My favorite Korean BBQ restaurant is a small, family-owned gem called Mapo in Flushing, New York.  This place has the ultimate trifecta for me: amazing beef, lots of non-English speaking locals and employees, and it’s so close to LaGuardia that you can easily discern the tail number of the planes on final approach.

I have never seen a menu in this restaurant but it doesn’t matter.  Order the kalbi: marinated beef ribs that they cut with scissors and grill in front of you at your table.  The table overflows with side dishes, some of which you mix and match with the beef and others like the corn kernels, the egg soufflé, or the radish that you eat separately.  You’ll have plenty of lettuce leaves to load with beef, onions, peppers, garlic (no thanks), and even rice, to stuff into your mouth all in one piece.  It’s heaven.

The décor is nothing to write home (or to Seoul) about.  There are a couple of TVs tuned to the Korean channel of course, which is usually showing the news, a soap opera, or Korea’s version of American Idol.

I find Flushing to be much more exciting than Manhattan’s Chinatown so if you go, spend a few hours on Main Street and just observe, listen, and taste the culture.  Then hop on the 7 train back to Manhattan and walk home.  You’ll need the exercise.

Mapo Korean BBQ
149-24 41st Road
Flushing, NY 11355
+1 (718) 886-8292