Phil S.
Yelp
As with any other types of cuisine, KBBQ also has different tiers for different occasions. You have the bottom tier AYCE places that focus more on the quantity rather than the quality. More often than not, they limit the choice of meats to a minimum. There are "hipster" ones that are designed to appeal to a younger crowd, perhaps that usually consist of multi cultured, international group of friends who are looking for a good time as well as good food. Then there are the more traditional, "classy" ones that you take your Asian in-laws out to. I consider CGH to he one of these.
These are generally a bit more on the expensive side, although CGH falls on the lower end of the spectrum. They had the aesthetics of a traditional "galbi house" you can find in Korea with their brasswear utensils and dish sets, wallpapers showcasing all things Korea, and most importantly menu items that represent the classier meals.
If you frequent these high tier BBQ houses, you start to realize they mostly all offer the same typical items that were designed to be paired well with each other no matter what you order. These designed were defined and confirmed long, long time ago, and for a good reason. You won't find a Cheesecake Factory style booklets with two hundred things to choose from at these places. You're coming here to find good quality meat to grill. You're coming, knowing that they'll offer you the kind of banchan you know and expect to be paired best with the meat. You're coming because they'll know that you're expecting to have either a hot jjigae or cold noodles after you've finished eating all your meat.
I'll be honest though. The price point wasn't ridiculously high compared to the vibe and the level of service I got. However, I personally thought it balanced out becauee the quality of meat wasn't first tier. I would have expected to pay a couple points more, had quality of meat been better AND they kept the level of service.
A couple things worth mentioning and deserve praises. It wasn't frowned upon to order just one serving of table BBQ. Some places will flat out won't allow you and will prep them in the kitchen and bring out. A-okay for CGH. Other specialty items that I'll definitely come back to try are the soy sauce seasoned crabs and spicy crabs, which are specialty dishes that are not easy to find, especially due to the seasonal nature of them as well as availability in inlands in general. Super excited.
Also worth mentioining is that they have snow bingsoo for dessert. Another thing I haven'd had good luck finding, especially good ones. Last one I found was at the very random King Spa food court. CGH will definitely be more easily accessible for me.