– Gen Korean BBQ House in Ala Moana Center –
GEN Korean BBQ House at Ala Moana Center is a chain restaurant. It is a part of a global Korean food brand with 30 restaurants throughout the west coast of the United States. GEN Korean BBQ promotes excellence and legitimacy of Korean food all over the world and offers you the opportunity to try fresh, traditional Korean dishes. The menu is filled with infinite options of freshly prepared meats, seafood, and vegetables you can choose. Customers will have a great chance to try various Korean dishes at Gen.
Korean cuisine has been gaining global attention lately, and Korean restaurants are quickly adapting to the trends. Here in Oahu, Gen Korean BBQ is an example of a traditional fusion Korean restaurant. Even though Gen serves popular traditional Korean food, its manner of delivering and serving dishes to the customers and the interior design of the restaurant are not so common in Korea. The lightings and setups give off a luxurious and modern lounge/club vibe to the restaurant.
When Gen at Ala Moana Shopping Center first opened, much of the enthusiasms came from non-Koreans. Surely, with the rise of Kpop, Korean food has increasingly become popular.
Too often, many startup Korean restaurants fail to preserve the essence of Korean cuisine when trying to modernize and globalize by pursuing new methods to attract wide range of customers. However, Gen keeps the essence of Korean food tradition even with non-traditional, stylish and exciting decors.
A restaurant with its own personality
Gen Korean BBQ lays out its spacious indoor reminiscent of a fancy lounge with blue lightings. The dynamic music background and intense lighting make passerby intrigued and curious. The restaurant can accommodate around 300 people and each table can sit up to 6 people. Music is played in its excellent acoustic speakers in just perfect volume for people to exchange light conversations and have fun while eating. Many will find it surprising that Gen is just another restaurant at first glance due to its exotic features.
Gen is a restaurant that breaks the traditional concept and thus a must-try. The neon blue lightings illuminate the dark, modern, clean and spacious interior. Typically, you go into a restaurant with one specific dish in mind. At Gen, you have boundless of options to try for unlimited all in one set price. Beef, pork, chicken, shrimp, calamari, veggies, you name it.
Gen’s game changer, All You Can Eat menu
You might think of a buffet when you hear “All You Can Eat”. However at Gen, the servers bring out your choice of meat and side dishes at your request. You never have to leave your seat to get food like you would at a typical buffet. There are 27 options for lunch and 35 for dinner, all for unlimited. Of these, except for stew, rice cake, Korean stir fry glass noodles with vegetables, and side vegetables, most are meat dishes including sirloin, ribs, marbled meat, pork belly and chicken. If you do not eat meat, you can also order variety of fish dishes such as shrimps and calamaris. Korean pickles such as radish, kimchi, cucumber pickles, and potato salad are served along with various sauces and condiments to go with your choice of grilled food. You can order up to 4 different items at once, and you can order another round of meat after you start cooking the previous orders. Sauces, salad, rice, Korean pepper, garlic and raddish wrap can be requested unlimited times as well.
There are three different sauces: Bulgogi sauce (Korean teriyaki), Sesame oil & salt, Green tea salt. For soup, you can either order soft tofu soup and or Korean bean paste soup.
Best bang for your buck!
“All you can eat” lunch is $15.99 before tax and tip from Monday to Friday until 3PM. Dinner is $26.99 and applies to lunch hours on saturdays and sundays. There is a catch, however. There is a time limit of 2 hours to dine-in at Gen, and you might be charged $5 for any food you don’t finish. The latter is to prevent food waste. All drinks except water are charged. Gen may not have a full bar but still serves beer, soju, wine and sake all priced reasonably.
Gen Korean BBQ (Dinner)
- GEN PREMIUM STEAK
- SPICY PORK BULGOGI
- HANGJUNSAL
- PREMIUM CHADOL
- HAWAIIAN STEAK
- TERIYAKI PORK CHOP
- BEEF BULGOGI
- NOOK GAN SAL
- HAWAIIAN BACON
- GEN SIGNATURE YANGYUM GALBI
- SPICY CALAMARI VEGGIE BOWL
- SAMGYUBSAL
- SPICY SAMGYUBSAL
- SMOKED SAMGYUBSAL
- RED WINE SAMGYUBSAL
- CAJUN SAMBYUBSAL
- GARLIC SAMGYUBSAL
- WOO BEASAL
- CAJUN CHICKEN
- SPICY CHICKEN
- HONEY CHICKEN
- GARLIC CHICKEN
- SWEET & SPICY CHICKEN POPCORN
- DAECHANG
- GOBCHANG
- SHRIMP
- CAJUN SHRIMP
- SPICY CALAMARI
- CALAMARI STEAK
- CALAMARI FRITS
- ASSORTED VEGETABLES
- SWEET & SPICY RICE CAKE
- DWENJANG SOUP
- SOONDOOBOO SOUP
- JAP CHAE
**For lunch, there are 27 items on the menu. Hawaiian Bacon, Gen Signature Yangyum Galbi, Cajun Samgyupsal, Spicy Samgyubsal, Woo Beasal, Cajun Chicken, Cajun Shrimp, and Calamari Frits are not included.
Side Tip
There is no dress code. However, we advise you to dress nothing too fancy as each table has its own grill, and you cook the meat right in front of you. You will most definitely leave the restaurant smelling like grilled bbq and possibly some oil stains, so leave your best clothes at home. There is no private room for parties or tables for large groups so plan accordingly. The restaurant also does not take reservations so expect wait during rush hour. Parking is free for all Ala Moana Shopping Center guests.