After the ill-fated sojourn to Koji BBQ Buffet, I was in need of some good Korean BBQ to wash the bad taste out of my mouth. Fortunately, my friends were more than willing to join me and we ended up at Star BBQ in Koreatown, partly because we had heard great things, but also because it was the easiest place to pronounce. Upon arrival the place was empty, which meant we got personal service that meant not only faster meat, but a waitress to help us with the cooking of it.
Due to some KBBQ rookies with us, we made the common mistake of ordering brisket. Now, before you say anything about how great brisket is, you must realize that Korean BBQ brisket is simply frozen, flavorless beef and a total waste of stomach space at an all-you-can-eat BBQ. It is one level above rice at such a place and is only saved by the fact that it is still meat.
As we switched from brisket to other food items, I have to say I was impressed by Star BBQ’s attention to us and to the detail of our food. We rotated between a meshy grill topper and more of a cast-iron topper and each were different from anything I had ever seen at KBBQ before. The variety was nice and complemented the variety of meats we ordered.
The top two meats were the Beef Short Rib and the Beef Bulgogi, the latter of which should come as no surprise since it is almost always awesome. For some reason we avoided things like the intestine and tongue, although to be honest if there had been someone there willing to eat those with me I would have gone for them.
One thing I found especially fantastic about the place was that they actually had steak on their menu. And no I don’t mean sliced up, marinated steak, I mean big old steakhouse-sized steaks. They were of the ribeye variety and although they couldn’t really compete with the marinated deliciousness of the short rib and bulgogi, they were certainly appreciated.
After eating just about as much as possible, memories of that other KBBQ experience faded from my mind. Once again, Koreatown served me well and I was perfectly content with the impending meat sweats knowing they were well worth it.