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San Francisco, CA
"Very good chance of having a super meal here. We are 5 for 5. Really good. It can be very busy and the staff can get lost in the crowd. I…" read more »
I ate at this establishment numerous of times. I probably puked in front of the restaurant few times because I drank so much soju. But good food here.
This is a dummy-proof korean bbq spot.
If you are inexperience with korean bbq, you can't go wrong with this place.
Juicy marinated meat; good service; best kimchi dishes!
FYI - I remember they have 2 locations that are one block from each other. So no need to wait in line at the smaller place, just make sure the other one is still open (since I haven't been there for awhile).
Happy BBQ!
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Some serious bomb-ass Korean food, open late.
I crave the Jap chae (Korean fried clear noodles) from here like no other. It's so damned awesome by itself, I could eat it all day.
If you've never tried Korean wooden charcoal food, do yourself a favor and grab a friend (or three) and order the dinner/lunch special combo. It's really warm when they light the wooden charcoal stove at your table, so it's wonderful to eat on a cold night.
The tiny Korean side dishes here are top class. They come with every meal. Thinly sliced mountain potato, fresh Cabbage kim chi, Daikon Kim chi, seasoned bean sprouts, dried fish, cooked whole fish, seasoned pear slices, cucumber kim chi, sweet asian style black beans, and more. Each dish is made with a woman's touch and is not over powering, messy, or sloppy. The quality of their side dishes is distinguishable from other korean places.
Love the Kalbi (Korean style short ribs), the bulgogi (grilled beef), Hot Korean (soon) Tofu soups, you can't go wrong.
The best part is that this place is open hella(we say hella in Cali) late like til 3 am so you can grind away drunk with excellent quality food.
It will be filled with young asian kids from the bars and clubs on the weekend though, all laughing and giggling. I think it's good fun.
This is just amazing Korean food, I am not Korean but I've eaten at a few Korean friends house and this is of the quality that your Korean mom or aunt would make. I love it.
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Ever so often we need to get our Korean BBQ fix and that's at Brother's Restaurants near KFC at Sixth and Geary. You can choose to cook at the table or food from the kitchen.
The Kai-B is the best ribs in town. And you'll leave smelling like BBQ for days. Ahh...
Hyung ge dah! Sarang hae :)
If you wana spend money on Korean food, come to brothers. The ajuma's are great. They hook it up with the banchan, too. On top of the kimichi assortment, they'll give you soondobu, japchae or a fish on the house..sometimes you get one, sometimes you get all 3!
I love their kalbi. I prefer to cook it at the table but theres a 2 order minimum if you choose to do so. For 2 people, one order of kalbi + banchan is more than enough. But we ordered the dak gui (chicken) too.
The first time we came here we cooked the kabli, dak gui, and ordered kimchi chigae, but we over killed and couldn't eat the chigae. The second time we came here we ordered the kalbi and dak gui again but we had them cook everything for us. Its good BOTH ways. If you cook yourself and you're too busy eating the ajuma's will come by and flip your meat so it doesn't burn, put more on the grill for you, or take off any meat thats already cooked.
Wrap up a piece of meat in seaweed with some kimchi, rice, and whatever banchan you like, and enjoy :)
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Pretty good Korean restaurant (for SF). The meat is tender and of good quality. The waiter will spread it for you on a grill over live coals in the center of your tables, and comes by occasionally to check and make sure that you aren't overcooking the meat. The banchan aren't anything to shout about, but their kimchi is good. Portion size is more than adequate. It's pretty expensive.
One funny thing about Brothers is that they have soju listed as "sake" on their menu. I looked at it and said... "That's funny, why would a Korean restaurant have sake?" I ordered it on a hunch, and yup~ the "sake" is good ol' Jinro Chamisul. Don't be fooled.
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The best flavor for some authentic Korean food!
The best kalbi ever!!!!!!! It's cool too because you can have them
cook it or you can cook it at the table, too!!
I know this place is good because:
1.) My Korean friends say it's the best
2.) Everyone I've taken liked it
3.) When you see LOTS of KOREAN FAMILIES THERE, you know it's gotta be good!!!
There's something cool about real wood charcoal BBQ, especially when it's cool out, like it so often is in San Francisco.
There are a few items to choose from for the BBQ grill. Once you order, the "charcoal dude" comes out with a box of glowing charcoal and sets it inside your table. You grill the meats yourself once it arrives.
It's a clean place. Service is efficient. They will not baby you though. If you want something, you have to ask for it.
Open till pretty late.
You WILL smell like BBQ afterwards. Don't wear your nice clothes.
I like coming here. Food is good and service is friendly. Just try to dodge weekend dinner times, it gets so busy and the whole restaurant is filled with smoke from the grill.
Good food but HORRIBLE SERVICE! the women would mumble in Korean in front of your face. They would make you wait for at least half an hour even when you reserve a table. Because you made a reservation, they expect EACH person to order one item on the menu.
Seriously? I don't understand why this restaurant has such a high average star rating. Do you like smelling like BBQ'd food when you walk out of a restaurant? They need to fix the ventilation in that place. As for the food it's mediocre. My family and I ordered just about everything on the menu, and I found nothing extraordinary. If you've been to the Korean restaurants in LA, you know what I'm talking about. It just doesn't compare!
Brothers used to taste better than what it does now. I don't understand why really good restaurants slack on ingredients when they become popular. I still come here when I'm in the mood for Korean and it's late. The service is good and they give a lot of those little side dishes. They offer the most side dishes out of all of the Korean places I've tried. I love the cucumbers, beans sprouts, and anchovies. They also give the spicy tofu soup on the house. Despite the food not tasting as good as it used to, it's still a pretty good restaurant.
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I like the owner, the copious banchan (side dishes, like kimchee, marinated vegetables, etc.) and the complimentary spicy Korean soup we always get. In terms of the galbi (marinated short ribs), I have to say it's good, it's better than any other place I've had in San Francisco, but it's not the galbi that I grew up with in LA even in non-fancy shmancy joints, or the galbi you can get in Seoul almost anywhere. The flavor is more subtle, which some people can appreciate, but I think galbi should be bold and loud.
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The Chinese Fashion Mafia and I had dinner here, after ransacking the Macy's Sale and watching SATC together. What can I say? Couture makes me hungry!
We were the only table who [unwisely] decided to cook our kal bi and [spicy] marinated pork at the table. Everyone else, it seemed, was more in the know and had the kitchen do the manual labor. Our bad.
The short rib was juicy and delicious, and served with a great selection of ban chan. I'm not really sure what you're supposed to do with the giant sections of bone that are included on the plate? We barbecued them, for good measure, but there wasn't any discernible meat on it - just a bit of fat that sizzled and snapped seductively, as it cooked off. Der Hund would have loved it as a take-home treat. Next time...
I couldn't comment on the pork - which didn't declare its spiciness on the menu... but it did - I'm told - have a lot of heat. It did look very tender and flavorful... and spicy enough to land me in the emergency room. Damn that allergy to chili pepper!
Did I mention that instead of turning on the BBQ, an actual human being carries two boxes of white-hot, glowing ember-thingies out, from the kitchen? He didn't put out warning flags or pylons as a warning or anything - that was a bit shocking, because those things were HOT!!!
I ordered a green scallion pancake (no oysters, please) - a very generous portion that the three of us could not get close to finishing. We were served a single crock of molten, spicy tofu soup; The CFM said it was tasty, but HOT.
The service was... Korean. They were a bit understaffed, I think - because everybody (including the Kitchen Cinder Man) was rushing around. Flashing a smile, here and there, but they made us feel in a hurry.
"Thank you, goodbye! Thank you, goodbye!" they smiled and bobbed, as our take home boxes were deftly assembled. The older gentleman who helped me almost scooted the green onion pancake into the container WITH HIS FINGER, before I reached over and used my chopsticks to do the job.
* note: it's much more difficult to be repulsed or flinch by this incident, after you've just eaten good food. That you've cooked yourself. Yes, they prepped it in the kitchen, but... whatever.*
I may be a lightweight... and too complacent to have taken a full shower and washed my hair last night... because I actually Febreezed my hair before going to bed.
Twice.
Fortunately, my black leather Alexander McQueen jacket covered with D-rings aired out nicely, and still just looks like sex, instead of looking like sex AND smelling like grilled meat. I cannot say that my hair fared so well... I'm going to have to shampoo and deep-condition.
Twice.
Will I eat here again?
Yes - and I wouldn't think twice!
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Growing up with several Korean friends whose mother's can cook their asses off....I have to say this restaurant is gooooood! I usually base Korean restaurants on the quality of the Kimchee, and this place has 4 or 5 different kinds and they are all home made quality.
Since I was introduced to this place by my hard core foodie friend who loves good Korean (she happens to be Korean so it doesn't get much more hard core than that) I have to say this was almost as good as her mom's food!
Great.
The only thing that is weird here is the service. I've been here many times and it always seems I get better service when I am with someone of the Korean persuasion. Weird, but the food is good so I'll put up with it.
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I have to say, this place must be one of my top favorite korean restaurants in S.F. I love the smell once you walk in... smells like bbq. great...
1. They give so many of the little appetizer dish things
2. The aroma is great
3. Really nice waitresses
4. The food was fantastic... the only thing was that they (they = waitresses) didn't ask me how spicy I wanted my soup and when it came out, it wasn't spicy enoguh for me....yeahh so next time for whoever orders the tofu soup remember to say EXTRA SPICY!
Overall it was a great experience going there. Opens late thats a PLUS PLUS PLUS!
I've only been here once but my friends have been here 100,000 times. But i can already tell why my friends love this place. So it was 4 of us girls having a nice dinner... i don't know why people seem to underestimate how much we can eat. I love how korean restaurants give you that spicy ass soup along with all these side dishes.
If i'm correct, we ordered short ribs, spicy pork, and chicken.. oohh and this oyster thing. I think it's like fried oyster with eggs or something. anyways, it looked dry as shit but once i had one, i made sure i put a few more on my plate before these bitches took them all!
WE ATE EVERYYYYTHINNGGGG!!!!!!!!!!! we even asked for refills on the sides... i'm sure the waitresses were hellllaaaa hating us. but we gave them a really nice tip! =D
i love this place and will definitely go back. it's pretty well kept. sanitized and all!
but i hate to say it, Korean Village Restaurant still holds the key to my heart!
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I've never been here before 2 in the morning so I can only speak for their late night crew. I once caught the waitress sleeping on a table in the back. She tends to be a little surly, but I still love her any way. And the dolsot bibimbap here is close to perfect.
Food is great, lines are long. Cook your own BBQ, all kinds of meats and seafoods, local favorite. Your clothes WILL reek afterwards, so don't plan on going clubbing or to your grandma's afterward.
The banchan are good and the meat is good quality. The marinade is tasty and once you're seated the service is quick.
When in Rome, do as the Romans. I took the motto when I lived up in the city. I thought this place was the BOMB while I lived there. But then I moved back to L.A. and then you realize that... well, if you want to find the best beaches, don't look in Arizona. Brothers restaurant was one of the best K-restaurants in the city. But they should update and have better ventilation and service. The food is typical and good, but service was alright and ventilation was... fairly poor. I'd go here again, if I lived in the city.
came here one night after a failed mission to joe's crab shack. i'm not an expert on korean food by any means, but i have tried a lot of korean restaurants and this one is, by far, the best. the thing that stood out was the great service and the number of side dishes included with the meal. the best are the pieces of seaweed...just wrap up some meat and other sides inside of it and take a bite out of heaven. i would definitely recommend the jap chae here as well.
the drinks were also very reasonably priced and only ended up spending around $40 per person including tip for a party of six. this was after about 3 bottles of soju and twice as many beers.
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I used to like Brothers. I used to like Korean food.
When I wanted the best Korean food in the bay area I chose Brothers, but since my last experience there I quit Korean food altogether.
If you're a fatty meat eater then you'll like the food. I tried getting something a little more healthy like the "jap chae" fried clear noodle dish and it tasted like it was cooked in lard. I spit it out!
Other than that Korean food is really simple in general but they charge high prices! and use cheap labor to make them thereby boosting their profits.
I would rather have authentic, high quality, delicious and healthier food.
I remember having this a LONG time ago when I was younger and it was just so godly. I ate here after how long it's been with my friends and it just wasn't as good as I remembered it. The service is not bad as they ask if they want you to cook the bbq yourself or they can do it for you. What I thought was rude though was that the waitress randomly comes and just grabs the raw meat and puts it on our grill and just leaves like that. I love the dessert they offer though, that rice in water thingy. I pretty much take it like a shot and all my friends gave me theirs. I was in heaven. Still looking for a better Korean BBQ.
You know, I love Korean food - ALOT. I was in heaven living in Los Angeles for 3 years b/c they have the best Korean food down there. Since i've moved to San Francisco, I've been eating crap for Korean food. Brother's is the only decent place with decent meat that doesn't taste like it was scraped off the bottom of my shoes.
The service pretty much sucks here, but whatever...a small price to pay for good meat.
A good place to go when you already stink from running in a race. Nobody will smell you here and you'll leave smelling like bbq anyway. This was my first true Korean bbq experience and I thought it was great. Of course, I went with someone who is fluent in Korean and totally hooked it up for our table. She cooked all the food for us - kal bi and bulgogi. I thought the Kal bi was so delicious over the bbq. We had several little side dishes which were great. Came out feeling full and smelling like new bbq perfurme.
Well I loved the place so much the first time that I went back within the same week. Unfortunately my Korean relative could not make it and we had to go alone. It was such a different experience and we messed up the order somehow. I guess we didn't order enough bbq per person so they didn't bring us the free large soup for the whole table like they did the first time. The service was different because there was an obvious language barrier. I had to ask for the wet seaweed 4 times before finally pointing over to another table until they understood. It's all good though.
Same great tasty food, same great bbq smell...
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Brothers.
The name alone evokes images of friendship, bonding, and particular to this case, CharcoalGrilledMeatFestivus for the restofus.
I can picture the Korean film Friend (that I have not watched yet but apparently it is quite famous) where a plot synopsis mentions:
http://en.wikipedia.or...)
"The men stay friends, drinking, singing karaoke, and eating galbi together."
And perhaps Brothers Restaurant could be just that place to do so if they did a SF proper Hollywizzle version of the movie (god forbid), coz Han Il Kwan's BBQ don't cut it for me.
I've been here several times in the early 90s (too long ago) and the last trip sometime within the last 8 years. The most recent meal was even better than before, as we got a complementary soon tofu stew that was surprisingly good (the redder, the hornier and the angrier looking the tofu stew volcano, the BETTER it will taste and the harder it will kick your ass), in addition to ample quality panchan (all perfectly prepped, and great kim chi marination). The Brothers guys know what SF A$IAN CHEAPNE$$ means, so they dish out enough panchan to make your $$ stretch out.
You might as well wear some skanky musty soiled laundry when you come in here (at least hopefully it doesn't look the part), because the grilledmeatfestivus smoke will permeate your clothes and maybe even help make the clothes smell better after the meal. Keep those Prada, Armani, Gucci, Burberry at home and just come in like a bum ready for some animal protein.
4 stars for being so consistent throughout the years, and being a staple of the Geary Gourmet scenery for BBQ. This big brudda is da shiznit. The younger brother (Brothers 2) just doesn't seem as exciting.
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I love this place, the food is great, the service is ...well, ok. ALL three of the stars they got are based on food. its so good, im willing to deal with the poor service.
Ok. i used to love this place but now quality has gone not been the same. its like they want you in and out as fast as possible. but i'll be back to give it another shot.
WARNING: Wear crappy clothes because you'll come out smelling like crap!
Other than that this place is sooooo goooooood. The waiters are so nice too. They offered me and my family free chop chai(spell?) because I came in here for my 18th birthday. Yeah that was 3 years ago but I still remember everything correctly. At this place you get to cook the meat yourself! So if you're the type that likes to eat med rare beef or anything rarer than that then this place should be awesome for you. Not only is the beef tasty but it's not dry even if you cook it to well done. For dessert we had the sweet water rice thing which was pretty good. At least we don't only get gum for dessert like some other Korean restaurants, not that I'm complaining since I do like the melon gum.
Try to come earlier if you're planning to have dinner with some friends because this place get packed after 6:30pm or just make reservations. And remember to wear crappy clothes!
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Brothers is the premier Korean BBQ restaurant in the city, as shown vividly by the huge line around its small entrance. The beef here is marinated into perfection, so really, stick with Beef (rib eye, short rib) and save the spicy pork at any other given Korean place.
Warning! Do not ever sit in the table without the air ventilation, because it means you'll have the kitchen to cook your BBQ for you. Huge mistake I've made once late at 9:30pm because I was starved to death and almost fainted. The kitchen will over cook all your BBQ dishes, so please, wait for self cooked BBQ section.
One dish here really sets Brothers apart is their "Stir Fried Clear Noodle with assorted meats". I don't know what it is called on the menu but I am sure you can find it or just ask. The noodle tastes amazing with strong BBQ flavor yet sweet enough so it's not overly greasy.
Come here early, since this is a BBQ place the line doesn't move as fast, and the wait gets tedious around 7pm. It is imperative to come here in casual attires, because you WILL smell like BBQ afterward.
Enjoy !
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What else can i say that hasn't been said. The food is good and consistent everytime we go. The owner seems very friendly and hooked us up with a free squid dish which was a perfect complement to all the beef we had on the table.
The service was good and quick and the cook was great (thanks wifey)
i just wish they could make the ventilation better.
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Terrific! We made a reservation for a party of six and were actually early, but they seated us at the next available table anyway, which we appreciated. And we had a great time. We got five orders of meat to BBQ, which was just the right amount for our group of mostly hearty eaters. Kalbi, marinated beef, marinated pork, chicken and shrimp. We liked the two beefs & pork the best, probably because they'd been marinating in some good stuff. We had zillions of little bowls of panchen, which was yummy, and they did a great job of keeping everything coming and refilled. The whole dinner was about $125, including some beers, which seemed like a great deal for so much good food & fun. We're still looking for kalbi that's equivalent to what we had at Park's in LA, but I'm delighted to have found Brothers. We'll definitely be back.
The food here is really good! I love doing the BBQ! except after I leave the restaurant I always would smell like Korean BBQ! Because this place is so popular there's always a long wait...so I suggest the best time to go is late morning on the weekends!
"Ahn nyeong ha se yo". I make a half hearted attempt at a bow and take a seat in the modestly decorated wood paneled room. I always get the cold bi bim bop with a fried egg on top. I'm mostly excited about these little crispy spicy salty fishes that come out with about 10 other little dishes filled with various items of a pickled or salted nature. Really it's too much food to eat and I wonder if this is how it is in Korea (South, that is, the north is starving) or do they just give you lots of food because they think thats how Americans like it. On a related topic, I have no doubt that the Korean food is better in Los Angeles as some reviews suggest. But benefiting from this would require living in, or even visiting that sprawling fucking nightmare of vapid soullessness that people call a city. If I'm not willing to visit our National Parking Lot on the off chance that I might get blown by the Olsen Twins, am I really going to go there for some Korean food?
I consider myself fortunate to live in a town where I can get something close to authentic food from almost any region in the world. Most people in this country live in a town where your choices are a truck stop, a McDonalds, and an Appleby's so quit your fucking complaining and go to Brothers. Kamsa hamnida
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Some of the best Korean food I've had no doubt. Wonderful service as well. The servers are very kind and helpful in explaining what everything is if one isn't experienced with Korean food. I loved the dolsot bibimbap, and the people I was with thoroughly enjoyed their bulgogi dishes. Plenty of side dishes were brought out, and I savored the complimentary rice drink (shik hae??) that was brought out at the end.
Yes, it may get a little stuffy in the place with the smells of the bbq and all, but I think it adds to its authenticity and genuine aura.
Just a note: I went to Brothers II. NO WAIT, even though just down the street, there was a wait at Brothers I.
Great great great! We ordered Kalbi, Bulgolgi, Chap Chae, and some pancake thing. It was more food than we ever imagined! And they even threw in free soup (yum - tofu-y goodness) and dessert! I loved it. It was a pretty cold and windy night, and being in front of those glowing embers really was nice. We were sad when they took them away.
One thing we thought was interesting - we completely meant to cook our own meat, but somehow they thought we were culinarily challenged or maybe they were bored, who knows. Anyway, they ended up doing all the cooking for us - they'd put the meat out, turn it over, and put it off to the side when it was done. From the other reviews, it sounds like that's pretty normal, but we were fully expecting to do it ourselves. In the end though, I think it was better that they did it. We were too busy stuffing our faces!
Oh yeah, great tea too. Oh, and in regards to the Korea House vs Brothers comparison... I'd say that overall, I prefer Brothers, even though I'll agree that Korea House's Kalbi is probably just a touch better.
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Not much to say when a place has 300+ 4Star+ reviews.
Like all Korean bbq..expect to come out needing to take a shower and dry clean all your clothes. Also expect to wait to be seated..this place can get PACKED.
Other then that, if you are into Korean bbq (who isn't?) this is the place to go.
I'm glad I finally got around to eating here this past weekend.
We arrived around 12:45 and were surprised to see a few empty tables available for seating. I was expecting a huge crowd based on other Yelp reviews, but lucky for us, this was not the case. I could already smell the smoke and knew my clothes were going to get thrown into the laundry basket the sec. I got home.
The service was excellent. They were prompt. The minute we got seated, the waitress brought us our menus, water, and tea w/out us having to ask for it. I wish this were the norm, but unfortunately it isn't for most.
It took us a few minutes before we decided on ordering (for 3 people):
If grilling, there is a two plate minimum.
-1 plate marinated beef short ribs ($22.95)
-1 plate marinated chicken ($18.95)
-1 soup (#40 in menu, recommended by the waitress as being the popular dish with beef, tofu, oyster, and vegetables; I think it was called Soy Bean Paste Soup?) Fyi, it only feeds 3 ppl at most. ($9.95)
You can either choose to cook the meat on your own using the charcoal grill in front of you or have the kitchen cook it - we decided on cooking it ourselves, which I always think is the fun part of eating at a place such as this. Immediately after ordering, the waitress brought out the mini side dishes (aka banchan): the kim chee, fish cake, anchovies, boiled bean sprouts, and seawood among my favs. She also brought out rice bowls for each of us along with the romaine lettuce to wrap the grilled meat. Jap chae (stir fried clear noodle with veggies and meat) was served to us on the house!! It was very delicious and flavorful. The waitress was nice enough to get us started by putting a few meat pieces onto the grill before letting us fully enjoy the experience for ourselves.
Both meats were well marinated, tender, and juicy. It can get a little salty if eaten on its own so its best to eat with rice or wrapped in lettuce. At the end of meal, we were served small bowls of a sweet dessert.
Overall, great service, friendly staff, fun experience, and good food! Best of all, I didn't even need to eat dinner b/c I was so full from the meal.
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as a korean..
i must say
this place sucks..
its like the cheaper korean version of benihana..
maybe worse..
disgraceful americanized korean food
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Worth every moment of smelling like a tar pit after an hour here of gorging on fantastic Korean bbq treats. Great side dishes to enjoy with your wood-charred meats. There is no comparison to wood charcoal bbq, gas isn't even remotely similar. Big plus--friendly service from older movie star-looking Korean lady. Minus--when she prematurely judges the meat is done and takes it off the grill before I can say "charred." Lady, I want my meat with caramelized, charred markings--this is where the serious flavor lives!
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