Hongdae 33

Reviews

• ★★★★½ Beef Bulgogi Beef Tounge Pork Belly Cajun Shrimp Scallion Pancake Japchae Taboki Corn Cheese Ribeye Kimchi Cucumber Kimchi Beansprouts Pickled Daikon Fishcake LA Galbi Garlic Flatiron Visited Mar 22, 2026

  First Time Dining Here, Overall Flavor & Selection Was Good.

  First Time Eating Here
  Decided to try this Korean BBQ while visiting Houston. Location had a few items that were good, and a few that were mediocre, but overall the flavor and selection of almost everything was good. This Korean BBQ would probably fall somewhere towards the bottom of my top 10 list.
  
  First Round
  We started the meal with Ribeye Bulgogi, Pork Belly and Corn Cheese. The corn cheese serving was large, but was just average flavor wise. The ribeye bulgogi was tasty, the meat had good color, and was one of the better quality items. The pork belly was a bit lacking flavor wise even with the seasame oil.
  
  The wait staff here also brought out a large assortment of side dishes, including kimchi, pickled radish, bean sprouts, kimchi cucumbers, fish cakes, and other items.
  
  The kimchi had good flavor and texture, an item that should be good at any Korean BBQ, but Ive had many where the kimchi was bad. It was actually pretty decent here.
  
  The cucumber kimchi flavor was good, and had a bit of spice to it.
  The beansprouts were lacking in flavor, the fishcakes were decent, and the pickled radish was not very flavourful.
  
  Second Round
  Next we ordered the LA Galbi, Garlic Flatiron and Beef Brisket. The galbi here was really good. It had good texture, nice sized pieces, and was another favorite of the meal. The beef brisket was a bit plain. The garlic flatiron was decently seasoned and marinated, it required nothing to flavor it, and probably fell in the middle of the items tried.
  
  Third Round
  We ordered some cajun shrimp, spicy rice cake skewer (taboki), some japchae, and a scallion pancake.
  
  The japchae was great, maybe not my favorite, but as far as japcahe on all you can eats, this one was one of the better ones. The cajun shrimp was like spice roulette. The first one I ate was crazy spicy, my mouth was on fire. The 2nd one I ate was medium hot, and as far as flavor, they were a bit lacking, and really needed to be cooked along with some vegetables or something.
  
  The taboki were chewy and a bit bland, and the scallion pancake was decent again, but just not amazing. Also towards the end of the meal the taboki and pancake were just too filling. The pancake was cooked nicely, with a semi-crisp texture, and decent flavor, but not overly flavorful.
  
  Service
  Service was OK, there were a few times we were waiting to reorder, and for drink refills, and also with a time limit, we felt some of our time was spent waiting, but we left full, so it didnt really matter.
  
  Overall Impression
  Would I revisit, maybe, it wasnt bad, it wasnt excellent, theres some items I wouldnt order again, and others I would skip. Plus there were still several items to try. I would say that the biggest issue was a lack of seasonings or sauces to flavor some of the items.

  — Paul