Elwood 5566

Dinosaur Buffet - a meat eaters heaven

Sometimes, I just want to indulge in some ‘western style eating’ – a euphemism for eating unhealthily. Korea has plenty of unhealthy western-style junk foods, most commonly fried chicken and pizza, but it’s never quite right and has been Korianised to make it more appealing to the home market. While the fried chicken often comes very close to satisfying my British taste-buds, I have never really taken to the way the bird is chopped up. That leaves the nastiest junk food of all, indeed the King of Junk, the Burger! Let’s face it, a real burger is vastly superior to corporate anatomical slurry patties containing up to one thousand different cows per burger, a claim made in the documentary movie, Food Inc.  And while corporate burgers can be ‘okay,’ they’re not that great unless of course, you’ve had your taste buds seriously dumbed down.

And the thing I miss most about western eating is a good plateful of meat. Most Korean meals contain much smaller portions of than we would eat back in the UK and I reckon that with a meaty breakfast and evening meal, I can consume more meat in one day, than I do in a week in Korea.  However, I recently discovered the ideal place to eat as much meat as you want; a carnivore’s paradise; Dinosaur Grill Meat Buffet. Here, salad, rice, and side dishes are minimal but the meat comes by the carcass. For 15.000 Won (£7) per person, you can just help yourself to the meat at the ‘in-house’ butcher’s counter and barbecue it at your table. There are burgers, real ones and not the pallid, dry one found in Mac D’s, great, spicy sausages, various cuts of sam-kyeop, pork steaks, and even cuts of beef.

a wide choice of meat

A few Koreans I recommended this establishment to ask me about the quality. I have to remind them I’m from Britain where the majority of pork has been bloated with water so that the moment you start cooking, it pisses all over the charcoal. Most British pork or bacon can no longer be fried because by the time the pan has heated, the meat is floating in a puddle of additional water, thereafter it simply boils. And then there is the pork from Poland, wadges of fat with the occasional slither of meat.  In Britain, meat has been adulterated forcing you to pay extra for what it should have been in the first place. Naturally, I find Korean meat of superior quality and after a bottle of makgeolli, it tastes even better.

Last week, the buffet bill for 3 adults plus 4 beers and 2 bottles of makgeoli amounted to a little over 60.000 Won (£30). The restaurant has both traditional floor seating and tables.

5 minutes walk from Wonderful Spa Land Bathhouse

Dinosaur Grill Buffet is very close to Wonderful Spa Land and indeed you can walk between them in around 5 minutes. For the Wikimapia link click here. Both Jincheon and Wolbae subway stations are nearby.

Jincheon and Wolbae subway stations lie this side of the restaurant

© 林東哲 2011 Creative Commons Licence