On Walkabout Restaurant Review: Shinsadong Korean BBQ

Whenever my wife and I drive up to Denver we like to go eat at some of the Korean and Japanese restaurants in the city because of the high quality of many of these restaurants compared to their competitors in Colorado Springs.  Our favorite Korean restaurant is a called Shinasadong Korean BBQ which actually was once located in Colorado Springs.  The restaurant was very popular in Colorado Springs, but was located in a very small building in a strip mall off of Academy Boulevard.  Their new restaurant is located in the Denver suburb of Aurora just off of Parker Road in a strip mall shopping center:

The new building they are in is huge compared to their prior location in Colorado Springs.  The building was once home to another Korean restaurant called Korea House which was shut down and the building remodeled for use by Shinsadong:

The inside of the building is actually quite nice with a lot money put into some nice wood working features within the dining area.  There is also a few large flat screen televisions up that allow people to watch whatever sports games are on at the time.  I am not a big fan of the TVs since it takes away from the Korean atmosphere in my opinion and creates more of a sports bar atmosphere.

The best thing about Shinsadong is the food.  Customers have the option of either having the kitchen cook the food for them or have the food cooked Korean style on a grill at your table.  Pictured below is some Korean samgyeopsal being grilled at our table with small banchan around it:

It seemed that when the restaurant first opened the servers provided more banchan, but have since scaled back.  However, if you ask for a particular banchan they will bring it out for you.  Though not every server does it, but some of them setup the table with the banchan and other food in traditional Korean style which almost makes the table look like a work of art.  This is a small detail I really take notice of and like at a Korean restaurant.  Overall the service I have found to be good during my family’s visits to Shinsadong though it seems they do have quite a turn over in staff because it seems like we see a few new servers every time we go there.  The prices at Shinsadong are affordable with lunch costing mostly between $9.00 – $15.00 and dinner from $12.00 – $25.00.  You can see the full food and drink menu at this link.

Shinsadong rates high over at Yelp.com with 4 out of 5 stars and I tend to agree with this ranking.  The food is quite good and of high quality at Shinsadong, but not as good as some of the Korean restaurants I have eaten at in Korea or other places outside of Korea.  However, for the Colorado region Shinsadong has the best Korean BBQ that I have tried yet. Besides the tasty food, the service is good, and the prices reasonable.  So I definitely recommend this restaurant for anyone looking for some quality Korean BBQ in the Denver area.