I loooooooooooooooove Buga! Everytime I’ve been here, I’ve left with a very full and satisfied tummy. Buga is a Korean restaurant where you can grill your own meat on the table — make sure to wear clothes you can toss in the laundry right afterwards, because you WILL go home smelling like meat. They also have a sushi bar there, but honestly, why go to a korean restaurant to have sushi? it’s all about the meat!!!

Let’s start with the meat. Their meat is really well marinated. Unfortunately for me, the last time I went they ran out of kalbi (so sad!!!), but I remember that being some of the best kalbi I’ve ever had. We did have the bulgogi though, and it was awesome – perfectly marinated, not too many really fatty pieces… wish we ordered more! We also ordered the chicken, which my sister was a big fan of. The only meat I was slightly disappointed by was the #3, the rib eye – it just wasn’t as tender or as a flavorful as the other meats. The side dishes are pretty typical – a few kimchee dishes, bean sprouts, seaweed, a potato salad. I typically don’t touch this much because I reserve stomach space for the meat.

So what sets Buga apart from other Korean BBQ places? there are two things here that are sooooo awesome. First, the sauce. They have some brown oily sauce that’s hefty on pepper and salt… I don’t know what it is, but it somehow makes all the meaty marinade soooo tasty.

The other thing that’s awesome is that they give you these things to wrap your meat with – kind of like mu shu pork. They give you two things – little rectangles of rice noodle, and little semi circles of pickled daikon. I think the style of eating is called “duk bossam” or something? It’s sooo yummy. The quality of the meat, combined with the tastiness of the sauce, and the texture of the wrap is so amazingly awesome. It’s really those two things, the sauce and the wrap that put this way above and beyond any other Korean BBQ I’ve ever had.

This is one of those places where money is no object – I would pay ridiculous amounts for this food. Luckily, I don’t have too – the plates of meat run about $16-$22, and it’s a pretty considerable amount. We ordered 4 plates of meat and a jap chae for 5 people (3 boys, 2 girls), and that was just enough good, even a little bit too much.

Buga is the Korean BBQ I crave… I wish I could have some right now!