Miss Korea’s BBQ Lunch Special is a Splurge I’m Willing to Make

Miss Korea interior

If you are completely against cracking the ML $10 ceiling, then stop reading this post right now. If you are, however, a Korean BBQ fan, the $12.95 lunch special at Miss Korea BBQ is worth getting excited over.  Miss Korea lured me in with their $10 take out dosirak lunch boxes back in July, but on my way I noticed that they had lunchtime BBQ specials as well. I’m a big fan of Korean BBQ, but it’s a seriously spendy meal. On the low end it’s usually around $20 per person and often more. So seeing that Miss Korea’s lunchtime BBQ special will run you just $12.95-$13.95 was kind of exciting, and last week I finally got to hit it up.

Here’s the drill, the BBQ lunch special is available Monday – Friday 10:30am-3:00pm (excluding holidays). It’s cook your own BBQ with today’s chef special soup (minimum of two orders required for cooking on the table).

BBQ options are:

Bulgogi 12.95
Thin sliced marinated beef with vegetables & mushroom in chef’s special sauce

Marinated Boneless Short Rib 13.95

Thick sliced layer of fresh pork belly 12.95

Pork Neck Sirloin 13.95

Thin Sliced Pork Tenderloin Marinated in House Special Spicy Sauce 12.95

Marinated Chicken 12.95

Miss Korea BBQ banchan

Lunch comes with a ton of banchan, which for the uninitiated are tasty little dishes that accompany the meal. Some pretty typical banchan include various types of kimchi, kongnamul or cold bean sprouts dressed in sesame oil, and little salty anchovies. I had a hard time fitting the banchan spread in one pic, the other side of the table is below. As a disclaimer, there were 3 of us dining and we weren’t near any tables of two, so I don’t know what the banchan yield would be for two diners, but we were more than satisfied with the amount of banchan and they generously offered us refills on our scallion salad without our asking.

More Miss Korea BBQ banchan

We decided to go a pork intensive route and try both the thick sliced layer of fresh pork belly and thin sliced pork tenderloin marinated in house special spicy sauce.

Salad & Soup BBQ lunch from Miss Korea

The server brought over sauce, scallion salad, and baskets of lettuce leaves for make your own lettuce wraps as well as small bowls of beef soup.

Pork Belly BBQ at Miss Korea

The meat is cooked for you on a tabletop gas grill. The server will come by to turn and cut the meat for serving. All you have to do is try not to fill up on all the tempting banchan laid before you before your entree is ready.

Pork on the Grill at Miss Korea

You definitely get more meat with the pork tenderloin, but the thick cut pork belly is a fattier cut so it’s a good bit richer. Both were delicious, the meat was tender and flavorful and we left stuffed and happy. In terms of which dish was better, in the end it’s all a matter of what kind of pork you prefer and how spicy you like your meat (the thick cut pork belly is unseasoned and the tenderloin comes with spicy sauce), though if you’re looking for sheer value, I’d venture you get more food overall with the tenderloin.

Korean BBQ aficionados may scoff that the meat is cooked over gas and not hot coals. And while over the years I’ve enjoyed BBQ at a number of places in K-Town and Flushing, it’s too expensive a meal for me to have with the sort of frequency to lend me any expert BBQ cred, but as someone who enjoys Korean BBQ, I do think it’s a good value, for a tasty meal that would typically cost me twice as much. I’m loathe to spend more than $10 for lunch, this ranks as splurge-worthy for me but that being said I will definitely be making a return visit, hopefully soon. Have any lunchers tried the other BBQ lunch special options here or seen good, cheap Korean BBQ lunch specials elsewhere? Let us know in the comments…

Miss Korea, 10 W 32nd Street, between 5th Ave and Broadway, (212) 594-4963

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