Until I lived overseas I was unaware that Korean BBQ with high quality meat cuts was even a thing. Even when I lived in Thailand this sort of dining experience was kind of overshadowed by a similar thing the Thais do called Mu-Ga-Ta that is much cheaper and more accessible so I rarely tried it there.
Here in Vietnam though, since Koreans comprise what appears to be a vast majority of the overall tourism, these restaurants are everywhere. There are at least 3 of them within 200 meters of my condo and last night when having happy hour beers with my German friend, he suggested we go and eat there. This was an easy sell for me
So the deal is you sit down and before you even order anything the staff swarm you with a bunch of side dishes that you get unlimited quantities of. Then you select your meat cuts that you want and they cook it at the table on coals right in front of you. We ordered one of the most expensive beef combos and I didn't really even put much thought into what it actually was because I knew it was going to be good because it always is.
one of the great parts of this is that the very friendly staff member is assigned to your table and basically just stays there the entire time. She knows from a great deal of experience exactly the moment that the meat is done and then sets it over to the side indicating that you can take it anytime that you want. In the meantime you much away at the other things that they have put in front of you. For me I tend to attack the pickled onions as well as the kimchee because they go oh so well with the steak. Also, a bottle of Soju goes very well with the entire thing as well. This is yet another product that had I not lived overseas, I probably wouldn't even know what it is. I THINK it is a rice wine of sorts that you drink out of shot glasses. To me, this stuff is kind of gross but for some reason it just compliments the steak perfectly. I never drink Soju any other time.
This extravagance is a bit pricy especially when you consider where we are in the world and how much things generally cost. This meal was around 1.4 million VND all in, which is around $60. That might not sound expensive to those of you in the west, but I can quite easily get some sort of rice dish for dinner for a couple of dollars so yeah, $60 is a lot here but it is worth it on occasion.
This particular place is visible from the roof of my building. I only go there about once a month but if you find yourself in the area one day and are craving some good meats I highly recommend Gainn. I would tell you where it is but if you are in the area you will almost certainly be staying in this part of Da Nang anyway, and you will stumble upon it. It's wildly popular but when you do go in there you will notice that almost all of the customers are Korean.
