My rainy day 8 in South Korea continued as my boy Sam and I continued our indoor adventures by heading to a local restaurant and trying some super spicy Korean barbecue chicken! Come join us for a fiery Korean dinner!
We started off in the bright, vibrant district where Sam and I were staying. There were lots of neon lights and tons of restaurants, which reminded me a lot of Tokyo. We headed over to eat at a spot selling a dish called dakgalbi, which is spicy Korean barbecue chicken, which they then add rice to. Sam had been telling me it would be the best chicken fried rice of my life. I couldn’t wait to try it!
This restaurant had a family atmosphere and attracted more of a young crowd. There were lots of college-age people there. In the center of each table is a grill where the dakgalbi is made. It sounded amazing! Best of all, the price was super reasonable. It only cost us 19,000 won for both of us to eat, or just under $16 U.S.
The dakgalbi arrived! It was very greasy and was filled with vegetables like cabbage, green peppers, spring onion, and red peppers, as well as the chicken and rice cakes. Once we eat half of it, they’ll add the rice!
I dove right in to the chicken, which was so tender! The gochujang paste in it was amazing and made it like a huge stir-fry. Korean chicken is the best chicken in the world and this one had a bit of spice to it! It was so tasty and bite-sized. I was blown away!
As we ate, we enjoyed some Hite Extra Cold beers, which is nice and refreshing and goes well with any type of Korean barbecue.
They brought us two orders of fried rice with chicken and two orders of cheese and mixed it together on the grill. They also gave us a wooden spatula to scrape up the rice that had burned on the bottom. It all looked so rich and flavorful!
I was in heaven! The cheese had melted throughout and it was nice and crispy! This was the best fried rice of my life! I couldn’t even believe how incredible it was.
In addition to the dakgalbi, there was also banchan, which was self-serve at this restaurant. We got spicy kimchi, yellow radish, white radish, cabbage salad with mayo, and pickles.
The yellow radish was really refreshing and crunchy, while the white radish was good but not my favorite. The pickles were sweet and really moist, and the cabbage salad with mayo was awesome. I’m not a huge mayo guy, but it was really good!
Then I went with my favorite, the kimchi, which I absolutely loved. It was the bomb dot com!
Next, it was Sam’s turn to try the dakgalbi. The extra layer of cheese was a gamechanger for him! He really went to town scraping every last bit of flavor off the bottom of the grill!
What a meal! It was easily the most filling meal I’d had in South Korea so far, and so good! This dish blew my mind. It was like it was from another planet! And it only cost us 40,000 won in total, or about $33 U.S.
Then we explored the entertainment district to look for a beer. I didn’t have room for beer, but YOLO, right? There were nonstop restaurants, izakayas, and cafes everywhere. We found an izakaya on the second floor of a building with lots of different types of beer. They sold wine, soju, and sake, but we went with IPAs for 11,800 won, or just under $10 U.S.
It was hoppy and not too cloudy and really light and refreshing!
I hope you liked coming with me on one of my best dinners of all-time! If you did, please give it a thumbs up, leave me a comment, and please subscribe so you don’t miss any of my upcoming travel/food videos!
About Me: My name is David Hoffmann. For the last decade, I have been traveling around the world in search of unique culture, food, and history! Since starting David’s Been Here in 2008, I have traveled to over 1,000 destinations in 73 countries, which I welcome you to check out on my YouTube channel, travel blog, and social media sites.
I focus a great deal on food and historical sites, as you probably have seen! I love to experience the different flavors that each destination has to offer, from casual street food to gourmet restaurant dining. I’m also passionate about learning about the local history and culture.
P.S. Thank you for watching my videos and subscribing!
The cheese is melted throughout, the rice is a little burnt, nice and like crispy.
Dude, and then all the different ingredients are in here.
Dude, this is the best fried rice I've ever had in my life.
Good evening everyone, this is David Hoffman from David's Bin here in rainy
Busan, South Korea. Today we're in the Seomyeon District. This is actually the area of town
where we're staying. It's like a downtown area. The street we're on is really vibrant,
lots of colors. It actually feels like Tokyo. I mean neon lights everywhere, lots of restaurants.
But tonight I'm taking you to eat something called Ddeokgalbi, which is basically spicy
chicken barbecue Korean style. It looks amazing. Sam was telling me about it and I just can't wait
to dive into it. And besides just eating the chicken barbecue, once we eat like half of it,
they're going to bring fried rice and they're going to bring cheese and we're going to devour
a delicious, amazing fried rice, chicken fried rice. He's saying it's probably going to be the
best fried rice of my life. Let's see. Let's go inside and let's eat.
We're finally in the restaurant. As you can see, a lot of young people here, lots of college students.
And right in front we have like the grill, right? This is where we're going to do the barbecue.
And I'm very excited because I've had fried chicken but I haven't had Ddeokgalbi, spicy barbecue
chicken. I mean it sounds amazing. I've had pork, I've had beef, but no chicken yet. And yeah, I mean
the restaurant is very warm, very nice family atmosphere in here. I think we're going to get a
beer. And right here as you can see like all these different versions, right? So everything has
chicken and what Sam was telling me is that what's going to happen is we're going to do the chicken
and then once half of it's done, then they're going to come and make a abob. So they're going
to put rice and they're going to fry it up, right? And yeah, I'm just overly excited. I love Korean
barbecue. It's just the best thing in the world. It's funny how in America I've barely seen them.
I saw it actually in Tokyo but I didn't go in because obviously I was just diving into Japanese
food while I was there. And yeah, I'm very excited. I can't wait for it to get here.
And let's call it a day over and get a beer. Let's get a beer. Oh, and I didn't even mention
the price was super cheap. It was like $19,000 so you know like $17 for both of us to eat. Wow,
dude. Wow. So dude Ddeokgalbi is a dish that I absolutely love. It is one of the first things
I ever had when I came to South Korea. It originates from the city of Chuncheon. It is
extremely popular with young people, university students. Also, I noticed it has become one of
the most popular Korean dishes abroad. When I traveled in Japan I went to both Tokyo and Osaka
and there is Koreatowns in both of those cities. And the primary dish that they were serving was
Ddeokgalbi. But not just any kind of Ddeokgalbi. It was Ddeokgalbi with cheese. Oh man. And it
has just arrived. And here we have the Ddeokgalbi. Wow, what a plate. We have so many different
ingredients here. Lots of grease. Lots of oil. Lots of like spice. You can see we have chicken.
We have some cabbage. Green peppers. What else? Red pepper. We got the duck. Oh I love the duck.
The rice cake. And yeah I mean it just looks amazing. They don't give us plates. We eat it
directly from here. And the way it's going to work is that we're going to eat half of it. And once
that's done, we're going to get the rice. So let me just dive in. Let me try some of this delicious
chicken. Oh my god dude. It looks so good.
So tender. Loving the spice. Dude the red paste in there. What's the name of that paste?
Gochujang. Gochujang. Yeah man. So they cooked it all together. It's like a huge stir fry in a way.
Wow man. I'm gonna jump into this one next.
And Korean chicken is the best chicken in the world. Seriously. It's funny because today we
didn't eat any duck which is a Korean rice cake. And I was like feeding for it. Yesterday we ate
it like three times. Yeah. Oh bro this is so nice. I just love stir fries. They're like delicious.
Oh nice cabbage. Spring onion.
Dude this is delicious. Look at that spice. It's not really that spicy but that hit me right there.
No. I don't have any good thing in my waist.
Wow. Dude this is my second barbecue in Korea and I cannot tell you how good it is.
Man I'm just gonna dive in bro.
The chicken is just so soft man. So soft. Nice bite sizes all over the place.
Alright let me get some more. Dude so we are having Height extra cold beer. Korean beer.
We had this for lunch. It was awesome man. It went so well with the chobap we had for lunch.
It goes so well with any kind of barbecue. It is just so refreshing. Cold. Oh man. Yeah,
exactly. I'll try it for you guys.
You know what I like about Korean beer is it is nice and light. It is extra cold. I mean
that is what the label says and that is how it has been served. It is delicious.
Gambe.
Oh my gosh guys. Okay so they brought the fried rice. We had two orders of fried rice. They
threw it on here. Then they brought two orders of cheese. They threw that on there too. They
turned this thing to like super hot. They started mixing it. Mixing it like a lot, a lot, a lot.
You know it looks freaking amazing. It has been basically infused with cheese and all the
ingredients plus those fried rice weren't just rice. They were like mixed with chicken and spices
and this looks just incredible. I'm gonna serve myself a little bit. The best thing to do is to
get it with this and get the rice that is burned on the bottom. Yeah. Right so like that. Oh like
that. Oh my god dude. Korean fried rice is better than Chinese fried rice right? Yeah. Oh my god.
The best of the best. It just looks so rich and there is so many flavors and just wow man.
Because regular fried rice doesn't have this many things and it is not this spicy. It is
gonna be really spicy. Wow. You're gonna blow me away with this huh? Yeah I think you're gonna love it.
Oh the cheese. Oh my god. Oh man. Dude the cheese is melted throughout. The rice is a little burnt.
Nice and like crispy. Dude and then all the different ingredients are in here. Oh
This is the best fried rice I've ever had in my life. Like it's so freaking delicious. It's so yummy man.
Eat the whole bowl dude. Oh we got a big piece of chicken there.
Wow man. It's like all I can think of is wow. It's so good. I can't even believe this. It's crazy how
many different dishes there are in Korea. This is the first time I try it so this is like my eighth
day here. What is Korean food without side dishes, without the banchan? Nothing. They always provide
banchan, but here it's different. They don't bring it to you. It's self-service. Here we have five
different things. We have the king of kings of the banchan. The kimchi, spicy kimchi. I can't live
without it. I think I'm gonna get home and be crying every day if I can't find this. We have a
yellow radish. We have a white radish. We have like a little cabbage salad with mayo and then we have
pickles. All right so let me try a few. Let me try them all basically. Let's go with this one.
Yellow radish.
It's actually really good. Very refreshing. Very moist. Crunchy.
I'm gonna go here with this other radish. The white radish.
It's good. Not my favorite. That one's really good though. With the pickles. I like pickles.
Oh my god. Sweet. Moist. You have a lot of like water.
Next up we have the cabbage salad with mayo.
But that was awesome. And then I have to end it with my palate cleanser.
Oh wow. All the kimchi in the world. Oh okay. I don't know if I can put all of that in my mouth.
I'll just get a little bit. This is I feel like this is the most gluttonous we've been in Korea
but it is the tastiest. This Korean fried rice is just obscene. Look at this. We still have the red
pepper. We still have the duck. We still have the cabbage. So what I did a little differently
for us this time than in the past is I made sure we only had
half of the duck. Normally you eat like three quarters or just leave a little bit but I wanted
to make sure there was lots of the chicken, lots of the peppers, lots of the rice cakes
so that would mix well with the rice. And then ordering that extra layer of cheese.
That was a game changer right there. Okay I'm going to grab a bite here. I think I got some
chicken. Oh I got some duck there. Wow man that is a supreme bite. Huge bite.
Packed with flavor. The rice is crispy. I'm tasting the cheese. This is just the best fried
rice in the world man. Right here on a plate. I wish all of you watching I wish I could give
you a spoon of that. It is that good. Sam you're going to town there. I'm going to town. This is
the best part. The burnt rice. Oh my gosh. That is what dreams are made of. Oh my god.
The most filling meal I've had and probably the best meal I've had in Korea so far. Wow
the duck gobi really blew my mind. I mean the spicy chicken alone was excellent but then when
you add the fried rice and the cheese it just takes it to another level. It is like eating
stuff that is from planet Mars or something. Like for real guys it is so good. It's like not from
this world. And yeah I mean in terms of price point 40,000 won. It's like 35 US dollars roughly.
The duck gobi itself was like 19,000. But then we got the rice. Double rice. We got double cheese.
We had two beers. The sides are free. So always you can just eating kimchi all day long if you
want. This restaurant is called Yugane. It's a franchise since 1981. They have a lot of spots
all around South Korea and now what we're going to do is we're going to walk around this
entertainment district and get a beer. I don't really have space for it but you live once.
We'll make it. We'll make space. I think it is phenomenal. It is like every major neighborhood
in big cities in Korea there is always an entertainment district where you have like
non-stop restaurants, cafes, bars especially. And if you want to go hard and long into the wee hours
of the night you have the opportunity to do so in these types of places. Yeah and I mean what
you find here is basically lots of bars and restaurants. You've got Nike shops. Two Nike
shops. There is like a Ben and Jerry's, a Baskin Robbins. A lot of American brands. But we're
looking for a small bar. Oh they also have some izakayas. If you guys don't know what izakaya is
it is like it is a bar in Japan right? And they are usually on the second and third and fourth
and fifth levels. Like all on top of each other. Small bites and beers basically right? Yeah.
Okay so we found the izakaya. A Japanese bar right here on the second floor. Oh they have like
amazing different beers huh? I think so yeah. Oh yeah so they have soju though. Yeah but they also
have the I think the local Busan beer. Maybe cloud beer. I'm noticing that up there too.
I've never been to the baseball game. Let's go. Let's do it. So we came to izakaya. A Japanese
bar. It is on the second level of this building and you can see we have like a touch screen menu
okay? And we came here for drinks. So here are the drinks. So these are the most expensive drinks
like sake, soju. I mean a few different other things here. What else you got? You got like
wine right? Like wine with food. We came here for the beer right? So we came for the beer. We found
this beer. It's an IPA. It's actually on sale like like 2,000 won off. So like instead of eight bucks
it's six dollars you know. Click that. All right so click there. Boom boom boom. Two of them is
11,800. So we're gonna end the night with two South Korean IPAs. I'm excited.
I love craft beer. Let's drink. And our IPA has arrived.
Oh it's delicious man. A little hoppy. Oh not too cloudy. Very refreshing. It's like a light IPA.
Oh that's really good. And it's Korean right? Yep. I'm hungry. Well guys we had an amazing dinner.
One of the best dinners of my life. Ddeok-golbi. Spicy chicken barbecue Korean style with fried
rice, with cheese, with beer on the side, side dishes. I mean such an epic meal. When you come
to Korea you have to try that dish. I mean it's so good. There's many different types of barbecues
but it's called ddeok-golbi. So chicken, spicy chicken. And yeah I mean I was blown away and
I'm still really full. Yeah. I'm gonna remember that for a long time. And guys let's do a gan-bae.
Gan-bae. Gan-bae. Ah so good. If you like this video, thumbs up, comment below, subscribe to both
our channels and we'll see you in the next Travel Food Adventure in South Korea. Peace.
