Korean Restaurants of NYC

The good news is that you don't need to speak Korean to get some of the best Korean food in the world. The bad news is that you'll actually miss out on a lot if you don't. This journal is an effort to bridge some of that gap and provide some ideas for where to go for Korean food of any kind, whether you want a traditional Korean BBQ with a table full of side dishes, or you want an introduction to the cuisine without the uncomfortable situation of staring at a menu full of squiggles and just pointing to a picture hoping that you get what you want.

If you like Korean food and you live in or visit New York City, then you can have some of the best Korean dishes you'll ever taste. I've lived in Seoul and I'd say that NYC Korean food is every bit as good as, and sometimes better than, Korean food in Korea.

Quick Tips:

Best Way To Get Around:

I'm going to focus on three areas of New York. The first is downtown Manhattan, near the East Village, SoHo, and Chinatown, because I've lived there for 3 years now. You can get to this area via almost any subway line and every taxi in New York City can get you to downtown. The next area is Koreatown, specifically 32nd Street between 5th and Broadway, because that's where the "flagship" Korean restaurants are located in Manhattan. I also studied the Korean language in that neighborhood for 2 years, so I've spent some time there. The best way to get to this area is via the 6 or the NRW or BDFV subway lines. The last is Flushing, Queens. You can get to Flushing via the 7 train or by bus if you know the bus lines (I don't). I point out Flushing because, well, ya know.

Temple, as it's known by many long-time visitors to the restaurant, is one of the better Asian eateries in a neighborhood where you can't swing a dead cat without hitting an Asian eatery. Started as a school project by the original owner, it quickly took off and became a popular destination with a clientele that ranges from NYU students looking for a lunch deal, to upscale visitors from upstate. The food is a slightly-Americanized selection of traditional Korean dishes and a wide selection of exotic wines and liquors are available to round out a delicious meal. The staff are picked for their friendly, agreeable demeanor, and the musical ambiance is always sophisticated and subtle.

I've eaten here many times, and my personal favorite lunch dishes are the kimchi stew and the bulgogi on rice, both have flavorful ways to break up your day without emptying your wallet. For a more elegant (and expensive) dinner, the kalbi is fantastic, the bulgogi is something to write home about, and the bibimbap is the weapon of choice for vegetarians. Having lived and worked in Seoul, I will say that the food here comes pretty close to tasting like homecooked Korean food. What you won't find, however, is the Korean BBQ that you are able to get at most other Korean restaurants.

For a taste of what urbane Koreans drink at dinner, try some of their soju cocktails. Their lemon soju is the best I've had in either New York or Seoul, and they have some Korean liquors that I haven't seen anywhere else in New York. Also try the bok-bun-ja, a mountain berry wine that supposedly is hangover-proof (I've tried!).

The place fills up around dinnertime, especially on Friday nights. As every true New Yorker knows, Thursday is the night to go out, and Temple is no exception. The place is packed with people from all over the world. I've heard English, Korean, Japanese, Cantonese, and French spoken by various customers while I was there.

This is one of the first places I recommend to people for almost any situation. I've been here for lunch, for dinner with my roommate (when I lived in the neighborhood), on dates, for business dinner meetings, and as an early evening nightspot on "out on the town" nights. It's a good introduction to Korean food for an American audience, as the dishes aren't as gut-wrenchingly spicy as you'll find in other restaurants.

This little place, tucked above the Peculiar Pub, is one of the gems of the neighborhood that some are starting to call NoHo. On Bleeker between LaGuardia and Thompson, Choga serves a one-two punch of some of the best Korean food south of 14th street combined with sushi that consistently gets rave reviews from my sushi-indulging friends (sadly, I don't eat fish). It's the perfect lunch or dinner location, and the takeout/delivery food is of the same high quality as the food you get when you sit down.

Let me start off by saying that kimchi stew is one of my favorite dishes in the world, and Choga's kimchi stew is unquestionably the best I've ever eaten. It comes in two varieties, spicy and sinus-clearing, and you never know what you're going to get. The galbi, both for lunch and for dinner, is amazing, and the other Korean dishes have gotten positive responses from Koreans and non-Koreans alike. The lunch menu is fantastic and averages around 7 bucks and the dinner menu is a knockout that runs from about $10 to about $17 per dish… which is about what you'd expect from the neighborhood.

Besides being a great stopover for lunch, Choga makes a great start to an evening. They can easily put together several tables for large groups (I've gone with groups of up to 10, and just saw a group of 16 today), and can find you an out-of-the-way table for two with a candle and some Korean wine if you're there with a special someone.

The staff is friendly, although their English is oftentimes limited to job-related functions (ie, if you don't speak Korean, you're not going to be able to flirt with your waitress very well, although they'll be too polite to let you know that). The food oftentimes takes a while to be prepared due to the high volume of business that they do, but it's always worth the wait.

Choga is perfect for takeout or long lunches. It's also one of the best spots for a nice downtown dinner with authentic Korean food (and, of course, sushi). It's also pretty close to what you'll find in a newer Korean restaurant in Seoul and it's rare that there isn't at least one table of people speaking Korean. It's not a great place if you're in a hurry or if you have very specific dietary needs (chances are you won't get your ideas across unless you speak Korean), but it's an awesome location if you're into great, traditional, butt kickingly spicy Korean food.

This place is better than most of the places I ate at in Seoul.

Hands down the best Korean restaurant I've ever eaten at anywhere in the world. The food is the best, the service is typically Korean, and the "extras" really make the experience. The side dishes are numerous and good, and they will oftentimes give you a rice porridge at the end of your meal and it's really something worth having (usually during lunchtime).

There's a lunch menu that's good, but a bit more expensive than other places ($8-$12 per meal), and the dinner menu is comparably priced to other Korean restaurants. This isn't the best place to go for a beef BBQ, but if you like pork, then the Sam-gyap-sal pork BBQ is the way to go. Other dishes that you won't find too many other places (or you can find them, but they're not as good) are bu-dae-chi-gae (army stew) and duk-bae-gi-bulgogi (bulgogi stew with rice cake). There is a plethora of seafood dishes for those who like that sort of thing.

The decor is simple and pretty much what you see in restaurants in Korea. The clientele is largely Korean, but you'll see all kinds of people who stop in for this most excellent food.

This is a great place to stop any time you're hungry. If you go for lunch, be warned that KunJip fills up FAST right around 1pm. Get there a few minutes early for the best service. At dinnertime, you'll often see a line out the door. It will move fast and, if you're really in the mood for the best food, it's worth the wait. In fact, the only reason I ever go to other restaurants in Koreatown is because the line was too long at KunJip.

KunJip is a decent destination to go for a lunch with coworkers or friends, or dinner with the same. It's not a great "first date" place because it's loud and there's not much privacy. I've shared a table with people I don't know at least a dozen times.

If you have Korean friends, this is the place to go with them. Many local pillars of the Korean community stop by here, and there have been many times I've been here with a Korean friend and seen their jaw drop as a local or visiting Korean celebrity stopped by for lunch.

In short, if you're looking for the place that Korean people go for arguably the best Korean food in New York City, KunJip should be your first choice. Interestingly, KunJip means "big house" in Korean, and this is one of the smaller restaurants on the block. The "big" is more about their reputation than their square footage, I guess. This place is like a secret landmark of Koreatown, one that you'd only really know about if you're "in the know".

If you want a quick, cheap Korean food fix, WooriJip (means: "Our House" or "Our Place") is your destination. The food is okay at best, but there are buffet-style and á la carte dishes that you can pick up pretty cheaply. Prices here are comparable to the cheap places in Chinatown, and you can be in and out in 10 minutes if you want. This restaurant is popular among Korean students on a budget.

In a way, this is one of the most authentic Seoul-experiences you can have in New York. The staff are friendly but too busy to be helpful, English is rare but you don't need to speak at all...you just need to know how to read a register (some employees will just turn the display on the register to you if they don't speak English), the clientele is young and pushy (you WILL get bumped around. It's frustrating unless you understand that personal space means something different in Korea and getting bumped by a passerby without an "excuse me" isn't in any way personal), and the food ranges from Kim-Bap (Korean sushi) to all sorts of Chi-gae (stew) to bulgogi-by-the-pound. If you want food spicy enough to blasphemy against your taste buds, you can find it here in a little plastic container full of stew.

This is a great place to go if you're by yourself, as you can pick up some food and either eat at the window-side bar and watch Koreatown go by, or you can take it out in front of Woori Bank and pull up a chair at a table. However, WooriJip does not find a place on my list of the Top Infinity First Date Locations, and it's not a great place for groups of more than two or four due to seating constraints.

This place does one thing, and that's selling cheap Korean food that's still pretty good. If that's what you're looking for, this is the only place you need to consider. If you're looking for something fancy then almost any other place in Koreatown would be a better choice.

It's tough to talk about KangSuh without comparing it to KumGangSan across the street. KumGangSan is clearly the flagship Korean barbecue house in Manhattan, but KangSuh easily holds its own with such a prestigious place right across the street. The prices are comparable, the food is at least as good, the service is about the same, and the tables are better.

There's often a line at dinnertime, but it's worth the wait. I've only ever been here for the barbecues as the other dishes are about as good as other places on the block but the line is longer here. Once you get a table and start browsing through the menu, the waitress will stop by to take your order. Your best bet is to stick to what's on the menu unless you can speak Korean. Within a few minutes, your table will be near-invisible under a covering of panjan (side dishes) and you'll have a nice fire going in the middle of your table (if you order a barbecue, and I recommend that you do). There is, of course, an assortment of kimchis (what's the plural of "kimchi," anyway?) but you'll often see at least one or two interesting things. Perhaps you'll find yourself staring down a couple of octopus tentacles with spicy sauce.

Then the meat comes and it's time for the real eatin' to begin! Grill your meat and dig in, Korean barbecue-style! Have a beer (stick to the American beers) or some soju (if you're feeling muscular). There's no reason to leave KangSuh hungry, as the portions are decently sized. If you had soju with dinner, you may find yourself thinking that a NoRaeBang (karaoke room) all of a sudden seems like a stroke of sheer genius and you and your friends will assault each other's ears with your off-key caterwauling. This is how many evenings in Korea end.

KangSuh is a great place for a barbecue, for sure. If you have your heart set on KumGangSan but the line's too long, consider checking this place out. At $25 a portion, it's not the place to go for mere eating, but it's great if you want to really appreciate some good food.

The tables seat up to six if you squeeze so it's a good place for small gatherings. It's also a great date location as it has everything. Good food, oftentimes something exotic in a side dish, an exciting and bustling atmosphere, and it's difficult to go wrong with an open flame adding some drama to the evening. There are also some decent liquors to try out.

This is another one of those places that is very popular among people "in the know." One hint I have is to try the "special kalbi", as it's usually $1 more than the other kabli but is marinated in a tasty sauce with a hint of sweetness.

No survey of Korean restaurants in New York is complete without mentioning KumGangSan (meaning: "Diamond mountain" and named after the historical mountain in North Korea). This is the most well-known Korean restaurant in New York City and the reputation is deserved. If you want a restaurant with great food and an even better atmosphere, this is your place. When you walk inside, you'll immediately notice the indoor waterfall with the piano on top. Occasionally they will have a piano player playing traditional Korean music while wearing a hanbok (traditional Korean outfit).

The food is top-notch and the galbi barbecue is the signature dish. Occasionally the tables will run out of gas and your fire will go out, but other than that there isn't much to detract from your meal. The layout is more open than some other local restaurants which gives the place a more bustling, but less intimate, feel. Still, it's a great place to meet friends or go on a date.

After you order, but before your meal comes out, they will fill up your table with panjan (side dishes). Some are standard, and some are exotic (think: "Fish Eyes" or "Mysterious Gelatinous Stuff That Tastes Awesome But It's Probably Best Not To Wonder About Where It Came From"), which lets you alternate between what you know and trying something new. There's ALWAYS something new to try here.

The barbecue itself is pretty standard, although somehow the gas burners aren't quite the same as having a pile of flaming, red charcoal in the middle of your table. The food tastes great, so they're definitely doing something right! After dinner, clean your tastebuds with some orange or pineapple or some other fruit they bring out for a light dessert. You can get alcohol here, but fewer people seem to have a wall of empty green soju bottles here than they do at other places.

At $25 a portion, the galbi isn't cheap but is definitely worth it. Just so that you don't feel ripped off, I've had galbi in Seoul and it costs about the same and usually tastes better in New York. There is another KumGangSan restaurant in Flushing.

This is a great place to go for a Korean barbecue. It's popular, though, and sometimes fills up quickly. If that happens, you might want to try the place across the street (KangSuh), which is very comparable to KumGangSan. If I'm making plans with people who have eaten at lots of Korean restaurants in New York, I take them to KangSuh. If I'm making plans with people who are not familiar with Korean barbecue or don't eat in Koreatown often, then KumGangSan is absolutely my first choice because of its reputation and atmosphere.

Wonjo is always my second-choice restaurant, but don't let that fool you into thinking that it's not good! The BBQs are fantastic and their other dishes are very good. Wonjo just has the misfortune of being a great restaurant on a block packed with great restaurants. I say it's my second choice because I frequently go to Koreatown for dinner at a time when the other restaurants are filling up, and Wonjo is where I go when I don't feel like waiting 25 minutes for a table.

They have an upstairs and a downstairs, and the upstairs is mainly for BBQs. The downstairs is a slightly more traditional-looking restaurant but doesn't have the BBQ pits in the middle of the table. Wonjo has an actual sushi bar, which not all places in Koreatown have, and I'm told the sushi is excellent.

The BBQs can compete with the BBQs at the more established places on the block in both price ($20-$25 per person) and quality, so if you find yourself here don't think for a second that you're getting second-rate food. The rest of the menu is diverse and comparably priced to the rest of the restaurants nearby. The kimchi chigae is blazingly spicy, and their other stews are solid, although strangely contain pieces of fishcake when you wouldn't expect them.

The staff tends to be able to converse in English or Korean and is friendly and helpful. If something's not on the menu, you might be able to get it anyway, especially if you can ask in Korean. The tables tend to seat 4, but I believe some of the BBQ tables upstairs could probably fit 6.

In short, Wonjo is a good all-around restaurant that's usually not crowded and you can often walk in and get a table when the other restaurants have waiting lists. It's a great place for a BBQ and a great place for eating. They have a lunch menu that's about what you'd expect in the neighborhood ($7-$12 per dish). There isn't much to set it apart from some of the other new Korean restaurants, so it unfortunately winds up being my Plan B, but it's a great Plan B.

They have a website at (http://wonjokoreanrestaurant.com/) where they have a menu and photos of the restaurant.

Han Woo Chon is a great restaurant in Flushing. In fact, it's the preferred meeting place of my wife and her friends, so it's definitely popular among Koreans. The decor is simple and elegant, and simple bamboo drapes separate tables, giving each group a cozy, intimate feel.

You're not coming here for the decor, though. The BBQs are amazing, the best according to my wife, although I have another place in mind for the Best Kalbi in Flushing award. The side dishes were numerous, although I rarely found myself eating any of them. I think a lot of them happened to have fish.

Their other dishes were amazing. I ordered budaechigae and it came boiling in a hot stone bowl, which was a first for me with that dish. The bibimbap came with all the ingredients totally separate and you mixed them together in a metal bowl. I don't remember if they had dolsot ("hot stone bowl") bibimbap on the menu or not. If you like bibimbap, and it's a great dish for vegetarians, you owe it to yourself to try the dolsot bibimbap. Other dishes come out nicely presented, also.

And then the eating starts.

Some of the dishes were amazing, some of the best. Others were so-so, but still worth having as even so-so Korean food is good food. The budaechigae had almost a home-cooked taste to it.

The waitstaff was very friendly. I heard no English spoken outside of my party while I was there, but the waitress didn't seem to have any apprehension about approaching us, so I imagine that she probably spoke English.

All around, this was a great restaurant. The prices were comparable to other Korean restaurants in Flushing, which means that the BBQs were a bit cheaper than Manhattan but the other dishes were about the same price. There was an interesting selection of BBQs available, so if you are looking to grill up some beef tongue, this is a place to try.

The Korean barbecue is not like most other restaurant experiences. It has become so popular in both Asia and the U.S. that many other restaurants, often Japanese places, will have barbecue tables at them. The basic idea is that you cook the meat yourself, which sounds like a really dumb thing to pay money for until you try it. I was a skeptic until that first piece of galbi hit my tastebuds and now here I am writing an IgoUgo journal dedicated entirely to Korean food.

The meal usually starts with panjan (side dishes). The exact dishes depend on what restaurant you visit, the time of year, and what the server feels like bringing over (order and consistency are not traditional Korean values). You just dig in with your chopsticks and everyone shares things communally. After a few minutes of trying to figure out how to eat writhing octopus tentacles with flat metal chopsticks (I actually had this as a side dish in Korea. It's weird), the meat comes out. You just put some on the grill and take it off when you think it's ready.

The way you eat it is to take the meat and some rice and put it on a lettuce leaf, wrap it up, and pop it into your mouth. A common faux pas is to make the wrap too big for one bite. One bite is the goal. A spicy red paste is often added (either gochu-jang, which is pepper paste, or dwen-jang, which is soybean paste), and some people will add a slice of garlic or a piece of gochu (green pepper). Be careful about throwing the word "gochu" around too much, as it has a second meaning that isn't the kind of thing to post to a travel website. Some places give you a green, stringy salad-looking dish. This is meant to be added to a barbecue wrap and not eaten on its own. Don't worry, we all made that mistake and got laughed at by our friends, too.

There are probably three main types of barbecue that encompass the majority of most non-Koreans' BBQ experiences. The first is galbi. Typically the most expensive, this is made from short ribs (galbi literally means "ribs") and is strips of meat marinated in a sauce. The sauce is usually soy sauce, sesame oil (which gives it its flavor), a dash of black pepper, some shaved garlic, and some sugar (or brown sugar) to give it some sweetness. You can actually make this fairly easily at home, and can experiment with your own additions. Rubbing the meat with kiwi is also suggested to tenderize it. Galbi barbecue is far and away the most popular in Koreatown, and it goes very well with beer.

The next is bulgogi (means: "fire meat"). This is pieces of brisket marinated overnight in a special sauce (different from galbi sauce). It's usually cooked and served with slices of onion and green pepper. Bulgogi is just as often served as a dish as a barbecue and serves as a great introduction to Korean food for Westerners.

The last kind of barbecue that you will find is sam-gyap-sal, which is pork. The nature of pork means that it's grilled differently than beef. When you take it off the grill, you typically dip it in a sauce (called sogum-jang or kil-um-jang, and it's sesame oil and salt mixed in a little dish). This is an easy dish to make at home. You don't often see Westerners eating sam-gyap-sal (and you would see even fewer if they knew the literal translation of "sam-gyap-sal"), especially here in New York. I've only ever had this at home and in Korea. It's cheaper than beef barbecues, and Koreans often start their evening with sam-gyap-sal and soju (which is a GREAT combination if your intention is to get rocked, barf in the bathroom, and then screech into a microphone at a no-rae-bang or dance the night away in a nightclub in Hongdae...trust me, it makes sense in Korea).

Again, the meat just communally cooks in the middle of the table and you reach in and grab what you want. It's not considered rude to do this. It's also considered a sign of affection to take a few pieces of meat and put them on someone else's plate. Many things in Korean culture center around food (this happens when a country was the poorest country on Earth just 50 years ago after the Korean War), and you can score points with your Korean friends, girlfriend or boyfriend, or friends' parents. Just don't do it too much or you'll go hungry. There is typically a lot of drinking that goes on during dinner, especially barbecues, and I'll go into that in another entry but some quick tips would be: don't pour your own alcohol, and try to take a drink during the "socials" that are frequent. Make sure your friends like to drink, and if they do you'll earn some cool points by at least making the effort to drink at about the same rate that they are.

After dinner, it's common Korean custom to aggressively fight over the check. I've seen drunk Korean grandfathers look like they were about to engage in light- to medium- fisticuffs to see who got to pay the bill. This is okay and is an indication of friendship and respect. Typically, the person of highest "rank" (this is an important concept in Korean culture and even affects the grammar that you use) is supposed to pay, but it's good for the lower rank people to muscle in sometimes and pay for the food.

Especially in Korea, unless your plans were specifically to meet for dinner and then go home, expect the night to continue on if you're with people about your own age. Common after dinner activities include no-rae-bang (karaoke rooms occupied by just you and your group. Alcohol is easily bought from the owner of the bang and is usually not that expensive. Snacks are also available for marathon no-rae-bang sessions), dancing at nightclubs, hanging out and drinking more at a Hof (bar) or convenience store (beer and liquor are sold at convenience stores and they often have tables set up outside for drinking), or visiting booking clubs (this could probably be its own journal entry, but they're basically expensive lounge/nightclubs where singles go to mix with the opposite gender. They're much stranger than that and tend to make foreigners uncomfortable, but if you understand Korean culture they make a lot more sense and don't seem so creepy).

Here in New York, the Korean barbecue is a fantastic way to start your evening or to cap off an afternoon with friends. It's fun, and it's exotic to many people.

This is almost more important than the Korean BBQ experience. Drinking is very popular in Korea and among Korean expats. The first and most important thing to know is that you are never supposed to pour your own drink. When you finish your drink, someone will probably offer to pour you another one. Even if you don't want one, it's best just to take it and then not drink it, or just drink a bit of it. They probably won't "top you off".

When pouring a drink, you pour with your right hand and put your left hand under your right elbow to support it—this is very polite. Even among close friends, you're still going to see this. If you're much higher "rank" than the other person (ie, older), you can just pour with your right hand and you don't have to worry about your left hand. When receiving a drink, it's best to hold your glass with both hands. If you see that someone's glass is empty, offer to pour them some more. Even if they say "no", pour them some anyway. Drinking customs are very polite among Koreans.

Drinking to excess is also the norm. I've carried a number of friends out of restaurants in Korea, and if you drink too much yourself, it's no big deal to casually get up, walk to the bathroom, vomit, and then go back to the table and drink and eat more. The more casual you are about things, the more people respect you (especially if you're male). Women can get away with refusing drinks more easily than men can. Korean culture can be very macho at times, and drinking is an expression of that machismo.

On to different types of drinks. The first is beer (mek-chu in Korean). In Korea, it's best to stick with Budweiser, which is pretty ubiquitous. Local Korean beers are OB and Hite, of which OB is the better of the two but still not really that good. You can get beer in sizes of up to 5 liters in most bars in Seoul. You read that right, 5 liters. Think of two-and-a-half 2 liter bottles of soda and imagine that being full of beer. If that sounds like a good idea to you, you'll fit right in in Seoul.

The most common form of alcohol (called sul in Korean) in Korea is soju. It's basically a lower-powered vodka that tastes like what I imagine unprocessed window cleaner would taste like if mixed with industrial solvent. The trick is to drink a shot or two really fast and then you stop tasting it. In Seoul, you can get a bottle of this stuff for around 80 cents at most restaurants and convenience stores. It's commonly drunk while eating, and especially while eating pork. There are many types of flavored soju, with lemon soju being the most common. Actually, lemon soju seems better here in New York than in Seoul. The best places to get it are Temple Korean Cuisine on St. Mark's and Li Hua on Grand Street.

There are two basic types of soju. Charm soju and Jinro soju. Charm is the more common and also the easier to deal with. Jinro is only for people who don't learn from negative reinforcement. I firmly believe that if I wouldn't have gone drink-for-drink of Jinro soju with my wife's mother, she never would have respected me enough to let us get married.

Another drink that's becoming more popular in New York is bok-bun-ja, which is a berry wine. It allegedly doesn't give you a hangover, although one of my friends disagrees and claims to have had a bad morning the day after she drank this. It also is reported to make men more virile, but the jury is out on that one. Again, Temple on St. Marks is a good place to get this (they were one of the first to carry it) as well as a couple places in Queens. You can get this from liquor stores in Koreatown if you want to drink it at home.

The next kind of Korean drink is Baek-sae-ju. It's more palatable than soju but less "hipster" than bok-bun-ja would be if hipsters could speak Korean. It's a rice wine with a tangy taste. I've introduced about a dozen people to Korean liquor and this is the most popular among them.

I will leave you with a couple of tips on Korean drinking. When you hear "one-shot", it's time to make an attempt at finishing your drink. Mashi-go chuk-ja is a common toast (literally translated, it means "let's drink and die"). Bars in Seoul typically don't close. I've found myself going out with coworkers on a Friday night only to leave the bar and stare down a fierce Saturday morning. The subway in Seoul stops running between around 11:30pm and 5am. If you don't like taking taxis in Seoul (understandable, since only about 60% of taxi drivers speak English, making it difficult to give them directions... also, late at night, traffic laws are interpreted as low-to-medium strength suggestions), plan accordingly. If you're not Korean and you're drinking with Koreans, they'll typically REALLY appreciate it if you try to follow their drinking culture. They'll also usually understand if you don't. Of course, your mileage may vary depending on the people you're with and your opinion of their culture.

Bu-dae-chi-gae means "army stew," and it's one of the best dishes I've ever had. It's kimchi, slices of ham, pork, and hot dog, some noodles (often glass noodles and sometimes ramen, pronounced "ram-yeon" in Korean, noodles), and oftentimes other vegetables or peppers all thrown into a pot with some water and heated up and served with a bowl of rice. This dish is pretty spicy, but it usually won't curl your toes like some other stews will. It's usually served in a specially designed metal bowl that has a fire underneath it so that it stays hot the whole time you eat it. Some places in Flushing serve it in a hot stone bowl to keep the stew boiling as long as possible.

I'd guess about a third to a quarter of the Korean restaurants in NYC serve this dish, and even fewer in Korea (although this is because restaurants in Korea tend to specialize in 5-8 similar dishes). KunJip's is, in my opinion, the best, and even beats most (or possibly all!) restaurants in Korea that serve this dish.

Today I did some digging into where the name of this dish comes from, and it wasn't what I had expected. The name comes from the fact that it was made mostly from food left over by and stolen from the US Army during the post-Korean War era. At the time, South Korea was the poorest country on Earth and its people were starving. Koreans managed to gather leftovers from the troops and turn it into one of the best dishes on the planet by mixing them with cheap, locally available ingredients in a stew. Many Korean foods are inspired by or modifications of Chinese or Japanese dishes, but this is a pure Korean invention.

I've had budaechigae in several restaurants, both in NYC and in Seoul, and have yet to see anyone else order this dish. The few people I've talked to who have been willing to try it rate it as among their favorite dishes from any cuisines, yet not many people have ever experienced this food that was equal parts desperation and inventiveness. If you like spicy food and are willing to try something new, this is what I recommend.