Hanwoo in Korea: How to Order Korean Beef BBQ Like a Local

Hanwoo (한우) is Korea's own beef, and it's the meat Koreans save for birthdays, promotions and gift boxes at the holidays. It's expensive, fatty and very tender, so if you're going to spend on it, do it properly: at a good place, over real charcoal, with a few cuts you understand.

This is part one of LVR's Korean BBQ series. Part two is pork, which is what Koreans actually eat on a Tuesday.

Top-grade hanwoo: fine fat all through the meat. · Photo: Korea Tourism Organization (한국관광공사 박은경) (opens in a new tab), "한우구이," 2011 / KOGL Type 1 (opens in a new tab)

Hanwoo or imported?

Most Korean barbecue restaurants serve one of two kinds of beef: hanwoo, or imported beef from the US or Australia. Restaurants have to post where their beef comes from, usually on a board on the wall, and domestic beef has to say whether it's hanwoo, yugu (Holstein steers raised for meat) or dairy cattle. Look for 한우 (hanwoo) next to the cut.

Imported beef is fine. Plenty of good galbi joints use it, and it costs a lot less. But hanwoo is the one you can't get at home. It's softer and richer, with fine fat running all through it, and a clean, sweet beef flavor. At the butcher counter, hanwoo sirloin costs roughly twice as much as US rib meat by weight, and restaurant prices follow. In a 2023 survey of Seoul hanwoo restaurants, a 150 g portion of sirloin averaged about 60,000 won, and beef prices have risen since.

If hanwoo is your one splurge in Korea, my rule is simple: eat it somewhere good. A mediocre hanwoo dinner costs almost as much as a great one.

Three ways to eat hanwoo

1. Butcher-shop restaurant (정육식당, jeongyuk sikdang). The meat counter is at the front, the tables are in the back or upstairs. You pick your cuts at butcher prices, pay for the meat, then pay a small setting charge per person for the table, charcoal and side dishes. The setting charge is usually a few thousand won a head. It's loud, it's fun, and it's the best value for top-grade beef.

The place for this is Majang-dong. The market grew up around Seoul's old slaughterhouse in the 1960s, it's still where a huge share of the city's meat passes through, and the streets around it are packed with butcher-shop restaurants. If you want to eat a lot of very fresh beef without paying fine-dining prices, this is the move. It's where my friends and I go when someone says, "Let's eat beef until we can't move." Nobody's there for the interior. You're there for the meat.

Majang-dong, Seoul's wholesale meat market, with butcher-shop restaurants all around. · Photo: Korea Tourism Organization (한국관광공사 이범수) (opens in a new tab), "마장동 먹자골목," 2019 / KOGL Type 1 (opens in a new tab)

2. Upscale hanwoo house. Quiet rooms, nice tableware, set courses, and often a server who grills every slice for you. You pay more for the room and the service, and on a first visit it's worth it. You'll find these where the offices are: Gwanghwamun, Yeouido, Gangnam, Apgujeong. Companies take their teams and clients there for hoesik (the company dinner), so the standard is high.

3. Buy it and cook it. If you're staying a while with a kitchen, go to a butcher (or a supermarket meat counter), buy a few hundred grams of 1++ deungsim, and sear it in a hot pan with salt. It's the cheapest way to eat top-grade hanwoo, by a lot.

First time? Pick a place where the staff grill for you. Hanwoo is thin and fatty and goes from perfect to overcooked fast. Let someone who does it every night show you, then take the tongs on night two.

The grades: what 1++ and "No. 9" mean

Hanwoo is graded by the national meat grading agency. You'll see the grade on menus and labels at the butcher.

• Quality grades: 1++, 1+, 1, 2 and 3. Marbling, the fine white fat inside the muscle, rated on a scale of 1 to 9, mostly decides the grade.
• 1++: marbling scores 7, 8 or 9. Since December 2019, 1++ beef sold at the butcher has to show which one on the label: 1++(7), 1++(8) or 1++(9). Many restaurants put it on the menu too.
• "No. 9": 1++(9), the top marbling score. Department stores sell No. 9 gift sets for the holidays, and the fanciest cost millions of won.
• 1+: marbling score 6. Still very good, a little leaner.
• How rare is 1++? Less rare than it used to be. About three in ten hanwoo graded so far in 2026 reached 1++.

You don't need 1++ No. 9 to have a great dinner. 1++ is already rich enough that most people stop after a couple of portions, and 1+ is a good, slightly leaner choice.

The cuts, in American terms

Each cut has its own flavor and chew. Here's what's on a typical hanwoo menu, and the closest American cut.

My order: start with kkot-deungsim, which is the safest, best-loved cut. It's ribeye with finer, denser marbling than plain deungsim, which is why it gets the name "flower" (kkot). Then find the saeusal, the soft ring of meat around the ribeye. It's the best bite on the cow, and good places will point it out. Ansim (tenderloin) has almost no fat but is the most tender. Galbisal has the most beefy flavor and a nice chew. Anchangsal and the other "special cuts" (teuksu buwi) taste deeper and beefier; order one when you're ready for something different.

How Koreans order: "four portions to start"

Menus list meat by the inbun (인분), a "portion." Restaurants have to list meat prices per 100 g, and most also show a portion price with its weight. A beef portion is usually 150 g, sometimes 100 or 120 g. But nobody orders one portion and stops. Think of it as a unit for ordering, not a serving size.

If four of you sit down, someone says "il-dan sa-inbun ju-se-yo" ("four portions to start, please"). You eat, you see what's good, and you add more of the cut you liked best. It's normal to order two or three rounds.

Charcoal or iron plate

Hanwoo tastes best over real charcoal, chamsut (참숯). You get a bit of smoke, the heat is soft and even, and there's the fun of grilling it yourself and eating it straight off the grill. Some places grill on an iron plate instead, with no charcoal. That's a matter of taste, but if you get the choice, take the charcoal.

Hanwoo over real charcoal. Soft, even heat and a little smoke. · Photo: Korea Tourism Organization (한국관광공사 박은경) (opens in a new tab), "한우구이," 2011 / KOGL Type 1 (opens in a new tab)

Plain or marinated

Most hanwoo is served plain: raw slices, no sauce, so you taste the beef. Yangnyeom galbi (marinated short rib) is the other side of Korean beef BBQ. It's soaked in a garlic and soy marinade, a little sweet and salty, and it picks up the charcoal smoke beautifully. Marinated galbi is often made with imported beef rather than hanwoo. If you love the taste of beef itself, go plain. If you want to taste the marinade, go yangnyeom. Many groups do both.

How to eat it

• Salt first. Dip a slice of hanwoo in a little coarse salt. That's how you taste the grade.
• Then wrap it. Make a ssam: lettuce, a slice of meat, a sliver of garlic, a dab of ssamjang (seasoned bean paste). One bite.
• Use the sides. The seasoned bean sprouts and the scallion salad (pajeori) are there to be eaten with the meat. Mix as you like.
• Drink. Soju, or somaek (soju in beer). Beef and soju is a good evening. How to order Korean drinks (opens in a new tab)

The table: grill in the middle, stew and sides all around. · Photo: Korea Tourism Organization (한국관광공사 김지호) (opens in a new tab), "한우구이," 2010 / KOGL Type 1 (opens in a new tab)

Rice comes last

When the meat's done, the meal isn't. Koreans order naengmyeon (cold noodles) or doenjang-jjigae (soybean paste stew) with a bowl of rice. Meat first, rice after: that's the order. I don't know who decided it, but it's the rule. In Daegu, where I grew up, if you order rice while the meat is still on the grill, people look at you like you don't know how to eat.

Where to go

I'm not going to name a restaurant. There are too many good ones, and every neighborhood has its own. Head to an office district (Gwanghwamun, Yeouido, Gangnam, Apgujeong), look for 한우 on the sign, and pick the place with office workers inside on a weeknight. That's your quality check.

If you don't want to choose: a hanwoo tour

Choosing cuts and grades in a language you don't read, at prices like these, is a real risk. If you'd rather have someone walk you through it, there's a tour built around exactly the butcher-shop model above.

Majang Meat Market: Private Hanwoo Beef BBQ in Seoul

• Good for: meat lovers who want to see where Seoul's beef comes from, learn the grades, and eat top-grade hanwoo without guessing (the listing says 1++ or grade 1 cuts, or pork if you prefer).
• How it works: a guide meets you at a subway exit by the market (the listing names both Majang and Yongdu stations, so check your booking), walks you through the wholesale market, helps you pick cuts, and you grill them over charcoal at a nearby restaurant. You can add a stop at a traditional pub.
• Know before you book: it's a working meat market, so you'll see carcasses and animal parts. It's for adults (19+). About 3 hours. Take the subway, since taxis get stuck around the market.

Plan for tonight

Pick a hanwoo house in an office district. Let the staff grill. Order kkot-deungsim, one portion each, then add the cut you liked best. Finish with naengmyeon. Tomorrow, read part two and go eat pork.

Useful links

• Korean beef grading revision, December 2019 (opens in a new tab) (Ministry of Agriculture, in Korean)
• Majang-dong Livestock Market (opens in a new tab) (Seoul Metropolitan Government, in Korean)
• A guide to Korean beef cuts (opens in a new tab) (Michelin Guide)