For nearly three years, diners eagerly awaited the arrival of Fiyah, the contemporary Korean eatery that opened on E. 55th just north of St. Clair in March 2023. Fiyah offers both Korean BBQ and Asian hot pot experiences in a spacious, attractive setting.
There are more than two dozen booths featuring built-in gas grills, allowing groups to enjoy the interactive art of tabletop grilling. Fiyah is going with two different all-you-can-eat models that offer different selections of meats and seafoods. There’s also a massive wraparound porch and rooftop patio. The big garage-door-like windows will be great in the summer. Drive around the building for plentiful parking and the entrance. The hostess booth is along the wall opposite the bar.
My friends and I met there shortly after it opened. I always try to review a restaurant after visiting twice, but I think I can give it a fair review after our oe visit. The reason being that it is pricey, and I don’t see a second visit in the cards soon enough. Fiyah has several rules. First of all, everyone at the table has to order the same all-you-can-eat tier. This means if one of your friends isn’t that hungry and just wants a soup or something they are out of luck. Also, if one of them insists they want something from the pricier tier like steak you all have to order that. It’s only a $10 difference, but you all have to be on board.
Secondly, there is a two-hour limit and you cannot bring home leftovers. Lastly, groups of 5 or more have an automatic gratuity added. Two of these rules tripped us up, because one of my friends ended up not staying and I still had the automatic gratuity in my head when I calculated what everyone owed and added 2% to the bill. I had to go back the next day and leave our server the missing 18%. Don’t be me. I really hope our server got the money from her coworker.
Anyway, we loved Fiyah. The dining room is industrial but “prettied up” with fake cherry blossom trees. We easily ate our fill of the great items in the AYCE Classic tier, which includes assorted veggies, beef brisket, spicy pork, pork belly and spicy (marinated) pork belly, head-on shrimp, teriyaki chicken and beef bulgogi to grill and rice for $36.99. You also get leaf lettuce to make little Korean leaf cups along with Fiyah sauce and some banchan (pickled veggies and oddly enough a fairly decent potato salad).
Everything was very fresh. I particularly loved the asparagus, shrimp, beef bulgogi and teriyaki chicken. One of our group loved all the pork belly, and the spicy items were not as spicy as you might think. So there was something for every taste. Everyone ate their fill, and we did a good job of finishing everything with minimal waste. If you have a lot of leftover food you will be charged $15.99 per pound, so just order what you can eat and order in small waves.
The AYCE Premium includes everything in the AYCE Classic menu as well as ribeye (1 per customer), salmon, spicy salmon, spicy chicken, Galbi, garlic shrimp and mussels as well as “corn cheese,” which appears to be a creamed corn and cheese dish made with corn, mayo, cheese and seasoning like mustard and doenjang.
They have a wide variety of bubble teas, fruit teas and sodas available, but if you are looking for something really special you should order the Soju Tower. It is a huge tower filled with soju (a clear and colorless distilled alcoholic beverage like vodka), yogurt and fruit. It doesn’t have a super-high alcohol content, because I had probably three or four glasses and wasn’t buzzed in the slightest. But it was super delicious and should be ordered if you are a group.
We really enjoyed our meal at Fiyah despite all the rules. The rules are completely understandable to avoid waste and people cheating the system. Since we were there in April we didn’t get to witness the patio or rooftop bar. We also didn’t notice a ventilation problem (see: Yelp) since it wasn’t that busy when we were there. There is one glaring error that I hope they fixed. I didn’t see any handicap accomodations or entrances, so if you are in a wheelchair or have mobility issues you might want to call to see if they have fixed that.
Contact info:
FIYAH Korean BBQ & Hot Pot
1253 E 55th Street
Cleveland, OH 44103
(216) 862-4267
Cleveland Rocks, Cleveland Eats 