Kkoki Korean BBQ Denver — Restaurant in Denver

After the closure of Ssam on Champa, thought there was no other Korean restaurant downtown. Although Menya had some Korean dishes, but technically it was still more a Japanese ramen shop than a Korean restaurant. Just recently found out there was another Korean restaurant, Kkoki Korean BBQ, opened about a year ago just across the Millennium Bridge at the Union Station end of the 16th Street. Besides its namesake BBQ, it also had most of the Korean staples, such as soups, stews, bibimbap, cold noodles, and less commonly seen spicy stir fried squid, tofu kimchi, cheese buldak, kimchi fried rice, Korean hot pot and much more. This was a franchised restaurant with locations throughout the States. The restaurant was bright, spacious with terrace seating and had a more modern ambience compared to the Korean restaurants on South Havana. They offered lunch specials from 11:30 to 3:00 from Tuesday to Friday. Customers could get beef bulgogi, pork bulgogi, or chicken bulgogi with fried dumplings at less than $16. Ordering these BBQ items with soon tofu instead fried dumplings was about $30, but came with rice, salad and side dishes. Ordered the beef bulgogi with mild combination soon tofu. Both the Korean BBQ and soon tofu were as tasty if not more than the ones on South Havana. It was a rarity to find such an authentic Korean restaurant downtown. The side dishes were not as elaborate with only six side dishes, including kimchi, radishes, bean sprouts, broccoli and fish cake, but right portion for a lunch combo. Although requiring a short walk from the other end of the 16th Street, with its wide selection and authenticity, this probably would become one of my most frequented...

~10 of us ate here a month ago for dinner since we were considering KBBQ, the reviews were pretty good, and it was in a location that was convenient for all of us.

It turned out to be a great decision! We got alcohol in addition to our meals (KookSoonDang Banana Makgeolli is my wife's new favorite), so it was a little more expensive but so worth it. This place definitely has your traditional "cook it yourself" KBBQ in addition to pre-cooked entrees, so make sure to order the right thing if you're looking for that standard KBBQ experience. I think the "special dishes" are all pre-cooked.

We did a mixture of items. We got the Bulgogi Jeongol, and it was insanely delicious. It was some beef in a stew-ish hotpot-ish thing, and the lady who was serving us (I think the owner) kept helping us out and filling our bowls with the food herself from the nearby table because there wasn't room right at the table due to everything we ordered. The stew had this insane umami flavor, and we couldn't stop eating it.

We also got traditional Korean BBQ. I forget what was in the combos we got though... whatever it was, everything was super delicious! One side of our table was pretty confused though, and our server picked up on it quickly. She came right over and helped them cook each round of meats to perfection. Everyone was super happy including my picky sibling!

We were there for probably 2.5 hours and even spent some time watching the Superbowl on their large TVs. We didn't feel rushed to get out at all, and overall it was a great experience with a wonderful server who really...

I had a couple friends recommend this place so I was really excited to try it. We get there and the first thing that they asked us was if we had a reservation... There was maybe 2 other tables seated so I thought that was a little weird. We're looking over the menu and the older female server was rushing us so I asked her to give us a little bit more time and she literally rolled her eyes and scoffed right to our faces before she walked away, I have never ever been treated like that in any restaurant so I almost got up and left because I was so taken back and disappointed by her reaction. I didn't even want to eat there anymore but we decided to stay because the food looked really great! Another server took our order and this woman never came back to our table but none of the other servers really checked on us after that. They were checking on all of the other tables and being super nice to everyone else but me and my friend were pretty much shunned at that point so it was very disheartening and definitely made me want to leave even sooner. The food was honestly phenomenal but the service was complete trash. I spoke to the owner and told him what happened and he was very nice and apologetic about the whole situation and came back to check on us which I greatly appreciated but this one time experience is enough to make me not come back here again. Hopefully everyone else has a better...