AKA BBQ Station

FoodProps:- The restaurant has 6 kind of BBQ sauced meats: 2 for chickens, 2 for porks, 2 for beefs. All of the meats are delicious, well sauced and very tendor.- Side dishes are amazing. They have: Gimbaps, Korean chickens (2 sauses), Kimchi fried rice, Kimchi & Beef Soup, Japchae, Sweet-Sour Chicken, Tokpokki and Gimmari (Fried seaweed roll). My favourites are Beef soup, Tokpokki and Gimmari.- Lettuces are used to be paid but I think they listened to customers and the lettuces are free now. You can get all the lettuces you need for FREE.- The restaurant also has free Kimchi, Cucumber Kimchi, Stir-fried bean sprout, stir-fried cabbage. All of them are nice but I don't like the cabbage that much.Cons- I wish they could add more side dishes. i.e: DIY Bibimbap, Jajangmyeon, Soondae, Mandu, Eomuk, etc. Korea has a ton of street foods, please bring them all onto the menu.- Please add more options for BBQ. Maybe some more vegetables, sweet potatos, sausages.- No bottomless soft drinks.ServiceProps- Very friendly manager and waiters/waitresses.- Foods are renew-ed frequently.Cons- N/AOverall- A great BBQ restaurant to get your family or a small group of friends in for weekend or special occasions.- Price is a little bit pricy for the current menu. Hopefully they will add more side dishes and bbq dishes to match the price more.

Fantastic new addition to Reading town centre: £30/33 per adult for unlimited Korean BBQ!From the entrance there are various gimbap, which is like Korean maki sushi rolls but with cooked veg, chicken, or beef. They were okay, with a slight taste of sesame oil. The spicy tteokbokki rice cakes were actually surprisingly good, they look like there was too much sauce but the rice cakes were actually quite bouncy with some bite to it, not overcooked or bloated at all.In the heated trays they have Korean fried chicken wings 2 ways (sweet and spicy, and honey and garlic). Both were pretty good, Korean food often is sweet which is easy to like. They have a pasta dish which was frankly bizarre and off-theme, don't know what that's doing there outside of trying to carb you up. They also have japchae which is a Korean glass noodle dish which was pretty tasty, although with all of the hot food I feel like they should be a bit warmer than their current tepid temperature.On the other side there were stir fried egg noodles, decent but I couldn't spot any of the pork that was supposedly in it. There were 2 more fried chicken dishes - sweet and spicy (not sour again as the sign suggests), and sweet and sour. Both were battered cubes of chicken breast so can get a bit dry, but an alternative to the wings above for those who prefer their chicken boneless. Above there were some chips, and some spring rolls which were a bit too doughy imo.Next to these were some egg fried rice and some plain rice, and 2 soups that were both surprisingly decent. There was a beef soup that tasted like an umami-rich galbitang, even had some pieces of beef in it! The second was a kimchi soup that was a bit thin for a kimchi jjigae, I couldn't spot any pork belly or tofu.Okay, enough of the hot food, onto the unlimited KBBQ meat! There were 6 different cuts of meat. Our favourite has always been the LA galbi, and it's the case here too: fatty cuts of beef short rib on the bone, marinated in a delicious sweet soy sauce. This is the one we always go back for more rounds of. There's beef bulgogi: thinner slices of beef flank, also marinated in sweet soy. There's barbeque chicken: whole pieces of skinless and boneless Halal chicken thighs, also marinated in sweet soy. There's pork neck: I think what Asians call thick slices of pork shoulder steaks, also marinated in sweet soy. There's pork bulgogi: thin slices of pork belly, also marinated in sweet soy. And lastly samgyeopsal: skinless pork belly not marinated, like unsalted bacon. These are often eaten at the start of the meal to grease up the BBQ, dipped just in some sesame oil and salt. All of them were great, well marinated and tender, but as you can tell from my description, the fact that 5 out of 6 cuts were all marinated in sweet soy is a little repetitive, at other KBBQs they often have at least some meats that are marinated in a red sweet and spicy gochujang (chilli soybean sauce).The overall vibe for the place was pretty casual, very quiet so far as it's brand new but clean and newly decorated. They have a TV screen in the back playing K-pop music videos, but strangely that's not the music audio they're playing, which they should definitely sync up.Overall I had a great time at AKA BBQ Station, and it's a fantastic addition to Reading town centre for people who wants to eat lots of Korean BBQ. I left feeling very full and satisfied. At £30/33 it's not cheap, if you're eating a lot then Soju or Gooi Nara would cost at least that at similar quality, and that's also around the same price as K-Town BBQ buffet in New Malden. The manager did say that they're planning to start a lunchtime deal very soon, so maybe wait for that if you're more patient than me. I really hope they do well, as I'm sure I'll be back again at some point the next time I'm craving lots and lots of Korean BBQ! If you liked the look of this, give them a visit and hope enjoy it as much as I did! Happy eating! :)

Waoo -Delicious BBQ-andFantastic place:

We thought we'd try out this new restaurant as we are fans of Korean BBQ and unlimited meat for a set price is a winner for those with a big appetite!The food was generally pretty good, especially the beef you BBQ yourself at the table, which was plentifully supplied in a help yourself fridge alongside pork and chicken options. There was a decent selection of side dishes in the adjacent buffet area and we particularly enjoyed the two soups (beef and kimchi). None of us were vegetarian so it did not affect us directly but as veggie options are so limited, I would not feel able to come with a vegetarian friend.Disappointingly, half a large lettuce was an extra £3.90 and we needed two of these portions for 3 people. Lettuce is a generally a normal part of the Korean BBQ experience, as you can make a little lettuce wrap with the meat inside with garlic, chilli and spring onion salad (also all charged for according to the menu ££), along with Ssamjang sauce (kindly provided by staff without extra cost but only on request). To have to pay extra and ask for these frankly very cheap ingredients, on top of the high 'all you can eat' price, is, as my friend succinctly put it, quite cheeky...The service was very attentive and friendly, regularly checking if we needed anything and taking away our used plates. We were allowed to stay slightly longer than the 90 minute period you are normally allotted (perhaps because it was a quiet Monday) and this coincided with the natural end of our meal.Atmosphere wise, the decor and BBQ equipment is all new and clean and functional, but otherwise there is nothing special about the interior to justify a visit.Overall, a good dinner but not somewhere I would come back to or recommend to a friend.

Good ventilation. The food quality is great.It would be perfect if they could provide seafood, e.g. squid, and fruits.

Amazing place ! I came here on opening night for dinner and the food was delicious very high quality, inside the restaurant there is a relaxing clean ambiance with very friendly attentive waiters. Good selection of Korean foods plus sides, highly recommend checking this place out ! Definitely my new favourite place in Reading ⭐⭐⭐