Mr. Pig offers tabletop Korean barbecue on the edge of Chinatown
A couple from Virginia is behind this enormous Korean barbecue restaurant, where staff cooks the meats in front of customers.
The three dozen stainless-steel exhaust tubes extending above the cooking tables, to the ceiling, create a modern-factory look at Mr. Pig, a spacious Korean barbecue restaurant, which opened last week on the edge of Chinatown.
There’s even more metal rolling around the floor — carts filled with platters of bulgogi, steak, pork belly, and bowls of banchan such as kimchi and cabbage salad.
Staffers do the cooking at Mr. Pig, owned by Vietnamese-born Dan Ngo and his wife, South Korean-born Eun Park. They had been in the restaurant business a decade ago in Virginia, and when their boys expressed interest in attending college in the Philadelphia area, they decided to relocate and dive back in.
A planned location nearby didn’t pan out, but they found a larger space at The Crane, a new apartment building at 10th and Vine Streets.
This is an experience best shared with friends. You can order kitchen items, such as soups and stews, dumplings, cheese tteokbokki, bibimbap, stir-fried squid, and buckwheat cold noodles, but most patrons opt for the tabletop experience and supplement with shared dishes. The grill menu is based on pork (pork belly, pork ribs, and spicy stir-fried pork) and beef (sliced beef brisket, bulgogi, ribeye, strip loin). Grab what you like when it’s cooked, and add a splash of ssamjang.
It’s open for lunch and dinner. Figure on $50 a person or so for the tabletop cooking, plus extras. Right now, they’re extending a 20% discount as it’s BYOB pending the liquor license.
Ngo is fond of bourbons, so he’ll offer them as well as beer, wine, and soju.
Mr. Pig, 1001 Vine St. Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday to Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. ADA accessible. On-street parking can be scarce in the immediate area; there’s a pay lot next door.