I try to be very balanced with my reviews, accounting for different preferences, favourite cuisines, etc. but I have to also be honest in what I experience.
I was really looking forward to trying Char, in Inman Park. The decor inside is quite creative and fun, and the menu is also quite tongue in cheek.
It had and still has (which I'll touch on later) great reviews on average. It's still quite a new place and it's in the heart of Inman Park's streets of food and local shops.
I'm also a big fan of Korean BBQ, which admittedly, Char is more of a 'fusion' Korean BBQ place, which to borrow from a review I recently read, is a restaurant's way of saying, 'it's not going to be the real deal'. Although that's a very generalised statement as there are several fusion restaurants which balance it perfectly along with providing very genuine dishes of that cuisine, this statement, however, does ring true for Char, in so many ways.
It claims to be Korean in its title, and the food it offers is 'Korean'. There are very few obvious dishes that scream fusion - apart from some of the special plates - and it makes you wonder whether their claim to be fusion is a bit of a cop out in case people complain it's not genuine Korean. Bearing in mind, this is a Korean BBQ joint. Read on...
Simply put, I was not impressed in the slightest, by Char. It is actually quite bad, but do bear in mind, my visit was for the Korean food, rather than the bar experience.
Firstly, the reviews you will see on Google, quite heavily touch on the bar. Although, done from a very positive angle, this should be one of the giveaways as to what type of place this is, in that the food is very much playing second fiddle. If that's what you're looking for for the night, then this probably ticks your box.
Secondly, one of the big downsides mentioned in the reviews (whether good or bad), is the very loud music they play, drowning out simple conversations from your neighbour.
One thing you also have to be prepared for is the cost. Char is in no way cheap. There are some 'combo' deals which aren't entirely clear if they are AYCE - I'm still not sure - but the cheapest comes in at $80 with each meat offered being just 3oz. That is a very small plate of meat and the only other option is 6oz or buy more. Between two or more people, the costs will certainly rack up. It's like 'Korean' tapas. They do also have special plates, which look quite interesting and is more of where you will see the fusion happening such as, kimchi mac and cheese. We didn't try these, as one, we didn't go to burn too much of a hole in our pockets, and two, being a Korean BBQ spot, we wanted to try the BBQ over anything else. You may fare better with the speciality dishes but I can't comment on these.
Now onto the meat of it...
Time of visit
We went in for a late lunch during the week and it was completely empty. That's fine - it's not exactly peak time and I wouldn't hold that against a place unless I noticed it consistently.
Environment
It's small and it's cramped. This is Korean BBQ, which means there are grills in the middle of each table. There are also extraction fans above the grills, which handily move up and down depending on the need. It is such a small location for all of this that the tables are also very small to fit enough people in, there is barely any room to have a plate (more than likely why they are long and rectangular), and you're almost on top of the people sitting next to you (some joined later and were confusingly sat right next to us in an empty restaurant - one table over would've been a bit more comfortable), and you are right on top of the smokey, sometimes catches fire, grill.
And yes, it's loud.
Service
The waiter was very nice and friendly and understood this was our first time, so to us the service was perfectly decent but of course, we don't know what it would be like in the busy times.
However, I didn't appreciate that automatically - almost by default - I had been tasked with doing all the cooking. Now, as mentioned, the waiter was clear we hadn't been before and didn't know we had been to other KBBQ places, but when the meat came, we were left to do it ourselves. We weren't really checked on (except when it caught fire - something I've heard happens in Char from time to time - which you would've thought would have been the best time to take over but no) and it simply didn't seem to be what they did.
As a result, I burnt the first lot of meat we ordered as we couldn't control the heat and the grill was full of hot spots - all of course, I would have no idea about. I also didn't exactly want to go into lunch and start cooking, although fun to do your first time in a KBBQ place, it can wear thin if you just want to eat.
Food
Starters :
We got the crispy scallion pancakes with a soy dipping sauce and Korean fried chicken with a sweet and spicy sauce.
The chicken wings were OK but no 'wow' factor. They were just quite regular wings, and you could quite easily get better elsewhere.
I was looking forward to the pancakes but I have never had East Asian food which didn't have any taste. I don't know how you make soy sauce tasteless either. It just tasted like plain oil. All in all, the starters were quite disappointing, but we were holding out hope for the meats.
On the Grill :
We tried a few meats; a couple of porks, beefs and even tried the wagyu - all marinated (sans wagyu).
They are brought out all at once, which I guess if you're left to cook everything yourself, you can change it up a bit, but as you can see above, the table starts getting very cramped. As a side note, the dips and pickles were OK but personally, they didn't add anything to the food.
Unfortunately, the meats were nothing too special. One of the bulgogi's we got was tasty but the only one that stood out was the wagyu, as you'd hope. This was very flavourful on its own.
As mentioned before, the amount you get is very small - thinly sliced and a couple of slices each if you go for the cheaper 3oz, but the flavour just didn't stand out as you'd expect from this cuisine, and from what I've experienced in other KBBQs.
In Summary
By all means, try it out, but be prepared mostly for the cost and that it won't be a real Korean BBQ experience. The food won't necessarily blow you away but maybe the special plates will be more of what they do best, apart from the drinks which I again, can't genuinely comment on. All in all, I think it's a bit of a gimmick, and unless you're going for the bar experience rather than the food, I think I'll stick with the more genuine KBBQs to get my fix.