Seoul Buffet Korean BBQ & Steamboat

So how much room do you leave in your stomach for buffet?
A bottomless pit would be desirable, but the next best alternative is a very empty stomach.
My brain and appetite switches to wild mode and my poor tummy deals with weight gain as a result. And by the end, I swear I'll treat buffets with caution and never overeat again...


UNTIL THE NEXT BUFFET!

Meat Corner

This is a vegetarian's nightmare and a carnivore's dream, desire and ecstasy all in one. I'm happy to say it is an ongoing dream for as long as you stay at the restaurant as these trays are constantly replenished with endless supplies of meat meat meat!


There is ox tongue, there is pork belly, there is liberally marinated cuts of beef, chicken and pork everywhere, ready at your disposal and all with heavy, liberal use of marinades.


Then there is a splash of random greenery among a sea of reds, pinks and bloody meaty tones. A single tray of lettuce, looking lost and oddly out of place.

Meat & seafood corner

Fish fillets and octopuses adorn the other corner, along with about 5 different sauces to choose from to smother your meat with. Korean BBQ is big on sauce, I am big on sauce. We are a perfect match. Naturally!


Chilli sauce, chilli paste, some sauce resembling satay, a sweet soy-type sauce, and the oh-so-delicious! sesame oil and salt concoction that is more of a perfect match with Korean BBQ than me. Meaning its pretty damn perfect!

Seafood and vegetable corner

I deem this the healthier corner, which showcases more steamboat-ey type ingredients, but it never stops how you decide to cook them cause now you are your own Masterchef.
And also your own judge.

UFOs

Despite how fancy or the effort these take to keep food hot, they don't even come close to keeping food remotely warm. They do shield food from the various fruit flies I spotted that were hovering around the uncovered buffet meat/vegetable section though. Because who isn't attracted to meat!

Cooked ready-to-eat food

Unveiling the large round shiny covers is an assortment of cooked foods including fried-but-now-soft gyoza, toppoki (excuse me if I'm wrong) - stir fry rice cake in a bitey sauce, spring rolls, beef bulgogi and some marinated chicken dish among other Korean staples.


The buffet section features a small salad section featuring your standard bean sprout salads, seaweed salads, marinated potato salad and the one of course it's there kimchi. All of them are simple but that's exactly why they're good, light accompaniments to an otherwise heavy carnivorous dinner of meat, meat and meat. I even think my beansprout to meat ratio consumed was close to 1:1! I ate my veggies :) There's my good deed for the day!

Hotplate

Then it's down to serious business when the gas burner is turned on and the hotplate is cranked. The hotplates are good cause they don't stick and the meat cooks fast but can burn fast if you're not fast. Everything on the hotplate (and the hotplate itself) first turns a delicious brown and then to a horrid black.


I learn that if you pick up the tongs and prod the meat first, you are pretty much assigned the role of designated cook for the night. I've learnt my lesson.

Happiness

There's something about cooking your own food at a restaurant that takes away the effort and replaces it with fun. Especially when you're in a not-very-well ventilated room, the aromas and sounds of sizzles and splatters fills your senses because they have nowhere to go. As such, they cling to your hair, your clothes, your nose...but really, isn't the scent of food just so attractive?! :P


I reckon a big plate of this would easily replace a big bowl of ice cream as this will make me feel better food. It's sweet and juicy and can melt in your mouth, everything that ice cream is capable of plus even more - IT SMELLS SO DARN GOOD. I couldn't ever get sick of this.


You are in control of everything here, cook everything just the way you like it. My kind of happiness is the kind that sizzles on a hotplate.

Steamboat

On the same table format is an inbuilt platform for a shallow steamboat dish, which you fill with your choice out of beef or chicken stock. My first time here involved some confusion, as you are given a metal jug of liquid when you are seated, and which I thought was stock - the very very very plain tasting type. Turns out it was indeed very very very plain tasting - water. Doh!


Fish cake, fish balls, noodles, veges, whatever you want to boil instead of throw on the barbeque but really, I reckon everything that goes in here tastes better barbequed anyway. Healthier this way, but really, you might as well give up even thinking of being healthy at Korean BBQ.

Meat reload

You'll find yourself getting a lottttttttttt of refills. I could probably drown in the amount of ox tongue I eat. The meats are sliced thinly (esp. ox tongue) and shrink a lot during their cooking process (definitely ox tongue) so you can tell yourself you're actually not eating THAT much (OX TONGUE!!!!!) :)
Some positive reinforcements does wonders for your guilt, but not so much on the waist.

Dessert

Not much of a dessert selection, but that's understandable at a Korean BBQ buffet where marinated meats are your entree, main AND dessert. If you have room for dessert, you have room for more meat and haven't eaten enough of it.


Having said that though, they have tubs of strawberry, vanilla and chocolate ice cream. These always run low but they have a very thoughtful sign saying new refills are certainly available. Even when I'm not a fan of conventional ice cream flavours, there's something about these that makes me eat about 5 scoops in one sitting.


There is also a big glass punch bowl of coconut milk with sago and watermelon dessert as well as a very convenient DIY coffee machine that spits out all your coffee and tea preferences. You can make everything yourself - really really handy for satisfying your Affogato cravings!


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If you judge a restaurant by how busy it looks, Seoul ticks all the boxes. It is ALWAYS rowdy, always bustling towards full capacity, staff are always kept busy, always full of smoke and fumes (a good sign in this circumstance!) and even with efficient staff trying to keep this to a minimal by constantly changing burning hotplates with smoke coming out of them, the rate at which us diners burn (or cook) meats is definitely faster.


Staff should be commended though, on how they scoot around and are extremely vigilant about blackening hotplates. Upon sitting down you are asked if you know how this whole Korean BBQ thing works, and to which I lied and said no once, how they run you through and introduce you to all the details is very impressive. We're always the last table standing sitting whenever we dine out, to which they had no problems with and just proceeded to clean around us instead of hinting at us to leave.


The layout of the tables and chairs is quite compact, and maneuvering through the chair and people maze is quite dangerous if you're balancing plates of meat mountains on your hands. The tables themselves are also quite low on space, needing to accommodate plates, bowls, chopsticks, cutlery, water jugs, cups, tongs, scissors, sauces, excess plates, yada yada yada. Everything is a bit squishy and cramped, first needing to navigate through people and furniture then needing to navigate through your own table.


But of course, it's quite fun to have your own cooking station. Meat not done enough? Chuck it back on the hotplate! Hot food gone cold? Chuck it back on the hotplate! Feel like chucking something on the hotplate? Chuck it on the hotplate! This is (my) ultimate freedom to be an (incompetent) Masterchef.


It's a buffet, you will most likely over eat, but with all that rich and tasty marinade caramelising on the hotplate, it's silly to expect any sense of self discipline.

Soda Sun Lounge

When it's a sunshine adorned day nearing dusk, heading down to the coast to catch the magnificent ocean views and feel the sea breeze is one of those priceless, carefree, irreplaceable moments. It's one of the best sights Perth has to offer, even though one many can argue Perth doesn't offer many sights.
But to catch a glimpse of fading sunlight at its last moments before the world becomes one big black canvas, with a single special person - it doesn't get any better than that.


Unless of course, you do all that with a WHOLE BUNCH of friends instead! Why just settle for one?!


Especially if it happens to be a big group of retards you've unfortunately come across and are destined to become acquainted with. 8 years later down the track, I am now also a retard. The friends you choose can really change you as a person. So. DON'T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKES AS I DID


Fate is at play in one way or another. When we all crossed paths that day, to when we're all on separate paths now, but we make sure we all come to the same intersection, at least one day in each year. It doesn't sound like a lot, but it means a lot. I'm ecstatic we've kept up the tradition of our annual Christmas get-togethers during that magical time of year.


And for 2011, Soda Sun Lounge was our location for celebrations. Sun(set), sea and friends - a much better replacement for sand I reckon. Add food to that list, you can't ask for much else.
Except maybe for better food...


Many dishes ordered that night, and many dishes not tried as a result of a very long dining table and I happened to plonk my butt at the end of it. I made the effort to walk around the table taking photos but had the decency not to help myself to the dish after I did so!

Summer Berry Smoothie - $7

My cousin, soul mate and best friend came to dinner as a potato as a result of getting her wisdom teeth out. Yes to me, she is all those things and more :) That aside, her puffy cheeks were the biggest attention seekers and she was the target of botox jokes the whole night week. Poor girl. I'm getting botox soon too. Craaaaaaapp


So to make sure the stuff inside her mouth didn't melt or something along those lines, it was probably best for her to consume cold stuff and, well, stuff that don't require chewing. She opted for a chilled smoothie but I don't remember much of it. It was cold, it was tangy, it was all I can remember.

Apple Dew Spider Mocktail - $9.50

A few around the table wanted drinks but kept it PG rated and got mocktails instead. To be honest if I felt like staying sober, I'd prefer a mocktail over cocktails anyday. They taste better to me without that bitter undertone and aftertaste. Maybe I just suck.


I had a sip of this and was close to ordering one for myself. It was dainty and sweet, a very girly drink overall with its contents of sparkling apple juice, fresh mint and honeydew melon sorbet. The addition of mint always adds a refreshing feel to anything, and a refreshing colour burst for presentation purposes.

Caramelized Duck Tacos, Sichuan Pepper - $16

I took a photo of this and thought, where's the duck at?! It makes for a very appealing name but as for the dish itself, looks don't win me over. Elements like Sichuan Pepper, a spice commonly used in Chinese cuisine as well as duck give the dish certain touches of an Asian inspired dish but with a modern take with the addition of tacos.


It's a smart idea to present the dish as Make Your Own tacos though.

Sour Dough, EVOO & Balsamic - $5

Also making an appearance was the very conventional bread and dip starter. Here we have a few crunchy looking sour dough bread, with a dipping dish of balsamic vinegar and Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I guess EVOO adds a touch of class to the name somehow.


I wonder if the oil dips are ever finished. Bread drenched in oil isn't my type of thing. On a side note, I had the choice of drinking a litre of oil in a night, or, surgery as the 2 options for my gallstones. Never has surgery sounded like such a good option!

Chermoula Spiced Barramundi - $34

This wasn't my dish at all, but since it was conveniently located just across my seat, I'd have to say it was pretty much my dish by the end of dinner. It's what happens when you sit next to me!


A quick google search tells that chermoula is typically a marinade consisting of herbs, oil, lemon juice, pickled lemons, garlic, cumin and salt. I don't remember the taste of the marinade much but I do remember the fish was cooked nicely with moist flesh. The addition of yoghurt didn't complement the fish as much, but it was ok with the tabouli.

Having said that, the tabouli was quite bland, yoghurt was bland, 2 wrongs didn't make a right here! But I finished it anyway cause it was light and interesting, contrasting temperatures and textures with the cous cous and cool yoghurt. Contrasting things seem to go well together, much like opposites!

Angus Scotch Fillet - $34

Absolutely no idea how this tasted but taking a picture of it sure didn't tempt me into asking to try it. I love my beef but I don't love how this looked as much. The beef looks tender enough but having served it on top of the chips, you just end up with bloody chips - literally!


Soggy, limp, sad, heat cooked chips as a result of being on the bottom. Which is a waste if the chips are freshly cooked to a crisp, crunchy bite, only to be absolutely ruined. The slab of Angus Scotch Fillet is supposedly served with cafe de paris butter, which is said by Wikipedia to contain a whole party of ingredients of herbs, spices, mustard, dill, rosemary, paprika, capers, chives, curry powder, parsley, shallots, garlic, ANCHOVIES?!, smothered inside the butter.


And all I see is a slab of cow and chips...

Pizza - $22

Soda Sun Lounge offers a few pizzas to share, or just for yourself if you are that epic. The base looks pretty thin but ingredients looks pretty sparse for a $22 pizza. But yes yes, what other price could you expect at a place with a view right?

I believe here we have the Chorizo, Potato, Rocket, Red onion and Chipotle pizza tonight. You don't see too much except cheese do you? Cheese always dominates in terms of smell and place on a pizza.

Beetroot Gnocchi - $26

Gnocchi is something many are fond of, but it didn't win me over the first few times I tried it. Nothing more than a ball of cooked flour for me and I am aware I may have offended many people with what I just said...but really! Maybe I'd appreciate it more if I had booked that cooking class and learnt the technique of making it properly.

And because I wouldn't consider eating dirt, I wouldn't consider eating beetroot. It tastes like the ground! So I don't love gnocchi, hate beetroot. My reaction to beetroot gnocchi? NOT BAD! Maybe you can try mixing your hated foods together and they'll suddenly taste better. Spooky stuff. Or maybe cause the flavour of beetroot wasn't as intense as its red colour suggested. The rest of the dish made up of broccoli, peppers and goat's curd could have had more flavour to it too.

Sumatran Roast Duck - $34

Finally we come to the dish I'd ordered to share between 2. As I was sharing the plate with marshmallow cheeks :), we'd specifically asked if the duck was soft to eat. We went with the uncertainty in the waitress' "yeah? It's okay". This took a while to come out and sadly, the wait wasn't really worth it. The meat came out dry and tough and was difficult to separate from the bones. Disappointed for a price of $34.


The side of green mango salad didn't help this Sumatran Roast Duck much either. It was hard and crunchy with the vegetable choice and while you might like it, the firmness of the mango flesh is not something I enjoyed giving my jaw a work out to. We'd pretty much made the worst choice in terms of hard textured food. I'd noticed by the end of it how I pretty much took over eating the dish as poor Puffy Cheeks couldn't eat a thing.

Green Mango Salad

Here's a better picture of the green mango salad without the colour distortion created by silly flash. It is quite yellowy/orange in appearance but with a completely different and opposite texture to the heavenly tropical summer fruit when it is ripe.
I go crazy during mango season and could quite easily go through 2 a day, everyday for about 3 months.


Maybe not, but I wouldn't mind accepting that challenge.

Result of my hard work

I am quite aware food blogs post pictures of food BEFORE they are eaten but I can't help but admire my own effort. Now I just sound proud. But I am! :D And the small servings weren't exactly filling either, but the prices of them sure were.


In the middle are the leftovers of Real Chips as per what they are called in the menu, served with aioli dip and set us back $9. A very filling price right?! If real chips are like so, I'm fine with normal chips that cost less dear. As I'm sure we all still had a hankering for dessert or just more time together, we left Soda Sun Lounge for elsewhere, but not before numerous attempts of a group portrait with the camera balancing dangerously on balcony ledges and on randoms' car bonnets improvising as a tripod.


Even so, the camera was probably safer in those conditions than in the hands of C, who fumbles and trips on air every 5 minutes or so. Watching her, I'd have to stereotype and say that Blondes, heels and cameras are a fatal combination.


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After experiencing Soda Sun Lounge for myself, I would have to agree with the reviews on the internet. They say it upfront and honest and summarise the place pretty well. It is definitely a place with a view, a freaking STUNNING view too, but it could really be something more if it made improvements to its food. It's not particularly bad, but for the sky high prices you're really paying to look at the ocean. And you can do that for free, just across the road.


It was unfortunate we couldn't get seated outside on the balcony, overlooking the water with the sun setting into the horizon, a perfect backdrop to dinner. Indoors has more of an intimate feel with dim lighting and atmosphere while seating outdoors takes on a more relaxed, wind-in-your-hair feeling. Quite a large restaurant provides for many different seating options - our wooden communal-hall-style bench tables and chairs, sofas, outdoor deck and sails, private dining areas and mezzanine bar seating options. Ours was probably the least attractive but catered best for large groups.


The area is very spread out and spacious, accommodating to the beachy, relaxed feel really well. It's probably a notch up from being absolutely casual, but not to the point where it's fine dining or anything remotely close to being so. The menu is not extensive, as we'd pretty much tried more than half of the selections available in the main course section. Value for money? I'd say you could do better, and so can Soda Sun Lounge.


To be honest I can't comment on service as I don't remember much of the staff, and that's because they didn't seem to exist, not because I ordered one too many cocktails. They took our order, and I didn't see them until our dishes were delivered, and then I never saw them again. It wasn't bad service or anything, but just felt a bit unwanted and unloved when our empty bottles of water sat alone and unfilled. Not much attention given but otherwise they do what they do.


The restaurant is located upstairs on top of a real estate business, and is a bit tricky to find if you're coming from side roads and use the parking at the back. Heaps of parking on the street, in the carparks above and below, which ended up being the lovely backdrop of our photo. Which was an awesome substitute from the natural sea horizon across the road, purely because we were too proud or too embarrassed to ask a stranger to take a photo for a flock of giggly loud school girls.


We seem to take on that embarrassing identity whenever we migrate together once a year.