One of the very best things about living in Northern Virginia is the vibrant Korean community. For meat lovers, the rewards go beyond cultural enrichment — Korean barbecue is one of the world’s most glorious ways to dine on animal protein. Whether you’re grilling your own thinly sliced cuts or letting an expert share tableside skills, the region is replete with excellent examples of this culinary tradition. These are some of our favorite places to get a dose of tender beef, crisp pickled vegetables, and bubbling steamed eggs.
For those who are in it as much for the sides as the meat, the unusual grills here are filled and refilled with vegetables, steamed egg, and even stretchy corn cheese. Partake of all-you-can-eat or á la carte meat options, as well as premium combination platters. You’ll find higher quality cuts elsewhere, but when pure gluttony is on the menu, there’s no better destination.
K-pop fans will be delighted by the screens projected with candy-colored music videos, but the gustatory thrills are focused on the all-you-can-eat menu packed with garlicky marinated victuals. The bottomless meals start at $29.99, one of the best deals you’ll find, so pull up a chair, soak in the youthful voices, and spend the next 90 minutes in a beefy haze.
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You won’t find all-you-can-eat deals or dry-aged delicacies here. It has earned its position with moderate prices, flavorful marinades, and endless banchan worthy of a meal on its own. The bulgogi and neukgansal (seasoned rib fingers) are highlights. Pro tip: It sells bottles of its habit-forming, gingery salad dressing to help fans continue the joy even after their visit.
The name says it all: The owners here take their meat seriously and aren’t afraid to tempt diners with higher-priced but luxe proteins. A window near the entrance foreshadows what’s to come with a peek into the in-house dry-ager. Options focus on certified Angus beef and Duroc and Berkshire pork but keep your eyes open for aged Iberico de Bellota pigs imported from Spain
Owner James Jang created this new restaurant because he craved somewhere upscale to take his family and friends to in the Tysons area. He’s accomplished that for himself and adoring fans who want to dress up a bit for their enviably cooked cuts harvested from the ribs of local cattle. Order the prix-fixe, which includes five courses for $75, and don’t miss the spicy chilled buckwheat noodles.
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The dishes served at Korean barbecue restaurants generally vary only as far as cuts and marinades can take a chef. That’s why the giant rib galbi at this standout is such a revelation. A whole short rib is marinated until it’s so tender it’s a wonder that it holds together. It’s cooked on the grill, then rearrangedinto chunks onto the bone for consumption. There’s cold-smoked pork belly, too, another innovation worth tasting more than once.Food Northern Virginia’s Newest Korean BBQ Restaurant Grills Up Dry-Aged Beef and Ibérico Pork Honest Grill in Centreville was born from three friends looking for a protein fix after their pandemic workouts.
Wan Bok Lee had been helping run his mom’s Chantilly restaurant Taste of Korea and a neighboring dessert cafe called Who Seek at the start of the pandemic. With everything suddenly shut down and nothing to do, the now-32-year-old started lifting weights nearly every day with his friends Yoo Cheong Won and Sang Hyun Lee in Won’s Annandale backyard. (“We did join the 1, 000-pound club, ” Lee says.) After workouts, the trio would grill meat for protein. Lee had been thinking about opening a Korean barbecue restaurant before Covid, but the idea started gaining momentum as he looped in his friends. They experimented with different cuts, charcoal versus gas cooking, and even their own aging. They eventually visited dozens of Korean barbecue restaurants from Virginia to New York to LA.
The result is Honest Grill, a recently opened Korean barbecue restaurant in Centreville featuring high-end meats that aren’t so common in the area. They’re sourcing American wagyu from Snake River Farms and Ibérico pork from Spain, along with premium beef and pork from other purveyors. But the thing that distinguishes them most from the competition: an in-house aging room for dry- and wet-aging.
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“Now, [Korean barbecue] is just booming, and people are going crazy about all-you-can-eat buffet style. When we became very serious about this meat, I felt kind of sorry. I want people to try real Korean barbecue, ” Lee says. “We want quality over quantity.”
While Honest Grill doesn’t offer endless proteins, it does have various “guides” or combos (ranging from about $65 to $150 for two) for diners to sample selections including pork jowl and collar or New York strip and beef galbi. A la carte options include pricier cuts like dry-aged ribeye (nearly $80 for 12 ounces) to well-marbled cabecero Ibérico (about $39 for 8 ounces), but also more affordable skirt steak and pork belly.
The owners are taking the same curated approach with the banchan. Instead of flooding tables with tons of different complimentary sides dishes, they offer only scallion salad and three types of kimchi (white, radish, and mustard leaf—all Lee’s mother’s recipes).
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“I didn’t like having too many side dishes. I’m here to eat meat, but all I’m filling my stomach with is side dishes, ” Lee says. “We want to only serve the side dishes as a garnish for the meat, not something you eat separate.”
Sang Hyun Lee, the restaurant’s chef who also previously worked at Taste of Korea, is preparing plenty of other Korean staples too, including kimchi stew, galbi bibimbap, and seafood scallion pancakes. Among his more unique offerings: a rice bowl with sea urchin and seasoned cod roe, meant to be mixed together.
To drink, Honest Grill has a basic Korean soju and beer menu, but Lee is looking to beef up the wine selection going forward to pair with the dry-aged meats.
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“We’re not trying to aim high-end, ” Lee says. “What we’re trying to achieve is: this is Korean barbecue, this is the standard.”
In July 2016, she was Food Editor and Young & Hungry columnist at Washington City Paper. She is a Colorado native and University of Pennsylvania grad.At the restaurant on Columbia Pike, it’s too easy to watch cuts of marinated pork belly, galbi (short ribs) and even spirals of intestine cook at tables inlaid with grill tops until a server pulls the meat off the grill piece by piece to serve plate by plate around the table.
Korean barbecue embodies everything good about barbecue: It’s experiential, adventurously diverse and best enjoyed in groups. And Annandale is the undisputed destination for Korean barbecue in Northern Virginia.
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In 2000, The Washington Post chronicled its rise: Korean businesses first came to Annandale in the late 1980s. In 1988 there was one Korean restaurant, named Kaboja, on Columbia Pike. By 2000, there were more than 20—and the dining scene continues to grow. Annandale storefronts are now overwhelmingly occupied by Korean bakeries, formal restaurants and Korean barbecue restaurants, about 50 in total, says Sojung Lim, president of the Korean American Association of the Washington Metropolitan Area. Though only about 12 focus on barbecue, it remains the vital genre of the community’s culinary reputation.
Korean barbecue has become particularly popular in Northern Virginia, and elsewhere in America, because it is so accessible. It is similar to American Southern barbecue in that it is an unpretentious way of cooking your own marinated or seasoned slabs of meat. While the meat in Southern barbecue is typically smoked outdoors, with seasonings varying from vinegar to spice rubs, Korean barbecue mostly involves soy sauce-based marinades with the meat cooked quickly at the table in front of the diner. It’s like Benihana without the knife show.
Diners select seafood or meat—pork belly, galbi and a thinly sliced beef called bulgogi are most common—and servers bring it from the kitchen to cook at the table.
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As with Southern backyard barbecue, this style of dining translates easily to big groups. And according to Steve Lee, president of the Korean American Chamber of Commerce of Virginia, Korean barbecue is what lures people from all over Northern Virginia and beyond for meals. A Korean cultural appreciation meet-up group often gathers at Annandale’s Korean barbecue restaurants, and Korean expatriate businessmen from all across the region host business dinners at barbecue restaurants, Lee says.
Cuts of meat and preparation styles are largely the same, though, Lee says, some prepare meat in a saltier, more traditional marinade, while others cater to American palates with a milder taste. Some are formal, others raucous. Here’s a look at the major players.
With its 24-hour service and Korean pop music on blast, Honey Pig is probably the most well-known Korean barbecue restaurant in Annandale. But while Honey Pig’s late-night hours and wilder atmosphere are particularly popular among the younger crowd, Lim says that its casual atmosphere also appeals to their parents. The menu offers a wide range of meats and seafood, including duck, tripe, squid and octopus, cooked according to traditional styles—meaning watch out for the salt. / Honey Pig, 7221 Columbia Pike, Annandale
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