When Sandra Shin Bussey and Greg Bussey opened fast-casual bbbop Seoul Kitchen in Dallas in 2008, they took a Chipotle-style approach to Korean food, offering guests the chance to build authentic bibimbap bowls of rice topped with cold vegetables, kimchi and sauces.
“Bibimbap literally means ‘mixed rice’ and you basically take leftover banchan [pickled side dishes] and combine that with rice and eat it cold,” said Sandra. “That was way too early for the masses here and we had to adjust the menu.”
The couple, who along with Sandra’s brother and co-founder Chef Steve Shin all earned their chops in fine dining, listened to their customers. They introduced more cooked foods and meats to add warmth to the menu and expanded beyond bowls with an appetizer section and other entrees for more variety. They brought in fryers so they could offer American favorites with a Korean twist, such as chicken wings and kimchi-topped fries. Eventually, they added Thai-, Vietnamese- and Chinese-inspired items and even Texas flavors. Everything is made from scratch, including the kimchi and sauces.
Like bbbop, Korean restaurants in the U.S. have gone through several iterations to become what they are today—and they continue to evolve. Many menus fuse Korean flavors with American favorites like chicken sandwiches, wings, tacos and fries, while others focus on cuisine categories such as hot pot, Korean barbecue, Korean fried chicken and rice bowls.
Korean ingredients and preparations are increasingly showing up on mainstream chain menus, too. Just consider gochujang. While the spicy, chili-infused fermented soybean sauce is still in “growth stage,” according to Technomic Ignite menu data, it now appears on 0.8% of all menus, predicted to grow to 0.9% by 2026. The Ignite database covers more than 7,000 operators, so even those fractions are impressive.
The For Realz Bop is bbbop’s traditional bowl topped with an egg and sesame oil, served with house-made Seoul Fire Sauce. | Photo courtesy of bbbop.
Entrees paired with gochujang increased 14.8% in 2024, while pairings with appetizers rose 20.8%. Casual-dining chain examples include GochuBANG Wing Sauce at Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux and Yard House’s Crispy Brussels Sprouts with gochujang sauce, crispy garlic and malt vinegar aioli dip. Gochujang is no longer a niche international ingredient.
“The rise of K-foods is part of the broader global trend often referred to as ‘hallyu’ or the Korean wave, which is led by music (K-pop), TV/movies (K-drama) and foods, beverages, fashion and cosmetics,” said Aaron Jourdan, director, international research & insights at Technomic. “It’s highly influential across most of Asia and has been gaining traction all around the rest of the world as well.”
Jourdan predicts that K-coffee is poised to become the next ripple in the Korean wave. Korean coffee cafés averaged 10% annual growth in the last five years, according to World Coffee Portal data, as they evolve as hubs of socialization for younger South Koreans. Many have K-pop themes like Hello Kitty.
The Korean wave in America
Korean with a Texas twang
Bibimbop rice bowls are still a big part of bbbop’s menu. There are six chef-curated selections including For Realz Bop, a traditional bibimbop with seasoned zucchini, carrots, bean sprouts, shiitake mushrooms and spinach, topped with an egg and served with Seoul Fire Sauce. Customers can also opt to build-their-own bowls. The team also added Korean fried chicken, beef bulgogi and pork belly to the menu.
“Then I started smoking some of the ingredients to bring that fusion of Texas flavors into the menu,” said Greg Bussey. “In the last few years, we introduced sandwiches. Some of that even came from our children giving feedback. This past summer we traveled in Korea and Japan, and most kids love hamburgers and crispy chicken sandwiches, so my son recommended that we get that on the menu.”
The latest additions are a Spicy Chicken Sandwich topped with crunchy slaw and spicy gochujang sauce and a Bulgogi Kimchi Cheeseburger, a smashburger topped with kimchi, caramelized onions, house pickles, cheese, a sweet-savory bulgogi glaze and special sauce on a brioche bun. On the more authentic side of the menu is another new item: Kimbap. This Korean snack combines toasted seaweed, rice, bulgogi steak, spinach, carrots, pickled radish and egg into an easy-to-eat, portable roll.
A Spicy Chicken Sandwich and Bulgogi Kimchi Cheeseburger fuse Korean flavors with American favorites, but bbbop also menus more authentic items, like Kimbap and Jjigae. | Photo courtesy of KPOT
“Growing up, Sandy's family made kimbap for camping and road trips. It was a great flavorful and healthy snack while on the move,” said Greg. “We’re offering it for the weekend crowd to try and then see if we can add it to the permanent menu. Eventually, we can start to kind of mix it up with different fillings.”
There’s also a section on bbbop’s menu for limited-time offers, and the Busseys usually put the funkier Korean dishes there to see how they fly. Kimchi Jjigae is a stew made with six- to 12-month kimchi aged in house. “The dish typically comes with pork, or sometimes the Koreans will even put fish or Spam in it, but I took the idea and smoked a whole brisket to put on top.” The sliced brisket imparts some Texas flavor into the stew and works out well, he added.
The Busseys believe that Americans—and Dallas diners in particular—are more willing to try unique Korean foods than they were 10 years ago. But they want to offer a broad variety to encourage repeat visits to bbbop. “We do have some customers that come in twice a week so they can have a rice bowl at the beginning of the week, and then choose something a little richer, like Korean fried chicken or pork belly later in the week,” said Greg. The more adventurous might opt for the jjigae.
Jourdan, who tracks menu trends worldwide through Technomic’s Global Foodservice Navigator Program, sees other fringe Korean items emerging. “On menus, we are seeing a lot of chimaek (chicken and beer), tteokbokki (rice cakes simmered in broth) and Korean hot dogs as representative products that translate well on menus around the world,” he said. “More emergent Korean preparations influencing menu development are egg drop sandwiches, yangnyeom chicken and buldak chicken.” Yangnyeom is a sweet-and-spicy sauce of gochujang, garlic, sugar, and other spices used on fried chicken, while buldak chicken has a fiery sauce and is topped with melted cheese.
As Korean as fried chicken
Bonchon opened its first U.S. restaurant in New York City in 2006 and hooked American eaters on Korean fried chicken. Now the Dallas-based chain has 150 locations in the U.S., introducing the specialty beyond the East and West Coasts. The majority of restaurants are full service, but fast-casual formats now make up 25% of the system.
Founder Jinduk Seo started Bonchon in South Korea, where fried chicken was traditionally eaten without sauce. He perfected the batter and double-frying technique, creating sauces later for the American audience. “He made sure the sauces were applied the right way, so the chicken stayed crunchy,” said CEO Suzie Tsai. “It’s all about the crispness.” The two original sauces—soy garlic and spicy—are still available, along with a sweet-and-savory Korean BBQ sauce. Back on the menu after running as a limited-time offer last year is that Yangnyeom sauce Jourdan mentioned, a sweet-and-spicy soy-garlic sauce spiked with Korean peppers.
Bonchon was a pioneer in introducing Korean Fried Chicken to U.S. eaters back in 2006. | Photo courtesy of BonChon.
As Bonchon grew, so did the popularity of Asian fusion, said Tsai, so Mr. Seo (as she calls him) introduced items like chicken tacos and fried rice. “Not very Korean, but more approachable to Americans and Korean-Americans in the U.S.,” she said.
Tsai agreed that the impact of the current Korean cultural wave is raising the profile of Korean food and restaurants in the U.S., inspiring Bonchon to offer more ways to enjoy its menu. “We’ve kept true to the menu that we developed from day one, but what we’ve done recently is added more combos and a shareable sampler to encourage trial,” said Tsai.
The Seoul Sampler ($33.99) includes Bonchon’s most-popular items: Two chicken drums, four wings, a choice of sauces, pork potstickers, bulgogi fries, Korean street corn and coleslaw. Pan-Asian Udon Noodle Soup, previously a hit at select locations, is now available nationally. The savory broth with thick wheat noodles, mushrooms and scallions can be topped with bulgogi or a fried egg for more of a Korean slant.
The shareable Seoul Sampler, new to Bonchon’s menu, gives diners the chance to explore Korean flavors beyond fried chicken. | Photo courtesy of BonChon
“There always has to be something Korean about whatever we introduce,” said Tsai. And while Korean fried chicken is still 70% of the menu mix, Bonchon has introduced some of the more esoteric Korean dishes Jourdan mentioned.
Tteokbokki is on the menu, featured as rice cakes simmered in spicy broth with fish cakes, scallions and onions, then topped with mozzarella cheese and vegetable potstickers. Buldak is also on offer, a stir-fry of spicy chicken, rice cakes, onions and hot pepper sauce, topped with scallions, sesame seeds and mozzarella.
And Bonchon’s Korean doughnuts can never be taken off the menu. The cruller-like doughnuts are coated with cinnamon and sugar and served with a sweet cream dipping sauce.
“We want to be that Korean restaurant where you don’t have to bring a Korean friend along to help you order or understand how to eat the food,” said Tsai.
Korean cuisine as interactive experience
Korean barbecue restaurants are not new to American diners, but typically they’ve been independent or smaller multi-concept operations. Enter KPOT, the second fastest-growing chain on the 2024 Technomic Top 500 ranking. KPOT, which offers both tabletop grills for a cook-your-own barbecue feast and cauldrons of bubbling broth for cook-your-own Korean hot pot, exploded in unit growth by 243.8% in 2023 and 251.6% in sales.
Korean hot pot is much less common and behind trendier Chinese hot pot brands that are currently expanding in and out of China, said Jourdan, but KPOT Hot Pot & Barbecue is bucking that trend, now totaling 80 U.S. locations. The interactive, communal experience and all-you-can eat menu style—priced at $21.99 at lunch and $34.99 at dinner—resonates especially with younger, social media-savvy diners, said Margaret M. Farrell, head of marketing for Vertex Hospitality, which manages franchise operations for the brand.
KPOT offers a wide assortment of seafood and vegetables for hot pot cooking, including crab, squid, shrimp, eggplant, daikon, baby bamboo shoots and more. | Photo courtesy of KPOT
The extensive menu has items that appeal to both bold and hesitant eaters; Korean-Americans and non-Asians alike. Hot pot customers can choose from eight soup bases, including Szechuan Spicy, Japanese Miso, Korean Seafood and Thai Tom Yum—again, the pan-Asian approach to Korean food. Mainstream meats are in abundance, such as sliced pork, ribeye, chicken and brisket, but more daring eaters can opt for boneless duck feet or beef throat. Same on the seafood side, where cuttlefish balls share menu territory with shrimp, clams and snow crab. And vegetables range from spinach, broccoli and bok choy to fried taro, lotus root and seaweed knots. Also on offer are several tofu variations, assorted noodles and more, totaling about 80 ingredient choices.
“KPOT’s ability to select your own ingredients, broth and seasonings allows for the customer to be in control of their own dining experience. The customizable menu with endless ordering possibilities appeals to both adventurous and more reserved eaters,” said Farrell.
Kimchi, pickled vegetables, sauces and other extras are free on KPOT’s self-serve banchan bar. | Photo courtesy of KPOT.
Those who opt for the tabletop barbecue experience can choose from a similarly large roster of ingredients. Both groups have unlimited access to sauces and banchan on a long, self-serve bar. Labor is minimal, since all the food is cooked by the customer. But for those new to the experience, the staff is trained to recommend ingredients and guide newbies through cooking.
“KPOT’s social-dining experience and value-driven menu are powerful draws for customers,” said Farrell. “The lively atmosphere, complete with built-in grills and hot pots at each table, makes dining at KPOT an event in itself.”
Next up—the introduction of bento boxes for an on-the-go dining option. And more growth is on the horizon; Farrell expects KPOT to reach 100 units by the end of this year.
Customers can opt for Korean barbecue or hot pot, as KPOT’s tables are set up for both experiences. | Photo courtesy of KPOT.