Feast Mode: Get Fired up For Stoneage BBQ, Hurstville

Stoneage BBQ is a chain of Korean BBQ restaurants in Sydney. There's a range of beef, chicken and pork on offer as well as a very reasonably priced set menu. Best of all they cook the meat at your table for you so that it is perfectly done!

I love Korean BBQ but one of the things that I find to be a challenge is the cooking. Not that I don't love to cook but when you're trying to get photos and videos, talk to your friend and cook, something inevitably falls to the wayside and that's usually cooking the meat. When Hurstville local Sophia suggested Stoneage BBQ and sent me the menu that detailed a set menu, I said yes immediately because who doesn't love a well priced bargain during a cost of living crisis?

There's just one other table eating when we arrive at 5pm. Long extractor tubes hang low on top of each charcoal burner so that the cooking meat smell doesn't fill the air. The menu is short and sweet. There's range of meats and a few noodle dishes. We zero in on the set menus and there are two types: the Simple Set for $38 and the Stone Age Set for $46 per person which has most things that I really wanted to try (ox tongue, pork loin and beef fillet). We both contemplate adding the pork jowl for $20 extra but figure we will see how we go with what we have.

Service is really lovely from the staff and they bring the banchan side dishes straight away. There's a range of 8 items from salads, onion pickle, pickled cabbage, pickled garlic chives, chilli pickle, kim chi, cabbage salad and even a really interesting scoop of potato salad with raspberry sauce on top. I've never tried potato salad with raspberry sauce but you know what? It works!

The guy that cooks all of the meat does it absolutely perfectly and he stays just long enough for a little chat and to cook but never feels obtrusive and like you can't talk to each other while he is there. At first he tests out the heat with a cube of pork fat that melts and lubricates the plate. The first items he cooks are the pork belly and pork belly with skin. These are nice enough but they are a bit chewy too and I don't really like the skin unless it is crispy so after one piece of each I am done.

Then he cooks the ox tongue and thin skirt and things really look up. These are perfectly cooked and as they aren't marinated they have a robustly meaty flavour to them with a beautiful, melting texture.

Having said that, I really love the marinated meats the best because they add some much flavour and when I try the marinated pork loin and marinated pork rib I'm swooning. These are my sweet spots - literally as the sweet and lightly spicy marinade caramelises on the pork for a melt in the mouth sensation. Then comes the marinated chicken thigh, also with plenty of flavour and char on each piece. Last is another highlight the marinated beef fillet that is juicy and tender.

You also get one steam egg pot per person. It's hot and puffy when it first arrives and deflates as it cools down so the texture is very light but becomes denser with time. By the end we are so full that there is no room for dessert. I think if Mr NQN were there he might have wanted a cold noodle dish but there's enough for the two of us. There's no dessert on the menu but plenty of bubble tea places nearby to hit!

So tell me Dear Reader, do you like it when they cook the Korean BBQ for you or do you prefer to do it yourself?

This meal was independently paid for.

Stoneage BBQ

Westfield Hurstville, Shop A1/B1 lev1, 3 Cross St, Hurstville

Open 7 days 11:30am-9pm

Phone: 0433 548 994