{"id":7242,"date":"2025-10-16T03:25:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T03:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/7242\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T03:25:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T03:25:16","slug":"new-korean-barbecue-restaurant-cooks-up-traditional-fare-with-a-hawaiian-twist-in-downtown-long-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/7242\/","title":{"rendered":"New Korean barbecue restaurant cooks up traditional fare with a Hawaiian twist in downtown Long Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1760585114_71_image\" alt=\"https:\/\/img.particlenews.com\/image.php?url=3wJ4Lp_15gXAZb000\" width=\"1200\" height=\"729\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Seoulicious KBBQ, a casual Korean restaurant that brings a touch of Hawaiian flavors to all of its dishes, opened last month across from the courthouse in downtown Long Beach.<\/p>\n<p>Co-owner June Choe was raised in Hawaii and grew up eating Korean barbecue with her family. It was something she had taken for granted until she moved to California and realized that what she really missed from the food back home was the \u201caloha spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s just a lot of love and passion put into it. It\u2019s something that\u2019s always done in the home,\u201d Choe said. \u201cIt\u2019s always so personal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#XHECJQES\" rel=\"nofollow\">Link<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Co-owner Chris Kirkman got to know Choe because he was a frequent customer at one of Choe\u2019s other restaurants in Lake Forrest, Umma\u2019s KBBQ. Over time, Kirkman got to know Choe, and they started talking about business ventures, deciding to create Seoulicious together earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>After about seven months of negotiations with the property managers, Choe and Kirkman secured the location in Long Beach and opened on Sept. 2. Two weeks later, they opened a second location in Anaheim across the street from Disneyland.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/10\/10-8-25-kbbql-9-417160-bvlskcqy-754725-JLY6gfID.jpg?ssl=1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1760585115_89_image\" alt=\"https:\/\/img.particlenews.com\/image.php?url=2YyilA_15gXAZb000\" width=\"1200\" height=\"681\"\/><\/a>Chris Kirkman and June Choe, co-owners, at the doorway of their new restaurant, Seoulicious KBBQ in Long Beach, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2025. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n<p>Seoulicious is a fast, casual restaurant \u2014 not cook-it-yourself like many other KBBQ spots are.<\/p>\n<p>In the front of the house, bases of rice bowls and plates are built in at an assembly-line style counter while the meat is cooked to order and \u201cgrilled to perfection\u201d in the back. With this model, Seoulicous is able to offer quality food that is convenient for customers on the go, according to its owners.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[People are] able to get something that actually tastes even better than they\u2019re used to,\u201d Kirkman said. \u201c[Due to] the nature of our business, because it\u2019s more, you know, you order what you get, and you take it home, not only do we give big portions, but we\u2019re able to get better quality meat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/10\/10-8-25-kbbql-0-870596-csyu21x7-477754-PZctQvib.jpg?ssl=1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1760585115_934_image\" alt=\"https:\/\/img.particlenews.com\/image.php?url=1qhNSN_15gXAZb000\" width=\"1200\" height=\"786\"\/><\/a>Seoulicious KBBQ, a plate of meat jun, spicy chicken over white rice with cabbage salad, spicy cucumber and chapchae (glass noodles) in Long Beach, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2025. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n<p>Seoulicious prides itself on its recipes, many of which have been in Choe\u2019s family for generations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve been doing this for 40 years. That same recipe, just handed down over and over, because it\u2019s clean, it\u2019s delicious. You taste the flavor, you taste the culture, you feel it all in that one meal,\u201d Choe said.<\/p>\n<p>Choe also brings a taste of Hawaii to the menu with items such as meat jun \u2014\u00a0tender bulgogi dipped in egg \u2014 and macaroni salad. According to Choe and Kirkman, there are only a few other restaurants in the area that serve meat jun.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/10\/10-8-25-kbbql-7-836713-noqhignr-844385-fRNSIfDR.jpg?ssl=1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1760585116_534_image\" alt=\"https:\/\/img.particlenews.com\/image.php?url=0VY8Cn_15gXAZb000\" width=\"1200\" height=\"681\"\/><\/a>Seoulicious KBBQ across from the courthouse on Magnolia Ave. in Long Beach, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2025. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n<p>Seoulicious KBBQ, 421 W Broadway #840, is open Monday through Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sundays from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/food\/seoulicious-kbbq-long-beach-korean-barbecue\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New Korean barbecue restaurant cooks up traditional fare with a Hawaiian twist in downtown Long Beach<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Long Beach Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seoulicious KBBQ, a casual Korean restaurant that brings a touch of Hawaiian flavors to all of its dishes,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7243,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[26,23,131,133,132,7404,7445,25],"class_list":{"0":"post-7242","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-local-news","10":"tag-long-beach","11":"tag-long-beach-headlines","12":"tag-long-beach-news","13":"tag-long-beach-post","14":"tag-new-korean-barbecue-restaurant-cooks-up-traditional-fare-with-a-hawaiian-twist-in-downtown-long-beach","15":"tag-newsbreak"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}