Samgyup199 Sta Clara, Sta Maria

I love how the staff took care of us when we dine-in last July 27, 2021! All of them are friendly especially the store manager, Bernalisa Fabian. She did an extra mile to accommodate my request which is the early reservation and I love the effort! The food, tasteful! I love the beef, the side dishes, the cheese and the juice. The atmosphere of the restaurant was brilliant! I love my over-all experience and will surely go back!

The place is definitely cheaper than other mainstream 삼겹살 places, but that comes at a cost. There are no smoke fumes and the place has no proper ventilation despite it being open-air, so it’s super hot inside. The sanitation is also a bit questionable. For example, the ice chest open for everyone to just scoop from, rather than the more usual push button ice dispenser. The side dishes are also very limited and very unusual, I must say. The potatoes for example are coated with cheese-like crust that I don’t know of and I’ve never seen before in any other K-BBQ places. All in all, I feel that they sacrificed too much of the food quality and general ambiance for a relatively small price difference compared to its competitors.

Its like 2 years ago was the last time we went here. So we were having the best experience before, but now that we went back, we made sure that its off-peak hours. Here are my honest reviews: 1. No one welcomed us at the entrance and it felt like no one wanted to provide us any services. There are people at the counter but they only talked to us when we went near them. 2. Samgyup 199 isn't 199 anymore because the staff won't offer you that 199 set. They will only offer you 249 and 299 - the only difference is the chicken and the barbecue. We dont eat those, and we always wanna get the plain pork with the sides. The staff doesnt wanna offer the cheaper option because when we told him that we only want lain pork, he didn't look happy that we ordered. Lol 3. The staff were not attentive. I checked on the Kimchi Tray and when I found out that there isn't anymore, I told the staff at the counter that the Kimchi tray is empty. I went there multiple times, and nothing was refilled. When my wife went there and asked again if we can have Kimchi, that was the only time that they refilled the tray. 4. I know its shallow to ask for a "thank you" when you pay them, but we didn't really receive anything. Overall, it was nothing like the old Samgyup 199. We prolly won't go back here anymore.