First time at a Korean restaurant, recommendations?

Hey everyone, tonight a friend of mine is taking me to a Korean restaurant in Washington DC's Koreatown. Do you guys have any favorite dishes or recommendations?

I'm not a picky eater, I simply don't have any point of reference for what's what in Korean cooking. I have heard that restaurants tend to give you a whole bunch of little dishes with different foods on each one, as opposed to everything on one big plate/bowl, but that's about it (and I don't even know if that's true).

Bulgogi is good if you like meat

Bibimbap, bulgogi and Kimchi! All very delicious, at least at the Korean place here.

I do indeed.

I hope bibimbap is as delicious as it is fun to say.

@bbalpert: It is!

All those little side dishes are called banchan. I think they're a really fun way to try a whole bunch of different stuff. My favorites are the beansprouts in sesame oil and marinated fried tofu with green onions. Tasty as hell!

I second this motion.

Gonna have to third this motion (why not?) and Galbi(or Kalbi) if you see it.

Bibimbap is a good all rounder, if you're at Korean bbq I'd definitely suggest the Joo mul luk (Korean beef) as someone who usually detests meat and finds it bland that stuff was one of the best things I've ever tasted in all my years! get it with some short grain rice, dipping sauce and some lettuce leafs, cook the beef, mix it with some rice, dunk it in the sauce then roll it up in the lettuce and ascend on beefy wings to Korean valhalla.

Disclaimer: YMMV being at a different establishment.

I'm bookmarking this thread for future reference.

Awesome, thanks for all the suggestions! I just looked up some of these dishes online and they all look super good. I'm really pumped for dinner now :D

My suggestion would be Galbi or Dakgalbi. Galbi is usually pork or beef and is sweet. Dakgalbi uses chicken and is a little spicy.

Wikipedia Galbi

Wikipedia Dakgalbi

Fish cakes! Eat all of their fish cakes! I know opinions are subjective, but fish cakes are the best things.

In fact, I'm not sure why I'm typing this here when I could be off somewhere eating fish cakes.

@djm389: I was going to say Seafood Pancakes. Man those are good. One Korean joint near me also makes a killer seafood stew, but they'll only make enough for two people so it's expensive and time consuming to get for take out.

I recommend trying out an "army stew", if they have it. It's got that poor university student taste taken to an extreme. My go-to dish is usually fried chicken though.

Edit: just noticed that I'm a bit late, maybe next time!

I've only been to Korean BBQ and that was just an onslaught of endless meat. So in other words, it was great.

I currently live in Korea and Jajangmyeon is just epic and I love it. Tteokbokki is pretty dope too.

I ended up getting kimchi dolsot bibimbap. It was sinus-clearlingly spicy (as expected) and I burned the shit out of my tongue because I didn't realize that bibimbap counterintuitively gets hotter over time, but it was reeeaaal tasty.

I'll definitely have to try some of the other suggestions next time. Thanks again, everyone!

@bbalpert: I wanted to help but all I could think was "All of it".

Kimchi dolsot bibimbop, killer choice!

That one thing where they barbecue a shit ton of shredded beef with sesame seeds, which is then eaten with plain white rice is pretty fucking tasty.

My only experience of Korean food is from hawker stalls in Singaporean food courts, so the food was all dumbed down for Singaporeans, expats and tourists alike. I don't know much, but I know I would always get the Korean BBQ Beef Set every time I went.

I went to one just north of Atlanta in the area's Koreantown, and it was delicious. I forget the name of it, but we got something where you combine Hite beer with some kind of rice wine or liqueur and that was also delicious. Then we went across the street for karaoke and got really drunk. Koreantown is awesome.

KOREAN BBQ, all beef all the time.

Funny, I don't see "Chicken and Waffles" anywhere here but that is certainly for sale down the street at a Korean joint I'm known to frequent. Maybe that shit ain't Korean?

Between the tables with built in grills and stone bowls that are so hot they cook your food at the table, getting shitfaced drunk at a Korean restaurant sounds... dangerous, to say the least. Although I suppose not all Korean restaurants provide the diners so many ways to horrifically burn themselves.

@bbalpert: Well, we didn't get properly drunk until karaoke, which was a safer environment for our bodies, if not our pride.

Damn shouldn't have looked at this thread, I could go for some kimchi jjigae now & it's only 9:40am.