L.A.’s Korean barbecue landscape is vast and varied. Dozens of Koreatown restaurants specialize in meats for personal grilling, with a cooktop built into the center of each table for platters of (mostly) beef and pork in all their various cuts, providing theater and functionalism at once. It’s an essential, thrilling Los Angeles dining experience.
Each K-barbecue restaurant has its own take on what must be one of the best full-tilt ways to share a meal — primal and modern, elemental and lavish, continually changing.
New restaurants serving Korean barbecue open apace in always-transmuting Koreatown, and the latest include K-Team BBQ, the new Park’s BBQ sibling on Vermont Avenue, and Origin, which has taken over the Chapman Plaza location of Baekjeong (expected to resurface in a palatial L.A. flagship later this year). But long-standing icons keep diners coming back for their charcoal-fueled grills, attentive service, signature cuts or AYCE combos.
“Korean barbecue is becoming more like just regular barbecue” in its prevalence, said Jenee Kim of Park’s BBQ. “It’s not a Korean[-only] restaurant anymore. There’s other nationalities of people opening Korean barbecue. … I think Korean barbecue is becoming like that.”
Keeping up with what’s on trend is sport. Hanwoo beef at Daedo Sikdang, or dry-aged beef at ABSteak by Chef Akira Back, or yet more prime beef at Jeong Yuk Jeon Korean BBQ. The fatty, tender patties of tteok-galbi at Origin. The cheese fondue dipping sauce at Mun.
Do you prefer pink pickled radish wrappers, or rice paper wrappers? Wang galbi, LA galbi, tong galbi, yang-nyeom galbi or “bomb” galbi? Or maybe the litmus test for your favorite Korean barbecue is among the banchan. Which restaurant serves the best gyenran-jjim steamed egg? The best corn cheese?
Which ones have the best Katy Perry-free soundtrack? Which have the best ventilation? Here’s the thing: There is the perfect Korean barbecue spot for anyone and everyone, whether you love bulgogi or tripe, thick- or thin-cut pork belly, lengua or even duck, chicken or seafood. The world is your oyster — or your prime cut of beef.
