Camp BBQ

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Camp BBQ is owned by the same owners as Genki Crepes and Genki Ramen, which is located down the street.  Its similar to Japanese style bbq restaurants, aka yakiniku, but actually has both Japanese and Korean flavors.  Since its indoor bbq, be warned that your clothes will smell so I suggest pulling out those clothes dedicated to eating at those spots.

Not sure how long the happy hour prices are going to last here since the restaurant just opened, but take advantage of it - especially the after 10p price specials since the restaurant is open till 1a on the weekends! 

The restaurant doesn't have many tables, but there are larger tables with two grills for larger parties.  Plus the tables are picnic style tables so they can seat more people.

Free pickled daikon, beansprout and cucumber salad with just a hint of spiciness for some premeal nibbling.  One of the few vegetable dishes of the night.

Dipping sauces from left to right: ponzu, vinegar, and gochujang (Korean spicy sauce).  Majority of the meat was well seasoned so the sauces aren't really necessary, but it was fun to mix the flavors, especially the vinegar.

The first meat of the night was the kobe style ox tongue.  Sprinkled with some garlic and green onions, the ox tongue was chewy and delicious.  They don't really give you any hints to how long to cook anything so there is a trial and error process of 1). questioning if its cooked, 2). taking a small bite, 3).  looking at the inside color, 4).  if its not cooked, throw it back on the grill and repeat step 1, otherwise continue to chomp away happily.  This seemed to be the pattern with every new meat plate that appeared on the table.  

The ox tail was probably one of my favorite meats of the night.  Once the edges starting curling up then flip over.  

Chicken with bits of garlic and garlic butter dipping sauce.  Originally I thought this would be the meat I would for sure overcook, but I'm pretty proud to say that even though the chicken was thinly sliced, every piece was juicy and tender.  It was recommended to dip the chicken in the melted garlic butter sauce, but I found it to be too greasy and preferred to dip it in the gochujang sauce.

The rib eye steak was cut a little too thick for my taste and hard to tell if the meat was cooked. 

Most of the vegetables were served in packets of foil to be barbecued on the grill.  The corn was actually kernels mixed with butter.  Nothing special here.

The spicy pork depending on how long you cooked it was pretty tender and juicy with a sweet and spicy sauce. 

The steamed buns are similar to the steamed buns for Peking duck.  Nothing out of the ordinary, but its a nice option to stuff different meats into the sweet bun.

 

Left to right: Pork belly with house made miso, salt and green onion pork cheek.  Two choices of sauces for the pork were: salt and green onion and house made miso sauce.  Both meats were juicy with fatty, mouthwatering flavors, especially the pork cheek (my #1 favorite meat of the night), which had the best fat marbling for full intense flavor.  Although the house made miso had a nice sweet, salty flavor, I think simplicity (salt and green onion) is best with these meats.  

I chose to save my bun for the pork belly.  The sweet bun was a nice compliment to the fatty pork belly.

The chip and dip was a nice filler and in between munchies between meats.  Deep fried pita bread are used as chips.  The dip is made of kim chee, pork, green onions, and mayo, but was more on the sweet side.

Beware when cooking the pork cheek and pork belly.  It seems as though all the fat from the pork causes the flame go crazy.  Its so bad that the servers quickly rushed to the table and pushed the meat to the side to subside the flames.  Apparently they really do have a close eye on the flames so you don't burn the place down.

Hawaiian pizza lovers take note  - one of the desserts here is grilled pineapple.  I'm not a fan of hot pineapple, but thought I would grill one for fun.

 

Grilling the pineapple seals in all the sweet juices so when you bite into the hot fruit all the juice just spills out. 

Whats a "camp bbq" without s'mores?  One dish is really only good for two portions so plan accordingly. 

 

Yum! S'mores.  Its been a while since I've eaten s'mores so I forgot how sticky melted marshmallow is, but still a perfectly sweet ending to a meal.

Address:                     Camp BBQ
                                    4014 Geary Blvd.
                                    San Francisco, CA
 

Type:                           Japanese/Korean/BBQ

Popular chomps:         pork belly
                                    pork cheek
                                    chip and dip
                                    grilled pineapple
                                    s'mores
                                    spicy pork
                                    kalbi
                                    garlic chicken
                                    kobe style ox tongue                                  

Chomp worthy:           pork belly
                                    pork cheek
                                    spicy pork
                                    kobe style ox tongue