Sitting right next door to its sister a la carte restaurant Kongju, Kayageum is just as Korean but functions as a buffet. Almost everything here—the chef, the crockery, the food—hails directly from the Land of the Morning Calm. However, even its impressive crisp contemporary decor can’t hide the fact that the food at Kayageum is rather disappointing. At B550 for lunch and B690 for dinner, you’re entitled to an all-you-can-eat steamboat and hot pot orgy, plus a variety of kimchi and kimchi-based specialties. Unfortunately, this buffet doesn’t give you that many options, so it’s best suited to big eaters who hate making decisions. Upon arrival, a waitress asks, “All buffet?”, and you’d better say yes or else the black sheep preferring a la carte dishes will be exiled to a separate table. For the hot pot, there are four kinds of soups available—miso, Korean chili paste, seafood and chicken ginseng. But again, it’s not really up to you as the waitress will pour the “favorite-among-Thais” seafood soup into your pot and assume that’s what you wanted. But the supposedly fiery broth errs on the side of bland and boring. When we asked if we could switch to chicken ginseng soup, we were told the stock is reserved for a la carte orders only and costs B470 more. So we dumped the mildly spicy Korean chili paste into the supposedly spicy and sour seafood soup for something a bit more exciting. The steamboat is actually a better bet. Choices include pretty much what you’d find at a streetside muu krata joint, but as we’re in a hotel it’s all of far better quality, of course. While we loved the well-marinated, succulent slices of beef, scallops and shrimp were so tiny that they almost disappeared on the grill. Thirsty? There’s a selection of soju (a Korean rice wine) with prices starting from B530 a bottle. Or you can order green tea (B150/pot, but the tea comes from Korea). Though named after a traditional Korean musical instrument, Kayageum instead charms its diners with Ronan Keating and The Backstreet Boys delivered by a hanbok-clad pianist. Even a bunch of TV sets airing Dae Jeung Geum would have been more convincing. Our verdict? If you crave Korean food, hit one of the eateries in the Korean Town on Sukhumvit Soi 12 or, for unlimited meat, head to Akiyoshi. Or there’s always MK. Corkage: B400 (wine), B500 (spirits).