Korean Buffet @ Don Day

As a prequel to Ate Faye's birthday, we decided to try one of the many food stops at Maginhawa Street, Q.C. We originally planned to go to Van Gogh is Bipolar but it's closed during Tuesdays so we went to our 2nd choice, Don Day Fresh Restaurant.

First impression: The place was smokin' (literally!) from the grills. We humbly suggest they do any of the following:
a. Place more/better exhaust units, b. Use smokeless grills, or c. Make it open-spaced as I've seen in many Koreanovelas. Personally, I'd choose option C. I'd love to dine in the streets with perhaps just a tent above me, eat authentic Korean barbecue to my heart's content, and drink *soju.

For the meat lovers. :)

Their meat-all-you-can and buffet are priced at ₱299 (pork only) and ₱399 (pork and beef). Drinks are not inclusive so there's additional ₱50 for bottomless iced tea. Frankly, once cooked, you can hardly tell the difference between the beef and pork so I guess the pork package is the smarter way to go.

The buffet items were fewer compared to other eat-all-you-can chains such as Yakimix, Dad's, etc which I attribute to them sticking to the Korean theme. The number of appetizers, condiments, and desserts tasted average. What we did love is the *samgyeopsal itself. I liked pairing the meat with kimchi and veggies. Really good.

Be prepared to go home smelling like grill-smoke so you might want to think twice about wearing anything too dressy. What mattered though is at the end of the day, we were full, and we had fun with many photo-op moments courtesy of their cheerful servers. The concept of the restaurant is nice and there's still plenty of room for improvement.


Rating: 3.25/5

-Martha

*samgyeopsal. noun. Korean dish consisting of thick slices of non-marinated pork traditionally grilled by diners themselves.
*soju. noun. Korean vodka.