The 10 best K-BBQ restaurants in Singapore to heal your hunger for hanwoo

Korean barbeque — often shortened simply to K-BBQ — sits at the wonderful intersection between the opposing realms of stuffy, tableside culinary theatre and unfussy, booze-driven dining.

It turns the millennia-old tradition of consuming hunks of meat cooked over flame into a visceral and often necessarily convivial experience.

K-BBQ is a culinary art made to be shared with friends and family, with the very preparation of dinner transformed into an act of mutual respect and carnivorous merriment, made all the more delicious by the recent influx of prized hanwoo (native Korean beef) into Singapore’s culinary biome. Read on for the best spots to enjoy K-BBQ at its finest in the Lion City.

COTE Korean Steakhouse

If the name wasn’t a big enough hint, COTE Korean Steakhouse in Como Orchard isn’t your usual K-BBQ joint. The US import’s gastronomic identity lies somewhere between a classy American chophouse and a uniquely Korean sense of meaty indulgence, which also means that, until recently, its menu was largely dominated by prime stateside cuts and American wagyu.

COTE is now embracing its Korean influences with a limited two-month showcase of Jeju handon (Korean pork) and hanwoo, with the latter becoming a permanent addition to the restaurant’s tableside grilling programme.

Find out more here.

Song Gye Ok

Song Gye Ok stands out from all other Seoul-imported K-BBQ chains with its singular focus on chicken — and only chicken. In fact, it’s the only type of meat available here, whether stewed in herbal ginseng soup or grilled tableside in Hanok-inspired surrounds (note that BBQ service won’t be available during weekday lunch).

The signature chicken platter comes with six speciality cuts — chicken thigh, side ribs, tenderloin, cartilage, neck and heart. Note that the restaurant is not halal-certified because it serves alcohol, though it follows Muslim-friendly practices in food handling.

Find out more here.

Jeonpo Meat Shop

If you find yourself in the heart of the Central Business District and hankering for K-BBQ, you can get your fix at Jeonpo Meat Shop — a Hong Kong import which embraces the nostalgia and unfussy attitude you’d only get at a true-blue Korean barbeque spot tucked in a Seoul alleyway. 

It’s all about the sizzle and the soju at Jeonpo, which offers both lunch set menus and ribsticking supper fare for the afterwork crowd. Classic cuts such as the beef short rib and flower-cut pork belly are available for your grilling pleasure until midnight daily.

Find out more here.

Nami Korean Grill House by Hanjip

The team behind Clarke Quay’s popular Hanjip Korean Grill House has now brought its signature style of no-frills, convivial K-BBQ to the tranquil Greenwood Avenue estate. Enter Nami Korean Grill House by Hanjip, a cosy and family-friendly spot that should be top on the list if you’re looking to kick back and enjoy charcoal-grilled meats on the weekend. 

The standouts here — aside from a stack of premium cuts, now inclusive of hanwoo and handon from Jeju — are the housemade banchan, along with an expansive complement of K-eats ranging from comforting abalone pot rice bowls to soy-marinated crabs.

Find out more here.

GU:UM Contemporary Grill

The sister concept to chef Louis Han’s celebrated NAE:UM takes the grill away from the table and back into the kitchen. Sure, diners lose out on the fun and mouthwatering anticipation of front-row seats to the night’s grilling action, but what they do gain is prime meats given tender, loving care over charcoal, beechwood, and applewood. 

The result: a proper steakhouse experience with proper premium cuts from across the world. Think Tajima wagyu striploin, Iberico pluma, and Jeju hanwoo lower loin, all meticulously prepared and served in the kitchen — meaning no lingering smoke on your clothes after a delicious meal. 

Find out more here.

DRIM Gold

If you love KBBQ but don’t quite dig the rowdiness of more convivial joints, tuck into Drim Gold — a newly opened swanky establishment in Resorts World Sentosa’s Weave that dials up the bougie aspects of the Korean barbeque experience to eleven. 

The restaurant balances modern design sensibilities with a dramatic cave-like atmosphere, setting a suitably elegant scene for premium barbeque grilled, served and plated with sincerity for craft and respect for provenance.

Korean beef, naturally, takes centre stage, alongside harder-to-find meats such as barbecued Korean eel.

Find out more here.

Joong San

From the folks behind pork-centric Um Yong Baek comes Joong San — a laidback joint serving Korean comfort classics by day, before transforming into a beef-focused barbeque specialist at night. 

While the quality of the meat is nothing to sniff at — highlights include thick-sliced beef tongue and Andong-style marinated beef ribs — diners would be remiss to pass up on house specialities like the sundubu stew with its housemade, pillowy-soft tofu.

The house-aged black truffled mustard seeds that accompany your meats in a faux caviar tin also add to some novel, tableside fun.

Find out more here.

Seoul & So

The family behind the longstanding Seoul Restaurant at Conrad Singapore Orchard has now opened a new outpost at National Gallery Singapore. Enter Seoul & So, a modern take on Korean barbeque that straddles the divide between tableside grilling and cooking hidden away in the kitchen.

At Seoul & So, the fire and the flame are concentrated at specific hubs around the dining room, facilitating intimate conversations without entirely ditching the classic K-BBQ theatre. Premium meats include USDA prime, Japanese and Australian wagyu, and of course, hanwoo and handon. 

Find out more here.

Whuchu Korean Dining Restaurant

There’s nothing subtle about the recently opened Whuchu Korean Dining Restaurant — though that should be obvious from the moment you lay eyes on its dramatic cave-inspired facade, not to mention the glass-windowed dry-ageing room packed with Himalayan salt and all manner of fermented seafood, hunks of meats and banchan.

In the dining room, a mix of straw, clay and wood yields a suitably refined space for diners to enjoy Korean barbeque, served during lunch hours with jeotgal (Korean salted seafood), pot rice, perilla seed seaweed soup and a medley of veggies for wrapping meats with, a la ssambap.

Find out more here.

Sodeng

Not all K-BBQ joints are cut from the same cloth, and nowhere is that more apparent than at Sodeng. Almost everything happens as it should — the cosy atmosphere as you walk in, the customary banchan imported from Korea, the heat emanating from the grill, which resembles a cauldron’s lid — until you flip through the menu.

Alongside entries like the usual pork belly and beef short ribs, you’ll find duck — marinated in a spicy Korean chilli paste or served in a rich kimchi stew. Savour it while you can, as Sodeng’s two outlets in Telok Ayer and Amoy Street are pretty much the only places you can have the bird served a la K-BBQ in Singapore. 

Find out more here.