The best Korean BBQ restaurants in Los Angeles

With its everyday ambience, decent menu prices and top-notch meat selection, Soowon Galbi is our second favorite Korean barbecue restaurant after Park’s BBQ, especially when we’re in a group of four or more. The wait times here generally run shorter than other popular spots like Park's and Quarters, though we’re confused as to why; Soowon’s banchan assortment and prepared dishes, including the perilla leaf stew and scallion pancake, showcase a depth and breadth of Korean cuisine that’s remarkable for a restaurant whose most popular items come cooked on a tabletop grill. The combination courses, in particular, offer excellent value for a crowd, especially the Combo B, which includes the must-have kkotsal, or marbled boneless short rib, and chadol, thinly sliced pieces of brisket that quickly crisp on the grill.

With a palatial, patently luxurious feel to the dining room and a roomy outdoor patio, Chosun Galbee is our other favorite Korean barbecue restaurant for special occasions. For over two decades, this classic Koreatown restaurant has offered smokeless grills, attentive service (something you can’t find at every KBBQ spot) alongside a high-quality meat selection. We also love the jungol, a type of Korean udon hot pot we’ve yet to find done better anywhere else in the city. Available with seafood, beef intestine or a combination of meat and seafood, the bubbling family-style dish features a spicy, umami-rich broth and plenty of vegetables.

This sprawling restaurant inside MaDang Courtyard offers sleek interiors, plenty of room for larger groups and dry-aged beef offerings that surpasses most, if not all, of L.A.’s Korean barbecue restaurants in terms of juiciness and flavor. (Another bonus: Those who park in the on-site lot receive four hours’ free validation.) While the litany of sides are good—not necessarily great—the exemplary “butcher’s pride” combos and pressed beef tartare sushi make for an excellent high-end KBBQ experience. A few compelling plant-based options cater to vegans, including a stir-fried galbi platter that tastes almost exactly like the real thing. While you can also order meat à la carte, we recommend starting with Jeong Yuk Jeom’s signature family-style sets, particularly the ones that include dry-aged prime rib eye.

Run by the same team behind Park’s, KTeam BBQ takes over the space that once held Ong Ga Nae, which quietly closed last year. The Vermont Avenue newcomer offers a more affordable, pork-centric Korean barbecue experience—albeit with the same meat quality, bounty of banchan and excellent prepared dishes as its older, critically acclaimed sibling across the street. Cheerful orange-and-white checkered tile tables serve as the backdrop for a reasonably priced à la carte menu that includes a phenomenal bowl of chilled spicy acorn noodles; delightfully chewy tteokbokki, served with one or more barbecue orders; and three types of beef. The star of the show, however, is the thinly sliced frozen pork belly, a cut popular in South Korea. Paired with supplemental myeonglan paste (pollack roe) or the classic trio of spicy soybean paste, garlic and jalapeño, each lettuce or perilla-wrapped bite will transport you to Seoul.

This ground floor restaurant at the Beverly Center offers an elevated take on Korean barbecue, complete with dry-aged steaks, top shelf cocktails and elements of a traditional American steakhouse. Think steamed egg soufflé topped with cheese and a tasty yukhoe (beef tartare) prepared tableside, though the house banchan, small selection of traditional soups and á la carte meat selections don’t disappoint, even if you’re intimately familiar with L.A.’s Korean barbecue scene. For a boozy spectacle, order the Hennessey-based Side Car Pop, which comes topped with a translucent bubble of St-Germain liqueur.

Originally from Seoul, Daedo Sikdang is a pared-down homage to South Korea’s hanu beef. Having drawn crowds since its soft opening, this experience is upscale Korean barbecue minimalism at its finest. Unlike other KBBQ spots that put the diner in the drivers’ seat, the staff at Daedo plays chauffeur, expertly cutting your rib-eye and ensuring each diner gets perfectly grilled bite-sized pieces of meat. Although wait times can stretch into the hour-plus range, a round of soju-based mojitos at Daedo’s stunning bar makes that time disappear into thin air. To round out your meal, order their signature fried rice, meant to be eaten after you finish grilling. Made with imported South Korean kkakdugi, or fermented radish, it’s a perfect penultimate course when topped with a fried egg before their refreshingly mild soft serve ice cream for dessert. Note: Walk-ins only.

There’s no getting around it: Soot Bull Jeep is one of the last places in Koreatown to still use charcoal grills, which means the smoke and fumes from your grilled meat will permeate all your clothes, sticking around for what feels like ages. But KBBQ veterans know the lingering scent is well worth the hassle for the best old-school experience in town. The no-frills setting and minimal banchan fade away when you take one bite of the charcoal-grilled meat, which imparts a nice, smoky char to marinated galbi or a juicy piece of rib eye.

Koreatown’s top-notch seafood-oriented KBBQ joint pays homage to the East China Sea by serving its edible bounty in waves at the table. Go with one of the bang-for-your-buck combo sets—even the basic A set is enough to feed a family—which begin with airy steamed egg, crisp-edged scallion pancakes, sizzling cheese corn and a heaping bowl of chili-packed mussel soup. From there, DIY grill options include sea scallops and mussels on the half shell, large shell-on shrimp, spicy chili salad, octopus tentacles and more. Upgrade to a B or C set to feast on rarer delights like abalone, which squirm in their shells before yielding tender meat when cooked. Step up your game with the D combo for selections from clams, oysters, a spicy cold seafood bowl and more.

If you’re dining alone, or you'd rather not wait hours for Korean barbecue, this newer joint serves a short, focused menu with tapas-style offerings, a large drink selection and typically little to no wait for a table on weekdays (or a fairly short one on weekends). Woo Hyang Woo rarely draws the same crowds or hours-long delays associated with Chapman Plaza’s Quarters and Origin across the street, but the sleek-looking spot still offers a delicious, albeit banchan-lite, Korean barbecue experience. House dry-aged, high-quality cuts and enormous, pricey dry-aged tomahawk steaks can be prepared tableside or cooked in the kitchen. In the latter case, sizzling platters come on a bed of softened, slightly charred white onions, a perfect, sharp accoutrement for every luscious bite of red meat.