Daebak Korean BBQ

Daebak Korean BBQ has been the anchor of Southfield’s New Seoul Plaza since 2018, owned by Sarah Yi and rated the #1 Korean restaurant in Metro Detroit by both Hour Detroit and Metro Times. It’s a cook-your-own setup — every table gets a built-in grill and a pair of scissors — with combos built for sharing rather than individual entrees, running from a saucy combo of marinated pork shoulder and bone-in short ribs to an a la carte menu that goes as far as beef tongue and pork jowl.

The room itself is spare and bright rather than dark and moody, which keeps the focus on the actual grilling, and the pace is intentionally unhurried — you can’t cook everything at once, so a Daebak dinner turns into an evening rather than a quick meal. It shares the plaza with Myomee (dessert) and Jinji (broader Korean menu and soju bar), which makes the whole complex a legitimate one-stop Korean food destination hiding in a Southfield strip plaza.

On our radar for a genuinely hands-on group dinner, or for introducing out-of-town guests to a side of Southfield they wouldn’t expect to find.