Decent Korean BBQ in City - Chef Buffet

We went to Chef Buffet in Albion Place, Town Hall. Albion Place is the alley way next to the cinema.

It is a chain. There are other Chef Buffet all over Sydney. Think it has its operation figured out.

We went on a Thursday ($48 for dinner). Price was OK, in line with other similar Korean BBQ. For the price, drinks were not included. We got there around 6:30. Place was already quite full. Without reservation, we had to wait like 10 mins (which was OK actually).

It was a good experience. In terms of variety, comparable to other korean BBQ at similar price point. One distinct item not available elsewhere was the deep fried corn dog (not hot dog though but think it was the seafood stick variety but crunchy all the same).

Being Korean BBQ, how about the meat. Usual variety but good quality. It had slices of beef, pork, duck, and even mutton, plus garlic prawn (Pic 1). The way it sliced the meat was chunky and thick. It also had a fridge next to the meat counter with the hotpot style slices of beef, pork and lamb (the really thin slices for hotpot).

The salad bar was good. Vegetables, lettuce, kim chi, salads.

Hot food had the typical chips, gyoza, korean fried chicken, glass noodle, fried rice, stir fried vegetable, pork ribs, Korean fish cake. All pretty tasty but a lot of fried stuffs.

The stand out for me was how frequent they replaced the food at the counter. The typical BBQ place would wait until the platter is empty then replenish. Instead, when we were there, it replaced the meat counter regularly. Many of its meat plates were "frosty" when they were brought out to the counter. This is meant to be a compliment. The meat "felt" safe to me.

I had a ball at the end when I worked through the 6 varieties of ice pole, fish ice cream (Pic 4). When you have a chance, try the fish ice cream with red bean. Matcha fish ice cream was only so so. The mango ice pole was great.

It also had fruits such as water melon, oranges etc etc... What stuck in my mind was the water melon... Big chunks of water melon that were "solid", not sludgy where it could be in some places.

Service was good and friendly. We were there for 90 mins. The waitress came and asked if we wanted to change the BBQ plate like 4 or 5 times.

We were lucky enough to sit close to the food. Ambience was good for us. Well lighted. Tidy. Clean. The toilets were OK as well.

How about value ? Think $50 was decent. Across the board, food quality was above average. Nothing to complain from me. There were "fun" stuffs like corn dog, Korean ice cream that were easy to use to track if getting "value" like a corn dog would cost $5 outside, a Korean ice cream block would be $1-2 elsewhere retail.

So now if I were to rank the different Korean BBQ at the $50 price point, I would say Chef (Albion Place) > Butcher Buffet (China Town) by that little bit > Kong (Macquarie Shopping Centre).