My friend Kaye told me about Samgyupsalamat a few months ago and it’s been on my mind to try it.
Since I was vehemently against watching a certain movie last Saturday (Star Wars: A Solo Story), to avoid temptation, we did not go to the mall. It was a chance to go somewhere that is not in a mall, so I thought of finally trying Samgyupsalamat.
I searched online and saw that they recently opened a branch in Greenhills, and since it was the most accessible branch, we went to have dinner there.
SAMGYUPSALAMAT GREENHILLS / SAN JUAN
It is located at the second floor of Metro Pointe Center along P. Guevarra, above Rustan’s and Nathaniel’s. Parking is free, if you can get a slot. They also have free parking at the basement.
When we got there, we were surprised that the waiting list was already so long! We were 11th in line. Since we were already there, we decided to just wait it out. We waited for an hour and a half before we got a table. This place is still only on soft opening and the waiting time is already ridiculously long.
This is the table. It has a charcoal grill in the middle and a movable exhaust chute above. The table has already been set up with some banchan, lettuce, the dipping sauces, and water. Banchan includes baby potatoes, onions, pickles, salads, steamed egg, rice, etc… You can ask for more of the side dishes once you finish them. Free iced tea is also included. Tongs and scissors are available to help you with cooking and cutting up meat.
The menu is simple. It starts at P399/person for Pork Only (Lunchtime). Add P50 if you want Pork & Beef. For Dinnertime, it’s P449/person for Pork Only and P499/person for Pork & Beef. There’s a leftover charge.
We got the Pork & Beef, of course! 🙂 There are 9 kinds of pork and beef choices that you can order.
I think the steamed egg is cooked too much…
The meats were okay. They were seasoned well, and we were happy with the food. It’s not the best, but for P499/person, we can’t complain. I like the Gochujang meats, they are not as spicy as they look, they are sweet and only mildly spicy.
The thinner meats burn quickly, so pay attention when grilling them. The heat from the charcoal is mostly concentrated in the middle of the grill, and there’s no way to control the temperature short of rearranging the charcoal.
Their meat slicing / prep table is visible to customers:
Avoid Cross-Contamination
For Korean BBQ places like this, we always make sure to keep track of which utensils we use for raw, and which for cooked meats. You don’t want to use the tongs you just used to pick up raw meat and then use it for picking up cooked meat that people will be eating.
We ended the meal by ordering some Melona ice cream bars (P45), but I wasn’t able to fully appreciate it because I was hurrying to eat it. Even at 11pm, so many people were still waiting in line, at least 20 that we could see, and we felt bad about lingering any longer.
A plus for me is that Samgyupsalamat is open until 2AM 🙂 So ideally, you can still eat here after malling or watching a movie (last show).
SUMMARY
All in all, I was satisfied with our meal. I am used to eating at Sodam, so I miss having more variety of dishes available. At Samgyupsalamat, we just got the meats + some side dishes that are literally just vegetable side dishes. However, Sodam only provides one cut of pork and beef, while Samgyupsalamat provides 9 kinds. So if you’re in the mood for meat, go for Samgyupsalamat.
Having said that, I feel like I must also set your expectations that Samgyupsalamat is not the cleanest of restaurants. It’s not dirty dirty, I mean, in general it seems clean, but the floors were sticky. I’m not sure if they are still doing renovations on the floor and that’s why the floor is bad. Take note that they are still on soft opening.
Since the place was so busy, service was kinda slow, and sometimes we would just walk over to the meat preparation area and just pick up our own meats instead of waiting for the staff to hand us some.
However, I still think that Samgyupsalamat is really good value for money, especially if you’re craving for unli-meat Korean bbq 🙂
They also have a Birthday Promo where the birthday celebrant dines for free, as long as there are at least 3 full-paying companions.
