Bebop Korean Mexican Grill Catonsville — Restaurant in Woodlawn

I went in to look at the menu and I am so glad that I did. This place has THE BEST food that I have tasted in the United States and I have lived in this country for almost 41 years. The owner is very charismatic and I love having conversations with him. If you see an impeccably groomed and well-dressed man at Bebop, then you have found the owner. Aside from his appearance, magnetism and his conversational aptitude, he can also speak 5 languages!

He is also very focused and very particular about all the details at Bebop. He made the choice to install electrical outlets that have USB and USB C charging ports on them in his dining area. The bathrooms are incredibly clean and very modern looking. The owner is from New York and the bathrooms make you feel like you are in the bathroom of a 4 star New York restaurant. He's not satisfied with his current brown take-out bags and he is currently looking for a supplier that can deliver a branded, beautiful, functional to-go bag that won't break the bank.

During my first visit I ordered a regular sized (they have a large as well) bulgogi fries, their loaded burger, kiwi tea and then the cinnamon churros for dessert. The bulgogi fries contain french fries, crumbled up Korean BBQ beef (the bulgogi), melted cheese and a wonderful tangy sauce that they make from scratch. In fact, all of their sauces are carefully made and mixed in-house!

The loaded burger was a 1/2 pound patty with turkey bacon, extra cheese, a fried egg, lettuce, onion and mayo. It was the best burger that I have ever tasted even though I have grilled many a burger for myself and customers in my lifetime. It was also VERY messy (totally worth it though!) so it's one of those burgers that you need to hold onto until you have eaten it all. Putting it down and then picking it back up is simply not a good idea.

I don't like tea very much, but I really love kiwis. I asked them to make me a kiwi tea with plenty of sweet kiwi taste and a small amount of ice. They were happy to accommodate my request and I was very happy with the result! In fact, I finished my tea too quickly and I decided to buy a bottle of pineapple soda so that I could finish my meal!

The churros were excellent. I ate them right away and they were crispy on the outside and very soft and chewy when I sunk my teeth in. They were filled with a white cream that I think was vanilla.

I love everything about Bebop and I am going to go out of my way to make sure that they are successful. I will tell anyone who listen to me...

First thing is first. You are ordering the churros. That is not a suggestion. Their Mexican Churros are the best churros I have ever had. Crunchy on the outside, covered in cinnamon sugar, fluffy on the inside, and in the middle filled with a creme filling. The flavor and texture were perfection throughout.

The rest of the food was similarly delicious. My mom had a chicken burrito that was overflowing with ingredients (you'll want a fork). My wife had a veggie bowl that was topped with an egg. I tasted that, and it was amazing. My son had the quesadillas which he gobbled down in record time. The portions on the bowls and burritos are generous. The veggies were fresh and delicious, and authentic (I didn't recognize a few of them).

The sauces were incredible. Just know that spicy means spicy here. I got a spicy shrimp bowl, korean style with purple rice (a mix of black and white rice) and red sauce. The dish was pleasantly spicy to me, someone who eats a lot of spicy foods. The shrimp was cooked perfectly, neither underdone nor overdone. The rice was an appropriate portion. They didn't do what a lot of places do and load up the bowl in rice to save on other ingredients. Instead, the rice was perfectly coordinated with the other ingredients.

There were a few downsides here. The wait for food was longer than fast food but about the same as table service wait times. I forgive this because the food was as good as and even better than many table service restaurants. The men's room lock had broken, but the owner started taking care of it right away when I brought it to his attention. The backroom also seems a little dingy and slightly unkempt, but that didn't affect our meal since we ate in the front room. None of these drawbacks could begin to offset the absolute deliciousness and quality of our meals.

We went here for a casual meal following my daughter's high school graduation. For what we were looking for, this was a fantastic find. This is also close to UMBC, and with the generous portions, it would be a great place for students to find a good meal at a good value. We highly recommend this diamond in the...

Ok look, the food is great, the owner (who's name I will probably butcher) is great. If you are a foodie or like either korean or mexican food you should go here. Ok? Ok.

Now let's go into the details about what makes this place different and better than many other places. Running any business is hard especially a service based one and even more, one involving food. But what I experienced here was nothing short of brilliant food service business. I sat and talked with the owner a bit before ordering. The guy was a man passionate about food and really wanted to share his dedication to his craft with people. The food like I said already, was really good. The protein was well seasoned, the veggies were crisp where they needed to be, the egg was just the way I wanted it to be, the sauces brought everything together.

After I finished my meal, and I finished my WHOLE meal I talked with him again about everything I ate. Look, I took notes and the owner wanted to hear it all. I don't get that level of integrity and dedication to food from many owners but I got it here. The owner and I, we see a lot of things eye to eye but full disclosure, what we want probably isn't what most people want. This is a business after all. But don't you want to eat from a place that has given that level of thought to every ingredient they use in their food? Don't you want to eat at a place that has tried the little tweaks here and there until they found the balance that would make the most of their customers happy? And don't you want to go eat at a place where they have traveled and learned from places so that they could make the food as authentically and with as much respect as they can?

I like to eat at places like that. I hope they stick around for a really long time and I hope you go so they can stick around for a...