Oo-Kook KBBQ!
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Oo-Kook KBBQ!

By Debbie

On Friday, a group of my friends and I went to a Korean Barbeque (KBBQ) restaurant called Oo-kook. For those not familar with KBBQ,Wikipedia describes it as:

"Gogigui literally "meat + roasting", or Korean barbecue refers to the Korean method of grilling beef, pork, chicken, or other types of meat. Such dishes are often prepared at the diner's table on gas or charcoal grills that are built into the table itself." I've been to two other KBBQ places: Gaon and Road to Seoul. The nearest one to campus is Gaon, which is runs a little higher on the price range. The meat there is so-so, but the environment is clean and not too noisy. Service is a bit better/faster if you have a Korean in your group - though that seems to be true for a lot of KBBQ places? Road to Seoul (RTS) has better meat than Gaon, but you have to shout for the person next to you to be able to hear you. What bugs me the most about RTS is that to celebrate a birthday, they flash on and off *all* of the lights and sing over the intercom. This happens several times a night, which can be very jarring. RTS is also pretty far from Caltech. Dissatisfied with Gaon and RTS, we looked for a new KBBQ place to frequent. One of our friends had gone to Oo-kook located in Korean Town (a little far), so we tried the Oo-kook near us in San Gabriel. It was AWESOME! The meat was juicy and delicious, and the service was so fast! Literally within minutes of ordering, our dishes of meat would arrive. We ended up ordering 20+ dishes of meat because it was so good and came so fast! This place is really interesting because they have a separate salad bar, which also includes a variety of sauces.

We didn't have a Korean in our group, but the service was stunning!! My friend had a paper napkin that was slightly dirty, and the waiter replaced it without any prompting! The water was constantly being replenished - we never had to ask for refills. And this was during a full Friday night!! We were super happy and tipped accordingly. We definitely plan on coming back here, as much as our wallets will allow! :D

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