Palace Korean BBQ & Grill

Compared to my daughter, my son does not show the same enthusiasm about food, especially the gourmet stuff.  Sure, he does like his junk food and fast food restaurants, but when it comes to things like macarons and fine dining, he shows as much interest as a husband in a shopping mall (he looks like that type too).  However, he does love Korean BBQ and he gets super excited about it.  So when we decided to head to Palace Korean BBQ, he did an emphatic fist pump.  Wow, excited about something other than a cheeseburger...

We ended up with the unlimited meal where we started with the requisite Banchan consisting of sprouts, kimchi, daikon, tofu skin, eggplant, pickled cucumber and potato salad.  Served in a big plastic bowl was a green salad with an inordinate amount of slivered white onions.  That made the salad pretty sharp tasting. As for the banchan, Viv and I loved the eggplant the most as it wasn't mushy while nicely dressed with sesame oil.  I also enjoyed the tofu skin because I just love the stuff.  Viv thought the cucumbers were pretty good since they were appealingly crunchy.  

As for our Meats, we had the beef short ribs, bulgogi, chicken, pork shoulder and veggies. We liked how each piece of meat was left in big slices including the chicken.  As a result, they retained their juices and flavour.  We merely cut them with scissors afterwards. Due to the ample sugary soy marinade, the meats were flavorful and charred up easily on the grill.  In terms of meat quality, we felt the chicken, pork and beef were pretty typical while the ribs were sufficiently tender and fatty.  To bring the sugar quotient down a notch, we also got a plate of the thinly sliced Fatty Beef that cooked up quicker on the grill.  The beef was sufficiently tender but I would've preferred more evenly marbled meat.

Prior to our visit, I read up the place on the web and let's just say the reviews weren't glowing.  The main bone of contention was the service or lack of, however, our experience was actually quite pleasant.  Sure, they weren't going to win any Michelin stars for service, but there was nothing out of the ordinary.  The only thing we wished for was a middle-pricing for kids as my son (who is 10) was charged full-price for his meal.

The Good:
- Okay food quality for AYCE
- Service was decent for us

The Bad:
- AYCE pricing for kids ends at 7 years old, they need a mid-price level
- Ventilation could be better