Gen BBQ (Tustin)

PS9 did a mini-review of Gen in the Retail Closures/Openings thread... long wait if you don't get there early:

ps99472 said:
Had Gen Korean BBQ for lunch, $15 AYCE, great deal.  The kalbi was my favorite followed by the beef tongue and shrimp.  Two hour limited, clock starts when the waiter takes ur order.  I don't see how u can eat for two hrs straight, we took just a little over an hour.  Good selection of meats including stuff I've never seen before (stomach, small and large intestines).  Service was refreshingly good for a Korean restaurant.  Waiter checked in on us quite frequently for additional orders.  We showed up at 11:15 and was second on the list.  I think by 11:30 the list was already full.  They're expanding and remodeling the useless yakitori bar.  Better then Korea House on Jeffrey and Seoul Garden on Red Hill.  Where else can u get $15 AYCE kalbi that's actually good?
 
irvinehomeowner said:
Finally eating here... right now.

Homie... where are you?

SoCal... get your camera!

SoCal won't take photos because she is upset that you are making her cook!

Have fun! Gen is probably favorite place to get kbbq.
 
Shoot. Forgot there was cronuts at Fusion.

It was pretty good. More meat selection than All That but the banchan is better at ATB.
 
I disagree.  I think Gen is better.  Actually I think Gen is much better.  I was very underwhelmed by ATB.
 
I didn't say Gen was worse... just that I like the banchan better at ATB (I only eat like 3 of the banchan). The variety of the meat AND the meat itself is better at Gen.

Plus you can get fried rice at ATB. At ATB, the cut off for children's discount is 9, which is lame... I would think 11 or 12. At Gen, it's at 10.

Both Gen and ATB need some ice cream like Shik or Cham Sut.
 
Problem with Gen is that they don't have the steamed egg!  I'm addicted to that dish and I can't get myself to go to Gen over ATB as a result...
 
woodburyowner said:
Problem with Gen is that they don't have the steamed egg!  I'm addicted to that dish and I can't get myself to go to Gen over ATB as a result...
Oh yeah... my kid likes that dish.

The tofu soup is also too oily at Gen. Mrs. IHO prefers the soup at ATB.

So I guess the sides are better at ATB, but the mains, the meats, are better at Gen.

ATB also has a shorter wait and is closer.

Another thing I liked at Gen... Peach Iced Tea... I'm a sucker for that.
 
Man, thanks to you had a craving for kbbq, ended up at Korea House... Was pretty bad...  Poor service (hello? Doorbell?), boneless ribs were poor quality and tasted "powdery", and the worse of all...$30 per order... For substandard meat... Use to like this place but I'm adding this to my "You're not getting another cent from me" banned business list.  Saturday night and no wait, gonna be downhill from here...Only bright point was the fishcake banchan, that was tasty but only got two bowls cuz the Korean waitress with a constipated look on her face never came by our table.
 
ps9 said:
Man, thanks to you had a craving for kbbq, ended up at Korea House... Was pretty bad...  Poor service (hello? Doorbell?), boneless ribs were poor quality and tasted "powdery", and the worse of all...$30 per order... For substandard meat... Use to like this place but I'm adding this to my "You're not getting another cent from me" banned business list.  Saturday night and no wait, gonna be downhill from here...Only bright point was the fishcake banchan, that was tasty but only got two bowls cuz the Korean waitress with a constipated look on her face never came by our table.

Oh man.... never go to Korea House.  That place sucks!  They used to be the only game in town, but now with Gen and ATB, they need to step it up in order to compete.  Maybe they get the UCI crowd since the school is so close? 
 
woodburyowner said:
ps9 said:
Man, thanks to you had a craving for kbbq, ended up at Korea House... Was pretty bad...  Poor service (hello? Doorbell?), boneless ribs were poor quality and tasted "powdery", and the worse of all...$30 per order... For substandard meat... Use to like this place but I'm adding this to my "You're not getting another cent from me" banned business list.  Saturday night and no wait, gonna be downhill from here...Only bright point was the fishcake banchan, that was tasty but only got two bowls cuz the Korean waitress with a constipated look on her face never came by our table.

Oh man.... never go to Korea House.  That place sucks!  They used to be the only game in town, but now with Gen and ATB, they need to step it up in order to compete.  Maybe they get the UCI crowd since the school is so close?

Interesting...I like Korea House but not for the BBQ.  Their Korean entrees are pretty good and lunch specials are cheap ($7.99-$9.99).  Lunch special even for weekends. 

All that BBQ is really good IMO.  Just went to Gen and was pretty disappointed.  It was decent but nothing compared to ATB.
 
irvinehomeowner said:
No... Homie wasn't there... I was posting on TI so that he would show up.

But alas... it was a Homie-less meal.

Sorry to hear. But at least I was able to update my scrapbook with recent pics of youuu!!! That's the important thing.  :) Too bad you didn't get your meal "to go"! Better luck next time.
 
So haven't been to Gen since almost 2 years ago but decided to give it another try since I saw they added KFC (Korean Fried Chicken) and some other things to the menu.

It's still as I remember, the sides (banchan) aren't very good but the mains are. They added a few more fried items to the menu along with KFC, sesame fried chicken, volcano fried chicken,  fried gyoza, pork cutlet and chicken cutlet.

The cutlets were interesting because they had cheese in them (is that a Korean thing?).

The fried foods actually bring another flavor profile/texture to the meal so they were welcome additions. We actually had 2 orders of the gyoza.

We also went to Shik Do Rak recently, they have 2 or 3 different levels of AYCE... that even comes with a different grill depending on which level you order. The lowest one was good enough for us since it also has that egg soup my kid likes.

Gen also changed their child menu pricing to height based and it tops out at 50 inches. Tall IHO kids pay full price (grrr!).
 
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