WHY For the quintessential grill-your-own Koreatown experience—it’s a great place to bring out-of-towners.

WHAT You’ll smell like meaty smoke all night after dinner here, and you won’t mind a bit. It’s one of Koreatown’s best-known places, a dive with brusque service and a constant wait for a table. The panchan (side dishes) aren’t as complex and interesting as at some of its competitors, but the mesquite-fueled tabletop grills are the real thing, and the meat you cook over that mesquite is satisfying in a deeply primal way.

WHO Korean businesspeople, hungry young folks and Koreatown explorers.