GU ON Sri Petaling is a premium Korean BBQ establishment serving up pork and beef barbecue, with plenty of other unique Korean dishes. Read on for our full review:
Table of Content
First impressions
This was not your typical All You Can Eat Korean BBQ restaurant. We heard of GU ON for the premium meat and unique Korean dishes that they served up. Do make a reservation a week or two in advance, otherwise 1-2 hour wait times are normal depending on your table size!
The restaurant is a cornered shop with a small patio on the side opened up for al fresco style dining. The big opened spaces meant that it wasn’t smoky as other Korean BBQ restaurants, a plus point for those who hate eating in the smoke!
Upon entry, you’ll see a fridge full of self-service banchans (Korean small side dishes). Some of the more unique banchans were the barley ssamjang, smoked garlic, and salted octopus which are all served to your table upon sitting down. Here’s what we ordered:
What we ordered
With a big group that I went with, we opted for the GU ON Feast On set with a good mix of beef and pork options plus some side dishes. We also added on a Seafood Pancake to share.
Our review
On the left, we have the smoked pork belly served bone-in and the pork collar tip; while on the right we have the smoked beef short ribs and beef boneless short ribs. There will be a designated staff that grills and cuts all the meat for each table, so you can just sit back and enjoy the show.
The meats were grilled on a cast iron pan in contrast to the typical steel pan. The cast iron is oiled up by grilling a piece of pork fat over it. I much preferred this as with a cast iron there is more browning on the meat which develops more flavour, and the meat was less likely to stick and burn.
Personally, I found the pork were of great quality and was really fatty and juicy, but it didn’t wow me as we all know fatty pork will do its own magic. What impressed me more were the beef pieces, as they had a deep beefy flavour. I’m sure that was from the quality of the beef (Look at that marbling!) but also the staff on our table grilled it to a medium doneness, ensuring the beef juices were still running through.
Wondering how the bone in meat is served? The waiters will provide a glove for you to chew on the bone. Some of the best bites were in there!
As for the side dishes, they went really well with a bowl of rice if you’re a rice lover like me. We got the Kimchi Spicy soup which was loaded with pork pieces and Kimchi. The broth had a deep meaty and kimchi flavour, which went perfectly with some rice and steamed egg.
I was told to try their non-BBQ dishes, and they did not disappoint! This was not your conventional seafood pancake. It had more seafood and spring onions than batter. Each bite was loaded with huge pieces of shrimp and octopus. Topped with crispy garlic flakes and an acidic sauce, this was a good break from all the meats we were having. I’d highly recommend trying this as they don’t skip on the seafood quantity.
Our meal ended with a kimchi grilled rice. The dish was prepared with short grain rice mixed with spicy kimchi infused oil. It was left on the cast iron pan to develop a crispy bottom while being topped with seaweed, spring onions, crispy garlic flakes and pork lard! The bites were crispy and fatty, but it was very sinful. I couldn’t stomach too many bites as the pork lard was quite fatty. Thank god I had a group of people to share this with but definitely worth a try if you love fatty carbs.
Overall, it’s nice to have a new Korean BBQ restaurant in town that’s innovative with the food, serves up quality cuts of meet, while keeping it affordable. The non-BBQ dishes really stood out to me as they were unique, while I’d definitely come back for more of the beef.
Menu
The full menu can be found here.
