Bud Namu KBBQ- All You Can Eat for 10 Bucks

Looking for $9.99 AYCE KBBQ? Get yo' butt down to this new restaurant. Located on the corner of 8th and Ardmore next to Jon's market, Bud Namu is a large 2-story building with valet parking for $2. If you're going during dinner, you'll most likely have to use the valet as the street parking there is non-existent. However, during lunch, breeze on over to the parking lot across the street and park for free.

On my first visit, we sat downstairs in a booth. We opted for the $9.99 menu which consisted of brisket, pork belly, bulgogi, chicken bulgogi, beef belly and intestines. I really only wanted the brisket and bulgogi and so did my dining companions, so that's all we ordered. The brisket was pretty fatty and not the best quality, but what do you expect for $10? We preferred the bulgogi.

My second visit was for dinner the other night with a few other friends. We sat upstairs by the window and behind a wall. We were more adventurous and ordered everything on the menu except for the intestines and chicken. My favorite was still the bulgogi, with brisket being a close second. The pork belly was insanely huge and scary. It was 90% fat and definitely not for the faint of heart. I thought the beef belly was okay and kept confusing it with the brisket since they looked so similar. We had to change the grill a few times to get rid of all the charred meat. 

Service was off and on. We had to flag them down since they couldn't see us behind the damn wall. Since we were upstairs, we took advantage of the self-serve "banchan bar" and got our own salad, cucumbers, bean sprouts and kimchi. Too bad the good banchan was not self-serve. I would have gotten potato salad wasted.

Steamed egg and rice paper are also available, but you have to ask for them specifically. What is it with steamed egg and keeping it to a minimum of 2 per table? If it were up to me, I'd say give each person their own bowl!

Our final bill was $13 per person. Cheap dinners are yours to be had here!

P.S. You will smell like a cow's behind when you leave the restaurant. Make sure you wash all your clothing and air out other personal belongings.


4****


Bud Namu KBBQ
809 S. Ardmore Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90005
213-385-9292

Hwang Jang Korean BBQ Restaurant - $10 AYCE

The saying "You get what you pay for" really applies to this place. We were actually across the street at Castle BBQ, but the wait was too long so we came to Hwang Jang. We were seated right away and then left alone without service.

Finally she came back and asked us what we wanted. We said AYCE please and about 5 minutes later a huge plate of brisket, pork belly, chicken and bulgogi arrived. The brisket wasn't very good, too chewy and thick. Pork belly was meh, chicken was tasteless and the bulgogi surprisingly was the best. 

Banchan was decent and we even got the coveted steamed egg. Service was pretty bad, but whatevers. I guess you can't expect much for $10 a person.

We didn't like the meat that much so ended up not really eating a lot. You know it's not good AYCE when you leave and you can STILL eat.

I would pass on this place.


2**


Hwang Jang KBBQ
480 N Western Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90004
(323) 465-6707

Cham Sut Gol - AYCE KBBQ

We were so excited for AYCE KBBQ at $16.99 per person. After reading some stellar reviews on Yelp, we couldn't wait to try the bomb ass chadol and sirloin and enjoy the awesome service.

Hmm.. did that happen? Well, 1 out of 3 delivered so you be the judge.

Our group of 5 sat at a table by the back, next to the serving stations. You would think that would help our chances of getting great service, but nope! We had to constantly ask for food and drinks. At one point, we were sitting there meatless, banchan-less and with no drinks whatsoever. WTF?

All of us were pretty annoyed by this fact and we had to ask for steamed egg a few times. They tried to tell us we already got it, but we weren't that dumb. One of the waitresses was cool and hooked us up with 3 steamed eggs (that's the limit per table). However, I did see that the table behind us got stellar service and tons of steamed egg. Hmm..

On to the food. We ordered pretty much everything off the $16.99 menu, except for the intestines (barf) and the pork belly.

Chadol: Weird. Not like typical chadol, too thick and progressively got more funky. We had about 4 plates of chadol. At one point, even the waiter couldn't tell if it was chadol or beef tongue!

Sirloin: OMFG. Winner of the night! This thick and juicy steak was delicious! There is a limit of 1 steak per 2 people. We had 5, but still got 3 steaks. Yay for some sweet talking from MC in our group. Definitely get the sirloin, you won't be disappointed. 

Sirloin

Kalbi: Pretty good, albeit kinda chewy. I've had better elsewhere.

Baby octopus: Really salty, but tender. Could have done without the intense salty marinade.

sirloin, baby octopus, spicy pork belly

Beef tongue: Not bad, but then again, I'm not a fan of tongue. Don't want my food tasting me back.

Spicy pork belly: I didn't like this at all. Very hard to chew and really salty. Skip this.

Salad was okay and very salty as well! I was so thirsty the entire dinner and for hours after. 

Salad + banchan

Banchan was lacking and small in portion size. Nothing out of the ordinary here. We had potato salad, daikon, fish cake, tofu, kimchee, rice wrappers, bean sprouts and pickled cucumbers. My favorites were the rice wrappers, potato salad and bean sprouts.

Overall, the food was about a 3.5 and service was a 2.

Would I come back? Probably not. But, you can't beat a $20 dinner and feeling like a stuffed cow. 

3/5***

Cham Sut Gol
3700 W Olympic Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90019
(323) 734-9292