Bellwether BBQ & Grill

I'm sure many of you have tried an AYCE Korean BBQ before.  It isn't like there is a shortage of them as we find many chains across the country.  Furthermore, if you travel lots, you will notice that SoCal has an inordinate amount of them and there are good ones to be found in NYC as well.  Our latest food adventure has brought us to Bellwether in the Chinatown-International District in Seattle.  Across the street and half a block down from Uwajimaya, Bellwether shares a space with Happy Lamb Hot Pot as well as free parking underground (which is a huge plus).

One thing that sets Bellwether apart from other AYCE Korean BBQ joints is their self-service bar that includes soft drinks (if you paid extra for that), corn cheese, veggies (including romaine to wrap your meats), small dishes, dessert and rice.  So really, other than the raw meats, you have all of the other items you need at your disposal (and as much as you want).  I find this a very efficient way of doing things where you don't have to wait for the simple things.

Onto the meats, we had a combination of the regular menu (which is $39.98 per person) and 3 premium meats that adds $6.00 per person.  In this picture, there is one of the items in the Gold Grade American Wagyu in addition to the Black Angus Ribeye and Premium Beef Tongue.  Seeing how fatty the Wagyu looks in the picture, it ate like what you would expect.  It was buttery and soft while charring up beautifully.  The ribeye was great too being soft and moist with plenty of marbling.  Sliced super thin, the beef tongue was chewy, but in a good way.  Lots of meaty flavor from the fat.

The 2 other options for the premium meats are the Hand Cut Short Rib and Marinated Hand Cut Short Rib. If you look at the first picture, it is quite obvious how fresh the meat was.  It cooked up well with nice charring and plenty of natural meat flavor.  It was tender with the classic short rib chew.  As for the marinated version, it was obviously more impactful and didn't really need any sauce.  It seared up even easier due to the marinade and seemed a bit more tender due to the marination.

Sticking with short ribs, we got the Marinated LA Galbi as well.  Also known as Maui-style, these are cut across the bones.  This way, you get much more of the meat around the bones and the connective tissues.  This was tender and also quite good.  Looking at the picture of the Pork Belly, it is pretty obvious that it was more meat than fat.  I personally prefer that ant there was enough fat to keep things moist and have an impact.  It still crisped up well on the grill.

We had 2 more meats including the Sweet & Spicy Marinated Chicken and Premium Pork Jowl.  There is also an option to get the chicken with garlic instead of it being spicy.  I thought the chicken was tender since it was dark meat.  It was somewhat spicy.  The pork jowl was predictably flavorful from the fat and also had that unmistakable rebound texture.  Due to the fat, it crisped up well on the BBQ as well as sporting a nice char.

Possibly something that I wouldn't have guessed that would blow us away was the Squid.  It was so good!  Nice chewiness that gave way to tender pieces that were also naturally sweet.  Even without dipping it into any sauce, it was flavorful, but yah, we used the sesame oil and salt for this anyways.  Should've ordered more of this!    One of the meat items that didn't require us to cook it was the Lamb Shank.  It was tender and gelatinous as lamb should be.  The outside was nicely spiced and crispy.  Good option if you like lamb!

As mentioned, there were several dishes available at the self-service station and the best of the bunch was the chicken wings and spicy tofu.  Soups were good too including the gamjatang.  Naturally, we had some Banchan included and that was served to us.  The grill itself was well-ventilated and was powerful enough to create some serious sear.  Overall, for $39.98, we felt the quality of the food, service and layout of the restaurant made for a good value and delicious meal.  This is a place that I will be bringing the fam next time we are in Seattle (which might be quite soon!).

*All food and beverages were complimentary for this blog post*

The Good:

- Fair pricing

- Good quality meats

- Free parking downstairs

The Bad:

- Service can be stretched as they place gets busy