Champs Korean Bbq — Restaurant in San Diego

This KBBQ is unbelievably great!!!! The new fave in the Kearny Mesa area. ALL of the meats are premium quality, and the service is exceptional. There has not been an AYCE KBBQ with better service in all of San Diego County in ages. Truly top notch.

The meat portions are generous, and the sides are plentiful at all levels. The corn cheese is a particular standout. It's not too saturated with oil, but it has excellent flavor. When the basic meats like Chadol Brisket is fantastic. They also have other classics like Bulgogi but with a premium twist. The Waygu Bulgogi is next level!! No matter what meats or seafood you get, it's easy to prepare.

The rice was well made, and it also offered rice paper and other typical sides like Steamed Egg. They have some unique soups and stews as offerings compared to other KBBQs around the area. Notably, the Kimchi Jjigae is superb. They have all the expected sauces to go along with the food, but a special standout is the "Sriracha" is extra spicy, and a welcome addition to all of the meats.

The cook top is a bit of a different experience from what you have come to expect in this area, and it is a welcome change. It is more of a hot stone cooking experience, the heat is distributed evenly, and it makes it perfect cooking all the options you can order. One of the fun highlights is getting the Kimchi fried rice. It's the one thing that the staff will come cook with you and make a fun ornamental design out of.

Parking is a bit of a mixed bag, just like all other restaurants in Kearny Mesa. There is customer parking located out front. There is also wheelchair accessible parking out front as well. However, due to the popularity of the area it fills up quick. There is additional parking located on the side streats nearby. It s a short walk from all of those places.

No matter what. Champs AYCE Korean BBQ is highly recommended. Excellent...

we really liked the stone grill idea as it makes kbbq a lot easier to flip and (in my opinion) taste the meat a lot better since its grilling in its own fat. the side dishes were decent: kimichi was alright, pickled radishes were good, tofu skin was a bit salty, and the jalapeño side dish was the perfect level of “kick” to kbbq. the coarse salt was way too salty to dip (lowkey) and the “orange sauce” was way too sweet, i think just basic salt and pepper and perhaps a different sauce as defaults might be better.

as for the grill, after the first round, there was just so much fat still left on the grill and marinade from the bulgogi that we couldnt taste the thin pork belly or beef brisket well. our server (jared?) kindly wiped it down for us, but i wished there was some sort of “scraper” as part of the default utensils to make the stone grill a “clean slate” when there are different meats being cooked.

as a recommendation, i suggest ordering the non-marinated meats first and then moving towards the marinades to avoid mixture of flavors and ruining the taste of the meats.

the meat cuts were well done too, and the speediness of ordering a new round was good also. its just the grease and build up of flavors that kinda ruined it for us a bit, until our server wiped it down a bit.

however, if its going to be busy like most kbbq places in convoy, i think the managers should invest in some sort of “fat scraper” for customers to use to clear up the stone grill to ensure tasteful meats :)

overall its a good place w some bumps but its a newer kbbq place that i think has the basis down and the food was...

If I’m being 100% honest, I wanted to hate this place they replaced the tofu house I grew up going to with my family for my entire childhood 😡 Seriously, I’d gone to this place for maybe 10+ years…

HOWEVER, I had a 10/10 experience! Champs is newish so we didn’t have to wait at all. We also we got the premium menu!

Their banchans (side dishes) were super good! I’ve never had a pickled jalapeño banchan before, and it was so good I ordered a whole side of it just for me. If you like a side dish, they will hook you up!

The meat selection was impressive! I’ve done a LOT of KBBQ and I was impressed by the variety, quality, and portion size. Speaking of portion size, don’t be afraid to ask for half portions of meat if you are think you can’t finish it or want to try more variety!

The kitchen dishes were also super yummy- we go cheese corn, dumplings, steamed egg, and a few other things. I loved the radish wraps personally.

The service was 10/10 AMAZING. They constantly checked in on you, took away plates, offered water and sauce refills, and either asked if you were ready to order or anticipated if you needed more time. Lovely, friendly, and above and beyond staff. Also, it was fun asking for their recommendations because they never disappointed!

Last unique quality was they had stone flat grills so there was less smoke and sticking.

Definitely try this place out, if I liked it for robbing me of my childhood, you’ll for sure LOVE...