Recently, I was introduced to Korean BBQ. So, if you are a Korean BBQ aficianado, please don’t take offense to this post. This is just a summary of my Korean BBQ experience at Honey Pig. I was intrigued when I read Jennifer Zyman’s post on her Blissful Glutton Blog. I knew I had to try the Korean BBQ at Honey Pig.
This was a fun experience as I was finally able to meet with fellow food blogger, Foodie Buddha. If you haven’t checked out his blog, you should. He’s got some really detailed and insightful reviews.
But back to my Korean BBQ at Honey Pig. First, the restaurant decor was really not what I was expecting. Having only been to one other Korean BBQ (Tofu Village in Marietta) I was expecting something similar to that, which was very basic and no frills. Upon entering Honey Pig, I could see that design was important to them with the stained concrete floors, beautifully appointed tables with grills in the center.
So, as I was saying, I was expecting Honey Pig to be more like the mom and pop feel of Tofu Village, and was expecting somewhat of a language barrier. But the staff is pretty young and probably native to Atlanta. They were more than happy to explain to me what the different vegetables and sauces were that were brought to the table.
Foodie Buddha and I decided to order 2 meals and share everything. Foodie had been there a couple times before and promised me that ordering 2 meals would guarantee leftovers. How naive I am sometimes. So basically, it is really all about the meat as far as what you order. You can order beef, pork or seafood. Normally, I love seafood but had just had some the night before, so I opted for beef short ribs and FB wanted to try a pork entree.
Everything, meat, vegetables, sauce, etc is brought out at the same time. They began by cooking the beef ribs first and then as we gradually finished that they added the pork. I really enjoyed the beef more than the pork, almost to the point that I wished we had tried scallops instead. But there’s always next time.
So, with Korean BBQ you get:
- Sauces: Pastes of bean, chili and garlic
- Rice wraps: Maybe there is a better name than that, but they are most like a crepe and in their look and texture
- Vegetables: lots of greens and Kimchi (these are dumped on the grill and cooked with everthing else).
What you want to do is mix the meat, veggies, and sauce in the wraps, kinda like putting together fajitas. Oh yeah, it helps if you are proficient with chopsticks. Again, the beef was far better than the pork in my opinion, or maybe it was just that I was getting full by that point.
Although there were plenty of vegetables left by the end of the meal (or what I thought was the end of the meal), most of the meat had been consumed. No to go box necessary. At this point, I assumed the meal was over and was ready for the check, but there was more. They then brought out the fried rice and cooked that. Being a foodie, I couldn’t pass it up, and was glad I didn’t as it was extremely tasty. My only wish was that you could have rice WITH your main dish not when it’s over. But I guess that’s the traditional way of doing things.
All in all, I was pleased with the food. The waitstaff could have been a little more attentive. The small glass of tea that I was given when I sat down didn’t last very long during my 1.5 hour meal and they never refilled the glass or offered me any water. Also, once they put the food on the grill they don’t check back very often to see that the food is cooked. Again, not sure if it is traditional that they get you started and its up to you to finish cooking.
Gotta give a shout out to Foodie Buddha for giving me my Korean BBQ education.
3473 Old Norcross Road
Duluth, 30096
Phone: (770) 476-9292
