The world of all you can eat Korean BBQ is a cut-throat world, price margins are slim and it’s a big volume play. Consequently often times you feel like you’re being rushed through the meat grinder when you visit one of these places, I’m looking at you Iron Age.
But hey, people love Korean BBQ and they love all you can eat Korean BBQ even more. And who can blame them? That stuff is DELICIOUS and when it’s all you can eat, you can literally stuff your face till you explode, which let’s be honest is the best kind of eating. But somewhere along the way, the human element of the experience was lost and it became just about jamming as much food down your gullet as possible, whilst listening to K-POP blasted at decibels that will no doubt cause tinnitus later on in life. Don’t get me wrong, I still love Iron Age, but it can get on your nerves at times.
SŌ Korean BBQ in Centreville, Virginia aims to change that pattern of all you can eat behavior, with a decidedly more calmer theme to their restaurant. When you walk in you feel like you’re in the latest hipster farm to table restaurant, with Edison light bulbs and chalkboards showing butcher cuts of meat you feel like someone with a twisty mustache should come out at a moments notice to refill your mason jar with the latest drinking vinegar. Another great aspect is that they take reservations, you can call ahead and I recommend that because they get really busy, we went on a Tuesday night so it wasn’t packed.
But let’s get down to business, how’s the food? Because at the end of the day all that other stuff is fine, but if the food sucks I will pay top dollar to get yelled and have my ear drums pulverized by the dulcet tones of Korea’s newest pop star.
The food is really good. Not perfect, but still really really good. The biggest difference between SO and other places is that it has sort of a regular menu in addition to the all you can eat option. They have tasting menus that feature a more diverse array of meats, if all you can eat isn’t really your thing I recommend this option as it probably gets you to the same end goal with a little more diversity in your selection. Keep in mind that if you have a party of two you might end up sharing a table with another pair, but you have your own burner and you don’t notice them.
If you’re an all you can eat enthusiast like me though, the tasting menu isn’t an option. Go with option A, it’s 25 bucks and option B really isn’t worth it for what you get unless you really want intestine, shrimp, abomasum, and short rib patty (see hamburger patty).I really loved the thin sliced pork belly, brisket, bulgogi, and pork bulgogi all of those were fantastic. The big disappointment was the regular spicy pork belly, it was too gelatinous and oddly chewy. Not like normal spicy pork belly, Iron Age has them beat there.
The service is more friendly than Iron Age and you don’t feel as forced out like you would at Iron Age. This place is definitely great and a must try for the all you can eat Korean fans.
Final Grade: B+
Parking – Plentiful, it’s in a strip mall
Food- Very good, on par with the other major AYCE places, although the spicy pork belly was a miss. Their banchan is excellent
Service – Friendly
