You’ll be hard pressed to find a Korean restaurant in Denver that doesn’t have a single BBQ item, whether it’s LA galbi served on a ripping hot grill plate or bulgogi served in a rice bowl conveniently compact for a corporate lunch.
However, Korean BBQ, in its traditional form, is a more engaged meal. Instead of ordering fully cooked food, you’re presented with a plate of neatly organized raw meat, ideally featuring some of the most decadent marbling you’ve ever seen, ready for grilling. All the cooking takes place directly at your table, which is embedded with a circular metal grill called a bulpan.
You’ll spend the majority of the meal staring at the wisps of smoke coming off the ripping hot grill as somebody in your party — often the youngest person, if you want to get traditional about it — takes charge of the grill and deals out cuts of glistening meat like cards at a poker table. It’s communal and celebratory, everything a night out should be…