A Visit to Symbidium: A Sushi Buffet at Connect Hyundai Cheongju
I've been frequenting Connect Hyundai Cheongju lately, and dining there has become a must. This time, I finally visited Symbidium, a sushi buffet at Connect Hyundai that I've been curious about since it opened. I think its full name is Barmi Symbidium.
Location: 4th floor, Connect Hyundai Cheongju, 1225, 2sunhwan-ro, Heungdeok-gu, Cheongju-si
Hours: 11:00 - 21:30 (Break time: 15:00 - 17:30, weekdays only)
Parking: Connect Hyundai Cheongju parking lot (2 hours free when dining on the 4th floor)
Symbidium is located on the 4th floor of Connect Hyundai Cheongju.
The lunch price is reasonable at ₩26,800, but the dinner, weekend, and holiday price is the same at ₩29,800, which felt quite affordable.
I heard there's usually a wait of 30 minutes or more on weekend evenings, but when I arrived right when it opened on the weekend, there were plenty of tables. Still, the restaurant filled up more than half-way in no time!
Since it's a sushi buffet, I started with sushi, of course!
Looking at the selection from outside before entering, it didn't seem like there was a huge variety. And even after coming inside, there weren't a ton of options, but the quality seemed pretty good.
The sushi was great because the rice portion was small. The rolls were also mini-sized, so you could try a good variety of them.
There weren't a huge number of other dishes either, but they had pasta, duck, chicken, and steak. The steak probably tastes best when it's freshly grilled. It was a bit (very) dry... (even though I was there when they opened....?)
The most popular item seemed to be the fried shrimp!
They kept frying new batches of large shrimp, so you could enjoy freshly fried shrimp that was really hot. It was so delicious! Though, fried foods tend to be greasy, so I couldn't eat too much...
They also had a few simple salads.
A unique thing was that they had nabe (hot pot)!
They had Noodle Soup, Clear Beef Nabe, Seafood Soup Nabe, and Mala Nabe, each in a pot that was about 1.5 servings. You can cook it at your table!
There weren't a lot of dessert options either, but they had cheesecake, other cakes that pretended to be tiramisu, cookies, and fruit.
They also had ice cream and shaved ice! Since I went when they opened, the food hadn't been touched by anyone yet, which is still amazing to see in the pictures.
I usually don't eat the shaved ice at buffets because it's always watery, but Symbidium's shaved ice was milk-based snowflake shaved ice, so it was great to just add red bean paste and condensed milk!
Next to the soda and coffee, they also had unlimited beer! But be careful with that machine... It looks like a water purifier, and you have to lift the cup to pour, so I almost spilled beer everywhere.
I filled my plate with just sushi and rolls! The selection was much smaller than at sushi buffets like Kuu Kuu, but there were many more sushi options that I wanted to eat. On the other hand, Kuu Kuu has a much larger selection of salads and other things to eat.
One downside was that even though they had sushi and rolls, there were no rice dishes like fried rice or just plain rice. So the only things my kid could eat were inari sushi and egg sushi.
But the staff kindly brought us a bowl of rice, so I fed it to my child with the broth from the Clear Beef Nabe! The Seafood Soup Nabe was spicier than I expected, but it had crab, roe, and cod milt, so it was quite refreshing.
I usually hate old-fashioned shaved ice and never even look at the jellies and rice cakes, but after making shaved ice at daycare, my child asked me to put a lot of jelly in the shaved ice! I was shocked.
The selection isn't huge, but considering you can eat various things for about the price of a sushi set, even on weekends and holidays, Symbidium at Connect Hyundai Cheongju wasn't bad. I would visit again, but there are still many places I haven't been to in this area! Hopefully, the menu will be a bit more diverse next time I visit. :)
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