Skip to content

It’s Time for Korean BBQ Restaurants to Embrace Vegan Meat

Being Korean and married to a non-Korean is … well, like a Facebook relationship in the aughts: it’s complicated. In my extended family of five, my major headache is balancing...

Being Korean and married to a non-Korean is … well, like a Facebook relationship in the aughts: it’s complicated. In my extended family of five, my major headache is balancing traditionally Korean parents with a vegetarian husband while running a 95 percent vegan household. 

Here’s why it’s so hard: It’s because picking a restaurant for the five of us feels like negotiating a four-year NBA contract, even in health-obsessed L.A. Restaurant selection is a struggle for our once-weekly dinners. My frugal, traditional parents think most of the vegetarian restaurants are too expensive or newfangled, while my vegetarian husband wouldn’t set foot in a traditional Korean barbecue restaurant because of the cloud of meat smoke that permeates everything, from your nostrils to your clothing. (Don’t take this the wrong way, Korean barbecue restos, but eating your bibimbap shrouded in meat smoke is not fun for vegetarians or vegans.) 

Cart

Your cart is currently empty.

Start Shopping

Select options