BAEKJEONG
ADDRESS: 5700 Rosemead Boulevard #100, Temple City, CA 91780
WEBSITE: https://www.baekjeongkbbq.com/
Baekjeong had made it onto my Google Maps list of places to try after a recommendation from my friend Angie. I wasn’t sure when I would be down in the Temple City area to give it a try, but last month I went out bowling with my friend Michele down in that area. Afterwards, we were thinking about a place to get food, and both of us ended up feeling like some Korean BBQ, so off to Baekjeong we went.
It was a Saturday night right around 7PM, so prime dinner time. That was definitely evident with the wait time quoted at almost 75 minutes, along with a sizeable group of people waiting outside. Luckily, the plaza where Baekjeong was located had some other tea shops in there, so Michele and I hung out at one of them while we waited. Some of the groups ahead of us must have dropped out, since we ended up only waiting about an hour before we got seated.
The inside was set up like one large studio space, not really divided up into dining rooms or anything like that. There was definitely a good amount of seating, with the grill hoods extending down to pretty close right above the table. That definitely helped make sure that the smoke from the grills didn’t cloud up the entire dining area, and I felt like my clothes didn’t smell like BBQ after the meal as much as at some other places I’ve been to.
From a meat selection perspective, the two primary options are beef or pork, along with beef offal, if that is your type of thing. In addition to the standard banchan that they give you at the table, there are also a number of appetizers, rice dishes, noodle dishes, and stews to order from as well. One thing to note is that this is not an all-you-can-eat spot. Unless you look up pictures beforehand, however, the downside is that it is a bit difficult to gauge how much meat will come per order.
Michele and I opted to get the small Beef Combo, which contained thinly sliced brisket, marinated boneless short rib, and ribeye. We also tacked on the Seafood Pancake as our appetizer to add onto the banchan. Our meat combo also came with a choice of stew, so we decided on the Kimchi Stew to complement our meal.
One thing that I also noticed about this place was that the staff will cook the meats for you, instead of you doing it yourself. My guess is that this also helps the restaurant control the wait time at the tables, since the eating pace is a little more dictated by when the staff helps you cook the food. After they brought out our first plate of the beef brisket and put it onto the grill, they also filled some troughs around the grill with corn cheese and egg to continue cooking while our meal continued.
The brisket was pretty good, although best paired with some dipping sauce or seasoning to help give the meat more flavor. The ribeye was next on the grill, with some of the chunks I got ended up being almost all fat. But at the same time, the flavor of the meat was still good, and the cook temperature of medium was just right for me with that balance of char flavor and tenderness. Last up was the marinated short rib, which had a sweet and savory flavor inherited from its marinade. The meat itself was nice and tender, and I thought that the cut was a good balance between meat and fat. Of the three different ones that we got, I’d say that the marinated short rib was my favorite.
As far as the additional dishes go, the kimchi stew and seafood pancake were both solid. The kimchi stew definitely had a kick to it (as expected), and your mouth would definitely grow warmer from the spiciness every time you took another sip of the stew. In addition to the kimchi, there was tofu, scallions, pork, and other vegetables as well. For the seafood pancake, I really liked how crispy the outside was, but then on the inside, the scallions, shrimp, squid, and clams helped to give each bite a variety of hearty flavors.
Even though it was 9PM when we left, there still continued to be a good number of people inside the restaurant eating. I suppose that is what happens when you have a place as popular as this that people are willing to wait over 75 minutes to get seated, like we signed up for. Overall, I thought that the meat quality was good of the beef that we got, along with the kimchi stew and seafood pancake. The service, however, wasn’t very engaging, as our waitress seemed more laser-focused on getting our order, cooking the food, and then getting us out. Even though the food quality was good, I’m unsure about whether I’d sign up for another 75-minute wait at this particular KBBQ spot.
Let’s now take a look at the Baekjeong Dish Spotlight. Asterisks (*) below mark my recommended dishes.
** Thinly Sliced Brisket **
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** Ribeye **
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** Marinated Boneless Short Rib **
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** Kimchi Stew **
Stew made with kimchi, tofu, scallions, and pork.
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** Seafood Pancake **
Potato starch and egg base, filled with scallions, shrimp, squid, and clams.
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And finally, here are my rankings for Baekjeong:
Food: 4.25 / 5
If beef and pork are what you’re looking for, then you came to the right place. Those various options, along with the other appetizers, rice dishes, noodle dishes, and stews, help to provide a variety of items to choose from.
Atmosphere: 4 / 5
The large “studio seating” dining area, with the multiple tables spaced throughout, felt primarily functional for the most part. The area was definitely brightly lit, but it’s hard to say that there was any particular ambiance that the restaurant was going for.
Service: 3.75 / 5
Even if our waitress wasn’t as hospitable, I can’t deny that things were very efficient with receiving our food and having it cooked, making sure we were never getting hungry while waiting around for the next items off the grill.
Price: 3.75 / 5
For the overall amount of food that we got, between the three plates of meat, the stew, as well as the seafood pancake, (not to mention the banchan and rice), that came out to just under $100 total for the two of us. Even though I thought the quality of the meat was good, for a non-AYCE spot, that pricing did seem to be on the expensive side.
Overall:
15.75 / 20
(79%)
Categories: California, Restaurants
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