$8 VS $125 Buffet in Korea. Which One Wins!?

Hey guys, it's me, your good friend Jimmy. Today I'm going to go to two different buffet restaurants. One that costs only $10 for everyday people like you and me, and the other that is over $120 a person. Wow. Now this is a controversial opinion that I have, and I don't want to start a beef with our great founding fathers, but I believe that it should be within our constitutional rights to be able to have some good all-you-can-eat buffet every now and then. Are you stupid or something? Let's go find out if you can have good buffet in Korea regardless of your financial status. Are you guys excited? Because I am. Okay, why don't we start with the more affordable place? Today I came to an $8 buffet, and what we have here in this restaurant is unlimited tonkatsu, which is deep-fried pork, and supposedly a bunch of other side dishes that are amazing. Now, of course, Korea is a lot cheaper than the US, but even for Korea, $8 is kind of unbelievable. Well, thank you very much for joining me. No woman would join an $8 buffet. Should we go in? The place is called Sweet & Gats, or should I say, Sweet & Katsu. I went there during weekday lunch, and it was $8.25. Of course, it's far from the most luxurious place that we've been to, but we're like two dudes that are kind of struggling financially, so to us, this was like a perfect lunch. And to be fair, I feel like the food was far better than I expected for $8. Oh, it looks pretty good. Alright then, let's take a look at what they have. So I noticed that there aren't that many tonkatsu that I can pick up, nor this fish katsu, and it's because they only serve a few at a time to keep everything fresh. Some good American french fries, with fried chicken, and tteokbokki, and good llama spaghetti. As I normally do, I starved myself to be here today, so let's get a bunch of food. So apparently, these are Korean pork, not some low-quality, cheap imported pork, which I really appreciate. That's fish katsu, and some, I get a dumpling too. I'm also gonna get this cream soup. They always serve this with tonkatsu in Korea. It's pretty cheap stuff, probably not good for your body, but I like it. So here's the food. Not the most beautiful presentation, but I feel like there's something romantic about this super affordable buffet, with all the food stacked up on this one plate. Let's start with their pork tonkatsu. This is the tonkatsu sauce. Wow, crispy as fuck. That's pretty good tonkatsu. You see, the thing is, guys, dining out in Korea, it's gotten kind of expensive that just going out for tonkatsu like this, it's gonna be like $8 anyway. You're just kind of paying the same amount of money for all you can experience here. Such a great deal. The fish katsu has this, that's ranch sauce, I think. Dip it in there. Wow, this tonkatsu is legit. Tteokbokki, probably one of the most popular things in Korea. So you guys are probably familiar with tteokbokki. It's like rice cake in spicy sauce. They used to have this a lot in front of my elementary school when I was living in Korea. They used to sell this in a paper cup for like 25 cents. Good old days, but I don't miss it at all. The flavor of this tteokbokki was so accurate to my childhood that it brought me back the memories of me being an abused little child. Some fried dumplings. Now let me try that pasta and good spaghetti. I know that spaghetti isn't supposed to be anything amazing, but growing up in Korea in the ancient times, I never had spaghetti in real life, but saw them in Tom and Jerry. So it was something that I always fantasized as a kid. So how good is this spaghetti? That had a touch of Pompei. Just kidding. It was like cheap canned spaghetti sauce. But honestly, it wasn't bad either. Yeah, now the action of cutting this tonkatsu, it reminds me of this one memory with me and my ex girlfriend from back when I was a teenager. Do you guys want to hear the story? Yes, of course you do. So what happened was she would always tell me that like her family's wealthy and her mom makes like this much of money and she has like a friend who's like super rich and whatnot. One day, I think it might have been my birthday or her birthday. We went to a steak restaurant. Oftentimes she would talk about how like she likes expensive steak, good cut of steak, you know, like she's a classy woman. And that day when we went to a steak restaurant, she ordered a steak. I started struggling to cut the meat because guess what? She didn't know how to use a knife. She was literally going like this. But I didn't make fun of her. I was like, hey, listen, do you want me to cut it up for you? She's like, you, you think you're better than me because you know how to do this? And I was like, no, no, no, no, it's not that. I just wanted to help you. But yeah, she was pretty ridiculous. And then she later cheated on me with some really ugly, super old guy like the kind of guy that would make me look like a goddess. You see, even your great wise uncle, he makes mistakes in life. I hope you guys won't make the same mistake. But then at one point of your lives, you make the kind of mistakes that are just as stupid. I hope you don't, though. They had some side dishes that honestly didn't seem very appealing to me, so I decided not to get them. They had some desserts like this pudding and this giant gummy bear jelly. What's kind of cool is that watch this, my friend. So I grabbed this. Open this up. So this is fish cakes. And then get some of that chopped kimchi. Wow. Gordon Ramsay, I just surpassed you. Oh, actually, this time I want to try this. This is how I pee in the morning. I'm sorry, guys. So supposedly they have cheese tonkatsu for dinner. I would have loved to try that because I'm pretty happy with their tonkatsu here. It feels extremely clean and they always fry it on the spot. So it's always fresh. Let's taste this noodle. Kimchi, oden, rice noodle. Well, it's not the best noodle that I've had, but it was a great way to change the rhythm from the deep fried food. Some fish cakes. They also had this frozen mango as their dessert, which I thought was really nice. Fruits are really expensive in Korea, you know. After you're done with the food, you just have to return the plates like a good boy. So overall, I thought the food was pretty good for what I paid for, especially considering that eight dollars is barely enough to get any kind of food in Korea now. Is this going to be worth making a long journey for? Not really. But it's the kind of place that I would visit every other day if I was close by. Well, you saw the eight dollar buffet. How about we go to another place that is 15 times more expensive? Honestly, that ten dollar place was pretty awesome too. So I wonder how much better this is going to get. This is one of the very few times that I've come to a buffet that is actually expensive. So I'm super excited. This place is called Aria at Westin Chosun Seoul, and their dinner was priced at $125. Wow, who doesn't have that? The restaurant is so fancy that they don't just give you any water. They give you European sparkling water. Is that better than Walmart water? I don't know, but it definitely makes you feel more important. OK, time to go get the food. But hold on, let me talk about something. Before we move on to the food, I'd like to share this life changing news. And that's the fact that so many of you guys have been listening to my songs on Spotify that in a few months, I might be able to pay my rent with just the Spotify income. Some of you guys probably know that not so long ago, I was desperately struggling financially. So when I say it's a life changer, it really is changing my life. As a matter of fact, I just moved to a new apartment. I'll give you guys a full tour soon. Anyway, please continue to support me by listening to my lo-fi songs for absolutely free. You know that every time you listen, your Uncle Jimmy is moving to a better place in life. Thank you, guys. Thank you. Now, back to the video. All right, let's look at the food they have. They have this steamed seafood section that I'm completely allergic to. For that reason, I'm not a seafood expert, but the quality seems pretty good to me. Some fancy suimono that I don't really bother to eat. They had this minimalistic sashimi and sushi section. And wow, that looks fresh as hell. They only had like four kinds of sashimi, but it's really the quality that matters. Their Chinese food seemed really great, too. Man, I'm trying not to miss my Chinese ex that was mean to me, but this is making that really difficult. She would have loved these, but the dinner would have been super painful to me. At $125 a person, I would like their steak dishes to be like amazing. I mean, it looks pretty good, so I'll keep my hopes up for now. I also noticed that they have this abalone, which is kind of an expensive ingredient. So they're definitely not playing cheap here. Oh, look, they got a bunch of curry here. That's right. Who doesn't like some good Indian curry and some good garlic naan? They had this noodle station where they cook for you on the spot. They have some salads here, too. But you would have to be like a billionaire to not feel like you're wasting your money. Obviously, they have Korean food here, too. But then you can get quality Korean food for a very affordable price because I live in Korea. OK, that's enough talking. Let's get some food before I die from starvation. I want to start with some sashimi. Wow. Thankfully, they make the sushi only when you order. I like that because I've never had sushi that is actually high quality at a buffet where they pre-make the sushi in bulk. I think I'm going to pick up some Chinese food. Some eggplants. Who doesn't like some good eggplants? Some big, fat steak. I want to get more, but I'm dying of hunger right now. Let's go have some food. Wow, that looks gorgeous. If you have a hard time getting excited in front of your first plate at a buffet, you might need to see a therapist. It can very well mean that you have no human emotions. That's my beautiful sushi. And my first round of food. The meat looks pretty unbelievable. I'm going to start with that. This better be really good. OK, so the meat, it's a little tougher than I thought. It's a little tougher than I expected. I would say this is very much like an entry level steakhouse. But at the end of the day, this is a buffet and the meat is enjoyable. So I'm not complaining. Maybe I should judge them based on something that's better. That is their sushi. I hope they don't disappoint me with their sushi. This, I believe, is their tuna sushi. All right, I'll give it to them. Their sushi was really, really good. Some good salmon sushi, very foreigner friendly. Everybody likes some good salmon sushi, right? Yeah, I don't have to wonder if their sashimi is going to be good. It's probably the same fish. Oh, God. I think their sushi is comparable to a pretty good restaurant that specializes in sushi. This is probably the best sushi that I've had at a buffet in Korea. And what about their Chinese food? Are they good? Let me put this eggplant in my mouth. This is really good. I didn't really expect much from their Chinese food, but they easily met my standards. How about we go Indian this time? Holy shit, that looks good. Wow. You guys watching this from India? Is this legit? You tell me. They also had a place where you can order pasta. Can I have a basil pesto pasta, please? I should have gone like this when I was ordering. That's how you sound Italian. Basil pesto. All right. Meanwhile, I'm going to get some pizza. Hola, amigo. That's chicken quesadilla. Abalone. So here's my second round. What do you guys think? Are they butchering your food or do they look pretty decent? Let's start with this Indian plate. I know that in India, you're supposed to like use fingers, but just to keep my hands clean, I'm going to use a spoon. Get some of that rice and curry. Scoop it up. I don't have much experience with Indian food, but I feel like they're doing a really good job here. I'm going to get this naan. It's a little dry. Pour this on top. Also got my pasta just now. Wow, this is really good pasta. Very salty. Should I say savory? But yeah, pretty impressive pasta. Oh, chicken curry and naan. I'm just upset that this isn't garlic naan. India, you guys really know what you guys are doing with your food. Pizza is hands down one of my favorite foods. I'd be blown away if they actually make good pizza here. It's pretty good. The dough is a little too chewy in my personal taste. I like it very thin and crispy like New York style pizza. It's a very Korean style dough. So I think so far, their Western dishes like the steak or the pizza have been less impressive. So keep that in mind if you ever plan on coming here. Let's have this chicken quesadilla with me. This is a buffet and they have guacamole. So I scooped up a bunch of guacamole. Pretty good chicken quesadilla too. I'm getting thirsty. Let me drink this Italian carbonated water. Yeah, the CO2 definitely tastes Italian. This is lamb. It was actually kind of whatever. Not worth it. This right here is abalone. I believe these are pretty expensive and it's rare to find them at a buffet. What the hell is that? Let me have this delicacy. It doesn't really taste like anything. I guess it's supposed to be like that. I felt like having some more noodles, so I ordered a Japanese udon. You guys know I'm smart. I got a plan. That's tempura udon, all right. Wow, I must be a goddamn genius. Well, that looks pretty good, doesn't it? Here's my tempura udon and another plate of food. I mean, the chef helped too, but really, I made it. Pretty amazing sweet potato tempura. Look at that fat ass noodle. Some pumpkin tempura. In all seriousness, it was a perfect bowl of udon, and I wish I could have had more. So what I have right here is Korean beef tartare or yukhoe. It's raw beef. And these things that are on the side, that's pear. It goes extremely well with the beef. So this yukhoe, depending on how you prepare it, it can be kind of unpleasant. So typically when you go to a buffet and you see this yukhoe, I don't usually go for it. But here in this restaurant, it's pretty fantastic. I would say it's better than most yukhoe restaurants. You know what I realized about this place? I feel like the best item that they have is their sushi. They only have three different kinds, but they taste amazing. This is really good fish. I had a lot of food today, and before I get too full, I feel like I need to move on to the desserts. They didn't have a great variety, but they looked pretty good. Holy shit, these desserts look almost as handsome as me. Let me get that butter. Even their butter looks nice. Nuts pie. What's kind of funny here is that you have to pay for soda, but their coffee is free. Guys, look, I got this latte art here. It's a broken heart. Well, well, well. This is the kind of dessert that a good boy like me can deserve. Let's have a sip of this good coffee. As good as Starbucks. Awesome. To me, there's two different kinds of coffee in this world. Extremely terrible coffee and not extremely terrible coffee. Do you guys see the desserts? It's a nut pie. Oh, I heard that in America, you guys have this tradition. You guys don't eat nuts and you guys call it No Nut November. Such a weird tradition, huh? Pretty good nut pie. Let's have this blueberry cream puff. This butter actually came from France. That's kind of cool. This is just bread, and this probably isn't the most cost efficient thing to eat at a buffet, but I just really enjoy it. And even at a buffet, I just like to go for the things that truly gives me joy. So overall, I'd give their dessert like seven out of ten. I think they're really good. I'm just not blown away. Oh, that was a lot of food. My hundred and twenty dollars gone like that. Wow, this coffee is definitely bittersweet. Now, it was a very expensive place, but I didn't think it was wasteful. I really hope my YouTube career takes off and I'd be coming to a place like this all the time. It wasn't that expensive. So what did you guys think? Did you guys feel like the $120 buffet was worth the money? Well, me personally, while I believe that it was great food. Well, I have a hard time justifying being able to go to the other buffet ten times and more versus having this one dinner. Well, of course, if I was like one of those crazy rich Asians, that wouldn't matter. I'd come here every day. I'm at the stage of my life when every dollar matters. That being said, it's a nice visit. It's a good experience. Hope you guys enjoyed my honest review. Go watch my other videos. Thank you. Have an amazing day. Thank you guys again for listening to my songs on Spotify and watching my videos.