If I said to you, you can go to a restaurant and cook your own meal, you might think that sounds…read morelike crazy talk. But, here's the thing -- it's one seriously fun night out.
If you're bored of the usual system (order, wait for chef to cook, waiter delivers, yawn) then Bulgogi might be worth checking out. I confess, this isn't the first time I've had Korean BBQ, however -- it is Leeds' first and only place to indulge, and indulge you should. At least once.
If you're not au fait with the system, allow me to explain. You order the set menu -- the only available choice -- and the staff swiftly bring out your first course of five. To begin, you get a few veggie sushi rolls and gyoza. Then comes the first BBQ course: slices of pork and beef. These are accompanied by three choices of sauce (soy, chilli, and tamarind), and about eight or so side dishes. (Which counts as the second course, I think.)
Use the lettuce leaves as the base, chuck in a few bits and bobs in from the sides, add some sauce, BBQ up some meat slices, and get it all mixed in together for mouthfuls of marvellous-ness. My favourite sauce was the tamarind, and my favourite side was the spicy cucumber. You also get a healthy portion of sticky rice, which I'd advise to ration -- you get full so quickly!
We, foolishly, assumed meat course numero uno was the main course. Oh dear. A second, even better, course of pork and beef slices then arrived. I don't know what had been done to the beef, but it was delectable -- and the beauty is you can cook it to your own taste! I complimented myself many times on my own barbecue skills.
Then came the course of seafood! My word.... By this time I was absolutely stuffed, but we battled on. Because, food. The prawns were amazing; I don't usually like them, but these were delicious.
Finally, and this one was a freebie, we were gifted a lamb chop! This only happened because the chef is trying out ideas for a Christmas special, but we were blown away. If he serves that come Christmas you'll be happy as Elf -- I think it was my favourite. Pro tip: Go in over the next few days as I'm sure the chef talked about trying it out on other customers with more marinade.
Drinks-wise, I absolutely recommend the plum and honey tea (so, so good in this cold weather) and the Hite Korean lager -- it was really sweet and crisp. I absolutely loved it. Both were great to accompany the food. They also have a few Korean soft drinks that all sounded delicious. I'm a big fan when you can order beyond half a diet coke when it comes to beverages.
All in all, I'm surely going back. It's fun, it's fresh, it's tasty. All the staff were lovely and for £23 roughly, I don't think it's a bad deal!