The BEST BBQ & Sushi In Koreatown New York!

This is the push. They got the fire roll with hot cheeto dust on top. And what's really interesting is that this is green tea noodles. Your first piece says a lot about you. Hello. Alright, what's up everybody? Welcome to a special Fung Bros Food. We are going to be checking out all the newest restaurants in Koreatown, New York. I got some friends with me. Ruth, Christine. Alright, our first spot is Kai Ten Sushi. This is the biggest conveyor belt sushi in all of New York City. Let's check it out. Alright you guys, we are at Kai Ten Sushi. Of course, it's 2023. You order off of iPad. And what's going to happen is that the food is going to fly down this conveyor belt and deliver it straight to us. It's cool that they have a lot of different and like new sushi rolls. Like they have obviously some non-traditional stuff. Alright you guys, everything comes out in fours. Round one is here at Kai Ten Sushi. It's so good. Oh, we got a robot delivering Ramune. What year is this? Listen guys, it's 2023. The robot's galore. Oh, the DC can't have a New York meal without Diet Coke. Thank you for your service. Teddy Bot. Hey, and it moves with music. It's like, alright, I'm out. Man, I got to try this chashu roll, man. I've actually never seen this before. Oh, the hot food's coming out too. What's you guys' first piece? Your first piece says a lot about you. You don't. I went with the pork. You went with the salmon. Solid pick. This. Honestly, Kai Ten Sushi already, I'm having fun. That's why I like spots like this. Because there's so much action from where they're making it, then it flies out, then you grab it. Does that feel like a hyper serious omakase? It's extremely dynamic. Actually, the history of the conveyor belt sushi stretches back to 1958. So, it's been around for a minute. Should we cheers? Cheers. Seared salmon. I feel like this roll is very, very popular amongst people who want a non-traditional piece. I'm into albacore. I know not everybody goes for the white fish when they eat sashimi platters. This is it, aren't you guys? Saba. Karaage. Salad. Seared salmon. When you see that steam, this karaage is fresh, man. Everything is made to order. I love it. And it's pretty fairly priced, you know, especially you're in New York City. You get to sit down, eat sushi right away. Aren't you guys, we're going to try this gyu udon with the saba. All right, Christine, what do you think about this style of conveyor belt sushi? Because there's like different styles of it. I actually prefer this kind of style better because the conveyor belt, it kind of goes around. And you don't know if someone else is going to pick that up. And if they do, you have to wait again. Right, and then you're mad at that other table. Because you're like, I wanted that. It's like now you have to wait. But then this one, it's like come to order, made to order. So I feel like it's like a little bit hygienic too. Oh, got to try their scallop. Mmm. Nice and chilled. Hey, you guys want to know what the kitchen looks like? Let's go. Okay, here she's making a hand roll nicely put together. This is mastery at work. Look at how tight she folds it. They got orders coming in, the dinging. Very fast place. She's got the rolls right there. They're making rolls right there. They got the sushi rice right here. And then they got the authentic Japanese box for the seaweed. The nori sheets right here. Can I see? Oh! I'm telling you, the quality is really good here. This is their nigiri station. Listen, it's operating just like an omakase. You have the sliced salmon with all the rice. Ready to go. All right, you know, when you're at Kaiten, you got to do the ramune punch. What do you call it? The slap? This is the push. Agedashi tofu with smallah. This is the sushi cocktail. And it has like different types of salmon. It has spicy salmon and then the salmon sashimi. And then it has the salmon roll. And then here you got the avocado salmon roll right here. So I think it's cool that here, you know, they kind of have the liberty to introduce new rolls. And even this one coming up. They got the fire roll with hot cheeto dust on top. You a hot cheeto girl? Are you a hot cheeto girl? You're from Cali. You're coming on me. So you're the type to put hot cheetos on your profile. You're like, I am. Cheers. I've never eaten sushi out of a cocktail glass. Trying smallah on their soft shell crab. This is fresh. This is hot, guys. Everything is made to order. Yummy? Oh shoot, this is like warm sake. First time trying warm sake. Goes down smooth. Cheers. All right, everybody. So come check out Kai Ten Sushi. Brand new. Great for the office crowd. Great for lunch. You can come in here and get high quality sushi. Eat as much as you want or as little as you want. But we got to keep it moving. Because we are going to one of the best KBBQ spots in all of K-Town. Cheongro. Oh, not bad. Not bad. No, no, no. We're going to Cheongro. Yo, they did a really good job of making Cheongro feel like Korea, right? Yeah, it kind of feels like we're walking on the streets of Korea. Trying to eat some barbeque. How about dancing through the streets of Korea? All right, we're here at Cheongro. And we're about to have their famous beef platter. You know, the decor is really dope. It's based off like 1980s Korea. And they got like all this pop culture on the wall. They got history on the wall. It's like part museum pop-up too. I love the energy of the 80s here. How excited are you? So excited. How excited are you? So excited. And we got Demi. Just your local Costa Rican Chinese joining us. All right, Christine. So for the people like me who have had Korean barbeque many times. But don't know the exact names of the side dishes such as this. Can you break it down? Okay, that's a tough name. Is there a shorter one? Can I say yang? And this is We always have to have it with Korean barbeque. Is this, let me guess, macaroni salad? Macaroni salad, of course. This is a onion salad also for the barbeque. Onion salad. And then of course, kimchi. Classic. Let's have. All right, Ruth. Everybody eats Korean barbeque sort of their own way, right? Like what is your style? Okay, so this is called a sangchu. It's like Korean lettuce. Add a little bit of this. Add a little bit of sauce. That is what, ssamjang? Ssamjang, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then also, I kind of like adding this sometimes. And if you guys really want, you guys can add rice. This is Ruth's wrap. This is my wrap. Keto friendly. All right, Christine. What's your style? My style, actually, I just like it straight meat. Just straight meat. Oh, sorry. Straight meat and then dip it in the salt. Okay, just meat and salt. Just the salt, yep. That's it. Trying smallah on janggu. My little beef wrap. Yo, Christine. I've never had this dish before actually at any restaurant. What is it? So this is basically like an old school lunch box where you would have or pack for like school back in the day. So what he's going to do, what Tae is going to show us is he's going to close it and shake it up, shake it up. And make it like a bokkeumbap, which is kind of like fried rice. 1980s public school style. Let's do it. Go ahead. Shake it up, shake it up. Yeah, Tae. Shake, shake, shake. With the K-pop soundtrack in the back, it's perfect. Oh, wow. Sorry, I'm sorry. All right, let me try this. This is my first time getting the lunch box. Has anchovies, got a little sausage. This looks good. What about this? I feel like this is almost like another like lunchtime dish, right? This is like an all-time favorite. Childhood memories. It's called tteokbokki. And then this like little thing is called kimari. It's like fried clear noodles. So what I do is I dip it in the tteokbokki sauce. Crunchy, crispy, chewy. Not gonna lie, I like that a lot. I actually prefer that even over the tteokbokki itself. Okay, so guys, I'm gonna make something called osomek. You add beer and soju. I have one shot right in there. And then the magic trick. Ready? Three, two, one. That's how you mix it. Osomek. Slamming spoons. Jamun pajeon. But what would you call it in Spanish? What, pancake? Pancake de mariscos. Pancake de mariscos, okay. Banglish. Let's do it. What I like about Jongro's pancake is that it's super crispy on the outside. I think certain pancakes are very more fluffy like a cake or almost like wet. But this is like a crispy pancake. What do you see? Oh my god. There's like camarones y bulbos adentro. Camarones, bulbos. I love it because it reminds me of a scallion pancake. Okay, so this is called mul naengmyeon. And what's really interesting is that this is green tea noodles. Which I've never tried before. Because typically what noodle is it? It's like buckwheat. Buckwheat, it's like brown thin noodles. But this is green tea noodles. So I'm gonna take a bite. Does it taste like green tea? No, not really. But I mean, it's green. In this corner, we got the favorite. The bibim naengmyeon, which is the spicy naengmyeon with the soup on the side. So usually when you get bibim naengmyeon, the soup doesn't come out on the side. But what I like to do is get the soup on the side and then put it in here. You were passionate, Christine. You made this special order. And what I noticed is that when Koreans do cold noodles, they do it ice cold. There is literally ice in the soup. Fleshy, fleshy. So would you normally eat this in the summertime to cool down? For sure. This is the staple dish that you would have during the summer. To cool down on a hot-ass day. And if you're really a naengmyeon lover, you gotta break the yolk. Break the yolk? Oh, shave it up so that the yolk becomes kind of cloudy. And it creams up the... That's what you gotta do. Wow. That's how you know you're a naengmyeon eater. Christine, such high technique. Oh, I think you know what you made a pie out of? Open up. Oh my god. Refreshing with a kick. I guess I can taste a little bit of the green tea. But ultimately, it's just very cool and refreshing. That's what I like about it. Alright, everybody. We're finishing our meal here at Jangro. And then, now we're going to Gopchang. Alright, so three floors up from Jangro, we got Jangro Gopchang. They opened up two years ago, and they got Gopchang. And the main difference is they have a bar over here. And a DJ booth, actually. An ancient DJ booth. Yo, DJ Ruth in the house! Play that ----, girl! Let's go! So this is the most basic Korean drinking game that everyone can play. And we're literally just flicking the cap. And then after we flick the cap, whoever flicks it off, the people next to them have to drink. So if I flick it off, you guys have to drink. Oh, okay. Nice. I'm hitting it from this side. I almost killed that thing. Ready? 3, 2, 1. That was weak. Alright, another rule. So I can call it, right? If I think that I'm going to flick it off, I'm going to call it. And if I flick it off, everyone drinks. But if I don't, then I drink. Okay, so you're going to call it? Yo, that's pretty advanced. I've never heard that before. Alright, go, go, go. You are a power loser. I'm going to call it. You're going to call it? I'm going to call it. What happened to Dwayne? You swung and you missed. That's right, baby. Cheers. Oh, I've never had a cocktail topped off with red wine. That's delicious. It's good. You know, there's a lot of like fusion drinks available in 2023. But, you know, there's only a few people who really pull that mixture of traditional culture with like modern Western bar culture together. This came together. Alright, we are here at Jongro Gopchang. We got the two different types of Gopchang. They're going. Christine, you're kind of the Gopchang enthusiast here, so you explain what's going on. You are my Gopchang captain. So this is the Yangnyeom Gopchang, which means seasoned Gopchang or marinated Gopchang. Okay. And this over here is just your original just fried or grilled Gopchang. Okay, but you have different types of Gopchang. We're talking about intestines, of course, right? But there's different types of intestines. So this is the small intestine that he's cutting right now. This is the big intestine right here. And this is tripe. And this is Gopchang, which is entrails. And right here is the heart. I've tried this before, which is like the traditional way to eat intestines. But I've never tried it marinated. Me neither. I'm with you. He's going to try it with me. Everybody, let's go in and try the marinated. This is very, very popular style. It's supposed to be a little bit spicy and sweet. You know, maybe like roasted barbecue flavor. So let's go. Let's go for it. Cheers. That's really good. It's actually really good. I honestly do not usually like Gopchang. I usually don't. But this, I mean, to be honest, it's kind of good because I can't tell what it is. So he just added the buchu, which is chives. And what we do is wait for it to get grilled and then we eat it with the intestines. And then now he's going to put the garlic cheese powder on top of the intestines. Would this be a little bit more of a newer thing? Like maybe not as traditional? Yeah, I've never seen this before. It's just a little bit more flavor. What I like about Korean food is like there's steps to things. So it's like you can eat it at every step, but it's going to taste different. You know what I mean? So it's like, yo, throw the chives on. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Throw the powder on. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Probably something else is going to happen. It's good. Wow. It's good. I love Gopchang. It's really interesting. It holds on to the flavor almost like it's a piece of fat. That's really good. Wow. I usually don't like big intestines, but this is really good. I've never tried it with... What's that powder? Garlic cheese powder. Could you pass me some small intestines, please? Please, sir. All right, guys. I'm going to dip it in a little bit of spicy powder. I don't know. Which one do you like more? The OG or the marinated? That's tough. I mean, I feel like right out of the plate, this is obviously like all marinated and cooked for you. Yeah. But there is a magic about that one, especially the big intestine. I'm a fan. All right. So I got a bite here. I have a lettuce wrap. I have the radish. I have the grilled chives from the OG plate. But then I put it with the sweet and sour Gopchang, which is the small, big intestine and the heart and the tripe. Sprinkle with some Sma La. Mmm. How does that taste? A lot of flavors. You got to chew the intestines for a while, guys. It tastes great. You got to break them down. No, it tastes great. It's just a lot going on, though, in my mouth. You got a whole pig's internal organs. You got the whole biological system. They do not just have intestines here at Jungro Gopchang. They also got seafood here. Christine, what are we looking at? So we're looking at Nak Gop Sae, which is, Nakji is octopus, Gop is for Gopchang, and Sae is for shrimp. So that's like the, what was it? Surf and turf. And then, of course, you have your mushroom plate here, which I love. So I'm going to try the broth first because broth is just the heart of the soup. Mmm. The stew. This is good. I'm telling you. I'm a fan of some seafood stews. Get yourself a little tentacle like that. Got a kick. Or some tripe. You know what's funny? Stomach lining? It's funny that the small intestine and the tentacle kind of have the same shape. Ruth, you did have a message out there to all the Koreaboos out there. It's like, if you want the extra points when you're a Koreaboo, you kind of got to eat this, right? Yeah. This is the real authentic stuff. Because usually, you know, when people hear, oh, big intestine or small intestines, they get like grossed out. But if you're willing to try it, you get points. You get points. Don't be soft, guys. Don't be soft. Don't be scared. All right. We got the Korean gatekeepers here. All right, guys. Cheers. The broth. This is fire. Yeah. This dish was a sleeper because when I first saw it and when it came out, I really didn't know what to expect. But it's really, really good, man. Wow. All right, everybody. So whether it's brand new kaiten sushi or energetic Korean barbecue or traditional gopchang, you guys already know where to go. But we got to get some sweets. So we're going to go to Machi Machi and Afternoon. Let's eat some Korean snacks. Let's go. All right. So now we're grabbing some snacks. Here is Machi Machi. In the back of us is Afternoon. It's cool that they share the same space because they're kind of like the cool, kind of affordable snacks of K-Town. Brand new concepts. Machi Machi is from Taiwan. Amazing boba. I got the creme brulee one. You got the grapefruit pomelo. I got the strawberry. With the panna cotta at the bottom. Yeah. Panna cotta. And then I think you have the black tea with panna cotta. Yo, bobas are getting bougie now. Should we try this? Cheers. This drink was fire. This is one of the best drinks I had in a long time. Let me get this creme brulee, though. I got to get the sugar part. That is decadent. Alright, so what I love about this spot is that we went to so many other restaurants that obviously are like very like where you can drink and, you know, a lot of adults would go. But this kind of has that young energy. It's like good vibes. And I also really like the packaging. It's very new. Different form factor. I like it. Hey, I got this sweet plum jasmine drink. You have the grapefruit green tea slush with jelly. Yeah. This is just green tea with panna cotta. Yo, panna cotta. Makes everything better, actually. Cheers. Mmm. This one's really refreshing. I recommend it. Alright, so to order a jeongro hot dog, you can actually order outside, which I think is really cool. I mean, look at all the options they have. Do you want a sweet potato, a cheese, mozzarella? Let's do one like classic and then let's do another one. Like this is pretty classic in Korea, right? Potato, potato. Alright, you guys. We were at jeongro BBQ, but now we're at jeongro hot dog. How do we, what do we call these in Korean? Hot dog. Alright, what do you guys get? Jeongro hot dog. That's new to me. The ramen one's new. Yeah, I'm gonna get a classic for me. Okay. Keep it classic, you know? Big. Oh. I'm gonna do the potato. I gotta go with the ramen one. I haven't even seen this one. Oh, David, why don't you try it with some spicy? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. There we go. Alright, guys, and then here I have the ddeokbokki with the chopped up geondogu. Let's go, man. Shout out to jeongro hot dog. Cheers. Cheers, guys. It's so, whoa. It's a whole thing. Mmm. Woo. That pull. Wow. And I think one of the coolest things about jeongro hot dog is like the outdoor seating area that they share with some other spots. When the weather is good, people are just outside chilling. Nice day. But you eating a corn dog outside, what is this, a carnival? It's a carnival. I'm K-Town. Guys, look at this. Oh, my gosh. I have a big sweet tooth. We're here at Mochi Mochi. They have mochi donuts. And, I mean, this is a product that originates from Japan. But I think that this one right here, the variety and the diversity of flavors that they have here is crazy. You know what we're gonna do? We're gonna get one of each. Got to. We know all about it. Yes. Because how can you pick? You got to just do them all. All right. Like we said, guys, they got afternoon, which has got the Korean corn dogs. They got the mochi donuts. Of course, mochi mochi. What are you guys going for first? I feel like we got to try the injeolmi one. Can we start off hot? Yeah, we got to. I'm gonna grab it. You know what's really interesting about the injeolmi is like it tastes kind of healthy and good. Yeah. And then you're contrasting that with the donut. That's really interesting. It's like a little nutty. It's really good. Not too sweet. Cheers. You know what I really notice about them? Mochi mochi. They make sure their donuts look like they're display donuts. Sometimes people can trick you. You know, these donuts are a little bit chewy, but they break down really nicely and they're really fluffy. I've had ones that were very chewy and almost like too thick on the inside. These are really great. Great balance. Oh, my goodness. I had ube and now I'm going for green tea. What do you think of this? So good. I'm trying the milk tea one. Between Afternoon and Jangro hot dog, I just feel like they're just serving all the things that like, you know, people want. These are the snacks and they're popular. And honestly, it's probably the trendiest food stall in all of K-Town.