Review Don Don Korean Bbq Buffet - Adelaide

Best Korean BBQ, delightfully tasty and so fresh. Tried so many different dishes. LA ribs is my definite mouth watering favourate. Love the concept of cooking yourself. Absolutely worth every $$. You can eat so much in that time frame.

The Worst Korean bbq experience in all the world. Will not suggest anyone to eat this place. Low food quality. Rice cake no flavour like steamed. All marinated meat same taste. Too too sweet even spicy meat. They delivery so so slow. We order a lot, but they only bring half, then after 1 hour they bring the others. But the terrible thing is the service!!! They keeping turn down the fire, cooked very slow. And only have 1.5 hour to eat. The owner is very very rude. We have 15 minutes left, he put all the raw meat to hot plate mix with cooked meat. So so rude. We never came again. Not worth the money.

Good value for money. All you can eat. Great variety of side dishes. My favourite dish is the spicy beef soup. Ok service. The only thing is they don’t have table/tap water, the only option is to buy the bottle water. Is it legal? 🤔

Rude service. First of all, they ALWAYS forget one or two things when they serve which is okay. We could ask for it again. $39.90 bbq and we asked for one more lettuce and they said recently the service has changed and only one serve per table?? The worst part is one of the staffs came and change the paper. He just so IMPATIENT and RUDE the way he handle things. Basically throwing all the meat across the stove, it even got on the table which is outside of the stove and not even say sorry or anything and left afterwards. We are right in front of him?! Then he changed the heat to medium. Later on we changed the heat back to max so the meat cook faster and a few seconds later he came back again, not saying anything and changed the heat back to medium. Extremely rude and unprofessional. Never coming again.

There's no complaint of the service and clean of the restaurant. If I have to say anything, I wish their portion can be bigger so we don't need to keep calling the waiters to order more 😀 Just one thing we all feel strange, why this restaurant does not offer tap water?! The excuse/reason the waiters used was: "because it's Covid"?! This does not make sense!! Hopefully the owner can set up the tap water in the fridge or room temperature supply for customers as complementary of dinning to use. It would be good.

We went on a weekday which is less busy, and the staffs are very friendly and kind. The food was absolutely amazing will definitely come back.

I feel like this restaurant had such a bad customer services, we came to the shop at 5:30 and we order so many stuff but only some came and it took them 1 hour and half to make one meal and it was burn as well, this restaurant take so long to serve their customer. we ask for more lettuces and they had not enough lettuces. I am highly disappointed to go to this restaurant because food takes so long to serve and everybody is rushing because they have less workers working there. I feel like this restaurant needs more worker and have a good customer services.

Food quality was decent. Quantity supplied was average. Flavour of food was good and time between ordering and receiving food was okay. Had asked for particular dishes several times and did not receive.

I’ve always loved coming here for some korean bbq. Its my first time back in awhile since being away. Unfortunately, the service was appalling. I don’t like leaving bad reviews during this time but the manager was very rude, did not speak to us nicely during our order. When we went up to pay, she rushed us. I understand there may be some people waiting but I felt anxious because she was rude about it that we felt so rushed. It’s unfortunate as don don used to be my favourite place to go. Might not come back after the experience with the lady manager.

Very poor service. No hello when I walked in just a "you have a booking". I was looking for takeaway. They didn't even understand a common korean dish when I asked in Korean. Avoid.

Great place and delious food. Great value for money. Dispute the rating because this place is a hidden gem.<br/>Worth a try don’t always judge a place by the ratings

Food was nice, not a lot of meat options, but lots of other entry options, really good that they have soup as part of their buffet. <br/>Really enjoy the quick service. <br/>Awkward about the self serve water, sometime the waters are all gone and they don’t re fill it. <br/>Only two options for sauce which is sad. <br/>But over all great food, lots of flavours. <br/>Possibly one of my favourite places

The worst all you can eat kbbq I have ever been to. Do not waste your money here. Wish I could give 0 stars. <br/><br/>Pricing: Above average compared to others in the city<br/>Service: Horrible. Would take ages to bring out the meat whenever we ordered, I had to call the staff 4 times to order sauce before it was finally brought out. Took their time to bring out small sides such as rice and lettuce as well as the meat to delay your meal. <br/>Quality: The cuts of meat are horrible, you can get much better quality meat in the city at a much lower price. All the sides are appalling - rice cakes were dry, dumplings were bland.<br/><br/>The meat took forever to cook so we asked one of the staff and they brought up the heat from medium to high. Every 20 minutes a server will come and clean your grill (they will take their time and waste about 5 minutes each time). They will then turn the heat back to medium. We would turn it back to high and the staff told us we can't do it because the manager said so (one of their tactics to keep us from eating too much). Would take upwards of 10 minutes just for the wagyu beef to cook. We asked them not to clean our grill and they also said the manager said they have to. On another note, also heard the manager swearing to his staff in Korean as well as swearing at a customer under his breath who didn't understand.<br/><br/>I set a timer when we started the kbbq - this place has a rule that you cannot make orders within the last 20 minutes (which is ridiculous). With 30 minutes to spare the server came up to us and told us we have 20 minutes left, lying to our faces. With 10 minutes left they told us to finish up as they had people waiting. <br/><br/>Don Don is essentially a scam. I have no idea why people go here. Take your money somewhere else.

Came with 4 other guys, not the best korean bbq place in adl but it still filled me up well. Would have rated 2 stars due to the relatively smaller grill, average tasting meat and slow service. But I give it 4 stars because there was one very pretty and cute waitress and I enjoyed her service.

First of all, I have to say that the food here is not too bad if you're new to Korean barbecue-style cuisine (and if you don't have the proper standard to compare the food to). As a Korean myself, the barbecue meats were sub-par at best, and the meals were kind of an embarrassment by the Korean standard. The side dishes (banchans) like the fish cake were very dry, which I assumed was because they were old and left out for too long. We also got the mashed potato, which tasted watered down. The portions of the side dishes are VERY small, which meant that we had to continuously order the same thing over and over again, which was annoying as the waitress kept forgetting our orders.<br/><br/>But it wasn't just the food that I had issues with. The biggest problem was the hygiene in this place, or the lack of. The owners obviously lack the basic common sense on what is clean and what isn't. The tables were sticky when we sat down, and you could see little pieces of chilli flakes stuck to the table surface which was absolutely disgusting - and the same thing happened with the plates when we got the side dishes which obviously meant that the plates aren't washed properly. The plates were also very oily and sticky at the bottom. Worst part - the waitress kept cleaning the grills with these wet baby wipes every five minutes or so with these disgusting tongs with burnt meat pieces stuck on them - and she would touch the meat with these tongs. Now, in Korea, they usually come in and change the grills with a new one when the old one gets too dirty but not here. It would take them up to five minutes each time which interrupted our meal times and wasted out 100 minute dining time.<br/><br/>Also the furnitures were old and the chairs were all different - some of them were actually those $5 K-mart foldaway chairs which were really uncomfortable to sit in. We didn't have any issues with the waitress, she was very nice and friendly. The cook from the kitchen however (he was a very large man wearing the white chef uniform), was extremely rude when he came out to help out in the restaurant floor. Every time he would slam down the dishes on to the table, which was happening to the other tables as well not just us. And I don't think he spoke English because when we tried to order something from him he would just storm off, and he was frowning all the time.<br/><br/>Overall, pretty terrible experience. Almost want to get other people to go check this place out and experience it themselves, because looking back it is hilarious how disgusting and unpleasant the experience has been (wasn't too much fun when we were actually eating though).

After a little bit of a lifestyle change, we decided to go for a meat heavy experience on a chilly Friday night. Korean BBQ seemed to be a good option that fit the bill and was hearty enough for the weather. Don Don offered the all-you-can-eat style BBQ selection for around $37pp (weekend prices). This covers the banchan, barbecue meats, seafoods and stews/hotpots. <br/><br/>We came in eager and ready to chow down on some Korean food, and the first few rounds satisfied us easily. The familiar and comforting taste of lightly seasoned, perfectly grilled meats is second to none. Among the meats we grilled were pork galbi, LA ribs, Wagyu short plate, teriyaki chicken  and some bulgogi too. However, by the end of the 100 minute eating frenzy, we'd been pork-bellied out and our jaws hurt from munching on so much meat! <br/><br/>There was also a beef bone stew, which was nice and warming, but didn't really pack the umami complexity of a traditional Korean seollongtang. Of course, the establishment is known for K-BBQ so there is no real use in comparing the other dishes to the likes of other Korean a la carte restaurants in Adelaide.<br/><br/>Given the price, we're sure you can get your money's worth by stuffing yourself to the point of postprandial angina. However, if you're not looking for that sort of experience and want more of a dining feel, you may want to consider dinner elsewhere. If it's K-BBQ, Don Don succeeds in delivering the experience it promises - unlimited meat and grill for 100 minutes - at a relatively high price.

It was pretty obvious this place was short on staff as on this Sunday night all you could see was staff frantically running from table to table to the kitchen etc, sometimes bumping into each other. One of our orders was chased up 3 times before it arrived. At that stage we had finished the food on the table and were just sitting and waiting...while the 100 minutes maximum sitting time was ticking. One staff member did apologise for the delay and explained it was because two of their staff were new and under training.<br/>Being a buffet joint (and almost $35 pp), I was also suprised to see that many of the items (some meat items, prawns, dessert) were excluded from the charge and you had to pay extra.<br/>The dishes themselves we not too bad though, some good variety.<br/>Would recommended you make a booking to avoid some waiting time.

Pros: The food was good, cleaned the hot plate regularly. <br/><br/>Cons: repeatedly forgot the same order even though we repeated the order via different servers. Waited a very long time for our food. The place is great when there's only two tables in there but any more than that, don't expect service nor food.

the all-you-can-eat buffet is good! It's way more enjoyable going with at least 3+ people so you get to try a lot more varieties. Live the tokiyaki balls from there!

It was my first time trying korean bbq so it just may not be my thing, but the staff werent great. So its an all you can eat for $30 per person but they dont tell you that its within an hour and a half and they charged extra because it was friday-sunday. The problem with the time limit was i could never get staffs attention so i sat there hungry most of the time. When you did, they were abrupt and ran off sometimes before you were done. They did have a lot to attend to considering its order as you go but they had a lot of staff to compensate (itd a small place) - so maybe they need even more? I feel the girls were just flustered mostly. <br/>I wasnt crazy on the food, theres two basic marinades so there isnt much variety and the meat is very fatty which is more a problem of personal preference than with the restaurants, i think its normal to have fatty meats at korean bbq<br/>But yeah wasnt a great experience and left still hungry.

Service was terrible, 3 out of the 5 waiters were short and rude with our group.<br/>The food overall was mediocre and atmosphere obnoxious.<br/>I couldn't be paid to eat here again.

This is the first time I am really angry with the restaurant, they didn't have the limited time and we have pay the extra fee in the menu. We ordered lots of thing（we sure that we can finish)but they only gave us two plate of chicken, we think that it might be coming soon,but after we almost finished it still not come, we just can only order again, then a woman came and told us that the rule of this restaurant and said we can't order too many thing, we can't finish it??????and also the fire is too slow let us waiting for a long time, and in this 100 minutes they come to clean the stove more than 5 times, I don't know that we still got how many time we can eat. And suddenly the woman came and let us stop eating, and said we have to paid for 3 plates, we don't wanna argue with her. It was a lovely day but this experience make me feel really disappointment, I think that why nobody want to come to this restaurant, they cheat to all the customers!!!!!!!! Terrible experience,the worst restaurant in Australia

If I can, I will give 0.0 to this restaurant. At first, the staff asked us "Are you the first time come here?", we said yes, then he asked "100 mins is it ok?", we said "ok", lastly, he said "if you waste any food, you need to pay for the extra!", we said "no problem".<br/>When we start cooking the meat, the fire was very low heat, and we waited for about 15mins, the meat still raw, another staff came and turn the fire more high, but after a moment, the staff at first came and said "you can't turn to high heat yourself", and he was so impolite to us.<br/>We were unhappy at that time, cause we didn't do anything, but the staff was so rude to us many times, it is hard to tell all of things happened.<br/>After around one hour and half, the staff told us "you have 15 mins left, do you have any thing to order? This is the last order". And after 15 mins, we still got some food need to finish, we still eating. The staff came and said "Time up, you need to pay for the waste, or you need to pay for the extra time that you finish the food", WHAT????? No one told us if we can't finish the food in 100 mins, we need to pay for the time to eat!!!!!!! We told the staff and the staff just keep argue with us, and just told me that "I had many customer and no one complaint, we got many booking ..........." that was so disappointed and we wont go again.<br/><br/><br/>

THIS RESTAURANT DOES NOT CATER FOR 1 PERSON. DON'T COME HERE IF YOU'RE SINGLE! THEY WON'T WELCOME YOU! I was very disappointed having walked tirelessly to Don Don for Korean bbq to be greeted with a "sorry we don't cater for 1 person".  Sorry I can't do anything about my single life, if I had the choice I wouldn't be single, I didn't choose the single life, the single life chose me, yet they were so unsympathetic and rejected me. Never coming back!

We tried this restaurant for the first time with some Korean exchange students. <br/>I was a little concerned before going after reading some of the reviews, but glad we took the chance to try for ourselves.<br/>The staff were extremely friendly and helpful.<br/>The service was fast, and the food was delicious. <br/>It was a fantastic way for our Korean friends to introduce us to many of their dishes. <br/>We will definitely be going back again, and remember to book ahead!!!

First of all, I created a zomato account just to comment how terrible my experience was eating at this all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ. I decided to try this place based on recent good reviews but I was left disappointed, wishing that I had chosen a decent restaurant in the first place. <br/><br/>I was extremely surprised when I was served frozen pieces of meat for what they claimed to be "Wagyu Short Plate", which took forever to cook on a hotplate that wasn't hot enough. As for the "Spicy Bulgogi", it seemed that I was served leftovers cuts of beef as they were tiny. The other cuts of meats that I tried were either too small and/or contained a lot of fat.<br/><br/>The quality of the BBQ at this place is pretty dismal and isn't worth the $35 per person price-tag (on weekends). I will never recommend this place to anyone who enjoys a good BBQ. Keep on walking and spend your hard-earned money elsewhere.

Favourite all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ place in Adelaide. So many choices of meat, side dishes, soups, and the steam egg (Gyeran jjim)!! Service is fast and excellent.

I used to go here for special occasions previously and have always had a very positive experience..except for my most recent visit.<br/><br/>Mother's day was nearing so I decided to make a booking for 6 adults and 1 child to celebrate. Prior to dining, I raved on how great the customer service and food was to my family..my latest visit proved how wrong I was. The waiters/waitress, although polite, would 'magically' lose our orders. We had to continually ask if our order was being processed and we were met with the same response "I'll just check" only to find out later that the computer had apparently broken down. Now..if I were a staff member who had this knowledge, I would organise for someone to take the table order again.<br/><br/>Our food took a while to come out and the portions always came out A LOT smaller than we requested. For example, when we'd ask for 4 plates of Takoyaki, they would give us 6 takoyaki balls. When we left the restaurant, we were hungry and wishing we had dined elsewhere - I had to eat two burgers from McDonald's afterwards because I wasn't satisfied! I also believe that the grills have been tinkered with so that they can't be turned onto high heat - it took 20 minutes alone to reach medium-high heat and at least an extra 15 minutes to cook the meats. It seems like they've gone drastically downhill with their budget cuts. Positives? The meats had a nice marinade. Don dons is all you can eat restaurant with a 2 hour time limit - it seems that they have deliberately taken measures to ensure the least amount of food is brought out to their customers within the given time frame. Sneaky!<br/><br/>Taste: 7.5/10<br/>Portion size: 3/10<br/>Customer service: 6/10<br/>Atmosphere: 7/10<br/>Value for money: 4/10<br/>Waiting time: 3/10

We came here based on the good reviews however we were disappointed with the service. <br/><br/>A group of 8 of us arrived to have several of our dishes not brought out despite asking 3 times on one occasion. Waiters were way too busy to offer a proper service that I'm reading about in the other reviews. Eventually one of the waiters came out and said that they didn't have any bugolgi left and it would take a long time to make more.. Seriously a Korean BBQ without bugolgi....

Best Korean BBQ in Adelaide I could find and great prices considering, the service is excellent, you get two hours to eat as much as you can, pace yourself though as you want to experience everything on the menu! Especially the LA Beef Ribs.

I was sad today. My good friend noticed my feet drag along the ground as I walked, my blank expression, my avoidance of eye-contact with strangers and acquaintances alike, so they wanted to cheer me up and this begins the story of my experience at Don Don.<br/><br/>All you can eat Korean BBQ. That was enough to get my attention. I was greeted by a very kind waiter, he showed us to the table and offer to explain the menu, which was unnecessary as I was with someone who had been here before. I looked at the menu that was on the wall and ordered a few things that I love at Korean BBQ. They have the usual foods, but they also offer dishes such as bibimbap to which I ordered without hesitation.  <br/><br/>All the beef, chicken and pork were marinated beautifully. Even when we forgot to remove a piece of meat on the BBQ, and it was mostly charred on one-side, the meat was still delicious. Kim-chi was lovely, and provided our dishes with a nice heat. The bibimbap was absolutely delicious and it's one of the best I've had. All of this is great value for money (even on weekends where they charge an extra dollar or two) considering you'll be paying almost double for quality Korean food at other restaurants in Adelaide. The salad dressing on the green salad was refreshing and was a welcoming touch.<br/><br/>The service was also stellar. Very friendly and approachable from all the staff that were working here this particular night. They were attentive, and cleaned the BBQ regularly. The food came out very quickly and were friendly in granting our requests for more bowls or rice or put more food on order. <br/><br/>It's rare to find a great and tasty all you can eat but the food is here is extremely well marinated, authentic and delicious. The fact that this place has a rating of 3.3 with 59 votes at the time of this writing is a travesty. The quality of the food and service are not representative of the rating currently on Zomato. This is the best Korean BBQ place in Adelaide, and without a doubt, one of the best restaurants in Adelaide (this is assuming that you can turn meat over at regular intervals without letting it over cook/burn).<br/><br/>This place is perfect for a gathering with friends, or when you can't get rid of the feeling of self-loathing or depression, the food will definitely bring warmness to the heart and a smile to your face.

We went on a Sunday night, we were greeted by a friendly waitress who made us feel welcome. The bbq was then explained to us and drinks were ordered. The selection of accompaniments was impressive and the quality of the meats was excellent. Will definitely be returning. @kaweeeeeee

New favourite Korean Bbq spot! Since the new change in menu, their all you can eat buffet bbq is definitely worth going back for! The servings are big! Very generous with their portion sizes, fresh meat and well marinated. Can probably improve on the kimchi pancake which we found was too thick and floury and the miso stew slightly bland. However the pork galbi and spicy bulgogi is a must try. The tofu soup was one of our favourites too! Also, very good customer service Don Don! Haven't experienced such friendly, prompt and attentive service in a long time! Good service from your waiter and waitresses makes the whole dining experience so much better. Two thumbs up from a happy customer here!

Don Don Korean BBQ is still somewhat an underrated little Korean restaurant. It’s located on the other end of Hindley Street, far away from the hustle and bustle of the many clubs and bars the street is known for. Prior to coming here. a friend said they recently announced on their Facebook page, that they had updated their all-you-can-eat buffet menu for Korean barbecue.

GOOD QUALITY ALL YOU CAN EAT!. I have been coming to the same place for a long time now. Got a little worried that the meat quality would drop when they changed to buffet. Went there yesterday and food was still amazing. Great friendly service. Cheap eat. Easily the best korean bbq in adelaide. Would recommend this place to everyone!

Nothing like Korean food. The sushi from here is the only thing ever worth ordering. Hot pot had no egg and is basically a bowl of over cooked rice and the other lunch specials are so bland and have a pathetic amount of meat and other veg. The chef is extremely rude when asking about the missing egg in the hot pot but the waitress is lovely and was so apologetic and did say there should be an egg. We feel like we threw our money down the toilet. Just lost yourself some of your sushi appreciating customers.

Best korean bbq in adelaide...<br/>Taste is the best

The best cheap eat. I love this place.been going there for 3 yrs.always gorgeous service,immaculate food,and excellent value for money.

Really authentic Korean food, the fire chicken is awesome.<br/>Easily my favorite place in Adelaide.

Great food, and it's hardly ever packed, so don't worry about reservations unless your group is really big. Very minimalistic place, hardly any decor, but it doesn't matter when the food is this great! Order any meat for BBQ - cant go wrong. I also recommend the tofu seafood soup, huge kicker for those who love spicy food!

Don Don is a Korean/Japanese place located towards the Western end of Hindley Street. The menu is quite simple with 16 different dishes to choose from.