What we covered

1. 01What Makes Korean BBQ Special
2. 02The Essential Equipment
3. 03Marinades and Sauces
4. 04Making It Work in a UK Kitchen
5. 05The Side Dishes

The Side Dishes

KBBQ without banchan is just grilling. At minimum, you want kimchi (shop-bought is fine here), pickled radish, steamed rice, and lettuce leaves for wrapping. Shredded spring onion salad dressed with sesame oil and a pinch of sugar takes five minutes and adds freshness that balances the rich meat. None of this is difficult, and most of it can be prepped hours ahead so you can actually sit down and enjoy the meal with everyone else.

Making It Work in a UK Kitchen

Ventilation is the main challenge. Korean BBQ produces smoke — there's no getting around it. Open windows on opposite sides of the room for a cross-breeze, turn on the cooker hood even if the stove is on the table, and accept that your kitchen will smell like grilled meat for a day or two. Some people set up on the patio in summer, which solves the smoke problem entirely.

For meat, any decent butcher can slice rib-eye or pork belly thinly if you ask. Waitrose and M&S both sell pre-sliced beef suitable for bulgogi in their world food sections. The key is slicing thin — two to three millimetres — so the meat cooks fast over high heat. If you have a good relationship with your butcher, ask them to partially freeze the meat and slice it on the deli slicer.

Marinades and Sauces

You can absolutely make bulgogi marinade from scratch — soy sauce, pear juice, garlic, sesame oil, sugar — but CJ Beksul's bottled version is what many Korean households actually keep in the fridge. It's sweet, savoury, and does a proper job of tenderising cheaper cuts of beef. Marinate thinly sliced rib-eye or sirloin for at least two hours, ideally overnight.

For dipping, Sempio's sauce set gives you the three essentials: ssamjang (a thick, savoury paste for wrapping), sesame oil with salt, and a soy-based dipping sauce. These three cover every meat and vegetable you'll grill.

The Essential Equipment

A portable butane gas stove is the heart of the setup. The Iwatani is the industry standard — it's what Korean restaurants actually use for tabletop cooking. It runs on cheap butane canisters (about a pound each from camping shops), produces a strong, even flame, and is compact enough to store in a cupboard. You'll use it for hot pot nights, camping trips, and power cuts long after the BBQ hype wears off.

A Korean BBQ grill plate sits on top of the stove. The dome shape is important — it channels fat away from the meat and down into a drip tray, which reduces smoke and stops everything sitting in grease. Non-stick versions are easier to clean but don't produce quite as good a sear as cast iron. For a first purchase, non-stick is the practical choice for a UK kitchen without commercial ventilation.

What Makes Korean BBQ Special

Korean BBQ isn't just grilling meat — it's a whole format for eating. The grill sits in the centre of the table, everyone cooks together, and the meat is wrapped in lettuce leaves with rice, dipping sauces, and banchan (side dishes). It's interactive, social, and genuinely fun in a way that standing over a Weber in the rain never quite manages.

In Korean restaurants, the grill is built into the table with an extractor fan overhead. At home, you obviously can't do that, but you can get surprisingly close with a portable gas stove and a Korean grill plate. Open a window, clear the dining table, and you're most of the way there.