Roadem, the newest all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ restaurant, recently opened on Convoy in the plaza right next to Manna BBQ and replacing the former Seoul Korean BBQ.
I was actually quite excited by the idea of a new Korean BBQ spot. As much as I enjoy Manna, I find it to be on the pricey side and hate that they don’t have a cheaper lunch menu. I was hoping Roadem would provide more options.
Sure enough, during lunch Roadem offers both a reduced lunch menu as well as the full dinner menus. The lunch menu is $14.99 per person and includes eight meat options. The meal also includes a cabbage salad, steamed egg, and various banchan dishes.
Similar to Manna, Roaden also offers two dinner options. Dinner A is $19.99 per person. Dinner B is $24.99 per person and includes more seafood and meat options.
Even though the lunch menu seems quite limited in comparison to the dinner menu, we opted for it anyway because we didn’t want to stuff ourselves silly for lunch and not have any room for dinner.
First, we selected the meat choices we wanted to start out with. We were allowed to choose 4 (Manna only allows 2 at a time). The meats were brought out to us and put on the grill for us. I liked that they didn’t give us too much of each one, so that we could try more different items.
Our first selection consisted of spicy pork, beef ribs, brisket and chicken.
Our banchan dishes
Steamed egg
Cabbage salad
We were also given rice, dipping sauce, and a light bean sprout soup.
We managed to get an order of all the different meats at least once. Our favorite were the beef and pork ribs.
After our meal were given some sweet cinnamon tea.
Overall, we had mixed feelings about this spot. I like that there is another Korean BBQ place to join Manna and Jeong Won. And the lunch menu is a definite plus. But for $14.99 a person, I think they could have included some better meat options. I would have liked to see another beef, maybe even a seafood. The lunch menu was a too restricted for me. We didn’t try the dinner yet and the prices are the same as Manna. Based on the meats we did try, the quality wasn’t as good as Manna, but perhaps the dinner meats are better.
The service was a bit hit and miss, but that’s usual for grand openings. We’ll check on the progress of this again once things settle down, but our initial impression was just okay. I’m not so sure this will be a serious competitor to Manna.
Roadem
4344 Convoy St
San Diego, CA 92111
Hey guys. now they offering 12.99 for lunch and same choice as before.
i think it is super. meat quality is excellent too.
Thanks for the tip!
I’ve never been to any of these Korean BBQ places because I’m only interested in the meats. Would there be much difference between buying some ribs from Ranch 99, marinating them overnight in Korean bbq sauce, and grilling them over charcoal versus going to Roadem and using their grill?
I think the appeal of going to these places is that you can try a lot of different meats. It would get pricey to buy so many varieties. But if you only want one or two, then yeah, it’s cheaper to just do it at home.
Although I am not too interested in trying this place, I’m also excited that there is another korean bbq option. Pretty soon enough will open that the prices will be more affordable 😀 I’ll be patiently waiting….haha
I was hoping that Roadem would be cheaper and maybe make Manna drop their prices, but it looks like other than offering lunch prices, Roadem is trying to compete at the same prices as Manna.
Soon there will be another Korean BBQ choice – I saw the sign at the future Zion location. I’m guessing it’s on the Convoy Street side. Choices are good!
Oh nice!