Gen BBQ (Tustin)

Yeah, still not the cleanest place.

We sat in the room that doesn't have individual vents over the table so they had to open the door to air it out.

Gen is becoming pretty popular as a chain, I've seen about 4 of them all over the southland. And they own California Gogi (not sure if they bought them or that was always the case).
 
irvinehomeowner said:
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!).
Shik Do Rak is my favorite for brisket and radish.  Something about their radish, also the sesame oil.

Gen is also one of my favorites, but I don't care for the sides as much.  Crap, my 2nd grade daughter well over 50 inches tall.  56 inches the last time I checked.  How is Gen doing the height based pricing?

I also enjoy ATB (all that barbeque).
 
Sick and tired of long lines at all these Korean BBQ, or in fact all Irvine restaurants.

We started trekking our way to ghetto Garden Grove for Korean BBQ.  No lines, excellent service.

 
There's an SDR out there too... 

Yeah, I know what you mean about the long lines.  Fortunately it's still only at certain days and certain times and certain types of restaurants (like Korean).  Wife wants me to go at 5 before the lines, but if I'm going to AYCE, I want to go a little later when my hunger peaks.

I used to live in Brea about 15 years ago.  It was really Brea where pretty much any restaurant was a 2 hour wait.  I wonder if it's still like that.
 
Claim Jumper in Brea was the worst.  They always say the wait is an hour then they take 1.5-2hrs.
 
aquabliss said:
Claim Jumper in Brea was the worst.  They always say the wait is an hour then they take 1.5-2hrs.
Yeah, it was rough.  I think Outback had the shortest wait of a little over an hour.  I later moved to south coast plaza and never had a wait. 

I also bought a front of the line VIP card for their chain of restaurants.  Want to go to Brea one day and use it just for the heck of it.
 
TJinOH said:
Sick and tired of long lines at all these Korean BBQ, or in fact all Irvine restaurants.

We started trekking our way to ghetto Garden Grove for Korean BBQ.  No lines, excellent service.

I only go at non crowded times (early) or I just don't go at all.  Reservation or bust during peak times for us.  Rather just pick up some food and eat at home.
 
I used to work at Brea Corp place. The Indian buffet across the street from the mall always seems to have table avail. For claim jumpers we just ordered to go and eat at the office.

There's a nice Mexican place across the street from golf course that served good soups.
 
Gen BBQ's quality in both meat and service has gone down quite a bit since it first opened.  I was surprised to see so many filler menu items and the amount of random marinated selections.

True Korean BBQ connoisseurs know only to order non marinated meats. 
 
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