Shanghai Restaurant Review: Piao Korean Grill

By Cristina Ng, June 1, 2018

The Place

When it comes to Korean barbecue, most of the best places in Shanghai are all the way out in Gubei, so we were pretty jazzed when Piao Korean Grill opened up on Wulumuqi Lu, just a few doors away from the Avocado Lady.

Part of a chain from Korea that began in 1993, Piao Korean Grill is an offshoot of the quite popular Park Korean Food located on Shaanxi Bei Lu. They have a smaller menu with the same cool superhero graphics on the walls.

The Food

One of the best things about Korean barbecue is the never-ending stream of delicious banchan or appetizers. It’s too bad they dialed it in on this front with mass-produced kimchi, mayonnaise-heavy potato salad and some lame bean sprouts.

Grill options are a sparse collection of pork and beef marinated in soy sauce, spicy sweet Korean marinade or as is. We went for a Korean-style short rib (RMB138), beef finger meat (RMB88) and pork belly (RMB58), all of which could do with a touch less sugar. Everything we sampled was overly chewy and we struggled to get refills on the lettuce leaves and sauces that may have distracted from the poor quality cuts.

While you don’t go to a Korean barbecue joint for veggies, we were still disappointed by the vegetable platter (RMB32) as none were fit for grilling without oil or marinade. The okra, sliced corncobs, green bell peppers and lotus root stick easily and burn on contact.

Side dishes fared slightly better with the highlight being a crispy seafood pancake (RMB48) made of mostly leeks and carrots with a bit of shrimp and chopped squid. Sweet and spicy fried chicken wings (RMB32/4pc, RMB56/8pc) beg to be enjoyed with a cold Qingdao (RMB29). We’ve certainly had better Korean cold noodles (RMB38) as their mul naengmyeon comes swimming in sugary broth when it should be savory.

Food Verdict: 1.5/3

The Vibe

The staff seemed ill-prepared to handle the group of diners, which is unbelievable given the small size of the restaurant and a format that calls for very little cooking in the kitchen. We ordered a type of beef that they forgot to tell us they ran out of until very late in the meal and similar problems were happening at other tables. Sure, it’s cheap, but we’d rather travel to Gubei for a better experience.