Hopping on a 12-hour flight to Seoul, South Korea just to get some authentic Korean BBQ is pretty much impossible for the average person. So instead, business partners Tony Chong and Jason Kim have taken it upon themselves to do the research in Korea and Los Angeles, and bring back a new type of KBBQ to the Bay Area.
Chong and Kim ran a cell phone retail business for 18 years before the duo decided to venture into the restaurant world. Before shutting down due to the slowing economy, they had five stores located throughout the city.
But closing down didn't mean saying goodbye to all of their customers. Kim told us that the restaurant's current location was previously owned by one of their customers back in the day. The realtor who found out about the location also happened to be a friend of a friend.
Before the soft opening at 4217 Geary Blvd. on August 23rd, Kim said he, along with Chong and chef Jun Lee, tested out a variety of different types of meat before settling on bulgogi: marinated beef that can be cooked on its own or added to other Korean dishes.
The Inner Richmond has several Korean BBQ joints, including two within a few blocks of the Dancing Bull. But Kim says the grill and the focus on bulgogi is what makes his restaurant stand out from the rest.
On one of their trips to Seoul, Kim ate at a restaurant that specialized in copper grills and decided then that he needed to bring the style back to San Francisco. The grill allows diners to eat the meat that's being grilled on top along with the soup that's left to boil on the outer edges.
In Korean culture, people create their own concoctions by adding rice and/or noodles to the leftover soup. But in the Bay Area, diners aren't used to this way of eating, so the restaurant's owners decided to make the dishes in the kitchen before bringing them out to finish cooking on the grill.
The current menu has an all-you-can-eat bulgogi option for $20.50 per person, and a $3.50 add-on for those that want to add in noodles and/or rice. There are other well-known Korean side dishes like japchae and cheese corn with bulgogi that you can also order to eat with the meat.
There are a variety of alcoholic beverages on hand if you want to take part in the full Korean BBQ culture, including beer and soju in a range of flavors, plus soft drinks if you're not imbibing.
The restaurant is open for lunch every day from 11:30am-2:30pm, and for dinner from 5-11pm (it's open 'til midnight on Saturdays).
Kim told us that the soft opening will continue until the end of this month, and the restaurant will then gear up for a grand opening in the first week of October.
As for his what's next, Kim says he wants to open up a second Korean restaurant in the near future.
