{"id":87238,"date":"2025-10-15T11:31:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T18:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=87238"},"modified":"2025-10-16T10:02:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T17:02:10","slug":"seoulicious-kbbq-long-beach-korean-barbecue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/food\/seoulicious-kbbq-long-beach-korean-barbecue","title":{"rendered":"New Korean barbecue restaurant cooks up traditional fare with a Hawaiian twist in downtown Long Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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\n\n\n

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\n\n\n

\u201cThere’s just a lot of love and passion put into it. It’s something that’s always done in the home,\u201d Choe said. \u201cIt’s always so personal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n Link<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Co-owner Chris Kirkman met Choe when he was a frequent customer at Choe\u2019s old restaurant in Lake Forrest, Umma\u2019s KBBQ, which she sold in 2021. Over time, Kirkman got to know Choe, and they started talking about business ventures, deciding to create Seoulicious together earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n\n\n

\"\"<\/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.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Seoulicious is a fast, casual restaurant \u2014 not cook-it-yourself like many other KBBQ spots are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\n\n\n

\u201c[People are] able to get something that actually tastes even better than they’re used to,\u201d Kirkman said. \u201c[Due to] the nature of our business, because it’s more, you know, you order what you get, and you take it home, not only do we give big portions, but we’re able to get better quality meat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/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.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Seoulicious prides itself on its recipes, many of which have been in Choe\u2019s family for generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe’ve been doing this for 40 years. That same recipe, just handed down over and over, because it’s clean, it’s delicious. You taste the flavor, you taste the culture, you feel it all in that one meal,\u201d Choe said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Choe also brings a taste of Hawaii to the menu with items such as meat jun \u2014 tender 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\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Seoulicious KBBQ across from the courthouse on Magnolia Ave. in Long Beach, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2025. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Seoulicious KBBQ, <\/i>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.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor’s note: This story was updated to show Choe sold Umma\u2019s KBBQ in 2021<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seoulicious is using recipes that co-owner June Choe says have been in her family for generations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":207,"featured_media":87204,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[32346],"class_list":["post-87238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87238"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87276,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87238\/revisions\/87276"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87238"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=87238"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=87238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}