Fine Dining - Gen Korean BBQ House: Meat So Good We Cried

Episode Date: May 20, 2026

🥩🔥 Gen Korean BBQ House Review: Incredible Meats, Stingy Napkins, and Disappointing Wagyu 🔥🥩 We're back at GEN Korean BBQ House with Jon Durnell (@jon024durnell), and this meal absolutely delivers. Even if we die of smoke inhalation, the genuinely fantastic cuts of meat allow Gen to put together one of the strongest overall food experiences I've had in a while...even if the service staff was "napkin stingy." 🥩 LA-Style Galbi Always Delivers 🍖 Premium Skirt Steak with Garlic Brings Us Close to Orgasm 🥒 Banchan Parade: Pickled Onions, Radish, Kimchi, Potato Salad & More 🥭 Mango Tango Bites and Hotteok Close Things Out Strong 🦐 Jon Is NOT Feeling the Shrimp 🐄 A5 Wagyu Somehow Underwhelms 🧻 The Staff Guards Napkins Like State Secrets 🥗 A Sign at the Front Takes a Shot at Vegetarians 🏆 Calibration Station: Jon Names a Steak Worth Killing For While Absolutely Destroying Shoney's 💬 COMMENT BELOW: Have you ever had Korean BBQ? 📢 SUPPORT THE SHOW & JOIN THE COMMUNITY: 🎉 Patreon (Bonus episodes, extended Yelp segments & more): patreon.com/finediningpodcast 💬 Discord (Food talk, memes, cursed Yelp): discord.gg/6a2YqrtWV4 🎥 Watch full episodes: youtube.com/channel/UCLbraNhL6KhDPkdSWt2yiuw 🔗 All links: linktree.com/finediningpodcast 🎤 Guest: Jon Durnell | IG: @jon024durnell Patreon Producers:Sue Ornelas, Joyce Van, & Robert McLaughlin Patreon Subscribers:David Ornelas, Kellie Baldwin, Jeremy Horwitz, Herbert Amaya, Simone Davalos, Scott Bennett, Amy Reinhart, Josef Castaneda-Liles, & Travis Langley Free Patreon Followers:Joe Warszalek, Lauren Cummings, Grace Krainak, Keri Estes, Robert Duran, Patrick Elliott, Michelle Elmer, Dave Plummer, Nicholas Volney, Michael Gerard, Tracy Molino, Phuong Duong, Tyler Robinson, Brandon Gully, Mason Cruz, Michael Milito, Mez, Aaron Hubbard, Steff, Jewell Hermann, Renae Michael, Crystal C. 👉 NEXT WEEK: I dive into the history of MOOYAH Burgers, Fries & Shakes with the returning Sandy Rose.

Is Jen Korean Barbecue House better than its non-chain Korean barbecue competitors? The Galby Marinated Meat is a beautiful concoction that always delivers, but breathing in smoke from poor ventilation made my life flash before my eyes. If you want amazing hot talk and can't get enough of it, but you need a napkin to wipe up the goo and they just won't give it to you. What will you do? The place has a sign that rightfully sticks it to vegetarians, but the amount of carcinogens I'm I ingested today has me making sure I have my last will and testament sorted out. I go to restaurants specifically to avoid my own shortcomings as a chef. Is a Korean barbecue house that forces you to grill your own meats a massive knock against it,

or a foolproof novelty that ensures maximum freshness? The second degree burns on my knuckle will answer that question imminently. This is the fine dining podcast. I'm your host Michael Ornellis, and this is the podcast that uses Chili's, the absolute center on the restaurant quality spectrum as the bar to determine if other restaurants are good or not good. By the end of this episode, we will answer the question everyone was wondering right before Lisa from Black Pink made her cameo in Onama's Coachella set, is Jen Korean Barbecue House better

than Chili's? Today, we're going to tell you everything that was good, not good, and just there about our meal at Gen KBBBQ before we give it a score at the end of the episode. and joining me today to discuss Jen Korean Barbecue House is a comedian and musical improviser who you can see perform with his team Small Town Mayor at Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. He's the human equivalent of that feeling you get from watching the Gangnam style music video for the first time. It's John Dernel. Whoa. Hello. How's it going, everybody?

It's going well. How are you doing? I'm great. Are you hanging in there post big meal? I'm actually doing pretty well. Like, I was concerned I'd have, like, the meat sweats and you'd just, like, see me pouring and dripping right now. But I did pretty good playing basketball last night so I could handle this meat that I had to intake. Honestly, I feel like we left a lot of capacity unfilled. We did, but that was just us being responsible because, like, if I was just, like, sitting here, like, nodding off the whole podcast, that would have been ridiculous.

I want to limp out of there. I want to come back home and I want to be fighting my eyelids the entire time. All right, well, that would have made maybe for a little better entertainment. No, it would not. They'd be like, excuse me, excuse me. Michael. Putting a finger on my nostrils, is he still breathing? I'd like to hold the mirror up so you can see the foggy.

The foggy. Yeah. As I'm so often, I've passed out of people that I'm concerned. You have a method. Well, this is what works best. I've had time to find out. Right. Pitted in a lot of these scenarios after Korean barbecue.

amazing. Well, we ate at Gen Korean Barbecue House today. It was a good time. We have a lot to talk about. So we're just going to dive in and only at the beginning talking about things that were good. This is good. Done like it should be.

The stuff that spank or licking or sticking the land in. This is good. I knew that you could. The music. The ambiance there. Yeah. I noticed pretty early on it was a lot of MJ cooking. lot of Michael Jackson and only Michael Jackson for a very long stretch for at least an hour or so it was just constant Michael Jackson and we were getting deep into the catalog you know we were getting

some of the duets you know which you don't usually get a lot of those you know there a lot of times they're just like just straight Michael Jackson you know we'll give you some Billy Jean you know we'll give you a thriller a thriller a man in the mirror oh definitely I think that was the first one I like paid attention to us like oh yeah man in the mirror that's a it's not when they usually play out in public, you know, like, at least that in a restaurant setting, you know, you're not making you question your mortality and like, what kind of person are you, you know, like usually there's like enjoy and just know that Billy Jean is not your lover, you know, something like that, you know. And then okay, and then we got a baby come back. Yeah, we did. So like, we pivoted.

Yeah, somebody probably went in there and was like maybe not all Michael Jackson. I mean, we can still keep the poppy theme, you know, but like, let's switch it up a little bit. because, I mean, that slipped in there. And then there was another song that I'm, oh, there's like some Fleetwood Mac. Yeah. So it's like, all right, you know, we're not too far off from, you know, pop being or anything like that. We don't want you to feel uncomfortable from what we've already been programming you to expect. Exactly.

But maybe not so hard on the Michael Jackson. Yeah. But it was enjoyable. Oh, yeah. I had, I loved it. No one's out there being like Michael Jackson made bad music. No, no. No.

No. That is not why he is brought up controversially. No, it was not the music part. Nor the dancing, nor the dancing. That was not brought up either. You know, that was, you know, well, maybe some of it. He did grab his crotch. I didn't grow up in the time.

Well, when he grabs his own crotch, it's fine. That's not the problem. No, no. Well, some people, you know, the Christian folks might not have liked him grabbing his own crotch. You know, that might have been risque at that time. Right now. I was, I grew up with it, so I just was accustomed to grabbing your crotch. Right.

Yeah. All right. And, uh, to match you with that energy, the potato salad. Yeah, no. It was good. That was a good salad.

It was one of the bon chan things. They had five items. They had kimchi, so pickled cabbage. Right. They had pickled radish. They had the spicy cucumber salad. Right. They had the potato salad and they had the pickled onions.

And the salad, the potato salad looked like a single ingredient thing. And the fact that it wasn't, the fact that it was literally a mixture of potato and a couple other things. Yeah. It was so smooth and fresh and it had like a little sweetness. And surprising. Like again, I was not expecting what I saw from this just like mound of white. That was just tossed into a bowl.

I was like, it's just a mound of white, but it was quite good white. It was a, uh, I gave it a six and a half out of ten, which for like a little side. Yeah. That's not bad. Let's see what I might go a little higher. I'll give it a seven. Yeah. I'll give it a 7.0.

Because, like, again, it's not a main dish by any means, but it surprised me on how good it was. Yeah. And the fact that, again, I really wasn't sure what I was about to consume, but I was like, let's try it. You know, that's what we're here for. I definitely have it ranked higher than the pickled onions or maybe the cucumber. But I'm a fan of the kimchi and radish stuff. The potato salad and the radish were the only two that I had in the good. Okay.

I want to talk about the fact that we got the premium menu. Yes. So you can go in and they have a lunch menu, a dinner menu, and then you can add 20 bucks to either one and get premium options. And the premium options are it's going to be all the good stuff, all the like marinate with like the marbling. And I am very happy about this decision. Yes. I think we made the right call. Right.

Yeah. Now, I don't know everyone's budget out there. in the world, you know. Yeah. Maybe go to Costco first, so you get a little discount. But the way to go is definitely the premium one for sure. Like, they had meets on there, which you're only, you were limited on how many you could even get of it.

They're like, you only get one round of this. Yeah. So you better enjoy it while you can. We're not bringing this back. But it's per person. So it's like if we really wanted it, we could have gotten two rounds of anything. Correct. Yeah.

But there was still a limit on the round. You know, like you couldn't have just made this. your only meal for the night. Like, you couldn't just be like, keep bringing back that skirt stick. Like, over and over. Bankrupt us. Yeah.

Don't rent lobsters, man. Please. Like, we're paying 53 bucks a person. Yeah. I should be allowed to bankrupt you. I should be allowed to bankrupt you. At 53 bucks ahead. Yeah.

Give me the opportunity. Now, if I fail, that's on me. But you should give me the right to do so. I deserve the chance. Yes. It's just a chance. Yeah. May not capitalize.

Right. Now I'm just thinking eight mile in my head. Would you capture or let it slip? Oh, I'm a capture. Especially that meat, please. I'm not letting it slip on the floor. I'm with you. All right.

Yeah, what's a good thing that you have? The steak, the skirt steak. Yeah, let's talk to skirt steak. Yeah, my goodness, was that. The premium skirt steak, by the way, that's what it's called. Let me throw on that premium. Premium skirt steak. The texture.

amazing. The flavor, I mean, marinated just so well. Tons of garlic. Tons of garlic. This thing had garlic clothes galore. Very liberally released. We actually ordered an extra side of it. We didn't need that, but we didn't touch that garlic. And I felt so bad about it because I love garlic.

Yeah, but it was not necessary because there was plenty already on it. Well, it was funny because in the picture, there was like none on it. Yeah. It kind of looked like you needed it for. Off to the side. Right. But then it came with it on.

And it's just like. And it came with the premium menu anyway. So it's like I wasn't charged extra for it. No. But it just they should let you know it's going to come with it. So you don't need more. But yeah, whatever. This slapped.

That's all I wrote about it. I went nine and a half out of ten on the skirt steak. Yeah. I mean, honestly, I'll probably just give it a straight up 10. I have no shame in it. Yeah. That was so good. I mean, I can't even find a flaw in it.

I can see why they're like, yeah, you get a limited amount of this. You will not bankrupt us. It was so good. It was probably my like top meat item for the day. I had it tied as my top meat. Yeah. There's others that were very, they were going to be very close, but that will be my top meat. Yeah.

Yeah. For me, the other meat that I have is the Galby. Galby was very good too. I just love Galby. Yeah. My girlfriend and her family make it all the time. I eat Galby pretty regularly. There is straight up a Galby marinade.

It's like a specific flavor profile that like is stereotypically Galby. Okay. And this had that. It's always good. I've never had bad Galby. This was for Galby good. Right. It wasn't like the best I've ever had.

But because Galby's bar is so high and it just is so good, I still went all. also nine and a half out of 10. Got you, got you. I'll probably give it a nine and a half to. I loved it. It was really good. It was, I mean, the texture on it was great and even the flavors, too. I guess the only, the only thing I hate is that I couldn't get all of the meat.

Because of like the part that clings. Right. Yeah. I was like, I'm there. But it's tendon meat and it's like the tough, chewy. And like, I don't, I don't enjoy that. The flavors are. I, I'm a flavor, man.

Yeah. You're a flavor man. I love them flavors. Yeah. And then I also really love the long bone. You know. This was such an interesting one. I've never seen this offered at Korean barbecue.

I haven't either. The name on it was a little much. It's called the premium marinated long bone short rib steak. Yeah. I thought the fattier pieces of it were so like melty and tender. Like the fat rendered perfectly. that was so good. That was like after you,

all right, there was a portion of cooking this where like, you know, you just throw the bone on the thing. It takes a long time. You're flipping it several times. You're watching,

you know, around the sides. And we then trim some of that. And I thought it was done. And then you grab the scissors a few minutes later and you're like, uh-uh. Yeah.

And you're like cutting off layers of meat that were on this bone that I was like, oh, I didn't even see that that was still. bit like it felt like a magic trick to me you made meat appear in places I did not think that there were still meat hey you know I like to find extra meat and uh and we cooked that and it was like the fattier stuff and it was so so good it really was like I I mean that might get another 9.5 out of me too it tasted again so good and I was not expecting it from such a just like large chunk that

you just like toss on the grill yeah you know Like you feel like some of it would be like lost in the fact that it's just like so much meat there. Mm-hmm. But that was not the case. It was not. I went eight and a half out of ten on this one, which still really liked it. But I think because there was such a notable differential for me between the fattier pieces and the non-fatty pieces that when I average them together, like the really good bites of this were incredible. Right.

Some of the work that you had to do to get to those bites were less amazing. It's still very good. Yeah. but just less like amazing. Yeah, I get you. Yeah. Oh, another one that I enjoyed was the hot talk. Yeah.

Yeah, you did. I love that hot talk. And it was, I mean, first off, who doesn't like fried dough? I mean, donuts in general is a great situation that we're in, if that's just even on the menu at all. but it had this lovely like filling inside of it that wasn't like too aggressive but it was nice and warm and it was kind of like as if you were having like a jelly donut just like done better i wrote down what was in it so this had my note i wrote is wow i'd eat this daily insightful yeah i would too um but they they consider it a pancake it's very much a donut yeah in terms of how we know it right

But they call it a sweet pancake with brown sugar, cinnamon, peanuts, sunflower seeds, and then powdered sugar on the outside. Yeah. Yeah, I gave this a nine out of ten. I thought it was so good. Oh, yes. And by the way, we got two desserts. They only have two. Yeah.

And I ate the first one, and I also really enjoyed that. Oh, yeah, the mango one was really good, too. And it's one of those things where at a place, I don't know, a place like this, but like a chain in general, I never expect them to have like two killer desserts. There's usually one that's the popular one and then one that they just, we have the lava cake. Yeah. And then just the one they have for people who are like,

well, I just don't want that one. Right. You know? Yeah. And it's fine usually. So for both of them to be super consistent. But the other one here was a, they called it the mango tango bite,

which was mango sticky rice in a wonton, essentially. it tasted light in a way, whereas it didn't feel like a dessert yet solely on its taste profile. It was absolutely a dessert. Right. And I think the lightness really helps in a situation where you've probably been just consuming meat for hours. It's probably good to have like a lighter dessert. You don't need like a heavy bread.

A donut. Yeah, exactly. Like we did with the other one. But I still loved my donut. Your hot talk. Right. Give me all that hot talk. and the goo. You could not stop. Hot talk, hot talk. Get it in my mouth. Put it in my mouth.

I want more hot talk. He wants it to shoot on its face. Yeah. Like I might start up a restaurant just with hot talk in it. That's all that's it. Just come get hot talk, baby. Yeah. Yeah. And just have a guy on the front all muslied up and just a donut over his crotch. She's like, you know what I'm selling. That's good. But yeah, both those desserts. Like, I'd probably give the hot tot. I mean, I'll give it a 9.5 only because they don't give you enough.

And then because if they gave you. One each. One each. That's, it feels skimpy. It felt skimpy. If we each had two and maybe give it a 10. And then the mango, I'll drop it a little bit just because it was not as good I gave it an eight.

Yeah, I'm probably going to give it like an 8.5, maybe 8.2. Actually, 8.2 sounds better. That's a little more fair. Yeah. Very scientific. Very honed in. I was like, I don't know if I can give you the 0.5, but I can give you the point two. So then there was, I think the first meat we actually ate was the premium marbling center cut

marinated short rib. And, you know, we already had the long bone short rib. We had the Galby short rib, but this is the one we ate first. And because of the word premium, marbling, center cut, and marinated, I expected this to be incredible. Right. And I thought it was, it was good. It definitely was good. But it was not reaching the heights of all the other stuff.

Yeah, we should have known that it didn't have next to it. You only get a certain number of these. Because I think it had the unlimited. Like, you could keep asking for that as much as you wanted to. And that should have been the telling tale for us right there. What were the ones with the limits? Uh, it was, you know what, the menu is still in my internet, so I can look. Let's see which one.

Oh, yeah, this one did have a limit. Oh. The premium marbling center cut marinated short rib was a limit of two per person. Uh, so it has more of the limit. And the skirt steak was limit one per person. Okay. Well, all right. Well, it should have done better for the limit to this one.

They didn't need a limit. No, no, I don't think so. I would limit the bone more, but I guess the bones a lot of work. so they know you're not going, you're not getting bone heavy. Give me six bones. Right. Just put the bones around the outside.

Just assemble the actual pig in front of me. Drop them in. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't give it that highest of a mark that I did for like the other ones.

Like, it's probably still like a 7.5. Like it's still, yeah. It's still good cut of meat. Like, it was tender. But like,

it didn't have the flavors that some of the other ones gave us. The tenderness was the thing that kind of saved it for me. I was able to taste the fattier part of it. It just wasn't as flavorful. It had the right feel, but just not, it wasn't rich enough. Maybe they just didn't marinate ours well enough. Maybe that's on them.

And that's, they should be ashamed. They should have known we were podcasting. We wore headphones into the place. I came in with a notebook. What do you think I was there to do? the number of restaurants where I've gotten genuinely better service because they noticed a notebook is a lot. Really? So some of these are lies up here.

There's a little skewed. No, they know to get their shit together, you know? We got KFC. We did. We did get some chicken, those little chicken bites. They called them Korean fried chicken. I believe this was the only chicken thing that we had while we were there. Correct, yeah.

Because Korean fried chicken is absolutely. a thing. Like, you think like popcorn chicken basically. Yeah. So I was like, okay, yeah, we'll try that. And it comes drizzled with a, they call it a sweet and sour. It's not sweet and sour. Sweet and spicy sauce. Yeah, because I was like, I think there was spice in it. Yeah. The breading on it seemed super fresh

and it didn't taste frozen, which is kind of the bar I have for chain restaurant chicken. Right. And the sizes were so different that I don't think it could have been. You know, because like the bits in sizes were like, I think you actually cut up some chicken made this.

Because, like, the sizes were so far off. Inconsistent. Yeah. So. Yeah, there was some pretty big ones. There were some that were just absolutely just like, that's a marble. Right. Yeah.

That's a little tiny nut. But, uh, but yeah, I, I really, like. And the sauce was good. The sauce was good. Like, if you had a kid there with you that's like, yeah, like that, I want chicken. Like, they will love that. That is for sure. I mean, I'm a grown adult man and I enjoy that chicken.

Yeah. I went seven and a half on that chicken. Yeah, I'd probably, yeah, I'd probably seven. and a half is probably fair for it because like I don't I want to go too high with it but the sauce was good yeah you know so like yeah 7.5 is is as you know that is a very fair score I think so yeah you've been doing this a lot well it's funny because like I'm trying to like calibrate us and I'm just straight up noticing that you're about 0.5 higher on everything and then the first one we have the same number you're like wow what a good score you gave in I was like that's about

right that is about right that's like you know like it is just at this end of the day it's a chicken nuggy, you know. The chicken nuggets are good. They are good. They are good. But I wouldn't say it's the best chicken nuggy ever had, but it was a good chicken nuggy. Not mad. It would be crazy if I was mad about a chicken.

No more. I have the beef bull gogie in the good, and I have the spicy pork bulgogi. They were in the good. They were definitely the good. Both bulgogis were good. The spicy one for me, I've had better

spicier because I've had more spice on it. Not to say that there was anything wrong with the meat. I mean, it still felt like good tender cuts while cooked. I think I got everything I needed from the actual, like, you know, pork itself. But when I want a spicy bulgogi, like I want to kind of sweat a little bit. You know, like you want that heat there. Right. And I've gone to other, you know, down in Korea town. I don't want to feel like I sound like the guy who gave it. Was it the three star review? It was like, go down to Korea town. Or I think he was the two store. You gave it the two, but it was clearly a three.

It was clearly a three, but he was like, you better go to Korea town for the real deal. And it's like, in the case of that, yeah. But at the same time, I know this is a chain. And maybe you can't get too crazy with the spice at a chain restaurant, you know, because. Cowards. I mean, yeah. Cowards. But I can kind of see why they would do what they do.

Yeah. But, you know, because you don't want to be like, oh, my goodness. You know, we got to call the fire department. Where someone breathing their tongue out of their face over there. Yeah, right. Yeah. So I wrote, I coughed the entire time this one cooked. Like the one, the plate that this all cooks on was charing up.

Was charing up. And that plus like a peppery seasoning. It was, it was giving a lot in that smoke. Yeah. That was kind of making me cough. So I was like holding in or coughing. the whole time that one cooked. Plus,

that was at the end, like we, you've been through a lot of smoke at that point. It was so charred. I smell like smoke. I can smell my hair and it smells so smoky. What's funny is that I don't feel like I smell as smoky as I have at other Korean barbecue places down in Korea town.

Like some of them like, the vent is right above you, but like let's just say it's not doing a whole lot of work. Yeah. Like it's just too smoky. Yeah. This one, uh,

yeah, I gave, gave it a seven. I tasted the seasoning and marinade almost exclusively. I didn't really get pork flavor. I couldn't tell what type of meat this was from the taste and

texture. It was a good texture. It was very similar to the beef bulgogi in texture and delivery. You know what if you're saying it like, yeah, they were very similar. But I guess they are both bulgogis. They are both bulgogi, which literally just means grilled meat. Right. So it's like,

you know. It served its purpose. It was grilled meat. It was grilled meat. But yeah, no. Like if someone had told me this was accidentally spicy beef bulgogi, I'd have been like, because it was like identically textured.

Right. And I've had spicy beef bulgogi too. And it's usually very similar as far as like taste to a pork one. But like you can usually tell the difference between the two just a little bit more. But like when you mentioned it, I was like, yeah, there really wasn't. a lot of difference between those two when we were eating them as far as like, I didn't get as much pork as I would like, but I also didn't get as much spices I'd like. Yeah, but I still liked what I had in my mouth. Yeah, I like I said, I liked it enough. I went seven out of ten on that. Yeah, I'd probably go seven, but I might go like eight point two again for the beef. So for the beef, I wrote probably the best bulgogi I've had, but out of circumstances, not be, like, I've just never had incredible bulgogi before. Yeah. I told you, I was like, I've always been underwhelmed to, And this time I was whelmed. Right, right.

I think the best I've ever had was back when I was at that Korean church camp where they picked on me. But like that might have been like the best beef we'll go get ever had. Like it was just so good. And probably some of the best rice I've ever had. I mean, that's sticky. I mean, I don't think I've ever found such stickiness. Actually, now there's one other place I've gone to. I think it's grandma's Thai restaurant.

They have a great sticky rice. Okay. But like, it's rare to find like just like some really good sticky rice. rice and they had great rice and Bulgogi there at the camp. Even though I got picked on a lot, I still remember the food. But you emerged from it knowing how to use chopsticks. It's true. It's true

because you sit there with a fork at camp and they give you shit. It's like, I'm not Korean. Yeah. I just didn't grow up with this. This is new to me. Right? Yeah.

Yeah. I went seven and a half. on the standard beef bowl. Okay. And then the only other thing that I have in the good is that vegetarian sign. So, all right, you walk in and, like, there are probably a dozen warning signs. There was at least a dozen. Or policy signs.

Yeah. Of, like. Because some of them are, like, your standard ones that would be by a bar. Like, you know, if you consume alcohol while pregnant, that's probably not good for the baby. Right. You know, like the standard stuff. But like they just had them all in the front for you to see immediately because I guess they didn't have the space around the bar to have the other ones up. I don't know.

But they all had gen branding on it, which I find funny. But they were like, warning, CCTV cameras are in operation on this premises. Warning. Yeah, drinking birth effects, pregnancy, whatever. Yeah. Warning, we reserve the right to refuse service to anybody. No outside food or drink allowed. There are hot grills in this restaurant.

Be careful. Discover not accepted. Yeah, that one was funny. No smoking restaurant for customers only. To put up a warning sign for like discovery is not accepted. It's just like, wow, that's a warning sign. But the one that made me tickled the most. Without exception, all guests who are seated at a table will be charged in full.

Vegetarian guests included. Right. Yeah. And it just felt so targeted. And it also felt like they've dealt with that in the past. lot where someone was like, oh, I'm not eating. I'm just a vegetarian. I'm just here for the whatever. And they're like, yeah, you're here at a meat grilling place. You're eating the meat as far as we're concerned. Right. We're not going to sit here. We're not going to babysit and make

sure you're not there for. Right. Your charge. Exactly. It made me laugh. It felt petty. And I'll be honest, the pettiness could have been directed in any direction. And I would have been like, that's kind of funny to put on a sign, which maybe is, I, I shouldn't have that viewpoint, but like it just made me laugh. Oh, no. It was, it was very, I enjoyed it as well because it was, it was very pointed. It was like, leave your vegetarian friends in the car. Like they're not coming in, you know, and if they are, they're getting charged full price.

Yeah. All right. Well, we're going to talk about everything now that was negative, everything that was not good. This is not so good. about it could have done with that it. Something brings down the mood. From an authenticity standpoint, the fact that they didn't have rice paper or wraps, I'm going to be honest, I don't know how much I would have used them, but I would have wanted

them, like I wanted them there. Yeah. I always have them there. Occasionally I might pick up one or two and wrap it up. They usually go to waste. But I want them there. I want the option to waste them. I want the option to, you know, I want the option to, you.

want the option to eat this in its most authentic form. Right. I guess. Now, I didn't know about the lettuce one because not a lot of places bring out the lettuce because you had mentioned that earlier in the history. And I was like, hmm, lettuce. Yeah, I'm used to rice paper being kind of the thing. That's same with me.

But we didn't get either, you know, and I'm a little upset. Shame on you. Shame on you, Jay. Yeah. That might be why they don't have more open in Korea. They know they should be a shave. That or they don't have it because they're like, we keep throwing it out. None of you are eating.

None of you idiots are using it. Yeah. All right. Hit me with your most profound negative. I love shrimp, but the shrimp wasn't all that great. I mean, it was fine-ish. The sauce was the best part of it, but, you know, I shouldn't go out of my way for just sauce alone, you know. So you have the shrimp under four?

I would probably put it under for myself personally. Wow. Yeah. Because I have a high standard for my shrimp. Sure. And it just, it didn't hit for me as far as shrimp, but sauce was okay. It was also a lot of work. That too.

It was a lot of work for the shrimp. There was a lot of peeling. It was removed the head. It was removed the like shell. Yeah. It was pull the tail off. Mm-hmm. And like, I don't have good grip when you're dealing with like a marinated, like, slippery thing.

Like, it was a lot. It was a lot for a little. Yeah. So I dock it down for the fact that I have to work hard for it. You had to work hard on that bone, but the bone gave me a lot of satisfaction at the end. And the shrimp, not so much. So, I mean, the shrimp might actually get my lowest, and that's sad to say, because I love shrimp so much. But I'd give it maybe like a three on the shrimp.

Like, I wouldn't order it again. Yeah. unless I was at gunpoint. I didn't hate it as much as you did. I'm sorry. It's okay. We don't have to agree. We do not have to be an agreement on anything.

But I don't have it in the not good. Yeah. I gave it a five and a half out of ten. Okay. Just a lot of work. I did like the sauce. Yeah, the sauce was the best part of it all. Yeah.

But it also, given how big the piece was when you cooked it, to then remove all the stuff and realize how little meat I actually got felt like a bait and switch. Yeah. Yeah. The lack of smoke vents being like, like I'm used to it being kind of like right over the table. This did get very smoky at a few points, especially as your grill starts to like really char up.

Yeah. I think they're trying to like go on the fact that maybe there will be more space for the smoke to go. Because like, you know, there's most restaurants that you go to don't have like such a high ceiling. So maybe they're like hoping that that would account for some of it. There's a lot of open space here. A lot of it.

But it didn't suck hard enough. So like they needed they needed those vents to really like pull that stuff in there. Yeah. So I don't know. Maybe they. I bet the vents will suck really hard at your hot talk place. Oh, so hard. Yeah.

It'll be the hardest suck you've ever heard. I don't know. I've heard some pretty. I've heard some pretty. It's a pretty hard stuff. Pretty hard sucks. And then. I don't like talking bad about service.

And they were good at, like, coming by and, like, changing out our grill for at least the first little while. Right. In the beginning, they were very, very consistent about our grills. And then later, they were like, we'll get to it if we need it. But they are napkin stingy. Very much so. And I don't know if this was the same person that was following people to the bathroom. Let's just say, the looks.

we got for asking for napkins, which is like, was, we got verification needed. Yeah. It was like a different waiter poked his head around the corner to like double check that are, wait, they don't have a napkin. It's like, well, we had two. One each. It was one each. So we had two to start with, which it's not uncommon if you only have two napkins to maybe ask for another one or two. And then we were dealing with that shrimp, which was all hands. All hands, all hands on deck for that one. And And what's funny is that we asked for them a lot of time passed before the lady even came back to see that we still hadn't gotten them and then told someone else to go get the napkins. Yeah, like you didn't bring the, and it's like. Yeah.

Yeah. It's like so, yeah, the napkin service pretty low. And I thought that the service in general was pretty slow. It was. It was the weak point. It was not the best. They did have moments of being pretty good. You know, like when they would keep asking, do you want more meat?

They're like, all right, well, order some more meat. But like, we had to tell them we wanted water and Sprite. It's like, do you think we just want our cups to be empty? Is that what you're like? Do you think we want our cups to be empty? You stupid asshole? Well, you know, like, that's part of your job in serving. I know.

I mean, even if you're not on it, like, we were both. I just love that phrasing. Right. But like, we were both bone dry. Like we had no beverage left at all. So it's just like, you're not even trying to check in. Look, we got to wash this stuff down with something. Right. You know?

So maybe that's their game. They're like, if we don't give them water, they'll eat that's me. They'll stop asking. Yeah. But no. Only two things have a limit. So we're going to keep going. We're going to keep going.

Yeah. But yeah, that's it for not good for me. I didn't have any foods all the way, not good. My worst foods were literally in just there. Is there anything else you have? No, that's my. My only, like, the only bad food was the shrimp. That's the only one where I'm just like, I was not, I was underwhelmed as far as that was concerned.

I expected more, especially something I, like, called like the firecracker or something shrimp. Like, you know. Yeah, yeah. Like, I'm expecting, like, to get blown away and wild by it. But should have known there was not a limit on it. Makes sense. Your birthday is the 4th of July.

It's true. You expect fireworks displays in your food. I want some more. I want cracking. He likes the spectacle. I do. I'm a spectacle, man. Yeah. All right. Well, then we're going to move on to the next segment and talk about everything that was mediocre, everything that was just there.

For me, a lot of the bonchan was just like, yeah, it's fine. It's there. I don't need it. The pickled onion, the spicy cucumber salad, and the kimchi all ended up there for me. Four and a half out of ten on the pickled onion. Very tangy. The aftertaste changed a couple times. It was like a journey of like, oh, now. I'm getting this and oh, now this. And I didn't love it because I don't love pickled or fermented stuff in general. Okay. But it wasn't bad. I felt standard. Yeah. It's just standard pickled things.

Yeah. And it's like, it's not why you're there. Unless you're one of the vegetarians at the table. And then you're still getting charged as if you're eating the meat. So deal with it. The spicy cucumber salad I wrote was refreshing, but it was just fine. It was kind of like the high end of what I'd call it. average. I gave it a six, which kind of butts up

against being good, but to make a point, I still put it in the in the gist there. Well, I understand. It's a cusp food. Yeah. No, I mean, for me, yeah, the pickled onions and the pickled cucumbers

were, they were just there. You know, they were fine. They did their job. But the other three, I mean, as I mentioned earlier, I really enjoyed. So yeah, I, I, can give those, you know, some 5.8s, 5.7, you know, nothing, nothing below the bar or anything like that. They weren't as disappointing as the shrimp for me. But like, you know, they did what they

needed to do, you know, they got me ready to eat. Yeah, I also wonder about bringing them out before everything because it's like, it's such a small quantity. Right. You could have brought it with everything else. Yeah. Like it feels like it goes with stuff, not like on its own. Right. Because, you know, If you go to other restaurants in, you know, Korea town, like there's like, again, 20 different things there. And it's just like, oh, this is the appetizer. Like I got to sample all this stuff before I even get to my meats where it's like, well, we've already eaten all of it.

Yeah. They haven't even asked what meat we want yet. Yeah. And then the kimchi just isn't my speed. This wasn't bad. I also gave it a six out of 10. Like I like cabbage just fine. I think that the pickled element of it, uh,

It just isn't for me. It's just not. Yeah, well, I mean, that's you. I love the pickledness. A lot of people love kimchi. Like, it's an obsession that I don't, I want to understand. I mean, I'm not obsessed, but I enjoy it, you know. Like, it's good, but I wouldn't like, you know, I wouldn't kill for it.

What would you kill for? What food would you kill for? Wow. I mean, we'll talk about it later, but the stakes from the restaurant that I'm going to talk, about yeah. I might kill for one of those sticks. And like really good fall off the bone ribs. I might kill.

And hot talk. Now, hot talk. My God, that stuff was really good. I love it. But that's a scarcity killing. That's because there's just not a lot of hot talk. There's not a lot of it. If I see someone on the street with one, I'd be like, I'm sorry, I have to kill you.

I'm glad we ate our first one at the same moment in time. Because if you had finished yours and mine was still untouched, you'd be like, I'm sorry. I'd have been like, I think it fell on the floor and then eat it. Yeah. Or you would have killed me. Right, right. With a waffle house knife. Mm.

That's true. It would have taken a long time. It would have been a long killing. Very long. You would have really felt it. Yeah. What's something else you have in Just There? Just There.

Let's see. What do we have in just there? I'm only down to one other thing. I think. Oh, the, what was the? The one that we had. The premium Wagyu. Yes.

It was just there for me. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. That premium Wagyu ended up in a mediocre score tier. Mm-hmm. Premium and Wagyu. Yeah. For two words that should not be in just there.

It should be great. Right. I mean, it was caramelized nicely, like, but the flavor was gone. It was too thin for its own good, I thought. Yeah. And other places I've gone to with Wagyu, it was usually, thicker cuts of waggo. So, like, you could get a little more of it.

This literally came out rolled up. Like the raw version of this was like little rolls. And so it's just like, oh, this feels like, what is it, prosciutto? Right, yeah. And like, it kind of felt more like what you would get with like thin cut pork belly or something like that. Like that's what I thought it was at first. And I was like, oh, no, wait, that's right. We ordered this waggoo.

I was expecting a lot more out of it myself. self, but it wasn't like so bad that I had to toss it down with the shrimp. Right. But like it still was. Like it was well marbled. Mm-hmm. But the, because it was thin, the marbling just didn't add enough. I did dip it in the brisket sauce.

Which I'm sure helped with it. It improved it. Yeah. But it was, I give it a five and a half. Yeah. Five and a half for premium wagyu. Right. Yeah.

If it's your first time there and you want to try everything, of course try it. Yeah. If you're there and you have limited. time you need to get just the hits, you can leave that one behind. Yeah, that's what I'd say. Forgettable. I give it like five, seven maybe. Yeah. That I wouldn't go any higher than that. I would have thought it would have gotten a higher mark because we like sandwiched it in between like, I think, Bulgogis, which are kind of like, yeah, the beef in the park one. Which are just kind of like standard Korean dishes, you know, like they shouldn't be outshining.

Your premium. The literally not premium thin cut of beef is outshining the premium thin cut of beef. Right. Crazy. Yeah. That should not happen. Crazy. Well, that's everything.

We need to put all of it together into a score. But before we do that, this is your first time on the fine dining podcast. Yes. Your score zone is not calibrated in the same way that mine is. I've been to over 100 restaurants. My zero, my 10 are defined. I need the same from you. So we're going to jump into this week's Calibration Station.

John, I need to know your worst restaurant dining experience and your best dining experience, something you'd call a zero, something you'd call it 10. You can start with whichever one you like. Yeah, Shoney's is about the worst. thing I've ever experienced. I love that Shoney's is the worst thing you've ever experienced. Not even just a restaurant. It is. It is like the worst thing I've ever experienced. I've been kicked in the balls before and I'd take that over Shonys. I would. I would. Because I'm not exactly sure what I'm putting into my body for Shonies is better than a kick in the balls. I'm going to tell you that for my health. But yeah, Shoney's, I can't tell you. I mean, I think the last time I went there, I was a child.

And it wasn't even like my parents would take me there. It would be like somebody else's parents would like, your parents knew better. Yeah, they would abduct me, like, take me there. And I'm like, I thought y'all were adults, like that were supposed to protect me. And this is what you think is food? It's just so bad. And then, like, the bar, like the salad bar and even the breakfast bar,

because I'd, unfortunately, I'd been there for both. And neither would is good. Like, the best thing is, like, what, the cubed ham? And, like, that's slimy. That's the best thing. That's, like, the only thing I can eat was the slimy cubed ham. Yeah. That's terrible.

All right. And then your best. Steakhouse called Del Rey's. It's located city of commerce, I believe. So it's like almost as if you're, like, going to Whittier from here. Yeah. They have this peppered steak that I might kill. for. It is so good. Is it like a ribby cut, a New York? Yeah, it's a ribby cut. Yeah, it's a big old,

it's a little fat ribby. Uh, and it is cooked so well, the flavors of like the pepper that they use on it, just spectacular. Uh, they also have, um, bananas flambay. Ooh, I was like, God, this is great. And they have a cherries jubilee. I mean, like, their desserts are just, like, I keep, I'm like, ah, like the desserts are even. You're doing the Undertaker thing. Your eyes rolling back in your head. I was thinking about the food. But yeah, like they and their sides are good.

I mean, like, just everything they serve you is good. The service is good. They're always on your ass. They force you to have or adhere to a dress code, which I'm like, I'm fine with it. If I'm getting amazing food. Right. Yeah, I dress up for weddings and they usually have good food. So what's the difference?

So, like, if the food is great, I'll put on a nice pair of pants. What's the, like, price point? It's usually about 120 a plate. That's not bad for that level from what you're describing. Yeah, yeah. It's about 120 a plate. So it's a little pricey, but not, like, outrageous. All right.

Yeah. It's working class expensive, you know. Okay. Yeah. Well, somewhere between a steak you would kill for and getting abducted by friends' parents and being forced to eat shonies lies today's meal

at Gen Korean Barbecue House. So it is time to put it to the Chili's Test. It's not who said scale. Is it the worst? It's the best. Let's put it to the Chili's test. So as far

as my overall grade of the restaurant, you know, I'm taking an account the service, of chorus, the ambiance, which, let me tell you, any restaurant just playing the hits of Michael Jackson, you're going to get a lot of praise from me. I don't know. I wanted K-pop. Hey, well, I get it. And you know what? If I brought my little sister there, she probably would have been okay with the Michael Jackson, but she would have preferred the K-pop. Yeah. I mean, she's got that MJ love,

much like myself, but she would have probably been like, I want to hear BTS. And I think there's a guy named Bakion that she loves. I always call him Bacon to just piss her off. But I know it's not exactly how you pronounce it. But the food, I thought besides the shrimp was really good. But a lot of times at Korean barbecue, the seafood is usually not some of the better stuff. Like I've had some good squid at places before. And I had an octopus one time that I was just like, that's good octopus. Eating octopus scares me.

Just the notion of it. It's too intelligent of a thing for me to want to eat. Trust me, the first time I had it, I was scared too. Yeah. And it wasn't good. But then I tried it again, and it was at a place where my father liked it. And my father has, like, very, very specific taste buds. And I was like, you liked it?

All right, I'll try it. And I was like, okay, this is good. So I was like, all right, it got me on this one. So I can't completely poo octopus just yet. It's one in one. So we've had a 50-50 on that. But yeah, seafood is usually a harder thing at a Korean barbecue spot. But I still got to knock it because you put it on the menu.

better be better than that. So I would say service was bad. The smoke was rough, but I've been in worse. I can imagine for sure. I've been in worst green barbecue places in that where I'm just like, my eyes are burning. Yeah. My eyes are burning right now.

Right, right. But I'm just like, like, we still, I can see you white in your eye. Like I was tired about like, I left places where like we were all like, the wet eyes are now gray. It's just like, we're like, oh, I don't want to open my eyes. Yeah. But it was not that bad, but it was still pretty rough. But the food was good.

Parts of the service was good. Like, not all of it was bad. But like when I have to tell you, I need a beverage. Right. But they were pretty good about trying to keep getting us meat. Oh, and it was also clean. I forgot to mention that. Like, you know, sometimes you have to.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, like sometimes restaurants are not so clean. And this one was clean. I kind of do you think it was weird that we were sat in a place that was the only place that didn't have booths on both sides. Like, I had a chair. We were sat at a booth, but just you didn't have a booth back. It was just a pullout chair.

Just one chair. It seemed like a comfortable chair, like a padded chair. It was a padded chair. It would be terrible if it was like a foldout. Like a steel chair. Like, what is this crap? But it was a comfortable chair, so I can't really complain about it. It was such a weird aesthetic though.

Right, because it was just like, where's my part of the booth? But I assumed it had to be like a fire. safety situation where like they couldn't finish the booth for some like petty reason. You're giving it so much credit. Well, but why else would you do that? Like, you know there was supposed to be a full booth there, but some fire marshal was like, can't do it. And they're like, well, we want to open the restaurant. Here's a chair. Right. Exactly. Because like no designer of any kind would be like, let a chair. This is my complete work. But there's just a chair here. Trust me. People. will love it. They will love it. Yeah. But, you know, it was clean other than the fact that the service

could have been a little better. It was a great experience as far as as what, you know, we experienced ourselves. Like, I've read some stuff here to, that might not be so good. You know, I read about, you know, credit card issues and getting woken up at 1145 p.m. Being stocked in a bathroom. But none of that happened to me. Luckily, I didn't need to use the restroom. Red sauce on your shoe. Not that I know. Not that I know. But I still think that guy came in with the stain.

But I'm going to give it overall an 8.23, 8.23. I am so close to being right there with you. I think mine's just a little bit less. And honestly, you can probably just attribute that to having almost all those same opinions other than like, I'm just overwhelmed by the bonchan in general. Okay. And not loving fermented stuff. So yeah

And like the service thing I guess really by the end was starting to bother me The napkin thing really I mean that was like that was comical at that point The fact that they looked over and like really Napkins And when they brought more it was also just like a Here's three right

Which Generous I guess But they acted like they were handing over like You know like high tier cloth napkins Or something it's like I'm still gonna throw this It's not like a napkin you're keeping Yeah Like they keep them in the

Pulp Fiction Briefcase Like it glows gold When they're like These are our precious napkins No they're just napes Like they're they're nicer And they have the logo on them And they have the logo

But like Just let us have clean hands You know And then there were a few things here That were really really good So all the things considered I'm at an 8.17 Okay

So very very close When you put your score together With my score Jen Korean Barbecue House goes up on the Chanchi of Mediocrity at an 8.20. All right. Which is actually very close to Guacu,

which is like the Japanese equivalent of this restaurant. Wow. Yeah. That's amazing. Hey, but it lost to the Rainforest Cafe. It did. And pasta bonita. I know. Well, the new version. It wouldn't have lost to the old one. I just take my word for it.

I believe you. I saw the documentary. Let me just say, maybe at best, gray D meat. At best. Woof. It would, they gave me, I don't know, did they still have cafeteria trays trays that they serve the food on? I don't know because I got like the little bonus thing with the cliffside seating, which comes with like they actually give you full table service. Okay, see, I don't think that was an option for us. Yeah. So you had to go with like cafeteria style trays, the different color ones. And they give it to you through a hole in the wall. Yeah.

So you have your yellow, your, your peach, whatever. You like knock a code to get like this. Well, you come up and you hand them your receipt and then they just toss you slop. That's just like ready to go. And you're like, hmm. Yeah. I paid 20 bucks for this. That's great.

And because like it wasn't cheap. Yeah. Like I paid, if I paid like $5.99. for that garbage. I'd be like, well, it's for the atmosphere, blah, blah, blah. I paid like 20, 25 bucks for like awful food. Right. And I'm like, so I'm here for the diving. I love that. You're so hung up on Casa Bonita. It was so bad. I mean, I, again, it's much better now, I'm sure. But I have to go back and recalibrate my experience. Yeah. Now, one thing I did think was crazy was that it was quite an ass on it, you know, like, because like when you look at it from the front, you're like,

there can't be anything in here, you know? Oh, yeah, yeah. And then when you go inside, you're like, my goodness, there is so much going on in here. This is endless. Yeah. Yeah. Anyways, Gen Korean barbecue at an 8.20. All right. Is officially better than Chili's. Awesome. Well, I have to go somewhere next week, so I'm going to reach into my No, not that one. No, not that one. Yeah, here, here. Go that one.

I'm going to reach into the You Must Bowl, pick out another restaurant. Next week on the Fine Dining Podcast, I will be going to. Muya Burgers. John, thank you so much for joining me. This was such a delight. Thank you, Michael. Thank you for having me. I mean, again, you know, I love Korean barbecue.

And if you need me back on here to review anything, I will. I kind of hope next time it's something rough, something I can just, shit. If you mean that, I will make that happen. I will genuinely make that happen. I want to go to a place where I'm like, whoa, where were we for the last hour? I mean, those experiences exist. They exist. I mean, my most recent one was Long John Silver's.

That was a drove to Bakersfield for just some of the worst food I've ever had. Yeah, I'm surprised they still exist, but they should not. Also, roundtable pizza is straight trash. Gosh, wow. Anyways, John, tell people where they can find you on social media. Well, you can find me at John, J-O-N-2-4 Dernel. That'll be on Instagram as well as Twitter. Also, you can find me just, you know, at anything UCB probably.

Yeah. Just check out UCB. I'm on there. Amazing. You can follow this show on Instagram and TikTok at Fine Dining Podcast. Join the Discord. Come yell at me for my opinions. I welcome that.

and go to Patreon if you want more of the show I've got an extra episode every single month that is another one in the books thank you all for watching I will see you all next week Have a fine day

Chris Well there's another one in the folks We judge the service up to the cooks And while we may have gotten A couple of dirty loves No the journey can never stop From the bottom down to the top

We got our things on live Have a fine day We got the ribs On the main course They're playing with a week and next the week, baby Have a fine day