothing bad either.

I'm not saying that Taylor's is bad but it's nothing great and certainly not the best steakhouse in LA. I would not go back to Taylor's. As I've said I think I could do much better if I made the steak myself.