Light Town Korean BBQ

I'm a huge fan of Lighttown House in Garden Grove, but I'd never been to their sister store. I was just thrilled upon hearing that we were invited to lunch at the one in La Habra because I've always wanted to try it, but it was kinda out of the way.

Our table of 11 were given a nice spot in the back of the restaurant. A door was open to the sidewalk so lil guy could have access should he feel the need to run around a bit. The nice breeze coming through was perfect, helping some of the smoke from the charcoal grill push through -- although I don't think my friend's mom was happy about the smoke going right into her direction and on her face.

My friend's father had ordered kalbi and the tables were adorned with so many plates of panchan. I was starving but we waited until the 'grown ups' picked up their chopsticks before digging in. Boy, the array of panchan was impressive: julienned daikon, zucchini, anchovies, tofu, kimchi, salad with scallion .... I can't remember all of them, just trust me on this.

While the kalbi sizzled on the mesh wire, lil guy kept asking me if the beef was ready. That child was ready to chow down. In fact, he ate more meat than hubby and I combined. It was quite amazing. The quality of the kalbi was really good and with a dip into the sesame and salt dipping sauce it was perfect and ready to go. There was also the bean paste or just plain ole chili sauce for dipping. Whatever tickles your fancy.

My friend's dad got a menu and passed it to me, asking me to order whatever I wanted. I politely accepted but left the ordering to my friend. She got some naeng myun and OMG it was SOOOO good. I've had naeng myun before and it came in this huge-ass bowl. I hate it when there is this ginormous portion of something given to me. Here, it was a nice amount in a cold broth with a slice of beef, some daikon and cucumber slices and half a boiled egg. You add hot mustard and white vinegar to it for flavor. I liked mine with plenty of mustard. It was awesome.

Another dish was nakjibokum -- at least that's what I think it's called -- this octopus with onions and scallions, carrots in a gojujang type of sauce. I love this dish. It wasn't sweet and wasn't overly spicy. It was perfect over rice.

Beer was ordered to toast the celebration and the overall good cheer of this gathering was made even better by the excellent food and great company. I couldn't have asked for a better way to celebrate Mother's Day!

Now, I wonder if we would get the same service if we came without our Korean friends? Hmmm ... now there's a thought!

Came here to try the food based on some Yelp reviews and friend's advise. Unfortunately, we saw the reviews for "Light House" and not "Lighthouse". What's the difference you ask? 1 space and more negatives. People, get your spelling right!

They don't have a buffet menu here for so we ordered the set "B" menu @ $46, which included soju. We also ordered some other items like fish, tofu soup, and spicy pork. I thought the banchan were just OK, the use of grill coal was a nice touch, but the meat wasn't too tasty. They are not marinated and they were ok in quality. The tongue, I didn't like so much. Service here, I thought was above average, however, I would try somewhere else.

Since I've heard so much about this place and I've been here a few times I wanted to write my review about how interesting this place is. The service was awesome, the little ladies are helpful and attentive to the max!! I enjoy it the only thing I wish I enjoyed a lot too, is the food!

The meat didn't taste so great. No flavor to it and then the other time I went I decided to just get tofu. The tofu was very very salty to the point where I just imagined the chief putting a whole handful of salt in it.

This place has reasonable prices though, and if you want to eat all you can eat I guess then, this is a great and perfect place for you !! This place is located close to the Lowes hardware store and Sam's Club.

Not being Koreatown and not being Garden Grove, there's not a whole lot when it comes to choosing and picking your AYCE or even regular Korean BBQ near this area. That being said, I like coming to Lighthouse. For the AYCE, it's $17 for dinner and you get to choose from a variety of different meats that are both marinated and non marinated. I like to pick the NON marinated meats because you get to see the actual color and freshness of the meat. Plus restaurants usually use older meat to marinate.

We chose the pork belly, brisket and tongue. I would never order the tongue again. It shouldn't taste or smell like tongue. It shouldn't even be cut thick like a tongue. I'm glad they only gave us a little bit of tongue. The other meats were good. Come on, for AYCE, you can't expect the HIGHEST quality cuts of meat. Besides, for $17, it was pretty decent.

Excellent and friendly service even if you do not speak Korean. You will stink like Korean bbq once you leave the restaurant. Ventilation isn't the greatest in here. But your tummy will feel like exploding and there will be no room for dessert=)

Price $15.99 for lunch AYCE

First of all, I would like to say that I eat korean bbq very frequently. I'm so happy that I found this place as I often go play golf at the Westridge golf course which is literally RIGHT next to the restaurant. I now come here to eat every time I play a round of golf. Although I can't say that this is the best korean bbq that I've ever had, but this definitely ranks among my favorites.

When you come here, the two meats that you can not leave out is the beef brisket and the large intestine. For most korean bbq eaters, the beef brisket is the standard meat to try, and the brisket here is great. You can tell that the quality of the brisket is far greater than most korean bbq restaurants from looking at the marbling on the meat.

The large intestines are a must-try. Out of all of the large intestines that I've ever tried at any korean bbq restaurant, this place has the best large intestines hands down. This dish is what keeps me coming back every week after golf. It is important, however, that you cook these thoroughly in order to get the best flavor out of them. You must cook them long enough so that they turn into a goldish-light brown color but you must not cook them so long that they burn. Be sure to keep turning them as they come in a cylinderical shape. And for you ladies out there, I've heard from someone that these are good for the skin.

Let me repeat, you MUST try the large intestines. You will not regret it and you will find yourself craving it and coming back for more.

Don't forget to order the soy bean stew with the cooked rice soup as it comes included in your AYCE order.

The service here is pretty good too. They are friendly and the meat orders come out very quickly, unlike some other places that do AYCE.

I consider myself to be quite a Korean BBQ connoisseur, since I frequent a lot of those well-known AYCE places in both Koreatown and GG. I was interested in trying this place out because it's located in a really convenient plaza with tons of other places to shop...and truly, what better remedy than Korean BBQ when you're sleepy from shopping? :)

Unfortunately, this place just doesn't measure up for quite a few reasons, which I'll just try to sum up here:

1) It's pricey - cost us $18.99 per person, so for two people + tip...you could be nearing $50!

2) The sides - typically, Korean sides are pretty good...but this place doesn't have very flavorful sides. Obviously, the fish cakes at Kaju Tofu in GG are way better...and they don't give you the delicious noodles that Cham Sut Gol does. It seems like they give you the CHEAP sides, such as rice and bean sprouts. Basically, nothing special! On the bright side, I do like their kimchi!

3) The soup - it's NOT sundubu (the spicy tofu soup I love), but that bean paste stew with floating shreds of green onions and chunks of tofu. Way too salty for my liking. Also, they only gave us ONE soup, even though there were two of us! Kinda reminded me of my experience at Shik Do Rak in Irvine, ugh!

4) Service - people have commented on it already, but we came here on a weeknight when it wasn't even that crowded... and it still took forever for us to get refills of meat, extra napkins, and more sides. When the waitresses finally did come around, they usually gave us the WRONG order of meat, as well as the WRONG sides...so we ended up having duplicates of the sides we DIDN'T want. D'oh!

5) Meat - the quality of the meat seems pretty decent. I thought the pork chop and marinated sliced beef were especially good, but the rest of the meats we tried all fell short. The spicy pork was dry and the pork belly was especially dry and lackluster!

6) Slushees - they weren't great, but I still prefer the froyo or ice cream you get at other Korean BBQ restaurants over slushees. There's something about a slushee that just doesn't spell "dessert" to me, but it does make for a nice refreshing "snack" :)

I wish I could say I'd come back here because the location is so convenient, but unfortunately...I just can't give this place my recommendation in good conscience! The food and service just isn't what I'm used to. Boo!

GREAT all you can eat Korean BBQ, excellent meat and excellent service!

For 14.99/16.99/or 19.99 you can choose from different sets of meat choices. We chose the 19.99 one which you can get 2 kalbis per person, very well marinated and super tender. The chunks were delicious, so are the beef tougue, steak, and spicy pork. I really liked it a lot, compared to Palace BBQ in Nor Cal it's cheaper, better service, and more varities (and possibly better quality).
One thing I found really awesome is that then venting system works!! I didn't smell like BBQ afterwards where as Palace of San Bruno, I came out smelling like burnt charcol.
Overall, great experience (food+price+service), definitely a must try for visitors and locals!!

One word: Amazing Meat. Now, let me just break down the basics.

If you finish it all, it is all you can eat in 2 hours. Good, Fresh meat and You cook it how you like it. I get thick red meat and eat it when the outside is crisp and the inside is red....Great sauces!

Tips:
-Don't waste your AYCE money on veggies or rice. For $20 a person, you should probably feast on the protein.
And don't fill up on beer that is not included in the AYCE price or you won't be able to try as much meat.
Don't go here before you have someone else to impress unless you have time to shower. You will smell like meat.
Come at odd times or you will wait for hours!

If only I were less picky about my korean BBQ, and if only I cared less about steamed eggs, I'd give this place a full blown 4 stars

But no, this place only gets 3 stars from me. Why? If you must ask, I will tell you.

No steamed eggs.

What kind of AYCE Korean BBQ place does not give you steamed eggs?? What the heck is wrong with the management? Are eggs too expensive? They give you unlimited soy bean paste soup, but not even one steamed egg. I mean, I understand if they give you steamed eggs as a service and that you can only get one...I totally get it, but to not even offer one is just RUDE and WRONG. It seriously brought a tear to my eye when I found out that they didn't have any steamed eggs for me. The lady said I could order it if I wanted to, but based on principle, I refused to order any. It should be part of the ban chan collection.

Other than my minor debacle with the missing steamed eggs, the service was good. We got everything (besides the eggs) that we ordered from the AYCE menu promptly, although one of the ladies did shoot my boyfriend and I a weird and worrying look once she realized how much we were eating. She was probably concern that we might over eat, suffer, and die.

The meat was good (lean) but I don't think I was fully satisfied with my dining experience here due to the lack of steamed eggs. No, I'm not crazy in love with my eggs, but when EVERY OTHER AYCE places offer steamed eggs, Lighthouse Korean BBQ should learn to adapt!

I will come back once they decide to offer steamed eggs as part of their AYCE menu.

The end.

I came here because I saw a bunch of good reviews here, but I'm actually going to have to disagree...

Atmosphere: I'll give them the fact that it's clean and well put together, but that's it... Until we actually asked the manager, the air conditioning was OFF (and it was 93°F when I went there!) There also didn't seem to be that many people; there was almost nobody there when we came.

Food: I'll have to give them a 2nd opinion, but long story short, I blame myself for messing up and getting bibimbap confused with bulgogi, LOL... I have yet to find myself back in the area though, but will update this when I'm back.