We had just gotten out of class after a long day of lectures and meetings and were hungry. Some of us didn’t eat all day and wanted food and a lot of it. We decided on Korean BBQ. It isn’t the same as American BBQ as you actually cook the meat at the table yourself. We decided on going to Gangnam KBBQ. Since it was 6pm, it was rush hour. Instead of going on the highway, we decided to take the local route and still got there in just under 15 minutes. We got there and were sat down immediately.
Upon sitting down, we were immediately presented with menus with the different opitions of Korean BBQ. There were three options with three different price tiers- $20, $25 and $28. We chose the middle tier because we felt like it was the best bang for our buck. For the tier, it listed the usual options of meats- Beef brisket, pork belly, shrimp, bulgogi, sirloin but it also had other proteins we had never had before including beef belly and honeycomb pork belly.
After a few minutes of looking at the menu, our server came over and took our order of beef brisket, bulgogi and sirloin. She came back quickly with ban chan. These are side dishes that come free with most Korean meals. They had fish cake, kimchee, potato salad and pickled radish.
While we munched on the side dishes waiting on the meal, we talked about our days in the classrooms. The atmosphere in Gangnam was very inviting to talking. There is plenty of conversation going on around so there’s no fear of being too loud. The tables are relatively far apart so if another group sat next to you, it isn’t as if they sat with you.
When the food came, they got the beef brisket plate and threw it on the grill for us, saving us that step. They asked us we wanted anything else and walked off. The beef brisket cooked the fastest and it was delicious. The meat melted in our mouths and paired with the sweet soy sauce and rice made for a great first choice in meat. After finishing the brisket, we cooked the sirloin and bulgogi at the same time. They were both super flavorful and satisfied us. After we were done, we called our server over for our next choice in meats.
This begins the start of us sitting, eating and ordering plate after plate of meat for over 2.5 hours. We ordered so much that the servers started to ignore us so we wouldn’t order as much. It was justified as we did order 15-20 dishes, constantly pestering them to get us more meat, rice, sauce or water.
We asked for our checks and on it was our total. It included the price of the middle tier of KBBQ, taxes and a service charge of 15% because we had a party of 5 or more. One thing to not is that the server let us know of the service charge instead of hiding it so we might not notice and tip on top. The total came out to be around $30 which was fair considering how long we were there plus the sheer amount of food we ate.
Our final verdict on Gangnam is that it was delicious, and we would definitely go back there again. Going in large groups is not a problem because of the big tables. Parking was not a problem as they have a large parking lot. The price was super fair even with a service charge because of big parties. Gangnam is definitely a good spot for UWT students to get their KBBQ fix!
