In the last couple of years, Siam has grown to rival Sukhumvit Soi 12 as a Korean dining hub. Amid all the trending dessert openings, one of the most recent arrivals is The Tongkeungui, a black-themed barbecue restaurant. The four-story shop-house comes fronted with massive signage showing a three-tier cake stand where the scones and pastries have been replaced with prime cuts of meat. That gives a good idea of what to expect here: beef and pork, and plenty of it.

Pork cuts such as skirt meat (B299), belly (B299) and collar (B350) taste perfectly fresh and flavorful. (You can also order sets from B788-1,188). The beef rib finger (B450), too, is tender and springy, great with the tangy ssamjang (bean paste). If there’s any problem with the barbecue side of things it’s that service is just too efficient. On our last visit, staff were so eager to grill everything, we had to tell them to slow down.

While the meat is undoubtedly tasty, don’t expect much from the other dishes. The tokpokki soup that comes with their signature set (B788) is sad, watery and overly sweet. Dry and dull, the seafood pajeon (Korean pancake, B250) is a similarly uninspired effort, that when we visited didn’t even come with dipping sauce. One dish that’s a little more successful is the rich, slightly sour tasting volcano fried rice (B350), which is basically kimchi fried rice surrounded by omelet. For dessert, we tried to order bingsu but it had already sold out by 6pm on Sunday.

If you compare the bill at The Tongkeungui with a long-standing Korean institution in the area like Kongju, we’d probably stick with the old-timer, which has a nicer atmosphere to boot. If you can overlook the hectic and unreliable service (due to the high volume of customers, to be fair), this is a very solid, if unspectacular Korean barbecue restaurant.

This review took place in June 2017 and is based on a visit to the restaurant without the restaurant's knowledge. For more on BK's review policy, click here.