After building a following at Kampai Sushi Bar in the Central West End and K-Bop in the Delmar Loop, Yu Duck Lee is expanding again, this time to South City. A new K-Bop location recently opened at 2609 Cherokee, in the space that previously housed Morning Glory Diner. Here’s what to know before you go.
The Menu
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The initial K-Bop concept started as a food truck serving only the Cup Bops from the current menu. Those meals-in-a-cup are street food–style dishes of rice, japchae (Korean glass noodles), greens, and eight types of proteins, including grilled chicken, deep-fried chicken, deep-fried shrimp, thinly sliced bulgogi (barbecued) beef, deep-fried pork, stir-fried pork, braised tofu, or deep-fried tofu. Each protein comes with a distinctive flavor profile. Some are spicy, some are sweet and savory, and some are light and mild.
There are also Korean classics, such as dubu jorim (spicy braised tofu), a lunchbox staple for school children. Lee is all about introducing these quintessential Korean dishes to Americans. He says many new customers opt for the chicken katsu because it’s breaded and deep fried, though the traditional bulgogi beef cup bop is popular as well.
The special menu is also full of everyday favorites including ramen (spicy instant noodles), udon (thick noodles in a house-made broth with fish cakes, scallion, and seaweed), bibimbop (with an eye-catching assortment of vegetables, an egg, and house gochujang sauce), and ttock-bokki (stir-fried rice cakes plus fish cakes in a spicy sauce, with a deluxe version that comes with thick udon noodles, a pot sticker, a boiled egg, and thinly sliced beef).
There’s also bulgogi japchae, a combination of stir-fried sweet potato noodles with bulgogi beef, thinly sliced onion, carrots, and scallions. “That is more of a party food,” Lee says. “It’s pretty standard everywhere at celebrations and weddings. My version is adapted for a restaurant, with the meat on top so the juices soak into the rice, noodles, and veggies.”
While K-Bop doesn’t currently have a liquor license, there is a selection of bottled and canned soda, as well as unsweetened teas and Korean canned drinks. Milkis is a cream soda, for instance, available in such flavors as apple, yogurt, and strawberry. And Paldo rice punch and cinnamon punch are a canned version of a classic drink that Lee remembers older generations making at home.
The Atmosphere
The design for K-Bop’s cheerful cup “just popped into my head,” Lee says. He was inspired by young Koreans’ penchant for shortening and combining words. K-pop music was also an inspiration—and even though the busy chef admits that he doesn’t listen to it much himself, it’s always playing in the restaurants, adding to the upbeat ambiance.
Customers order and pay at the counter before settling in at tables decorated with pithy sayings in both English and Korean. Orders typically arrive within minutes. Most of the menu is available for takeout or delivery, but a couple of dishes (ramen and udon, for example) are for dine-in only, in the presence of the smiling Cup Bop mascot.
The Team
Lee attended culinary school in Korea but ended up specializing in Japanese sushi for decades, notably at Kampai Sushi Bar, which opened in 2008. It was around that time that he started noticing a new food trend. “When I went to other big cities, I saw Korean food was popular,” he recalls, which prompted him to experiment with his own K-Bop street food concept in 2017. It was so well-received here, he says, that after he opened the food truck, he “had no time to sleep!”
Then the pandemic hit. Lee needed a brick-and-mortar space to prepare dishes for the sudden pivot to carryout and delivery, and he found what he needed in a restaurant on Delmar Boulevard. Fortuitously, the space was also able to handle the post-pandemic food traffic, which gradually grew to the point where Lee felt confident adding the new Cherokee Street location.
Unlike sushi, which is very chef-driven and labor-intensive, K-Bop’s menu is designed to be standardized and quickly cooked to order. Thus, Lee and his team can prep the sauces and meats at a central location and divide it among the restaurants and food truck, which is slated to be back on the road next year. And, Lee adds, he has a couple more potential future locations in mind as well.
