Locos BBQ (로코스비비큐) is a Texas style BBQ restaurant that opened at the top of Gyeongridan-gil (경리단길) in 2014. They specialize in tender, flavorful BBQ meat that has been aged for more than 24 hours and sell craft beer, wine, and cocktails that go well with the meat.

Greysuitcase Seoul Restaurant Series: Locos BBQ (로코스비비큐), Itaewon (이태원), Seoul, South Korea.

When I walked towards the entrance of the restaurant after I passed their big logo signage in front, I was greeted by the strong smell of smoke coming from their open kitchen behind the counter where a variety of smoked meat is being displayed. The waiter asked me to wait before finally signaling me to follow him to enter the restaurant and seated me on one of the empty long tables.

I arrived at the place around 6 pm on a weekday for dinner and the place wasn’t too busy. There were 4 other people who were already in the middle of their meal when I got there and were seated spread out across the restaurant.

The vibe of the restaurant is reminiscent of the BBQ restaurants I’ve been in the States. They have a bar area right next to the entrance, dimly lit with yellow lighting and blue and red neon light as accent colors. The main seating area is decorated with globe string lights hanging on the ceiling, rough textured walls, and wooden tables and benches. I think they nailed the interior pretty well. Plenty of seating available as well as private room if you prefer for special events.

I ordered their Half Rack Original Baby Back Rib (₩21,900) that is served with fries, buns, coleslaw and jalapeños. The meat was super tender and fell off the bone when I cut it. The seasoning and flavors were pretty solid, although the sauce was a bit on the sweeter side for my personal preference. I did ended up dipping the meat into the additional sauces they provided on the table: the Sweet Barbeque, Mustard Barbeque, and Chipotle. They were all good sauces, but I think my favorite was the Chipotle sauce. Overall, it was a great Baby Back Rib for me.

As for the sides, the fries was really good. They were very crispy and not oily at all. The buns were a little dry for my taste and kind of reminded me of those breakfast buns we got on the airplane. But maybe they’re suppose to be like that so when I eat the buns with the meat and the sauces, they’ll compliment each other more? Not sure. The coleslaw was alright and I did wish that it was served chilled instead in room temperature.

The noise level in this place is medium to high since there’s music in moderate volume playing through the speakers. And the place did get busier after the dinner rush started. I ended up ordering the Korean Spicy Baby Back Rib to-go for my friends after my meal and I had to wait for about 30 minutes or so because there were more people then. The Korean Spicy Baby Back Rib was good too by the way. It’s just too spicy for me since I can’t handle spicy food very well. All in all, if you’re craving for some good Texas style BBQ in Seoul, I would totally recommend this place to try.