All That Barbecue & Irvine AYCE KBBQ

All That Barbeque (ATB).  I came here after my Sunday workout with a buddy.  At first, I was excited to try out ATB since it has such great reviews on Yelp.  Everyone has been raving about it and saying it’s the best ever like it’s their latest Vegas trip.  BEST VEGAS TRIP EVER!  VEGAS, BABY!

ATB is located right next to the 99 Ranch Market, so there is plenty of parking.  We arrived a little after 1:30PM, so there wasn’t much of a wait.  We were seated immediately and it’s a pretty good size restaurant.  We ordered our protein and it came out within 10 minutes.  What can one expect when we didn’t let off the Korean service bell?  Yes, we’re the annoying kids who has to put their fingers and hands on everything.

ATB has a ventilation problem.  They don’t turn on the vents and keep their doors close.  It’s like they were running a sweat shop.  The no ventilation or breeze made the restaurant hotter than Satan’s butt crack in Lululemon yoga pants during a hot yoga session.  Why hot yoga?  Cause Satan isn’t a basic bitch who does Hatha.

In addition, banchan was non-existent and their steamed egg was thin like a New York flat pizza.  The steam egg was half an inch deep into the bowl.  Seriously?  It’s one thing to save money on not turning on the vents but another to stiff your customers on the banchan and the steam egg.

Now. the only thing I thought was good was the briskets and everything else was mediocre at best.  The briskets were fatty and it brought out the flavors of the beef.  The That’s All Folks’ marination was uninspiring and had a bad after taste to it.  The spices were under utilized and the soy sauce overpowered the marination.  The biggest indication of poor meat quality is when restaurants marinate their proteins. It’s never what it seems like having drunk goggles.

I don’t get why Yelpers get off saying the meat was high quality.  I didn’t see anything high quality about the meat and AYCE KBBQ don’t have high quality meat.  It’s not economically possible to charge $15.99 for lunch and $21.99 for dinner per person for “high quality” meat.  I guess Yelpers have low standards unlike myself who’s been a Yelp Elite for a year which pretty equates to me being a food snob and a food critic.  In addition, ATB has these special names for the meat and I think they’re trying a little bit too hard.  Don’t Rib Me Off?  Unfortunately, I felt rib off.

Overall, All That Barbeque wasn’t all that.  I’m definitely not coming back and would rather to go other AYCE joints.  If you want high quality meat, you need to check out Park’s BBQ in K-Town Los Angeles where they serve American Wagyu.

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