Samwoojung

From the minimal signage at Samwoojung, you wouldn’t likely guess that pounds and pounds of marinated meat are getting a makeover right inside. But step into this Korean restaurant in Chelsea, and you’ll find every table equipped with a burner, and every burner piled with thinly sliced beef. Samwoojung has been a bulgogi specialist in Seoul since 1963, and when you go their outpost near Penn Station, that’s what you should focus your attention on too. 

Brought to the US by Hand Hospitality (the group behind hits like Atomix and Ariari), Samwoojung makes a slightly different style of bulgogi than what you might find at Korean BBQ spots around the city. Instead of being grilled hot and fast, the meat is piled on a copper vessel, topped with cabbage, mushrooms, noodles, and scallions, and then cooked in a sweet and peppery soy broth at your table. The result is as perfect for a casual weeknight meal as it is for a get-together that might result in a slew of empty bottles and a spur-of-the-moment ticket purchase to Madison Square Garden.

photo credit: Kate Previte

photo credit: Kate Previte

photo credit: Kate Previte

The warmly lit, split-level space is alive with small groups of soju drinkers, who laugh louder and louder as the evening progresses, and servers constantly trying to figure out how fast you will eat your bulgogi, and how much they should tend to it accordingly. This is not a foolproof experience. Sometimes a server visits every other minute, to the point where you begin thinking your beef might just need a moment alone. Other times it feels like they've forgotten all about you, and your meats must fend for themselves.

If the menu at Samwoojung were the cast of a third grade talent show, the bulgogi would be the teacher’s pet. Other dishes are good—some are even excellent—but the paper-thin beef steals the show from the moment your server turns the grill on. Even if things like red shrimp pancake or galbi catch your eye, we’d recommend committing to copious amounts of marinated meat above all else.

photo credit: Kate Previte

photo credit: Kate Previte

photo credit: Kate Previte

photo credit: Kate Previte

photo credit: Kate Previte

The only non-beef thing you shouldn’t skip? The creamy, just-sweet-enough, frozen persimmon for dessert. Turns out these bulgogi specialists have some hidden expertise with the gooey orange fruit too.

Food Rundown

photo credit: Kate Previte

Banchan

There will always be kimchi and ssamjang on your table, but the rest of the banchan varies—on different occasions we’ve had mackerel, braised tofu, and garlic cucumber kimchi. If a bowl of braised tofu vanishes before your bulgogi even arrives, don’t worry, someone will soon replenish it from the refrigerated banchan case.

photo credit: Kate Previte

Bulgogi

Samwoojung’s bulgogi is priced by weight (from $39 for 400g, to $79 for 850g). This pile of raw meat, seasoned with soy and bamboo salt, cooks right before your eyes, along with cabbage, mushrooms, noodles, scallions, and rice cakes. Most bites are brothy, but some get just a little crispy, which keeps your giant meat mound very interesting. Towards the end, eggs are cracked into the broth. Save room for your egg.

photo credit: Kate Previte

Abalone

If you order one thing besides the bulgogi, make it the abalone. It’s sweet and chewy, topped with pine nuts, and served alongside a small portion of bibimbap made from mixing rice with the abalone intestines. You will find yourself eating up every speck of pine nut you leave behind. Make it fast, though. Your bulgogi is probably just about ready.

photo credit: Kate Previte

Crab

Eating raw marinated crab takes time. So when a bowl of soy-marinated crab and a pair of plastic gloves land on your table at the same time as your bulgogi, you’re bound to feel a little overwhelmed. Eat crab another time, or maybe on your second visit.

photo credit: Kate Previte

Red Shrimp

Little red shrimp in a pancake. A lovely bite along with some soju. Not necessary, but lovely.

photo credit: Kate Previte

Kkakdugi Fried Rice

This is a perfectly pleasant kimchi fried rice, but when you’re gearing up to eat banchan, rice, and bulgogi, extra rice just isn’t necessary.

photo credit: Kate Previte

Persimmon

Full of beef, you might be inclined to skip dessert. Don’t. This persimmon is skinned and frozen, bathed in honey, and served on top of a little bed of creamy ricotta. It is absolutely and unassumingly magnificent, and you should not share. Order one per person at your table.