Last year there was a flurry of KBBQ openings across Brisbane. It seems that the rush has slowed for now, so my ever expanding list can finally take a bit of a break. With that in mind though, Mokkoji immediately made it to the top of the pile when they decided to open a second branch out in Bulimba and to christen their store with half price bbq for four days. We immediately made plans to visit.
Being situated on the main strip along Oxford Street, finding parking wasn't as hard as I expected. There was also no queue when we went on opening day at 5.30pm. There was a short queue when we left at around 7 though.
The menu was in line with expectations of a Korean BBQ restaurant, there were a selection of BBQ sets and individual dishes. Other main courses were available as well as fried chicken, but those were not on sale so we didn't opt for that.
It didn't take too long for our food to come out, which was pleasing on the first day of trade. The table was a bit crowded for two sets and all the side dishes.
Starting off with the Silver Wagyu platter, allegedly the only difference between silver and gold was the quantity of wagyu. Kudos to Mr J for pointing out that silver offered better value per dollar, which was counterintuitive to what you would expect. Anyway, we ordered a silver platter that came with 600g of assorted wagyu. The beef was well marbled and tender, but I would say definitely inferior to the quality you would get at Bornga or The Charcoal or Maru Grillhouse. It was however most certainly better than options from all you can eat restaurants.
The same commentary could be said about our marinated plate which comprised of 900g marinated beef and pork. The meat quality was good but also in line with expectations at that price point. I found the beef short rib to be particularly delicious with a sweet soy marinade. It was very tender.
If you've been counting, between the two platters, at this point the four of us shared 1500g of meat. When you factor in side dishes, you might imagine that we would have been quite full by then, but even though we hadn't starved ourselves at lunch, we were still somewhat peckish. We didn't bring a scale, so I will not make definitive allegations but it was definitely a point of curiosity.
Anyway, so since we were still hungry, we ordered two individual servings of extra meat, being a serve of pork jowl and a serve of marinated chicken. Another hiccup we encountered was our food being served to the table next to us. I noted that when they received the dish of chicken, they looked confused but proceeded to eat it anyway. When the jowl arrived and again it was met with confusion, I knew for sure that our orders had gone there instead. After pointing out to our waiter that we were still waiting on our food, they picked up the pork jowl from the other table after it had been there for at least a few minutes and put it straight on our table. Definitely not ideal for food hygiene. Anyway the jowl was pretty standard, crunchy and meaty, it went well with sauce.
As the other table had started eating the chicken, we were served a fresh plate. Although I was skeptical about ordering chicken at a KBBQ restaurant, it turned out to be a very good pick with a delicious creamy sesame marinade and grilled to have a deliciously crispy skin.
Other than the meats, each set also came with 10 side dishes. This proved to also be a hiccup for the restaurant as side dishes were only complimentary once off and refills had to come at extra charge. It took me pointing out to staff that we had in fact ordered two BBQ sets which entitled us to two sets of complimentary sides that finally got us one refill per side. In terms of the sides, the kimchi, kelp, fish cake, radish cake and kimchi soup were fairly standard. We did find the shredded imitation crab to be a highlight with its delightful creamy texture.
Overall, we did have a fairly good time at Mokkoji. At half price, our meal came to less than $40pp when you didn't factor in drinks, making it great value in this day and age. Having said that if we paid full price, I would have much preferred Bornga or The Charcoal for better meat quality and more generosity in terms of sides.
Price Range: $40 - $60pp (BBQ discounted by 50%)
Taste: 7.5/10
Value: 8/10
Service: 6/10
Environment: 7/10
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