Garden Buffet-Lincoln Ave

Hi. I'm a new member and this is my first 'real' post so I hope that you'll bear with me and I do okay. Last night I was mentioning to a friend of ours that I really didn't know a lot about Korean food and I'd love to go and try it and learn more. He suggested a buffet that he's enjoyed in the past on Lincoln called the Garden Buffet. We headed out and over at around 8.30 or so and they were open until 10.30. When we arrived there were a few other tables seated, mostly families, who seemed to be dining along rather happily. I was warned in advance to not expect too much in the line of service but that the food was delicious. They had a little built in pond/pool in the middle of the place with a small display and turtles roaming about on the rocks. Fake grapes similar to what my grandmother used to keep on her kitchen table were hanging from the ceiling and the resturant seemed to be very clean looking.

We were asked when we were seated if we wanted to have the BBQ or the buffet only. They explained that the buffet is cheaper than the BBQ by what I beleive to have been $4. We had decided to go with the BBQ and were seated at a table with a grill in the middle. The waiter instructed us to go and decide what we wanted from the buffet while he prepared the coals for us.

They had a huge selection of things to choose from on the buffet. We tried some of the various sushi rolls, tempura green beans, crispy tofu, a cold soba noodle salad, seaweed soup, pickled garlic, a couple varieties of kim chee, and some very tasty and crisp pickles. They also had a cold octopus salad but I don't believe any of us tried that.

As far as the meat went the most outstanding for flavor is the beef short ribs. The marinade that is used adds an excellent flavor to the meat. The meat is sliced and wrapped back around the rib. We also tried the pork and a couple other cuts of beef but while they were good they didn't quite measure up. We also tried the chicken which was labled as 'firey chicken' but I had to admit it didn't really have a lot of heat to it. They also had some marinated squid but it didn't come out very well on the grill and we also attempted the bacon and that didn't turn out well either. Admittedly it could have been the cooks and not the selections.

A waiter comes to the table when you're ready to start cooking with a large pair of scissors and cuts the meat from the short ribs off into thin slices for you. After that we were left alone to our own devices to figure everything out and the staff was available to us but not overly intrusive.

The only draw back to the experience would be that for someone that's new to Korean food, I wasn't aware of what a lot of the items were, and a lot of them were not labeled and I didn't have a lot of luck getting descriptions from the staff. We also asked for some of their hot tea which was also very good, but when we inquired as to what it was, we were told that it was 'just barley'.

I'd have to say that it was a very fun trip and a good experience and I would probably go back again, or even try other resturants in the area. I believe our total was $18.99 per person and they added a 10% gratuity automatically to the bill.


Garden Buffet
5347 N. Lincoln Ave.
Chicago, IL
773-728-1249

Coincidentally, I had my first Korean barbecue experience at Garden Buffet last Friday night. My very white friends and I had no idea what we were doing. Fortunately, a waitress came over and helped us. The food was only okay, but as you noted that's mostly the fault of the cook (ie me). Next time I'll go with a Korean friend.

Despite the snow and constant fear of food poisoning from undercooked meat (again, my fault), we had a lot of fun.

shakezula wrote:Coincidentally, I had my first Korean barbecue experience at Garden Buffet last Friday night. My very white friends and I had no idea what we were doing. Fortunately, a waitress came over and helped us. The food was only okay, but as you noted that's mostly the fault of the cook (ie me). Next time I'll go with a Korean friend.

Despite the snow and constant fear of food poisoning from undercooked meat (again, my fault), we had a lot of fun.

I must admit I did very badly with the bacon. At one point it started to smoke and a rather bad smell started to eminate from the grill. I think that my experience would have been a bit better had I had a little extra guidance with what some of the items available were.

Although I guess trying a buffet for my first Korean dining experience was a good idea, I got to taste things, and sort of feel out what I liked the best.

Of course, there was a large LTH event at this location last July (I can't find pix links, but I'm sure someone can).

nr706 wrote:Of course, there was a large LTH event at this location last July (I can't find pix links, but I'm sure someone can).

Your wish is my command:
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=38020

Garden Buffet is great and has the wonderful downdraft system that means your clothes don't smell of galbi when you leave, but for beginners, it may be nicer to go somewhere like Solga or Cho Sun Ok where the staff may be more helpful with the cooking process.

HI,

When Gary, Mike G and I were making the initial plans for the 1st Anniversary Party last year, we met for lunch which is slightly cheaper than lunch. Instead of offering Kalbi to grill, they offer a marinated beef cut which is cross section of beef ribs with quite a bit of meat hanging on them. I don't know the name for this cut though in Mexican restaurants it is Costilla de Res. This is not offered in the evening unless you request it and then request it again because they cannot believe you really want it.

The Costilla de Res is marinated the same as the Kalbi, however it is a thicker cut of meat. When I took some friends there last Wednesday, the Costilla actually tasted better to us than the Kalbi, which truthfully seemed to need more time in the marinade because usually it is flavorful, too.

I really like this style of dinner because of the lingering while you cook, chat eat for a nice long dinner. You don't go there if you are in a rush.

BTW - Adobo, the Filipino take-out and eat-in place next door, has expanded their eat-in dining area by one store front to the east.

Regards,

HI,

Last night I was at Garden Buffet, unfortunately without my camera. They have a few new features to make it friendlier to non-Korean audiences, they have begun adding pictures with detailed ingredient labels above the major dishes. Somewhere is the heart of engineer ticking away, because detailed ingredient list begins with 'Materials.' This is a pretty smart move after you learn from the waittress only 1/3 of their clients are Korean.

Some new dishes, or maybe I wasn't paying attention before, steamed egg custard and steamed and fried tofus.

They now have signs warning they will charge you extra if you take food and don't eat it. I'm sure this is something they have long thought. I am sure recent newspaper accounts of buffet restaurants taking a stronger stand gave them the freedom to comment on what they always thought.

As always, a very pleasant relaxed meal typical for all Korean BBQ places.

Regards,

Had a lovely family meal at Garden Buffet today, but there was a menu item that wasn't labeled and I couldn't identify. In it's raw state, it looked exactly like pieces of boneless, skinless chicken breast without seasoning. Cooking it, however, revealed that it was a whitish meat, very chewy, muscular, and a bit crunchy in a sinewy sort of way - some kind of seafood? It didn't have much flavor (it wasn't bad, though)

I asked one of the waitresses, and she said it was chicken breast (which it certainly looked like in its raw state, and it wasn't labeled, so she could easily have been mistaken if she didn't know) Any idea as to what other things it might have been? It had a kind of shellfish muscle quality - maybe abalone? Conch? Maybe some kind of organ meat like tripe? (the texture was right, it just didn't look like tripe, too thick, no honeycomb)

HI,

This is certainly a moment where a camera would come in handy!

Squid?

Regards,

Mhays wrote:Any idea as to what other things it might have been?

Mhays,

I'm not saying this is what you ate, but last time that happened to me..............

I'll just tell the story. 6-7 years ago Kang Nam Galbi was buffet, smaller, but not unlike Garden Buffett. All the meats for grilling were well labeled aside from one, the response, when I asked, "you won't like that," which is like waving a red cape in front of a bull.

Thin disks of tight grain flesh, obviously cut from a bigger piece, that curled at the edges the second they hit the gill. Chewy, flavorful, slight mineral tang, I was fairly certain organ meat of some type. I noticed the waitstaff watching me, so I ate another piece and ambled over to ask again.

A passing male customer, hearing my question, broke into a big smile, snorted like a pig, pointed slightly south of his beltline and said "make you stronger"

Hummmmmmmm, pig testicles.

Not saying that's what you ate, but.......................

Enjoy,
Gary

Sorry again - we're thinking of purchasing a new, smaller camera expressly for moments like this...there was other, seasoned squid, so I don't think this was it. It certainly was remeniscent of squid when cooked, except it had muscle fibers - but it was pinkish and too thick when raw.Not my photo, but this is a good facimile of what it looked like in its raw state:


You think a nice girl like me would be afraid of a little cojone, Gary?

That could be skate, or hongeo, but that's usually eaten raw. I've never seen it grilled at the table.

It really does look more like chicken breast.

That's a distinct possibility (the pic above isn't what I ate, it is chicken breast, but it was the closest image I could find)

Now I have to buy skate wing at H-Mart and try it out....

Cooking it, however, revealed that it was a whitish meat, very chewy, muscular, and a bit crunchy in a sinewy sort of way - some kind of seafood? It didn't have much flavor (it wasn't bad, though)

Chewy, crunchy, sinewy or muscular are not remotely like the skate wing I have tried. I buy skate wing from H-Mart that I filet at home. Sweet, tender fish pleasant in a lobster-sort of way has been my experience.

Can it be skate and skate wing are not the same fish?

Regards,

Erzsi wrote:We also asked for some of their hot tea which was also very good, but when we inquired as to what it was, we were told that it was 'just barley'.

They aren't kidding when they say it's "just barley". The tea is called 'pbodi cha' and it's made with little pieces of roasted barley. You can buy the barley for pbodi cha at places like Clark Market or the Super H Mart - it's cheap, caffine free and totally tasty. Best of all, one handful of barley will make lots of tea (I usually use a handful for 4 ltrs of tea).


Clark Market
4855 N Kedzie Ave (1 block north of Lawrence)
(773) 478-2262


Super H-Mart
801 Civic Center Dr. (near Waukegan Rd. and Oakton)
Niles, IL
(847) 581-1212

I think it looks kind of like mirugai (giant clam, geoduck) which is crunchy, chewy and muscular.

I was also thinking geoduck, but I've never seen it prepared exept for sushi. Dug one up before, though...

deesher wrote:I think it looks kind of like mirugai (giant clam, geoduck) which is crunchy, chewy and muscular.

It may look like it, but I highly doubt they'd put mirugai on the buffet; Sashimi-grade's $36-50/lb, and I seldom see it otherwise, except in Chinese restaurants where it's likewise very pricey.