As a Korean, wherever I go in Korea, I miss smoky meat restaurants where I eat charcoal-grilled meat, and I often get nostalgic for food that makes my mouth water just thinking about it. In particular, Korean meat restaurants that you can see in Korea are equipped to put in and take out charcoal, which is usually installed in the center of the table, and a long pipe to suck in smoke from the ceiling.
You can think of it as a form of self-BBQ, where you grill the meat yourself, cut the meat into the desired size with scissors, dip it in a sauce called ssamjang, a mixture of delicious and deunjang(spicy soybean paste) and gochujang(red pepper paste), and eat it with lettuce and various side dishes. So, even at the time in Korea, I used to go there often enough to look for all-you-can-eat meat BBQ buffets in every neighborhood.
Again, I will briefly talk about Korean restaurants in various places in Malaysia where I currently live. Even if it’s not in the center of Kuala Lumpur, there are at least 3 or at most 7 or more Korean restaurants in the crowded mega-size shopping malls or some medium-size fancy malls of any districts, or shop lots.
There are usually many restaurants specializing in Korean meat BBQ and Korean fast food snacks. BBQ restaurants that sell meat are not halal restaurants because they usually use pork as their main item on the menu.
On the other hand, restaurants that sell Korean-style fast food such as tteokbokki, kimbap, bulgogi, various skewers, oden, sandwiches, or seasoned fried chicken are halal restaurants that do not use pork at all. So, of course, Muslim Malaysians can also enjoy these foods.
And recently, there are a few Korean convenience stores such as CU, and there are quite a few supermarkets selling Korean products in addition to Korean Town such as Ampang and Mont Kiara. Also, in some shopping malls, there are a few Korean-style coffee shops, bakery shops selling cream cheese bagels and various cakes and pies, and pop-up stores selling accessories such as earrings and necklaces imported from Korea.
I have already introduced several Korean BBQ restaurants in Malaysia. The Herb Valley BBQ Restaurant I’m introducing today is a Korean meat buffet restaurant in Tropicana Gardens Mall, a shopping mall in my neighborhood that opened about two years ago.
I remember that this restaurant also opened at the same time as the shopping mall opened. Business seems pretty good, except for a few months when the number of confirmed cases soared due to the covid crisis and intermittently customers couldn’t eat inside the restaurant. Especially for local Chinese who like the concept of all-you-can-eat pork barbecue buffet like me.
The restaurant is located on the 3rd floor of the mall with a cinema, karaoke and a new food court selling a variety of local foods. This restaurant is so bright and big that you can see it right away if you walk in the direction of the cinema. As the name of the restaurant suggests, the image of being able to eat meat with a very fresh herbal scent in a valley full of herbal scent seems to be appealing.
Prices range from RM43 for lunch on weekdays and RM52 for weekend or public holidays. For the price of a buffet that you can eat meat for 2 hours without limit, about $10 in USD is a really cheap price. At the entrance, there are several Korean signature foods that you can order and eat at a single price, and the price of in-house kimchi by weight and the price of 5 packs of Korean instant ramen are written on the banner.
The best thing about it was that when I went with local friends, the lady boss happened to be there, and it was so nice to be greeted with a big smile. Because we went early, it wasn’t busy yet with customers, so she briefly showed us the food for each corner.
The boss showed the ramen station where you can cook and eat yourself, and continued to show the side dishes corner with over 25 delicious and neatly made side dishes.
There are crunchy, spicy and freshly made shredded radish(??) and equally crunchy bean sprouts(?????) that I like.
You can also see eggs(??????) simmered in soy sauce, fried onion rings, and rolled eggs(????).
Of course, there are several types of fusion-style kimchi jeon(???), cheese and vegetable jeon(?????), eggplant jeon(???), dofu jeon(???) and cheesy pizza and quesadilla looking corn filling jeon.
And simple yet delicious kimbap(??), tofu skin kimbap(????), japchae(??), and tteokbokki(???), which are not to be missed in Korean snacks(??).
There were two kinds of soup, at that time there was Korean-style doenjang soup(???) and seaweed soup(???), and on some days there was kimchi soup(???).
After all, it is important to check the meat because we come to a meat restaurant. There are about 10 types of meat, except for the chicken marinated with herbs, all of them are pork marinated with various herbs by cutting various parts of pork into various thicknesses.
The pork belly, a favorite of Chinese and Koreans, is sliced ??very thickly. And you can tell the freshness of the meat at a glance. In particular, the thickness of the pork is deliciously thick, and as the name of this restaurant says, the pork marinated with bay leaves and basil herbs and a moderate soy sauce flavor really caught my eye.
And some of the pork chunks were simply marinated in whole coarsely ground peppercorns, which was quite impressive because I liked the spicy, fresh peppery flavor.????
Also, among the foods eaten with barbecue grilled meat, there are fresh cabbage, chilli, garalic, and lettuce etc. These fresh raw ingredients are not only good for the body, but also they offset the oily and greasy mouth and give you a fresh aftertaste so you can eat more meat all over again, but they are important ingredients that I try to eat more instead of carbohydrates at bbq buffet restaurants.
For that reason, Herb Valley restaurant was full of thickly sliced raw onions, mushrooms, chili and garlic, and round radishes, even raw okras which I was very satisfied with.
And since I can eat unlimited spicy kimchi here, it’s perfect for me.
In particular, there are quite a variety of Korean ssamjang sauces for dipping BBQ meats, so it is good to mix and make your own.
I’m already excited about the idea of grilling pork in different cuts, chosen on multiple plates. ????
While we waited for the meat to be cooked, we started eating tteokbokki, japchae, gimbap, and pancakes in moderation, just like eating appetizers at a course restaurant. However, in order to eat as much cooked BBQ meat as possible, I tried to eat pre-cooked foods in moderation without overeating them.
And, not surprisingly, my local friend Wendell starts drinking his favorite Korean soju below, even before the meat is cooked, as an excuse to stimulate his appetite. In fact, soju is one of the essential alcoholic beverages in Korean meat restaurants, and even Koreans who do not drink alcohol often accept that soju is almost a companion when eating BBQ meat.
When it comes to soju, it seems that he is closer to Korean alcohol and food culture than I am.????????
One of the best things about this restaurant is that you can eat unlimited pork and various pre-cooked dishes for 2 hours at such a low price.
The only downside is that, given the low price, it’s not the style of a meat restaurant you can find in Korea, where meat is grilled on a wire mesh over hot charcoal with a briquette scent.
Instead, it’s grilled on an electric hot plate, so it doesn’t have the char-grilled flavor of the flame.
However, at other Korean restaurants, you have to pay this price even if you eat one or two items of Korean food separately, but here you can eat a lot of BBQ meat with various delicious Korean foods, which is a good deal.
And through a concept that seems to give pleasure in a different way, I think of it as an herb valley restaurant where you can feel fragrant by eating meat marinated with various herbal flavors on the tip of our noses and in our mouths. ????
And for around US$10, ice cream and drinks are included as well.
If you like BBQ meat like me, and especially if you go to a buffet bbq meat restaurant where you can eat unlimitedly, you should definitely try here and eat as much as possible. ????
Don’t forget to check out my YouTube video for a restaurant review I made for the detailed atmosphere of the restaurant, all the Korean food here, how the meat is grilled on a hot plate, and the friendly staff etc. Happy eating! ????
Herb Valley BBQ
Located in:Tropicana Gardens MallAddress: Lot F3-36, Level 3, Tropicana Gardens, Selangor
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