Seorae - Korean BBQ with Grilled Egg

Price: $$

Cravingness: ★★☆☆☆

Just don't get too excited seeing the grilled egg yet, I am gonna be a spoiler and tell you Seorae's grill egg tasted bad and is not even close to the one I had in Korea. As far as I know, Seorae is the first Korean BBQ restaurant in HK that offers a griller that has space for grilling eggs and kimchi. Let me know if you find some other ones in Hong Kong, I would really love to try it out.

I went to Seorae on a weekend at around 10.30pm and to be honest I did not expect a queue. When I got my waiting ticket and was asked to wait for 30 minutes, I was in shock. Later on I found out Seorae is a chain restaurant originated in Korea, which totally explains the queue as Hong Kong people loves to queue. Anyway since it was 10.30pm, I only waited 10 minutes before I got seated.

Saerao is extremely spacious, there are loads of tables to cater small and big groups of diners. The furnishing at Saerao is rather rustic with cement walls and metal tables. Every table has an individual griller and a long pipe to absorb the BBQ smoke and the smell. The ambiance is lively here and it is a nice casual place to dine in.

I particularly love the brick wall partition, it creates a little private dining area.

3 Banchan were served along with a bowl of seaweed soup. The banchan included kimchi, marinated bean sprouts and raw onions. The banchan were all pretty standard in taste, nothing too exciting, but they can be refilled for free. I am glad that Seorae offers this service as the restaurants that I went in Korea did that as well.

A jug of water was also served at every table which I believe is a custom in Korea, as many of the restaurants in Korea that I went did the same. 

Condiments and lettuce were served after we made the order. The condiments tray that holds soy sauce, Ssamjang and salt in sesame oil is pretty small, we asked for another tray of Ssamjang and salt for our meats. Lettuce was fresh but it can be refilled once only. Every other basket of lettuce, if I do remember correctly, costs an additional HKD$20.

One of the main highlights at Seorae would be the complimentary grill eggs which was offered as a starter. Two portions were given - an original version and a kimchi version which is basically the original verisiom but added some kimchi into it. The egg took forever to cook and failed its role as an appetiser. It was either the mixture recipe or the griller's has problem, as per experience, the egg should be cooked pretty fast. Timing aside, the egg was not as smooth as I expected and was quite bland in taste. Hugely disappointed.

Marinated Beef - HKD130

This marinated beef was pretty lean with little marble on it, but it was flavourful and juicy. It was a palatable wrap with the lettuce, grilled shallots, grilled kimchi, and grilled garlic.

Pork Belly - HKD120

We also ordered pork belly which I thought can never go wrong, but Seorae's pork belly was extremely chewy and dry in texture...

I would not really recommend Seorae as it's meats were pretty average and the grilled egg was bad. The service was excellent here but that could not drive me back as I can easily get better quality meat elsewhere. However I would not mind going back again right now as they still have not got their alcohol license yet. YES, that means free corkage everyone! :D

Rating

Food - ★★☆☆☆

Service - ★★★★★

Ambience - ★★☆☆☆

Overall - ★★☆☆☆

Seorae 喜來稀肉

Address (E) G/F-1/F, Passkon Court, 79-81 Kimberley Road, Tsim Sha Tsui , Hong Kong

Address (C) 香港尖沙咀金巴利道79-81號金栢閣1樓連地下

☏ 27236692

Opening Hours: Mon - Sat: 5pm - 4am; Sun: 5pm - 12am

Reservation Available? Yes

Walk In Possible? Yes (Expect 1-2 hours of wait at peak hours)

 

 

Date of Dining: 8 Feb 2014

The Bill Per Person (Dinner) - HKD$210

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