Best Korean

Korean restaurants are tricky. You pretty much need to go somewhere different for every specific craving. Myung Ga Won is one of the few Korean joints in town that covers all the bases, and covers them remarkably well. The marinade on the barbecued meats achieves that perfect salty sweetness. Goat stew cooked tableside swells with gratifying umami funk. More basic items like dolsot bibimbap (rice, vegetables and beef) cooked in a sizzling cast-iron bowl are an easy sell for kids as "fried rice," but exceptional enough for connoisseurs seeking crispy rice slathered in spicy sauce. The banchan is all made fresh in house and is crisp, murky and wonderfully mysterious. The drive may be murder but sometimes you have to sacrifice a little gas money for the good stuff. 1960 Day Drive, Suite 100, Duluth. 770-622-1300. less...

For many years, Atlantans equated Korean barbecue with beef and only beef. But HONEY PIG changed everything. This Duluth restaurant is all about the pork — especially the belly. The prices may seem high, but don't fret. That price includes a gluttonous amount of food. Instead of a regular grill grate, the servers cook the meat on a sizzling-hot cast iron dome with butter. The meat — which comes with a load of side dishes and wrappers — is followed by bean sprouts tossed with chili paste, mushrooms and fermented cabbage. At the end of the meal, a long piece of octopus is curled around the tip of the dome, and snipped to pieces before being tossed with a large bowl of rice and the remaining bits of meat and vegetables. Best. Fried. Rice. Ever. 3473 Old Norcross Road, Duluth. 770-476-9292. less...

Korean food - especially barbecue - has become one of our city's most prevalent cuisines, but where do you go when the choices are so copious? HANIL KWAN leads the pack with its bright and spotless digs, friendly English-speaking servers, well-marinated meats and the preferred use of glowing charcoal instead of gas cooking. Another thing that sets the restaurant apart is its large menu of other Korean specialties such as a sizzling dolsot bibimbap (a bowl of rice topped with vegetables, tofu, meat, spicy chili paste and an egg) served in a large, shallow stone pot. less...

There are plenty of other Korean restaurants in Atlanta, including those that specialize in tofu and soups, but HAE WOON DAE still soars to the top. Hae Woon Dae specializes — around the clock — in meats grilled at your table. Soon after you order bulgogi or any other of the many meat dishes, an employee arrives with a bucket of thermonuclear-hot coals that he dumps in the grill in the middle of your table. Meanwhile, you’re noshing on a vast array of complimentary pickled goodies and eyeballing the zillion athletic trophies decorating the restaurant. Sound surreal? Try it at 3 a.m. less...

Several terrific Korean soup shops exist around town, but when we crave Korean barbecue, we head to HAE WOON DAE. Located in a shopping center that includes the city’s only porn theater, this restaurant stays open later than any other in town — until 6 a.m. You cook your selected meat — everything from highly seasoned tripe and mackerel to chicken, short ribs and classic bulgogi beef — at your table, over a grill in which an attendant dumps red-hot charcoal. Take friends. It’s a great place for a party. less...

Many less expensive Korean restaurants line the Buford Highway corridor, but Mirror of Korea remains the favorite. It probably doesn't hurt that it has a memorable location on the same block as the Lefont Plaza Theatre and the Majestic Diner and that it's been around for more than 20 years. But none of that would matter without the chefs' sure hands at Korean cuisine. The Mirror's "Seoul food," from its sushi to its kimchi to its grilled entrees, keeps diners coming back. less...

Hidden in a strip mall that includes a theater that seems to alternate porn with Indian cinema and a Mexican restaurant catering to the Chinese, Hae Woon Dae is the sine qua non of Asian BBQ. A man stops by and shovels live charcoal from a bucket into the grill on your table. Then you or your server cook deliciously seasoned meats and seafood that you roll into lettuce leaves with all manner of condiments. The kitchen will also prepare bi bim bap and other classics and will even grill your meat for you if you don't want to expend the energy. less...