DAE GEE KOREAN BBQ — Restaurant in Denver

Been rolling around what to say about Dae Gee for some time. Read some reviews that seem to match my thoughts perfectly, and others that make me wonder if they went to the wrong restaurant.

My girlfriend is pretty into Asian cuisine, especially Korean food as a whole. I LIKE the majority of Asian cuisine I've tried: Japanese, Vietnamese, Chinese, but I haven't forayed into the Korean food scene much. Finally have (as shown in multiple other reviews), but Dae Gee was my first as a whole really in town.

Been in a few times now, but the first was for AYCE BBQ. Cause, man, sometimes... you are friggin' starving, and the only thing that with sate your hunger is stacks upon stack upon goopy stacks of marinated meats and sauces.

Yeah yeah yeah, it is a bit pricey, but honestly, look at what you are getting: short ribs (ain't cheap, brisket (ain't cheap), ribeye (ain't cheap), chicken (cheep cheep), pork belly, and pork bulgogi. It is a large variety of pretty decent cuts of meat, and as much as your heart desires... or at least as much as your arteries can bear. Oh, the short ribs are not AYCE, but whatever, plenty to enjoy.

I like cooking my own BBQ stuff at the table. It's fun, a unique experience, and sort of prolongs the meal, so when you're in good company, it makes for a longer evening of enjoyment. Plenty of sauces to choose from, and tastes to create. Yum.

They also have an unlimited variety of sides that come with your meal. The seaweed is crazy good, I have considered eating that as a meal in and of itself, but that would back me up worse than Eastbound I-70 on a Sunday afternoon during ski season. Few different styles of kimchi, some nice potatoes, and a few other random dishes, that are way tasty.

I've also had the non-AYCE BBQ options. The hot Bee Bim Bop is good, but I prefer the non-hot variety. Tons of goodies in the bowl, plenty of meats if you so desire, and rice rice rice. Good rice.

I tried their tofu, and it is the only thing I did not like here. It wasn't marinated, sauced, or fiddled with it all. It was plain, cold tofu. Not getting that again, I'll stick to the meats LIKE I SHOULD HAVE DONE IN THE FIRST DAMN PLACE!

Tried soju, never had it... awesome. They have their own beer as well, tasty and goes well with all.

Their service method is a bit unique: you don't have a set server. Rather, the entire staff on the dining floor will swing by, check in, bring more food, clear plates, take orders, etc. Makes service faster in my opinion.

Either way, this was a great introduction to Korean food as a whole. I have tried the less-Westerner-friendly spots in town, and I am glad I experience a much more introductory venue such as Dae Gee before trying them.

Good spot. Great spot....

Easily one of my least favorite Korean barbecue places. During my time there (group of 7), we had a pretty horrid experience. Our server sat us down and took our order. We ordered 1 of each meat to grill except for the chicken. The server brought out 2 orders of every meat and also chicken, which was way more than what we could've eaten. 1/4 of the way through eating and grilling, one of our grills died. The server kept reminding us that he needed us out by a certain time; but how can we eat faster when one of our grills isn't working? So the server offered to cook our uncooked meat in the kitchen, which was great. But that food took 30 minutes just to come out and part of it was uncooked as well including the chicken. We had to throw that meat onto our other grill that was still working, which took even more time. The server also neglected to take away our dirty and empty plates, so our table was very crowded with no place to put drinks, new items, and refills.

First off, the prices of the entrees are very close to the price of AYCE. So you would rather order AYCE for the variety, so the pricing of entrees makes almost no sense.

The side dishes are very very questionable. Daikon radish is served as a side dish and that itself says many things about a "KBBQ" restaurant. One of the side dishes is a shredded cabbage with some sort of spicy marinade, which also doesn't make a lot of sense in Korean food culture. There's also a "kimchi pancake" that's cold and doughy and also tasteless that is a part of the side dishes.

There are also other tables with grills that don't have a hood on top, so the smell of the barbecue circulates throughout the entire restaurant.

Our group tried to eat as fast as possible to meet the time the server gave us. At the end of the meal, the server casually said "just this one time, I'll allow you to pack your food to go." this makes absolutely no sense coming from our server because 1- one of our grills was not working and you rushed us to eat. And 2- you gave us 2 servings of every meat when we only ordered 1. The server had the audacity to tell us we could pack our food to go and not charge us for the excessive meat.

I would definitely rethink your choice of eating here. Food isn't amazing and the service is poor. It's also catered to...

All the food was interesting and different - the sides especially. In fact, the food was mysterious and puzzling. it was all quite tasty, too. I just didn't ever quite know what I was eating! It had been explained on the menu, of course, but after ordering the menu was taken away.

Okay, that is a slight exaggeration. After all, one of the side dishes was broccoli and I recognized that. And the potato salad. I recognized that, too. The broccoli had been grilled (I think) in sesame oil, and was very tasty. The potato salad had a sweet edge, and I would have gladly eaten more. Some of those other sides, however, were mysterious to me, and it is only now, from home, that I can look on their website and recognize that one was kimchee jun and another was a pickled radish.

This is the challenge and the delight of trying foreign foods and dishes from other cultures. At times, you may be merely confused, but there are other times, more special times, when your mouth explodes and your senses are overwhelmed and you find yourself enchanted by something quite new.

Perhaps you find there’s a tiny part of yourself, previously unknown, that is part Korean, or Indian, or African. That’s a lovely discovery to make!

While I was a bit lost during the meal, I nonetheless enjoyed everything, the sides, the sauces, and the main dish. I had scallops, by the way – and they were prepared and presented in a way that was quite familiar. I look forward to returning, and to becoming more familiar with Korean cuisine. I might ask if I can keep the menu after...