Sitted by the floor to ceiling windows, bronze lampshades and baubles hanging above at irregular lengths, tapping away on my phone whilst waiting for my friend. The failed moment when your friend stood outside by the window trying to grab my attention by making silly faces, but the fact is I never took a notice of it. Lifting my head, I turned and saw my friend Burcu standing outside. With the most confusing expression on my face, wondering what the hell is this girl doing not coming inside and would rather be out in the cold. I have a lot of silly friends that always trying to play their humour side when being with me. Be warned, I am a joke killer. Do not expect to me to laugh, because I will just kill it unexpectedly.
Korean BBQ has always been an on and off trend. In fact this is my second Korean BBQ in London throughout living here so long. Burcu never had Korean cuisine before so this was a surprisingly interesting introduction to her. Located in St Giles Piazza, Superstar BBQ is a new Korean joint from the mini chain of Bimbimbap. The stretch of St Giles Street and Tottenham Court Road is fast becoming the second Korean Town (after New Malden in South London) with many new establishments opening up.
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| Fallen Angel in Busan |
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| Super Star Queen's Peach |
Both cocktails used soju (Korean distilled beverage) as the base of its alcohol. It tasted very nice, just a touch of overly sweet for mez
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| Banchan (namool & kimchi) |
The menu is just as what you would expect for a Korean BBQ, full of different marinated meats. With our indecisiveness, we opted for the set menu no.3, for £35 each. When one hear the word BBQ, it will linger to the taste of smoke over hot coals, the dimension of charred on food. Due to the strict UK health and safety, it will be a rarity to play with fire. In place is an electrical grill fitted in every table.
An array of banchan proceeded, side dishes of fermented and seasoned vegetables. The kimchi was well made, enough spiciness for those that can not tolerate spicy and still had a crunch to it.
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| Pa Jeon (seafood pancake) and Traditional Mandoo (dumplings) |
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| Yuk Hwae (beef tartare) |
The pa jeon, a thin batter pacake studded with seafood lost its crispness. The traditional mandoo, fried dumplings are just what you'd expected. What stood out was the yuk hwae, the Korean version of beef tartare. It is usually made up of julienned strip of the most tender part of the beef, seasoning and egg yolk, mixed with julienned Korean pear and pine nuts for freshness and crunch. Another first for Burcu for tasting raw beef, thumbs up for the brave girl.
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| Korean BBQ |
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| Squid |
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| Rib Galbi |
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| Wine Pork Belly |
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| Sesame & Garlic Sirloin |
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| Grilled Vegetables |
The parade of meat and seafood for the BBQ was set up after the starters. I had to swap the tiger prawns for squid due to my allergy. We were presented with squid, rib galbi (de boned short rib), wine pork belly, sesame & garlic sirloin and vegetables. According to the instruction, it would take around 3 minutes for the grill to heat up which was misleading. We could not get any caramelisation on our squid, the grill was simply not hot enough to cook yet. For rest, it did not go into incineration. On hands with the BBQ was some cabbage leaves, spring onion salad, gochujang (hot pepper sauce) and salt & sesame oil dipping sauce. How do you eat it? Simply use the cabbage leaves like a wrap. Add some cooked meat, salad and sauce to it, then dunk it into your mouth. If you're feeling lazy, skip all those steps and just eat the meat/seafood/vegetables.
Considering it is food for two, more came along with a small bibimbap and miso soup. Honestly we were too cluttered up by now, I still tested the bibimbap out and sipped on the soup.
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| Seasonal Fruits |
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| Honey Quince |
Dessert was a platter of season fruits acting as a palate cleanser and also a chilled honey quince drink which had a very intriguing taste.
Superstar BBQ is a fun interaction food venue for a Tinder date or a group of friends. Food is met with novelty of self cooking, but once the fun is worn off it is lacklustre. Service was friendly and all staffs spoke fluent English.
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