I remember visiting Yoon Haeundae Galbi a while back when they first opened. Galbi is basically beef short ribs, and normally in the U.S., these short ribs are rather small. I haven’t found any place in NYC that uses a large rib similar to the ones I had in Suwon, South Korea. When they take the meat off the rib, they also cook the tendons very thoroughly on the grill and it becomes crispy and edible.

Flushing is the NYC mecca for Chinese food. It’s at the end of the 7 train line heading east, and it takes about 40 minutes from Manhattan on weekends. Many restaurants and stalls only accept cash, so it’s quite different than being in Manhattan or Long Island City. My partner had a friend that wanted to meet in Flushing to try out Korean BBQ. I thought there would be several near Main Street, but it seems all the decent Korean BBQ places are least a mile east of the Main street subway station.

All you can eat (AYCE) Korean BBQ places are pretty sparse the closer you get to Manhattan. If you did find one, the quality is kind of questionable compared to the a’la carte places. We discovered this restaurant a few months back when we went to the Popeyes next door. It hadn’t opened yet, but there seems to be a few restaurants next to it that are opening in the very near future.

This Korean BBQ restaurant has been in North Williamsburg for a while. I’ve always wanted to go to this, but prior to the pandemic, it was always easier to go to Koreatown since I was always in Manhattan. We arrived here at an early rainy Sunday afternoon. They follow COVID protocol very well, and there were very few people inside. The waitress took our temperature and address as usual, and then we were seated after.

As we enter the end of the year and NYC indoor dining is forced to be shutdown due to a COVID uptick, we wanted to get some last fixin with Korean BBQ. Even though we have tried many of the major Korean BBQ restaurants near Koreatown already, this is one of the few remaining ones to try. When we visited, they check your temperature and had glass dividers between tables.

Indoor dining finally opened again in NYC on September 30, 2020. There are those that feel it’s reckless in this COVID temperament, but we still decided to celebrate by booking an indoor reservation at Cote, a 1 Michelin Star Korean BBQ restaurant. Normally, this is difficult to get a reasonable time, so we were happy it was not too bad. Like all upscale restaurants, they take your temperature via the forehead, and each table is partitioned by a plastic partition.

Korean BBQ in NYC is often straight forward. If you want to eat it, you go to Koreatown for a safe bet. If you go away from Koreatown, you risk eating somewhere that may not satisfy that lust. Perhaps the meat would not be as good, or the side dishes would be awful. Fortunately this place in Chelsea was actually pretty decent. I definitely want to preface that the ventilation in this restaurant is not good despite the ducts over the grills, so your clothes will smell.

This is a surprising decent Korean restaurant in the South Village. Unlike Koreatown BBQ restaurants, this place actually has you cooking the meats just like in Los Angeles. The banchan was on the blander side of things. The daikon was a little watery. The kimchi radish was decent but wasn’t as pickled as other Korean places. The broccoli was fine. Lastly, the kimchi was decent but again not as fermented as other places.

The food here was surprisingly decent. I usually don’t expect many places in Midtown East to be good, let alone Asian ethnic foods. We ordered a pineapple Mocktail and a glass of Hite, which is nothing to write home about. The banchan here was pretty good, although portion size is on the smaller side. You can ask for additional banchan as needed. Here you got kimchi, mixed salad, jalapenos, pickled cauliflower, pickled daikon cubes, and pickled daikon slices.

Pretty decent Korean BBQ. Also a bit expensive, and not as good as Let’s Meat. Let’s Meat