If you’re looking for one of the best Korean BBQ restaurants in Seoul, look no further. Budnamujip, popular among locals and featured in the Michelin Guide, serves up hanwoo (domestic Korean) beef with an array of side dishes, including staples like kimchi, perilla leaves, and grilled eggplant, and ending with the sweet rice drink, sikhye.

At Budnamujip restaurant, in an area far south of the Han River and the city’s center, the specialty is galbi, short ribs traditionally seasoned with such flavors as Asian-pear juice, sesame seed, rice wine, sugar, and of course, that Korean mainstay, garlic. After you put on a bib, mounds of galbi are grilled before you: the meat at Budnamujip is cut off the bone with a jeweler’s precision. Lacking toughness or the sinewy nature of inferior galbi, the meat-to-suet ratio here is just right and the jolt of sweetness from the complex seasoning is perfect.

– Travel + Leisure

Pro-Tip

Having gone to both the Yeoksam location and Seocho location, I prefer Seocho for better service and atmosphere.

They have a decent selection of French, Chilean, and American wine, but we brought a $300 bottle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape because we were feeling fancy and paid the corkage fee (about 20,000 KRW). As the night went on, we ordered off the wine list.

Fruit-forward red wines like Argentinean Malbec seem to be a favorite with Korean food, especially with Korean BBQ, as it’s tricky to compete with all the spicy, pungent flavors. Don’t even think about a light-bodied white wine unless you’re drinking it as an apéritif and you’re crazy about white wine.

You could go the classic route and always order a bottle o’ soju … And then chase it down with some Cass beer or get rowdy and make a soju bomb, or somaek (소맥).

What to order?

Bon galbi (marinated ribs), galbitang (beef stew), doenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew), mul naengmyeon (cold noodle soup)

How to get to Budnamujip?

Budnamujip (Seocho) can be found at 1340-5 Seocho-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul (Naver Map, Google Map) between Yangjae Station and Gangnam Station. Their other locations are available on their website.