Seoulia

Giraffe and I thoroughly enjoy eating in Box Hill because it is a central location to meet between our suburbs.  Seoulia happened to be one of the places we dined at often. The restaurant recently had MAJOR renovations and was closed for almost a month! They now have installed booths, the space is cleaner and IT IS NO LONGER ALL YOU CAN EAT *cries*. For $29.50 per person, I had the luxury of choosing my own food amount from the vast choices in the buffet, with complimentary tea and ice cream to look forward to when I had finished eating. I'm assuming it is under new management because Seoulia was the best All You Can Eat KBBQ place, ever. If anyone can recommend a new place to try then please let me know!

I took the liberty of taking photos of the new menus items that are reasonably priced with good portions. There is also a separate sheet with set menu combinations, all under $40 from memory. Giraffe and I ordered C1 - for $25.00 per person. It included jasmine rice, bean sprout soup, pork bulgogi, beef bulgogi, pork belly and the various other side dishes such as kimchi, green salad and bean sprouts. The two sauces were sesame oil (my favourite) and bean paste. If you're intending to go to Seoulia sometime soon, then don't forget to remind the waitress of the FREE "SOFT DRINK" that you are entitled to with their new re-opening promotion. Don't be fooled as the soft drink consists of their rice drink, grape drink or aloe vera. They didn't have grape drink which is what I wanted so I had to make do with the aloe vera... 

Open space and more organised! Love the layout.

'Excellence in Taste' - Clean and professional packaging, similar to White Tomato on Bourke Street. I didn't get to use the wet towel though which was a shame.

The basic side dishes. Kimchi, green salad and bean sprouts. 

THANKFULLY this is refillable for FREE so don't be afraid to ask for more ;) The kim chi wasn't cut properly but was flavoursome, better than the old kim chi that was provided in the buffet. 

Pork belly angle of the meat platter. Organised very nicely but there was WAYYYYY too much fat on the pork belly which gave it an elastic taste. Giraffe loves pork belly but we couldn't even finish it at the end. 

The bulgogi angle of the meat platter. Pork bulgogi was surprising tender. I love beef bulgogi but the pork bulgogi was the winner for me tonight. 

INTRODUCING THE NEW NON STICK GRILL. There is less charring and smoke that comes out of this new grill which is excellent, but you still walk out smelling like bbq. The old system had inbuilt grills and rooftop ventilation which made the place dark and smokey. The waitress had a super cool gadget that allowed her to grab onto the tray to replace it without actually touching it. 

My attempt at a birds eye view photo. Still need a lot more practice and have better food styling techniques. I had to stand up to take these photos and the old couple on table next to me kept looking! Mind your own business man! 

Maybe I should stick to the normal angles instead?? :(

Elastic pork belly. LOOK AT DAT FAT CONTENT BUT WHY ARE U SO YUMMEH

The new booths. The waitresses cleaned the table next to us three times after the guests had left. The manager must be really anal on cleanliness since it's so new! Feel so sorry for the waitresses - from standing there cleaning at the buffet to having to serve guests and help them cut stuff up... I would be so annoyed if I was a worker there but now I guess it's like any other restaurant. 

There is a projector screen that is against the wall playing non stop korean music with their quirky film clips. I didn't have a problem with this as it wasn't played at a loud volume. I've never seen any other Korean restaurant with it so it was something new and refreshing. 

"Our dinners are a real eye opener in the neighborhood. Dine here once and you'll come again." 

I haven't been to SUT and Wine yet (located next door) as it looks expensive and Seoulia seemed to be the better option in terms of 'bang for your buck'. I can confirm that it is a 'real eye opener' despite the new (and upsetting) changes. The portions of food are excellent for the price that you pay. I do wish that they had fruit soju instead of plain soju for $12. 

Seoulia

Address: 980 Whitehorse Road Box Hill 3128

Contact: 98992696

Hours: Mon-Sun 5pm - 10:30pm, Saturday is open for Lunch

Price: $$ - $$$

Website: http://www.seoulia.com.au/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Seoulia

Wong's Lucky Bar

Sunday morning... rain is falling.

Sunday night... rain is still freaking falling.

Heading to Box Hill was seriously one of the scariest driving conditions that I have ever been under. Panicing between which speed to put my windscreen wipers on, making sure that I have enough time to brake behind cars, changing songs to fit the rainy mood and driving when rain is constantly being pissed down on you is a hugeeeeeeeeeee tackle.

But hey, I made it... and I'm ecstatic that I did. Wong's Lucky Bar is this tiny little restaurant next to the tram stop on Whitehorse Road. There is no menu on Urbanspoon, so I took the liberty of saving you some time and uploading the menu (the only important menu anyway). There were four hungry hippos on Sunday night, and paying $25 for a very decent meal was just excellent. How can you resist the delicious taste of pork riDs with peking sauce (refer to the menu below... I love Asians).

If you're going to check in on Foursquare (not that anyone uses that anyways) or on Instagram, it will say Wang's Lucky Bar. The only lucky bar for wangs that you will be getting is located in St Kilda. There is an error, it's actually Wong's! So they are so wong. (punny).

The sweet hospitality and service that was given from Wong's Lucky Bar deserved a thumbs up. The only bad thing about the place was that it was wayyyyyy too small. The table was not long enough to fit our king sized banquet, but we somehow managed. All the food came all out at once which was overwhelming. As if driving in the rain wasn't bad enough, I then had to decide which dish I would start off first (damn these first world problems). Below are all the images of all the dishes that you are served for the small price of $98. Next time, I am definitely getting the lobster! I love lobster!!! Everything that was served was at perfect temperature, so you know it is made relatively fresh and the food wasn't just reheated. My personal favourite was the haianese chicken (that's a given) andddddd the mud crab!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Customs would suggest that you begin with the Shark Fin Soup. If you're put off by the fact that it is shark fin, don't fret. You'll probably enjoy it more than you think you would. It has a sweet taste but is not chunky. There was no vinegar but the soup alone was flavoursome. My mum makes a better shark fin soup though, just sayin.

^ Haianese chicken.

I could never complain about this. It is just one of the most perfect forms of chicken, second to fried chicken of course.

^ sea cucumber, mushrooms and vegetables (big pieces of lettuce). 

I love mushrooms but the sea cucumber was pretty off putting. I've never eaten it before and it's pretty bad of a foodie like myself to not try it. But I just could not bring myself to eating it. We tried to swap the dish for another veggie one but unfortunately it's bound to the banquet.

^ le pork rids with peking sauce

This dish had the right level of sweetness and was even served with pineapples. I loveeee pineapples! The meat pieces were boney so I had to be extra careful when I ate it.

^ all of the dishes.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST: THE DELICIOUS MUD CRAB WITH EGG NOOODOOOOOO YAYAYAYAY

Mud Crab and Lobster is considered a delicacy. It seriously made me feel a lot better, considering rain just makes you feel lazy and groggy. 

Wong's Lucky Bar

921 Whitehorse Road

Box Hill VIC 3128

(03)9899 8558

Korean BBQ Restaurant Box Hill

FINISHED. Beyond ecstatic. Many drunken antics. Probably more boisterous than I already am in my current state. This is me, having finished exams which ultimately means having reached a milestone of 'half way through my commerce degreeeeeeeee'. Can you not see the smile and joy on my face?? (And can you also see the high quality photos compared to my damn iPhone!!!)

It really isn't a celebration unless there is food - and plenty of it. We went to celebrate like korean kings with korean BBQ... the name "KOREAN BBQ RESTAURANT BOX HILL" is really unique as you can tell. The food was really sub par but Seoulia was closed at the time, so we had no other choice. The images below display all the FAT on the meat which I was really disappointed about. The service was relatively fast and the waiters were really sweet. $29.50 per person for all these dishes AND ON THE MENU WE WERE MEANT TO GET ICE CREAM BUT DIDN'T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I actually didn't realise this until I was driving away thinking to myself WE COULD HAVE HAD IT ALL, ROLLING IN ICE CREAM. I guess on a good note, we did have an option of ordering rice with beef/seafood or soup. That's a different aspect compared to other higher end Korean restaurants that I have been to. AND if you check in on the book of face, you get fwee soju or beer but we were both driving so this was not happening :-(