Picnic Garden: Korean BBQ Buffet (Flushing, Queens)
Picnic Garden Barbeque Buffet
14742 Northern Blvd
Flushing, NY 11354
(718) 358-5959
Update 2009/03/24: Appended to this post with new pictures!
This is possibly the only Korean BBQ BUFFET in town. I can’t think of any other left since Northern Buffet is gone. If anyone else knows of a Korean Buffet, please let us know. In the mean time, I’ll be going back to Picnic Garden for more!
Picnic Garden Korean BBQ Buffet
Parking is a problem since it’s metered outside during the day (except Sunday) and residential is dense, so not alot of parking at night. Be sure to circle around and look for parking. The buffet is fairly cheap at about $25/person and it feels like a family runned restaurant.
Picnic Garden Korean BBQ Grilled Kal-bi
More after the jump!
Northern BBQ & Sushi Buffet: Korean Barbeque (UPDATE)
UPDATE 2/13/2009:
This restaurant no long exists. It has been replaced with Juliana, also a Korean Restaurant but not a Buffet. Stay tuned for my review of this restaurant!
Northern BBQ & Sushi Buffet is not in business anymore as Miss Anonymous (comments below) has posted. The restaurant went through new ownership and became New York Buffet but now it has changed last year once more. The Restaurant is now called Juliana, Korean Restaurant & Bar. The disappointing part is that it is no longer a Buffet! Will post when we get a chance to eat there.
Northern [Korean] BBQ & Sushi Buffet
157-26 Northern Blvd
Flushing, NY 11354
(718) 886-8880
WARNING: THIS WILL BE THE MEATIEST EXPERIENCE YOU WILL EVER HAVE. VEGETARIANS/VEGANS BEWARE.
If you’re coming with a large party, especially on a Saturday night, be sure to make reservations! My party of 10 had to wait about 45mins before being seated. The people in here are mostly Korean, in fact you’ll be greeted by the staff in the Korean language. They’re really friendly and cute!
The atmosphere in the restaurant is very relaxing despite having a buffet environment. It’s definitely better when you bring a crew of your friends to dine out.
I really love the environment here. When you are seated, feel free to get up and get some food. I started off grabbing some hot food and sushi:
There’s my cali rolls, my potato croquet (god i love it), fried rice, chicken wings, and stir fried string beans. Yum.
Now, grab a plate full of meat to grill on your table. That’s right, it’s a BBQ and you do it yourself. It’s just the best way to do it.
Ask the server to start up the grill for you, otherwise you’ll play with the gas knob all night and wondering how the hell does it work. When you first work the grill, please drizzle some oil on it. It makes the cooking process faster. I’m sure you all know, but just a reminder especially if you’re a newbie like me. Usually the server do it for me, but here, you actually do it yourself. And seldom a server will come by if s/he isn’t busy and do it for you too.
The beef brisket, shown above, could be marinated a little more. What I highly recommend are the ribs. OH MY GOSH, it’s the juiciest, tastiest, most succulent piece of meat I ever had. Let me show you:
It just so so good! Use the scissors that they provide you to cut up the meat. Cut it after when it’s done cooking. This is the best piece of meat I had all night and I loved it!! There are other meats like steak, sausage, pork, intestines (ew, but still cool), etc etc, but this by far was the best I have had for the night. It’s all you can eat buffet, so try everything!
Sometimes when you finish a plate, the server might not see that your plate needs to be changed so call them over and they’ll gladly do it for you. =)
My only gripe about this place was that they had a poor dessert and fruit section. For the fruit section they only had grapes and cherries and ran out of cantaloupe and honeydew. For dessert they have jello, I think that was it and it wasn’t even that great.
I highly recommend this place!
Price: $25/person ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT!
Kunjip Korean Restaurant & BBQ
KUNJIP RESTAURANT
9 West 32 St
(212) 216-9487
Wow, I’ve been meaning to update my post. Sorry I haven’t been doing that because I’ve been so preoccupied! And when I had time, all I can do is sleep. But anyways, finally here’s a post on one of the many Korean restaurants that I need to do a post on.
I came here for a friend’s birthday this past April looking for something that’s not entirely BBQ and not entirely Korean, so I found this! Kunjip is a mixture of both, especially if you don’t want to spend so much on the barbeque or have too much of it. I did do research before I decided to come to this place, and there are a lot of reviews who totally digg this place. Of course I couldn’t totally trust them, but it did really motivate me to try this place out. Then I learned that one of my friends went there and told me that their bbq isn’t all that great and that’s it’s quite expensive — about $46 for two people for the bbq there. Yeah that sounds really expensive, but I figure that for that price you can split it with four people. I mean like for that price, they should totally give a lot of meat right? She told me she was really full, but thought it was expensive. She paid like $30, which I didn’t think it was bad. I think Korean in general is very expensive, because again it does take a lot of time to prepare, and I wouldn’t mind one bit to pay a little more.
When I first walked into the restaurant, I was missing a friend but figured we can still sit down since we were all hungry. With a party of 4 at that time, we walked in and asked the maitre’d if that was alright, which she told us that it was. At that time, the whole restaurant was entirely packed. I didn’t see a lot of people having barbecue, which made me wonder why. Maybe because the bbq is expensive? lol. I did see some tables with a metal top and figured that we needed that table for the bbq. But then we were directed to a regular table, which I asked the waiter why that was and he said the bbq will be served on a little hot pot?? Interesting. After we were seated, we told the waiter we needed a bigger table because another one of my friends were coming, and he was really nice and courtesy, and prepared another table there and then!! Great great service!!! More points to them really!
Alright, first off, appetizers!
Appetizers
All this was for free. At some places they give you more, but this is still pretty good. The kimichi was very good here and well as the stringbeans. I wasn’t a fan of the white jelly drenched in soy sauce and scallions, but I was told that it is cool and smooth to eat.
Kimchi Panjun – kimchi pancake, Price: $12.95
My god, all I have to say is this pancake is mucho mucho spicy!! I know Kimchi is supposed to be spicy, but this was burning my mouth like crazy!! It was a painful experience, but strangely it tasted pretty alright. Maybe because I was really hungry. Hey, Lol, doesn’t this look like a pizza? It does come in a whole pie, not that big like you would with a pizza, but it’s certainly not worth the $13.
Recommended: No, unless you feel like splurging a little and love spicy food.
Rating: 3/5 – Good
Man Doo Gui – Fried dumplings, Price: Small (shown below) – $8.95 // Large – $12.95
Honestly, these are the best korean dumplings I have ever had in my whole entire life. It’s nice and crispy on the outside, but not too crispy, and soft and juicy on the inside. I think the inside has marinated pork, leek, and something else. There is a fair share of meat inside and it meshes very well with its crispy skin.
Recommended: Yes!
Rating: 5/5
Entrees
Gobdol Bibimbob – rice on the heated stone pot with assorted vegetables, ground beef and egg, served with red pepper paste on the side, Price: $ 12.95
I didn’t have this personally, but I did have a little taste of it. My friend who ordered this thought it was pretty good. A lot of places would cook it pretty bland, but this place does it pretty well. It can definitely be better, but it’s alright.
Recommended: Yes
Rating: 4/5 – Very good
Barbecue
My bf and I decided not to get the $50 bbq for two, because we didnt want the ox-tongue or the beef briskets:
Bbq Combination (For 2) Sang Sam Gyup Sal & Chadol Baeki & Hyu Mit Gui – grilled slices of pork, beef briskets and thin slices of ox-tongue.
So instead we ordered the Doi Ji Gal Bi Gui:
Doi Ji Gal Bi Gui – grilled boneless pork ribs marinated in soy sauce, $17.95
Je Yook Gui – grilled sliced pork strips marinated in spicy sauce, $18.95
A waitress will come and periodically check on the meat to see if it’s done. As she’s cooking it, let me tell you how strong that aroma is!! People from other tables are looking at our table with envy, I’m sure, and even the new people that came ordered the bbq as well! Let me tell you, oh man, both the meats are so sweet and succulent! Trust me, you gotta have it with a side of rice. Even though the rice was purple, it still tastes like rice and it went well with the meat. Oh my gosh. Wow, it was the best pieces of meats thanks to them marinating it! But it really wasn’t enough for 4 people.
Recommended: Yes to both! But it’s pretty pricey.
Rating: 4/5 – Very good
I probably would not come here for bbq because it’s not worth the price, but I will definitely come here for the korean food. I do highly recommend people to come here, especially if they want a mixture of both bbq and korean.
KUNJIP RESTAURANT
9 WEST 32 STREET, MANHATTAN 10001
212-216-9485
NYC Health Inspection
Current violation points: 25/28
Inspection Date: 10/26/2006
Violations were cited in the following area(s) and those requiring immediate action were addressed.
1.) Non-food contact surface improperly constructed. Unacceptable material used. Non-food contact surface or equipment improperly maintained.
2.) Food contact surface not properly maintained.
3.) Thawing procedures improper.
4.) Sanitized equipment or utensil, including in-use food dispensing utensil, improperly used or stored.
5.) Food not protected from potential source of contamination during storage, preparation, transportation, display or service.
6.) Food worker does not use proper utensil to eliminate bare hand contact with food that will not receive adequate additional heat treatment.
Previous Inspection Results
