First time at a KBBQ restaurant and the menu is all Korean names you can’t pronounce? Here’s what you need to know without the fluff.

Beef

Galbi - Short ribs, cut thin across the bone. Marinated in a sweet soy sauce with garlic and pear. This is usually the star of the menu - rich, slightly sweet, falls apart when cooked right. If you only order one beef item, make it galbi.

Bulgogi - Thinly sliced sirloin or ribeye in a similar marinade. Cooks in seconds because it’s so thin. The “safe” choice for first-timers. Works great in lettuce wraps with rice.

Chadolbaegi - Paper-thin beef brisket, no marinade. You cook it fast until the edges get crispy, then dip it in sesame oil with salt and pepper. This is how you reset your palate between the sweeter marinated stuff. Worth trying if you usually stick to marinated cuts.

Pork

Samgyeopsal - Pork belly. Thick slices of layered fat and meat that you cook until the fat renders out and gets golden and crispy. This is actually the most popular KBBQ cut in Korea itself - not beef. Goes extremely well with soju, which is not a coincidence.

Dwaeji galbi - Pork ribs with a spicy gochujang-based marinade. Messier than beef galbi, redder in color, more heat. The marinade caramelizes nicely over charcoal.

How to Order

If you’ve never been: get one marinated cut (galbi or bulgogi), one unmarinated cut (chadolbaegi), and one pork option (samgyeopsal). Most restaurants have combo platters that do this for you.

Pay attention to what you like. Next time you’ll know what to order more of. Half the point of KBBQ is figuring out your own preferences - there’s no single “right” order.