What: The “King’s Choice” Korean barbecue
Where: Blazing King BBQ and Hot Pot, 72600 Dinah Shore Drive, Palm Desert
How much: $29.99
Contact: 760-699-8206; www.blazingkingbbqhotpot92211.com
Why: It’s an adventure.
Want a nice, relaxing meal? If so, do not go to Blazing King BBQ and Hot Pot.
Want to enjoy a wide variety of tasty Korean-style fare, with a bit of adventure thrown in? Then Blazing King is the place for you.
I recently made my first visit to Blazing King on an early Friday evening, after a hellacious work day. Here’s how their menu works: Your table chooses whether to do barbecue or hot pot, and then you make your food selection. We went with barbecue and the “King’s Choice,” which includes your pick of 22 pre-prepared items and cook-yourself proteins. You can upgrade to “King’s Plus” ($32.99, with five more items), “King’s Premium” ($38.99, with yet another nine items) or, on the barbecue side, the A5 Waygu Platter ($59). Everything except for the Waygu is all you can eat.
And then … well, you’re kind of on your own. Don’t get me wrong; our server was fantastic. The servers bring drinks and the items you order, remove used dishes and change the barbecue-grill plates (which gives the servers quite the arm workout), but you, the diner, do everything else. You cook the meats, get up to make custom sauces, try to avoid cross-contamination by not using the preparation tongs on meats that are cooked, peel the marinated shrimp (and choose whether to peel before or after cooking?), make sure you’ve cooked everything properly (to avoid poisoning oneself) without incinerating things, and so on. It can be a lot—especially after a hellacious work day.
Is the experience relaxing? Heavens no. Is it fun? Sure, once you figure out what in the heck you’re doing. Is the food good? Yes. Will I be going back to Blazing King? Most definitely—when I am in the right mood for it.
