song do bbq (duluth, ga)

We decided to give this place another go after a disappointing experience last year. And my oh my have they improved.No longer were we greeted by a disgruntled and bitter waitress but a friendly owner and an enthusiastic waiter. Sorry about the awful, dark photo of the restaurant. Atlanta is experiencing rain for the next week. Seattle, please come pick up your weather whenever you want. Anyways...

They weren't particularly busy so we chose our own seats.They're doing an all you can eat special right now so we went with that. There's one for $19.99 and one for $21.99 with the latter special offering more meat choices.

The banchan is self-serve - you grab a plate and choose what you want. They were all okay except for the Chinese chives. Extremely sweet and a strange aftertaste. It tasted like they put fish sauce in it, a seasoning I quite like, but the combination of flavors were off. My personal favorites were the spinach and the daikons. I love pairing the daikons with the meat as the vinegar/acidity cuts down on the richness of the meat. It's pretty tasty by itself too if you're into that sort of thing.

We sampled every type of meat they offered but the marinated galbi was our favorite. It was tender, juicy and well marinaded. It looks like they score the meat slightly so more marinade can enter the meat. The result is that oh so pleasant sweet and savory flavor combination that characterizes this popular meat. The unmarinated galbi comes out frozen but the rest of the meats came out fresh. You can always ask for more of the king mushrooms, sliced garlic cloves and the onions. If you haven't had roasted garlic cloves with your Korean BBQ, you're missing out.

The 2 surprising dark horses at Song Do were the ssam jang and doenjang jigae. The ssam jang had traces of whole fermented soy beans, somewhat like chunky peanut butter, and it added a nice texture to the condiment. The jigae was generous in vegetables, meat, tofu and full of that fermented doenjang taste that I love. It takes some time to get used to the smell and flavor if you're not used to it but for a conditioned Korean like myself, it's an absolute staple for an enjoyable BBQ experience.

Song Do is a good Korean BBQ that often goes overlooked in a restaurant crazed neighborhood. A solid 4 stars because of their significant improvement in both service/food and the ssam jang that took me by surprise. Will return again and I hope the owner keeps up the great work!