Daorae Garden Korean BBQ @ Desa Sri Hartamas

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I went to Desa Sri Hartamas a few weeks ago to look for Western food and ended up in Carvell’s. It was a lousy dinner with lousy food and bad service so I won’t post it. But, I did notice that there are freaking many Korean restaurants in Sri Hartamas, mostly Korean BBQ. Are there so many expatriate familes from Korean residing in Sri Hartamas?
Seeing so many Korean BBQ restaurants, I recalled I only tried Korean BBQ once at Seoul Garden Autocity and it didn’t impress me. Reason could be it was franchised and the food was not that traditional. So, I returned a week later hoping to try a more authentic Korean BBQ. I chose Daorae Garden among all because of its popularity.

daorae-sri-hartamas

Daorae Garden is run by a Korean boss and he was around to welcome customers as well as taking orders. To enjoy the Korean BBQ, at least two types of meat must be ordered from the menu.

kim-chi-soup

If you have already confirmed having Korean BBQ, they will start serving soup and the side dishes immediately. The soup was tasty and had kim chi and cabbage in it. I have to admit the first few sips felt a bit weird for me but after that it left a warm and fuzzy feeling in my belly.

steamed-egg

Korean Steamed Egg.

korean side-dishes

And a whole lot of Korean side dishes, ten of them altogether! One of my concerns before coming here was on the side dishes. From what I see in the other blogs while researching Korean BBQ, the side dishes looked really alien to me. I was really doubtful they would taste good, lol. In the end, luckily there were only two or three which I disliked eg. kimchi, mashed potato (sweet and cold) and cockles.


ChaDol-BaeGi

After much deliberation, we decided to have ChaDol BaeGi and Daeji Gal Bi which are actually sliced beef and marinated pork in sweet sauce respectively.

chadol-baegi-sliced-beef

The Chadol BaeGi (thinly sliced beef brisket) @ RM40. The meat’s texture and color were attractive enough for me to order it. Hey, I know nuts about Korean BBQ so I just took whatever that looked nice, lol.

Daeji-Gal-Bi

We were actually undecided between chicken and pork after choosing beef as the first meat. Chicken seemed too common so Daeji Gal Bi (marinated pork) was chosen next.

daorae korean bbq

You won’t be required to grill the meat yourself because the staff are there to do all the grilling for you. First, he will put a small bowl of garlic in the middle of grill to let the oil absorb the garlic flavor for a couple of minutes. Then, followed by frying the meat of your choice.

daorae korean bbq

Grilling in process… There was no unpleasant and oily smoke thanks to a big BBQ smoker installed at every table.

daorae korean bbq

Done! The beef slices are pretty thin so they cook quite fast. The eating method was new to me as well. We were provided with a big bowl of lettuce and a few condiments. So, it was quite obvious the lettuce was for wrapping the meat and the condiments served as the dressing.
Taste wise, not so impressive after all. If no condiments were provided, the meat would taste pretty bland with its natural flavor alone. The sliced beef was tough too, making it quite impossible to enjoy the wrapped stuff in separate bites.. better to just eat the whole thing in one mouthful, lol.

daorae korean bbq

Fortunately, the marinated pork was better with more flavor and tenderness.

daorae-garden

If you wish to have a more authentic Korean BBQ experience, I recommend sitting in the smoking area. The area is seated on a wooden floor and you can place you legs under the table, nice huh. It is also much brighter here so you can take nicer photos, which was my main reason anyway lol. But, you have to endure the loud customers and the cigarette’s smoke instead.

daorae-garden-sri-hartamas

We were charged for the meats alone, so the bill came to RM77.05 inclusive of 10% service charge and 5% government tax. No offense but I think Korean food is not to my liking. So I will gladly stick to the others instead, lol. The whole grilling and wrapping experience thingy was a nice experience though.

Address: No. 9-1 Flr Plaza Crystal Ville Center, Jalan 23/70A, Desa Sri Hartamas, Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-6203 2616

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22 COMMENTS

  1. The beef is over cooked already, plus this part of the cow meat (like ‘sam chan’) is not nice for BBQ.
    I tried b4 in Seoul many years ago, they use the meat that still attached to the bones (ribs ?) after BBQ then a Korean Lady (dress in traditional costume, ok?) will cut it out for us. … very nice .. . No No No not because of the Korean lady I am quiet sure….. I didn’t drink a lot that night.

    vk: Yeah I noticed the overcooked beef too. But, it was the staff who cooked for us so nothing we can do. Luckily the pork was still nice and tender

  2. hi i am fattyboy frm MFC forum , good blogger here . Jia You

    For korean food always come to my mind is pricey

    vk: Thank you fattyboy. Yes, you right about the food being pricey.. but I guess you gotta pay for all the expensive utilities they have..

  3. I’m a regular patron and I must praise their good service plus also the many delicious and healthy side dishes.
    You should order Wang-kal-bi (marinated top prime beef), of course also the one you mentioned the mouth-watering daeji kal-bi (marinated pork), don’t forget to also have sam-kyub-sal (marinated spicy pork belly) too, its so juicy!

  4. Vkeong , let me tell you my experience that i have in Australia while having my dinner just like you end up in korean restaraunt , in fact that restaraunt is nice , and WTF Rm40 bucks for the bbq thingy come one la ! wrong place man !

  5. This is my favourite Korean Restaurant, besides the BBQ, the Kimchi soup n the stone rice also taste nice. You should try next time, may be you don’t like the kimchi side dish but i bet you will definately like the kimchi soup.

    vk: Hi Ching Ching, thanks for dropping by my blog. I think I tried the Kimchi soup before.. I kinda liked it hehe

  6. vkeong, you are getting a lot of support from your secondary school friends, even they gal above me is posting comment here. The kimchi soup is nice and the BBQ is simply the best korean BBQ I had.

    vk: Thanks man.. when I saw her nick I was also wondering if she was our high school classmate.. I think I can confirm it now :)

  7. Haha, vkeong, actually you should thank facebook brcause i saw the link n i started to read ur blog n its really pleasant to read at least i know where to get a nice food next time wen i bc to penang, hehe. Well done vkeong, keep it n i will continue to be ur reader.

  8. For guys n gals who love Korean Food, Daorae Garden Korean BBQ Restaurant has a branch in USJ Taipan Business Center, just opposite of McDonalds. Same lar, Good Food, Good Service.

  9. korean food is my favourite. I tried doerea b4..honestly a bit dissapointed…but i think the ox tongue is not too bad..others marinated meat a bit dissapointed. Probably you can consider to try out 1 of the korean restaurant also located in sri hartamas call IN SEOUL (next to kia show room and KFC) my favourite korean restaurant although they don’t have branches like others..but the food is really fresh and nice! worth trying!

  10. hey :) DAORAE is one of my frequent korean restaurant (hartamas branch), im sorry u didnt like it enough. I agree it is somewhat on the pricey side, but it comes with unlimited supply of side dishes, and sometimes the owners will throw in a free dish or two.

    The flexibility and consistency in its food quality makes me keep going there for more, even though it meant ordering the same dishes over and over… :P btw, theres dis marinated beef with ribs u should try, it’s pretty good.

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