First-time Korean restaurant visitors usually order the barbecue beef. Saucy and succulent bulgogi is indeed a great place to start, but Korean cuisine is oh so much bigger than the sum of its grilled meats. The city’s restaurants serve a wholesome and crowd-pleasing array of non-barbecue dishes including dumpling soup (manduguk), sizzling stone-pot rice and veggies (dolsot bibimbap) and Korean seafood pancake (pajeon).
A petite restaurant with a big following, Bow Bulgogi’s namesake dish is the main reason the place is often lined up out the door. Unlike many Korean restaurants that offer tabletop barbecues, the chef here grills the meat dishes for you. Go for marinated beef or pork, which are both served with mushrooms and lettuce wraps, or try the spicy chicken, squid or short ribs.
With a mile-long menu, Insadong Korean BBQ does traditional Korean dishes such as noodles in black bean sauce (jajangmeon), spicy rice cake stew (dukbokki) and bulgogi, it also serves contemporary entrees such as its lunchtime LA-style galbi (barbecue short rib) box, barbecue meat wraps and Korean-inflected Chinese dishes such as seafood noodles with egg.
One of Calgary’s oldest Korean restaurants, Korean Village is easy to find, as it’s situated just south of the Calgary tower on 10th Avenue Southwest. Korean standards served with an array of complimentary side dishes (banchan) include transparent chapchae noodles with vegetables and pork, kimchi stew, spicy chicken as well as several grill-it-yourself tabletop barbecue dishes.
Just off Macleod Trail and Midlake Boulevard Southeast, Moon Korean BBQ serves an array of barbecue dishes, soups and hotpots. Evening barbecue entrees include beef bulgogi, pork ribs and soy chicken. The osam bulgogi with spicy pork, squid and veggies is highly recommended. Also try the pa jeon (seafood pancake) and beef dumpling appetizers as well as hot and cold bibimbap bowls (rice with veggies and red pepper sauce).